* Rocking around the Christmas Tree * - It's the 2018 Christmas Chatter Thread

04624181

Good Morning all, yesterday was spent Christmas Planning! I have researched lots of different ideas and was feeling thoroughly festive. I ordered a couple of bits for the christmas table too. I have put Christmas Monopoly in my amazon basket and will keep an eye on the price. Also going to buy a Christmas jigsaw either 500 or 1000 for us to do as a family in december. Going to buy a jigsaw roll and store and then hopefully in an evening we can get the jigsaw out and complete it together as a family.
The declutter is still ongoing, today I am sorting through all the drawers in our bedroom then onto my DS's tonight.

Jakes-mum- so sorry to hear about your PIP Claim Assessment, the lady seems like she did not know what she was doing. I am sorry that you have to go through the appeal but hopefully you will have somebody more competent. Did not know what a spaceman came travelling sounds like so googled it. I have never heard it before. Your Tree Angel sounds gorgeous.
Peppa- Yes O holy night is another classic. I too love its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Gettingtherequickly

Just a very quick nip in, will catch up properly later.

For anyone with Amazon Prime, they have large vanilla lime Yankee Candles for a bargain £10.90! Just ordered a couple which can go in my stash.

freespirit66

Afternoon everyone, I have just sat down with a coffee to do my online shop and thought I would have a catch up with you all. DS has been away oop north all week he has been doing some training for his new job, so its just been DD1 and I, so we have had dinners that he doesn't like this week,sweet and sour chicken and casserole. I do the same when DD1 isn't here, DS and I have fish and lamb

PEPPAPIG its doing the same this weekend isn't it the week started off blooming cold and we are expecting highs of 25 over the Bank Holiday?? No wonder people are still going down with bugs at the kids works.

TREASUREQUEEN oh honey, keep that chin up! I'm glad you now have someone fighting your corner, that will help massively

04624181 wow you are doing so well on that diet, I really must sort myself out, MURIE is doing really well too, my bedroom is desperate for a declutter again! I'm glad your foot is getting better, did you get the results of the scan back? I think this might be my last Christmas with my planner too, I think I will just have enough pages left. I really love your Christmas jigsaw idea to do throughout December

1) My favourite Christmas decoration is a Father Christmas ornament with real Reindeer fur around it, I bought it in Lapland and it holds very special memories, seen as we have no photos because our cameras froze! It is now over 20 years old

2) Favourite song would be Stay - E17 love it and could listen to it over and over. Favourite Carol would be Good King Wenceslas

GETTINGTHEREQUICKLY haha I do that with words completely misread them, hope you are ok? That is a brilliant price for the yankee candles, I will have to see how my funds are doing

MRSINVISIBLE I hope DGN is better now, its horrible when they are so poorly isn't it? They just don't understand bless them

PRINCESSKITTY happy belated birthday, sorry I haven't been on sooner! Your day sounded lovely, spending it with family

JAKESMUM oh my lovely no wonder you are very upset, why is it the real people in pain are not believed and the shirkers get everything they ask for :mad::mad: keep your chin up and I hope your health problems calm down very soon

04624181

Good Morning everyone,

Another miserable start to the day. Raining and cold! I dont mind it today as long as it brightens up later. Today will be spent cleaning and getting all the house jobs done so we can have a family weekend playing games, baking etc. My Christmas buys arrived yesterday, I ordered Pie Face showdown for our Christmas Eve Game this year. Its been reduced to £12.99 on amazon and is averaging £20 everywhere else so I got it whilst its cheap. Also ordered a Christmas Pudding Wonderball by talking Tables. Its a crepe paper ball that you unravel and pass round like pass the parcel. It has Christmas cracker style gifts in and we use it as an alternative to crackers as our small Chorkie is petrified of the noise. Also bought a Box of 60 Jokes form Talking tables too. Love their range of things. They do conversation starter sticks, trivia quizzes etc. Still awaiting my Christmas notebook so I can start writing lists.

Free- Still awaiting my scan results, they are in 2 weeks. No news is good news I suppose as if it was serious I am sure they would of contacted me. Hubby has been away this week and we have done the same with our meals. I have de cluttered my room but I am sure I could of been more ruthless lol. Will finish DD's drawers today and then that is her room done. Will do DS's drawers as he just keeps stuffing clothes in them and they are over flowing. He is now about 5ft 9 and 15. He has shot up and loads of clothes dont fit him so will take them all to the charity shop.

04624181

Loving everybody's responses to the questions.
What is everybody's favourite Christmas Tradition?

Clumsy42

Morning all.

Happy belated Birthday Princesskitty. :T

Come here to rant, sorry. Had my cardiac stress MRI a few weeks ago. It was horrible. The Adenosine made me feel really terrible, the MRI tube was sooo tight and they put one of the cannulas in my hand rather than my harm and it hurt really badly. Plus they took so long to do everything that by the time I came back to the waiting room my mum was starting to think something had gone majorly wrong. :undecided Got the results letter this morning - after all that there wasn't anything on it so I'm being discharged. Like I'm suddenly going to get better just because they couldn't find anything. :mad: Didn't even bother to give me any advice for re-conditioning my heart after 15 years of having ME.

Anyhoo, let's think about Christmas instead! :rotfl: My favourite Christmas tradition is probably how we open presents. For years my Mum has handed us out each a present slowly so the opening lasts much longer. And while we sit the tree lights are on and my Christmas village is lit too. Makes it lovely. Never understood people who just tear into presents super quickly and then move onto the next one. The food we have is pretty important too. And the Christmas Doctor Who episode!

System

My answers are 1] A clear glass bauble with a robin inside.
2] Silent night

Our tradition is on christmas eve DD and OH have one fair game of Dr Who top trumps , they play regularly through out the year but she loads the cards in her favour ! on Christmas eve i divide the cards but she still so far has won !

