* It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year * - It's the 2016 Christmas Chatter Thread

princesskitty29

nitnurse oh I love the idea of all the batch cooking like you have done and having a stash of meals in the freezer, you've done well doing 44! We've got an integrated freezer at the moment which isn't very big and no room for another one, so when we move i'm definitely going to get a big freezer so I can do this.

CHRISSYG how fantastic that there are schemes like this around. I'm sure it will be hard for both of you to be apart but hopefully it will do her the world or good.

Salmagundi oh it can be so hard finding the time to post on here sometimes, just pop in when you can, it's always nice to hear from you!

JJ i'd be really interested to read your blog so do let us know when it's ready.

Not much going on here today, i'm going to cook a full English this morning as a treat then I think we'll have a wander into town to get a few bits and maybe a coffee. Roast chicken dinner planned for later. Then bed! There will be a lot of playing/dealing with tantrums inbetween all that!

vulpix

Princess k.my husbands like that too!!!!!!!

Mornin all,been awol with internet issues again,taken ages to catch up.So love to all pretty much covers all bases and situations without making light of it.

Chrissy,I bet after your daughter gets home she will talk about her holiday so much.It is a fantastic opportunity for her and you are brave for letting her go.xxx

Free,I am so pleased that you are soldiering on,I was worried that you had sunk into a black hole after your doctors visit.I hope your daughter is sorted out soon.If it's her back,don't take no for an answer.She is too young.

JJ,omg,words fail me.you have endured so much for so long with amazing grace.I am another who hopes you will get some relief soon.xxxxx

House coming on a pace now.Am getting fed up of muck everywhere,it will get better and be worth it.I took some photos and my daughter is visiting later so if i remember I will get her to post them here.Most of the kitchen is plastered.tomorrow the builder will brick up the back door and the joiner will take the kitchen out.The plasterer is doing the stairs,hall and landing.Presently it has artex like stuff which was the fashion years ago.Just need the plumber to come back off his hols to move a radiator and the electrician to do various bits.I have got to go and order some flooring tomorrow.I will have the same in the porch ,hall,cloakroom and kitchen.I don't like seeing my bank balance reduce!We downsized and so had the cash to do this but I must admit I like the feeling of having some money in the bank.

Nipped into a town yesterday and got 2 sets of half price tree lights from wilcoo and though i don't need it some xmas paper from tescoooo.rude not to at 20p a roll.

I am doing a buffet today to use some of the food i didnt use at christmas.I need to get on now and clean the sitting room.We had to move the furniture round yesterday to accommodate some drawers which were in the hall.I was too knackered yesterday!

laters Vx

vulpix

Ps menu for today

Roast beef

Salmon

prawns

green salad

bean salad

potato salad

cous cous

coleslaw

bread rolls,crisps,cheese ,biscuits etc

sherry trifle

banoffee pie

birthday cake.

Made most of it yesterday,thats why I was knackered! Vx

mrsinvisible

Vulpix please come and feed me too, that menu reads like foodie heaven.
There seems to be loads of new houses, house moves, decorating and stuff going on, will it inspire me to extract the digit and start the decorating marathon? master plan is to do downstairs before the new roof and upstairs after it. Decluttering as l go, that's the idea, but as much of the clutter is DS1s stuff l cant be as ruthless as l want to be.
One of my friends (the divorcing one) contacted me yesterday to tell me she has pleurisy and felt really ill with it, so l went to visit, took some goodies including home made soup and stuff to fill toasties/ sarnies. She laughed and said 'these red cross food parcels are great, better than pierce and ping'.
Have been having some dialogue with [EMAIL="Tes@o"]Tes@o[/EMAIL] customer service online, they have decided to charge £3.50 for click and collect under £30 . they say it is because of the costs incurred by pickers, packers and transport and the time spent by the store staff in processing it. Needless to say l am unimpressed and will stop using their service.
There are plenty of other retailers out there with free C&C.
l also pointed out that l could make my order up to £30 and simply return the things l didn't want which would cost them much more to process.
Breakfast time, and more coffee xxx

FeistyFidget

nitnurse-not2 wrote: »

Hi All,

Free...Lovely to see you back. I agree with princesskitty29.Your decision to take time out to address your emotional health is the best thing you could have done. Those few days you took may have staved off months of unpleasantness had you just tried to soldier on. We are all guilty of trying to be everything to everyone but others can take inspiration from you and try putting themselves first on occasion.

JJ. OMG! What more can I say? I hope things pick up for you soon.

