* Step into Christmas * & 2020 - It's the 2020 Christmas Chatter Thread

Mrs_Ryan

Hiya
Still awake as I’ve got my PIP assessment at 11.45am today and it’s worrying me silly. 

Did the present run to mam’s at the weekend. Me and OH are in her support bubble so it’s allowed. Unfortunately a lot of the carefully sourced giant gift bags didn’t make it- handles snapped- and a lot of the wrapping didn’t make it either. Mam sorted it all though. 

Funny story about the saga of the bread maker though. I ordered her one from my catalogue ages ago, and finally they deigned to tell me on Thursday that they couldn’t get stock! I was furious as I had been badgering them for ages. Well it seems that everyone in the UK wants a bread maker as there were none to be had anywhere, even at Amazon. 

Admittedly, the short period of time didn’t help. Argos it seems only had four in the whole country to collect. One was in Oldham, one in Manchester (I’m in Leicestershire by the way ) One was in Nottingham (which was a definite possibility but would have been an absolute pain as the area of Nottingham it was in was over the opposite side of the county from where we would drive in) and the other was in Cramlington in Northumberland. 

Fortunately my sister lives in Cramlington so I sent her a begging message could she collect it? The gods were smiling on me as she happened to have to pass the store the next day anyway so she was able to pop in and collect it. She duly did and delivered it to my mum (socially distanced of course) It drove mum mad as she was trying to guess what it was, but the cat came out of the bag when I was bringing in her pressies and the yeast I had bought her to use slipped out of the gift bag

We collected the shopping from Tesco on Saturday morning. It wasn’t actually as bad as I thought. We got there fine but got totally lost in the extremely confusing car park system! 

The only thing missing was OH’s cheese but fortunately mam had made OH up a cheese hamper with some posh Red Leicester (his favourite) so that solved the problem. Also the annoying thing is that there’s a load of stuff going to go out of date before Christmas so we’re going to have to go to Morrisons on Wednesday- grrrr. Thankfully it’s my driving lesson first thing Wednesday so we can go quite early when I get back. 

Some unexpected good news though- OH got his bonus! Plus we had forgotten that the water direct debit finishes in November so we had an unexpected extra 260 pounds to play with. 

OH has bought a gorgeous gift for me- a new engagement ring. It’s 18 carat gold and platinum 1/5 carat diamond solitaire, and I got an absolute deal on it from Ernest Jones. It had been £1k, reduced to 499 and I got an extra £100 off as they had 20 percent off diamonds. So it came to 399. He put it on his credit card. I’m so happy as when we got engaged he couldn’t afford a ring for me- he bought me a cheap one from H Samuel but it was a disaster so I bought my own- a second hand white gold princess cut Diamond. However I’ve gone off it as it doesn’t sit right at all with my wedding ring, so I rarely wear it. The solitaire will sit above my wedding ring so should look better and I can wear it more. It’s coming Wednesday- along with a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, a pair of jeans and some Ralph Lauren boxer shorts for OH that I ordered from Jacamo. Last minute presents! 

Naturally- if OH was having a treat I was going to have one too- I ordered two t-shirts and a pair of Levi’s (reduced- bargain, plus size Levi’s are never reduced!) I also got myself a beautiful Rotary watch reduced to £65. I used the money that would have been used for our trip away in February for our anniversary- now it looks like we’ll be lucky if we can even leave the house. We’re in Tier 3 here - our rate is high-ish but there’s a lot of places considerably higher than us. Hopefully our rate stays at high-ish, it’s not moved for a couple of days so fingers crossed it stays that way! 

mandco

Princesskitty your cross stitch is beautiful - well worth the effort 
Mrs Ryan good luck with the Pip assessement - looks like dh bonus was put to good use and wow what an amazing deal on the engagement ring

Sorry to those who have had their xmas plans cancelled by the new tier rules  - we're dropping of the grandkids presents tonight socially distanced just in case they go ahead and put more restrictions in place as I heard rumors they may do it before xmas due to the rapidly rising numbers  -we were planning on doing it xmas eve so don't want to risk them not getting them.

Can't quite believe its only a couple of days till xmas 
Took the gammon out the freezer to defrost ready for xmas eve 
still have to sort our the kids presents and get them wrapped -  taz has been a nightmare the last week not sleeping and being really clingy so not been able to get anything done. DD has a day of tomorrow so she is going to watch him  for a couple of hours so I can get everything sorted.   
My last click & collect order finally arrived and while I was in store I  picked up another ps5 game for ds as it was reduced to £30 - was really surprised to see ps5 games reduced this soon after release  
my cooker arrived      so xmas dinner is back on. Never did get around to having our baking day at the weekend but dd is going to do some with taz tomorrow - I also managed to get a ready made gingerbread house so they can decorate that as we haven't had time to bake one this year. 

Keep safe everyone 

rachsecret

@princesskitty29 your cross-stich is gorgeous! no wonder it took you ages and it is such an unusual design-did you design it yourself? 