Scotland was amazing , the rental was very nice and super quiet . It was part of a large estate with a track through a forrest , i took the dog for a walk and a deer ran across our path he freaked and ran back to the property . Its official my dogs a townie lol .
The Kelpies were stunning , we also visited The Falkirk wheel and Camperdown park.
A very long but worthwhile trip got to eet baby Emily and celebrate DDs 21st with family .

If anyone is thinking of holidaying in the Arbroath area i can thoroughly recommend The West lodge kinblethmont [sp].

princesskitty29

04624181 what fun Christmas questions!

Decoration: In terms of my own Christmas decorations at home nothing immediately springs to mind and I think it’s because most of them I’ve only gained since being with DH so none have huge sentimental value at this point, although I’m hoping over the coming school years I’ll get many from Wiggle and Squeak! But there are a couple of decorations at my mums that it wouldn’t be Christmas without! One is a felt stuffed star my brother made when he was little and the other is a cardboard fairy I made when I was little, my parents alternate which one goes on the top of the tree each year and they have done since we made them many years ago. Despite the fact we are 42 and 36 now we still argue about whose turn it is each year!

Song: In terms of a hymn it would be God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and song I absolutely love 2000 miles by The Pretenders, I don’t know why but I just love it! Although I love so many hymns and songs that it could probably change on a daily basis! Wow I can’t believe you haven’t heard A Spaceman Came Travelling! That was probably a close second for me to 2000 Miles.

Tradition: This is a tricky one! One recent one that sticks in my mind is the last two years we have gone to McDonalds for lunch on Christmas Eve. We went initially because I was really sick when pregnant with Squeak and strangely I could stomach a McDonalds (don’t know how this works!) so went there on Christmas Eve because I wouldn’t be eating any treats or Christmas dinner as I couldn’t stomach it. So we did it again last year and I know it sounds silly because it’s McDonalds but it’s really lovely. It’s quiet and everyone is festive and happy and I think it’s something that might stick now. I’m sure over the next few years with the boys we’ll create lots of new lovely traditions.

jakes-mum gosh I am angry for you! How on earth can she ignore your ME and say you don’t look fatigued?! Just ridiculous. I’m sorry this has happened and I hope someone sensible will review this and come out with a different opinion. Don’t beat yourself up about the diet, I can totally understand why it’s difficult for you at the moment, just be kind to yourself.

Clumsy oh my goodness I can only imagine how frustrated you are, it really is crazy that they can just discharge you with no follow up whatsoever. Is there anyone you can about it?

CHRISSYG I just love Scotland! We haven’t been since we’ve had the boys but I can’t wait to take them there! I’m glad you had a lovely time.

04624181

Good Morning Christmas lovelies,

I thought I better answer the tradition question too- We put our tree up on the 1st December( or saturday closest to it) every year. We have a full day of Christmas songs, films, snack buffet etc to start the month of in style. We always have a Christmas Eve Takeaway, we settle down and normally watch The Nativity or Polar Express whilst eating it. We do Christmas Eve hampers every year which the kids still love. DS will be 16 this year and he looks forward to it too. I try to get us bath bombs from Lush, we have some fab matching Christmas PJS we got from asda which we will use again this year. We have popcorn, sweets, a magazine or book each for the kids and a game for us to play as a family. This year it will be Pie Face Showdown. We always got to the Manchester Christmas Markets but this year we may got to Edinburgh Christmas Market for a change and make a weekend of it.

Clumsy 42- I am flabbergasted at how you have been treated. Will your GP be able to get you some more credible answers as to how to recondition your heart after so long with ME? Such a shame that the NHS has become a cattleground of how to get you in and out in the fastest way possible. Love your gift opening traditions, and of course the food always makes the day special too x
Chrissyg- my husband was in Scotland last week and 2 weeks before that. He stayed in Edinburgh and was that impressed he wants us to go on a short break near Christmas time. I love the "fair game" of top trumps. That made me laugh xx
Princesskitty29-Christmas eve tradition at Mcdonalds is great as it is a great way to experience everybodys Christmas excitement. We have a takeaway every Christmas Eve. It is a welcome break after preparing the food ready for Christmas Day. We usually have our local chinese takeaway. They always give us a Christmas Card and a big bottle of fizzy pop. Its all part of the tradition.

jakes-mum

Ahh thank you everyone, you've totally cheered me up, had my ESA medical fall on the mat yesterday and I just cried, rang them up and said i cannot under any circumstances come to them they have to come to me. I am totally worn out from PIP and the thought of travelling all that way, sitting in their hard plastic chairs for 2 hrs and trying to get home again makes me feel ill. Rang ESA and my doctor and he is sending a letter hopefully saying they have to come to me
Had a full on meltdown at my DH as well as everything just got on top of me, luckily he's dealt with them before and he keeps giving me hugs and saying 'we're in this together, we'll sort it'.

Ahh Clumsy42, I am so sorry you are also having difficulties, I find that most clinics are now just signing you off, even my ME clinic sign me back to my doctor as soon as i've seen them so I have to keep getting re-refered back just to get some supporting evidence each time

Hmmm favourite christmas tradition, we have quite a few. We always lock our doors at lunchtime on christmas eve, everyone has a shower, kids get in pj's (well not so much eldest, more his 'sleeping clothes' :rotfl: ) DH will venture out and get our christmas eve fish and chips, then its popcorn, sweets, 2 christmas films and tracking santa until youngest goes to bed
On christmas morning we also do the handing presents out one at a time, (that's my job) My parents did it too but DH's family are a 'pile it on the chairs and kids go free for all'. He found it a bit weird at first, but now much prefers my way, it lasts longer and everything gets looked at and exclaimed over.