Well, Christmas has GONE! I have put everything back in the loft and my home looks as bare as everyone elses. I tried looking around some of the shops in town but I had no idea what I was looking for so came home. I will just do as I always do and pick stuff up throughout the year.

I am on a spring cleaning roll. My DS is returning home so the spare room is being attacked to turn it into his room again so some sorting needed there.
I have defrosted both freezers and meal planned for the week ahead. I am NOT buying any food this month, apart from fruit, veg, milk and bread as we have so much to use up.
I have batch cooked soup and chicken and pasta meals. These are frozen in individual portions for me and DD who are back to SW this week. It is so easy to just pull a couple of cartons out each day for lunches. I try to do at least one day cooking each month so there is a variety of meals in there for us. I have counted today and there are 44 ready meals so no need to do any more this month.

I am just finishing my coffe then off up the stairs to finish DS room and then scrub the bathroom. Oh and NO MORE TOILETRIES…...There are so many from Christmas that they should last the whole year!!!!!!

Hugs and best wishes to all


xxxx

44 meals?! I am beyond jealous :rotfl:we too only have a 50/50 integrated freezer and I'd love to be able to fit more meals in then we have. I've been double batching food we cook from scratch and bunging it in cheap plastic tupperware boxes. It means that I have a good use for all my 'seconds' chalk board labels :rotfl:Usually I put stuff in without a label or made on date and then it doesn't get used as we forget what it is!

CHRISSYG wrote: »

She is going with a company called "Lets go supported holidays" .

She will have an amazing time and it sounds like she is in very safe hands

junior_j wrote: »

Thanks sweetness. I started in Qa now in Southampton. How did his app go?

Thanks for everyones kind words as well they mean a lot. I hope you are all doing well and that 2016 brings much happiness. I have started writing a blog , when I have done more I will post the link if allowed. It starts off with when I was first got diagnosed and explains what it is I have , not the most interesting but its just something I am doing. xxxx

I cannot recommend Southampton highly enough! We are always in and out with DH and the team there are fantastic!

Good luck with the blog lovely, I think it's a really good idea

I'm envious of those of you getting some sale bargains! I do not have the energy to really leave the house at the moment

Karrie1uk

Wow nitnurse you are my inspiration. After clearing out our freezer as it had become a graveyard to food and having to throw out half a bin liner of food I am on a mission to never have to throw food out again. I had brought meat during the week so cooked the mince up before putting it in so have separated it into portions and will just needed heated, Went to a butchers Yesterday and got £40 worth of meat but it was all specials so it is all destined for the newly cleared out freezer once I have separated into portions or batch cooked today. I would like to start back to slimming world but I don't want to get rid of any bad food this week so going to be half doing slimming world and then start properly next week.

pinknfluffy28

Free - Yep, treated myself to the HP book (along with a couple of others), love it! Half way through the 2 page poster spread at the moment. You must watch big hero, we have persuaded dh that he needs to watch it too, so popcorn and wine are at the ready for our second viewing of the week this evening!

JJ - will look forward to having a read through your new blog.

Nitnurse - Well done on being so organised with your meals. We have a half half fridge/freezer plus a separate chest freezer in the garage - which houses the dog's meat, as we buy in bulk. I do par-boil & freeze my veg bi-weekly, and will make left overs into freezer meals (quiche, pies, lasagnes etc) but I never seem to get any more organised than that.

MrsI - We had a similar problem with tesco a few weeks back. Order total £25.95, and they charged us a £3.50 "handling" fee. After a few exchanged emails, I told them to cancel and refund the whole order, and that I would go elsewhere. I too will not use them again. The company make enough profit each year to pay wages etc, without charging us extra for what should be a free service.

It's very Sunday in the fluffy household today, dh is having a power nap, dd1 is revising, dd2 is rearranging her lego city for the umpteenth million time since Christmas day, and I am trying very very hard not to get the hoover out. I have promised myself that I will relax on a Sunday - no chores other than cooking, washing clothes and pots - but the dogs are malting, and despite having only hoovered at 6pm last night, the hairs on my rug are driving me crazy!

[Deleted User]

Hello, I am a very long time lurker - I have followed these threads for 2 or 3 years but rarely posted.
My Christmas was nicely organised - we mainly stick to stocking presents so I tried to be as creative as possible, and found that by picking up bits throughout the year, they looked great!
Therefore I am trying the same this year and have begun by looking in B&M (who also had great deals on crackers, paper and tags) and picked up some small bits already.
I have also hit on the idea of keeping the stockings that I fill in my present stash box so I know when to stop buying!
Happy New Year everyone!

vulpix

vulpix