Went to a drive in movie with DS on Saturday as one of our events which was great. Took our own flask of hot chocolate, marshmallows and a can of squirt cream as I didn't fancy paying a fortune and queuing for the ones in the shops. Also took a couple of pies that I'd heated up before leaving and wrapped in tin foil which was lovely too.
On Sunday we had our family festive quiz which was brilliant.....can't remember who it was who suggested this on here but it was an act of genius on your part! We all dressed up as Christmas characters and there were around 30 family members present. We also had a talent round where each team could do something and earn an extra ten points. We had a playlet, song and a rude poem, bagpipes and it was great fun. The day before I did a doorstep delivery of home made biscuits and mince pies for each household.

Was gutted when the restrictions were announced as had been expecting family round on the 23rd and also on Boxing day. I'll do a Zoom present opening with the family that was coming on the 23rd and my Mum and Sister are popping round on Christmas Day evening now instead. I work in a job where I really have to stick to the rules as I have to hold others to account if they don't, but whilst my head totally 'gets' this is the right thing to do, my heart is aching and doesn't 'get it' at all. Some of my family have struggled to understand it too, particularly those who were coming on the 23rd who suggested we popped round to their house instead. 

Spendless

See the papers are reporting another announcement tomorrow with implementation from Boxing Day. I suspect most if not all of the country to be placed into Tier4. Glad I got my hair done today, though I find it bizarre that my Mum who is a hairdresser can be closer to me cutting and colouring my hair  and that's allowed but sitting on her settee further away having a cuppa isn't. She can't go into our bubble as she lives with my Dad and we could only put FIL in it after MIL died though she was terminally ill. My sister who works for a large High st retailer isn't impressed either, as she says they're working like mad to prep for a sale whic may not happen. 
On the Christmas front, today I got chocolate coins for stockings and DD a xmas tree ornament. All food shopping is done inc Vegetarian items for DD.

princesskitty29

Hi all, gosh what a lot of ups and downs everyone is having and with good reason too. I’m feeling a lot better now, Sunday and Monday after moving into tier 4 I felt quite low. But thinking about it I don’t think it’s just because we can’t see anyone at Christmas, I think it was just yet another big reminder that this year is still rubbish, we still can’t see people and it’s unlikely to change anytime soon. But I’m back in a Christmassy mood and looking forward to it, I know we are very much luckier than some. All I keep thinking about now is how amazing Christmas will feel in the future when we can all be together again.

 

All of my presents are wrapped and our food shop has been. I didn’t pre-order a turkey this year so I popped to Tesco at 6:15 the other morning and it was honestly like the middle of the day in there! Apparently our Tesco was absolutely rammed on Saturday night after they announced we would be moving into tier 4, I imagine there were a lot of people who were due to go elsewhere at Christmas and didn’t have any food in. We’re going to be cooking lunch for the in laws and they’re going to collect it on the doorstep, apparently that’s allowed and I’m pleased as I don’t think they’d want to cook a big Christmas lunch just for the two of them.

 

nic I hope you’ve managed to relax this week and enjoy time with the children.

 

Spendless despite everything the tier changes made me chuckle a bit, it really felt on Saturday that we were like ‘hi tier 3, just passing through on our way to tier 4!’ I too keep thinking of the poor people on their own who can’t see anyone now, there are always organised Christmas dinners that elderly people who are on their own can attend but won’t be able to. It’s terribly sad. Your tiers 5 and 6 story made me laugh! Your DD’s Christmas Eve hamper sounds lovely, I hope she enjoys her last one.

 

Thanks skogar, manco and rachsecret for your lovely words about my cross stitch. No I didn’t design it, gosh I would love to have that talent! It was actually in a cross stitch magazine that I have a subscription to, I was looking through it and when I saw it I knew it would be perfect for my MiL. Although now we can’t spend Christmas with them I won’t get to see her open it!

 

mandco glad to hear your cooker arrived! That must have been a relief.

 

kerri I know what you mean, I keep hearing people say it’s just one day but Christmas is so much more than that, there are always a lot of social things going on in the lead up and afterwards that really make it.

Spendless

Been wondering for days about what to do about the students. DS is allowed to return here, the other 2 strictly speaking aren't other than for Christmas Day (we're all Tier3). It's a 3 hour round drive and that's assumming they'd be ready with their bags on the pavement  ready to jump in the car the minute DH drove up to them, which they  really won't be that organised. The only thing I've come up with that fits, is DH sets off 10.30pm to collect them tomorrow so arrives just after midnight, so it's actually Christmas Day. He'd then get back around 2am, they then would have to go to sleep in the beds I've prepared them, that they can sleep in on Christmas Day but not later on on Christmas Day night. Later when they wake  we open presents and have our dinner and then DH will need to take them back sometime in the evening. Seems completely farcial that though they'll have to have a bed in the early hours of Christmas Day, they can't have one the later on in the same day as it will go overnight. It also means DH doing 6 hours of driving in less than 24 hours. I think he has an increased risk of falling asleep at the wheel and driving the lot of them into a ditch than any of us catching covid, since DH finished work last week after a week of working from home. Me and DD haven''t been anywhere since returning from London and the housemates friends all returned to their homes weeks ago so there's been no one for them to socialise with. Can't ask them to catch the train Christmas day instead as not running. Hey, ho don't see what else we can do. 

