* Driving Home for Christmas * - It's the 2021 Christmas Chatter Thread!

Spendless

Eeek that looks really sore and painful Redredrobin. Hope she's ok.

DD returns to college on Tuesday, again it will be a mix of online and f2f learning until at least Easter. Not sure after that, but if they stick to the same timetable she'll only have a half term left till her year finishes for good. 2 year course and perhaps only 6 months of what she should have experienced, no wonder she's struggling with  higher education applications. She has booked to take the test on her first day back. I had my first covid jab yesterday and am fine so far. My 2nd is booked for the day we have guesstimated DD finishes her course at a site right next door to her college. 

Today is our dog's 2nd birthday. He has had presents and we have booked an enclosed field to take him to for a run around. His recall isn't good enough to trust him being off lead. He's ran off from both me and DD before and with the added risk of increased dog thefts, it's not worth chancing. On our return I will be making a roast dinner, which is his favourite thing to have.
Seems quite bizarre that in a week that was also my son's 21st birthday, I am able to do more for the dog than I could do for him. 

StokieBecks

Redrobin hope your daughter heals quickly.

Not much to report here. Bit annoyed with the prints i ordered as should have been 6 but only received 3  . Messaged and said he would send three more. Just waiting now in the hope they show.

Had my first jab. Was fine on the day. Next day I was a bit fuzzy headed. Almost felt a bit hungover which is a funny feeling when I haven't drunk for a long time    

mandco

Redrobin  that looks really painful - I hope you are both recovering ok from the shock and she's not in too much pain

Spendless - I saw something about students being allowed home for easter? so hopefully ds & company will be able to make it after all.
Sounds like your dog had some lovely birthday treats. Our boy is 5 and his recall is still virtually non existant - he had a fit as a puppy and ever since has been very very slow to learn anything and some stuff he's never got the hang of like he still hasn't grasp the concept of fetch.

storkiebecks - that's really annoying with your prints fingers crossed the others turn up.

Ds reluctantly went back to school yesterday - we had a bit of a teenage strop and some serious attitude but I think a lot of it is down to his mental health - he's become really withdrawn and anxious about going out/all the changes. He's not the most social person anyway and thrives on routine and stability so the more he's stayed home the more that's all he wants to do. 

Had a busy weekend the weather has been lovely despite the cool temperature so we made a start on the garden - dug all the borders, cut the grass and general tidy/maintainance ect. It looks like a robin has made a home in our tree and he/she was making the most of the all the freshly dug creepy crawlies.
Taz potted up a load of veg seeds which are currently taking up all the window sills so hopefully we'll have some lovely home grown veg this year

Spendless

@mandco - My DD hasn't made it into college today, We even got as far as buying a (non-refundable) train ticket!  Only for her to vomit at the station and come back home with me. She's complained of feeling unwell all day yesterday as well as huge anxiety over the covid test. Also concerns over mental health though for different reasons you state, that I've been worried about for past month or so. We've now managed to get her some private therapy. Historically we've had an issue with our Drs not listening because she still comes under child services. Once she turns 18 though, I can try again, if more support than she is currently accessing is needed. 

The dog enjoyed it's run around. After it once gave DD the slip, we put it in dog training classes to work on recall, They finished just before lockdown1, so didn't work on it during that time, When I tried again months later, he ran off! So we booked the  enclosed field for the first time  during lockdown2 and went armed with treats to work on this, only to find that the dog is perfectly capable of recall, which makes sense, at training classes he was probably the best at fetching back balls and toys thrown, but he won't do it if he sees something else he's interested in, thinks it'll be fun for you to chase him or he just doesn't fancy it!  He's a mix of 3 dogs, an accidental mongrel and when my friend who is a vet heard about it, she commented that there was some 'strong willed dogs' in him   

On the present front, when I called at my parents the other day, my mum had lost her front tooth palette. She turned out to have thrown them out with some orange peel. This revealed that she often leaves them around, so I thought I will buy her a large nice trinket box for her to return them to each time. Didn't see much suitable online then on a local selling page someone was selling a Wedgewood one for a fiver! Still boxed, unwanted gift, so that is her Mother'sDays present, will probably add some flowers too.  