nic2075

I thought I was finished all my shopping, then realised I hadn’t bought anything for my 3 week old baby niece. I hadn’t added her to my list 😞 went into town and i to Smyths for a soft taggie blanket and a voucher. Then b&b for North Pole breakfast goodies. The shops were empty! No queues to get in, no one in the shop and the car park empty. Even Asda was like a normal tuesday. I spoke to the girl in Smyths and she said it’s been so quiet this year and thinks everyone shopped online.  I suppose I did, but still weird going into shops i
on the 22nd of Dec and no one there. Not complaining really lol. 

Planning to do some baking with the kids today. Made chocolate peppermint cookies the other day, today is Santa cupcakes and tomorrow is shortbread and mince pies. If I keep busy baking I can’t wallow in self pity 😄

kerri_gt

Spendless said:

Been wondering for days about what to do about the students. DS is allowed to return here, the other 2 strictly speaking aren't other than for Christmas Day (we're all Tier3). It's a 3 hour round drive and that's assumming they'd be ready with their bags on the pavement  ready to jump in the car the minute DH drove up to them, which they  really won't be that organised. The only thing I've come up with that fits, is DH sets off 10.30pm to collect them tomorrow so arrives just after midnight, so it's actually Christmas Day. He'd then get back around 2am, they then would have to go to sleep in the beds I've prepared them, that they can sleep in on Christmas Day but not later on on Christmas Day night. Later when they wake  we open presents and have our dinner and then DH will need to take them back sometime in the evening. Seems completely farcial that though they'll have to have a bed in the early hours of Christmas Day, they can't have one the later on in the same day as it will go overnight. It also means DH doing 6 hours of driving in less than 24 hours. I think he has an increased risk of falling asleep at the wheel and driving the lot of them into a ditch than any of us catching covid, since DH finished work last week after a week of working from home. Me and DD haven''t been anywhere since returning from London and the housemates friends all returned to their homes weeks ago so there's been no one for them to socialise with. Can't ask them to catch the train Christmas day instead as not running. Hey, ho don't see what else we can do. 

I'd just move them in with you for the duration and become one household. It would think it's more dangerous having DH driving about at 2am and doing 6hrs of driving (esp when you can get other idiots about on Xmas day who've had a drink and think the roads will be empty) and you're also looking after one of the housemates who's had a really rocky time and needs emotional support. 
They haven't been out, you haven't been out so none of you are being wild and reckless.  
Well that's just my take on it anyway. 

Have got most of the food and stuff in for Xmas now - purchased a Black Forest Roulade for pud today which I think I might be the only person who likes it....well serving for 8 and fork for 1 in that case 
Must admit I was out Sunday, yesterday and today and aside from M&S on Sunday just being busily 'normal' for the last Sunday before Xmas (and a queue outside one today - but it's a small store) I haven't seen anything like the news has reported. Both L!dl and Ald! have been pretty quiet, fully stocked (and then some) and no queues to get in or out at all. We are now pretty well covered for any cheese or gin shortages and the only thing I may do tomorrow is the YS walk before closing. 
Presents are all delivered now too. Still not feeling Christmassy - in a way it's nice that I'm not fussed about dinner on Friday so I'm not stressed about cooking it, but tbh, if someone said 'Christmas Day is actually cancelled - everything open and functioning as usual' I really wouldn't care. 

lazysheep

I did my last food shop on Monday evening (about 7.30) and it was horrible Car park was as busy as I would expect on a Saturday (it's a big Tesco), waaaaaaaay too many people being let in the shop even after having to queue and then very little chance to actually socially distance once inside.  At one point I had to find a quiet aisle(!) and take my mask off for a minute - not ideal I know but I was getting so hot and light headed that I just needed to calm down to be able to finish my shop.  No beef mince on the shelves at all, very little salad 'stuff' and signs up restricting some items to 3 per customer again.  My scanner stopped working about a third of the way round so I had to go and get a new one and rescan everything I had picked up so far.  I may have got home and poured myself a little 'something' from the cupboard  it honestly felt like March all over again (although there were at least loo rolls!!)

Redredrobin

Great that everyone is cracking on and making the best of the situation. We have escaped tier 4 for now but it will happen at some point I guess .
  All I have left to do tomorrow is a quick trip the the dump and the local Spar , a bit of cleaning and I’m ready .

  Despite all that’s been going on lately I’m finally in a good place , anti depressants seem to be doing the trick and I feel less overwhelmed and anxious. According to my GP yesterday that’s what he was expecting.Although not walked since hubby’s COVID issue I have gone down 2 sizes . Set myself a challenge to get down another 2 by spring . Even ordered a beautiful skirt 2 sizes smaller than I am currently.

Probably won’t be on again before Christmas Day so I hope everyone has the best Christmas possible .