Redredrobin

I can’t imagine how hard it is for some of the youngsters going back to learning , I think if Dd had still been at school it would have been almost impossible to get her there under the current circumstances. I know my own situation having to shield is having an effect on me . I am managing to get out for a walk occasionally but I really miss going out shopping. Can’t wait for March to be over ! 
  She is healing well , nurse came out and changed her dressing yesterday and they are coming back Thursday. They expect to discharge her then . I can’t wash her hair until tomorrow and it’s really bugging her . 

  Not done anything Christmas related other than the odd item for Dds lucky dip advent . However I’m on a roll for birthdays Dds is sorted and when he goes to work I will be ordering hubby’s trainers . ( need to check his size )
  I have decided to start knitting again but to start I’m going to do baby blankets for the local charity shop . 

princesskitty29

Hi all, I’ve not been on in a while as DH came down with a severe form of vertigo two weeks ago and has been out of action. So I had to add him to my list of people to look after! It’s been a bit of a stressful couple of weeks but this week has helped with the schools going back. Today is the first day that both boys have been in school and pre-school all day so it’s all quiet here! I did a few jobs this morning and helped DH go for a little walk then after lunch I made myself a cuppa, had a foot spa and watched some of The Holiday. Bliss!

 

I’ve started to get things together for Easter, it would be lovely if the weather was warm enough to have the in laws over in the garden but we shall see. We were due to be going back to stay on the farm and visit my parents but unfortunately we’ve had to move it to the summer holidays. I honestly can’t wait to go home and have our Christmas, we still have their presents and they still have ours!

 

I was buying a couple of books online from WH Smith the other day so I had a quick look in their sale section, I managed to get a couple of rolls of Christmas wrapping paper, a novelty biscuit notebook for my SiL (she’s very quirky) and a history of steam engines book for my dad which I will squirrel away for Christmas.

 

rachsecret the cracker hats you’re making sound great, please post a photo when you’ve done them!

 

mandco interestingly since seeing the paediatrician and having a frank discussion with Wiggle things have greatly improved – after all these years! It does show that it is psychological though so I do hope it carries on like this. I don’t really have any Easter decorations but I’m starting to feel like I’d like some! I do remember I bought a ‘Happy Easter’ banner in the sales last year so I’ll have to dig that out. I hope your DS is doing a bit better today?

 

Spendless thinking about what you said about your DS and DD’s 21st and 18th birthdays, yes through their whole lives you would never imagine that you wouldn’t be able to do anything to celebrate! My boys will turn 18 and 21 in the same year and I certainly cannot imagine that. Sorry to hear about your DD struggling, it is such a hard time at the moment. I certainly hope you will be taken more seriously when she turns 18.

 

Redrobin oh my goodness your poor DD, how awful for her and for you. I really hope it heals quickly for her.

kerri_gt

First bit of xmas shopping done. Decided to get 2 * DN a joint present of a slushie machine. The one i wanted for them has never been on offer so decided to get one now while they were in stock so that's done (and the cost is out the way). Need to get syrups for it still but can do that later in the year. 

princesskitty29

I read about a woman earlier who has already bought and wrapped all of her presents for Christmas this year - it wasn't one of you was it??

StokieBecks

princesskitty29 said:

I read about a woman earlier who has already bought and wrapped all of her presents for Christmas this year - it wasn't one of you was it??

Definitely not me. Even if I had bought everything (Not even started) I couldn't wrap it yet. It'd look awful by the time it came round to gifting it 

I reckon she hasn't seen anyone so really it's all gifts from last Christmas and she is just saving them 

kerri_gt

Not me either due to lack of shopping/sales opportunities. One of the local charities runs a giving tree for people to leave gifts to go to those who are identified as disadvantaged or vulnerable. I did it last min last year but this year, bought something on the Fri and intended to drop it off at the shop on the Sunday and then we were plunged into T4 (sadly not the airport) so it was a bit of a nightmare trying to get it to the charity in time for distribution. 
I'm going to try and be a bit more organised and remember to look for a couple of bits during the year.