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

mandco

typed out a long post then lost it so just a quick recap instead

NIc  hope you manged to get the car fixed and it wasn't too expensive

spendless hope your mum is recovering well 

kerri a lot of games seem to come full circle time and time again you can't beat a classic

Princesskitty bet you can't wait to see your parents and have xmas. I know its a while yet but these last few weeks have flown by

redrobin those cd's would make a lovely gift esp if your looking for something different


Saw the grandkids easter sunday which was great but they ended up staying all day - I was a little relieved when they finally left as the girls are a real handful and I wasn't expecting them to stay so long.

Had a hectic week and taz has had a few difficult days behaviour wise as we've had to go out quite a bit. He really struggles with that anyway but after so long of staying in its been big change esp as some it was last minute.

Ds had his official college offer email - subject to grades. They offered him the place over the phone when he had his interview but having it in black & white is reassuring.

kerri_gt

@princesskitty thank you, picked up the honeybee game on Friday so that's sorted. Now also pondering it for a friends little girls xmas, shell be 5 1/2 so I don't think it will be too young for her, we'll see though

https://www.marksandspencer.com/golden-honeybee-tree-game-3-6-yrs-/p/hbp22525162?prevPage=srp

Wow! Congratulations all round on all these amazing offers. @Spendless that's incredible about DD offer, even if she decides its not for her right now, what a feather in her cap.
@mandco that's brilliant DS has options. I empathise with Taz, I spend ages moaning about not going out, then break out into a cold sweat at the thought of making the effort to do so 🤦‍♀️ 

Such lovely weather here atm, still chilly but hopefully all the cold snaps are done. I'm growing some tomato plants from seeds taken from so supermarket toms. I'm surprised at the number that have actually sprouted. Long way to go until we see if we get any actual toms though.

mandco

Spendless sorry missed your post about dd yesterday    Wow what an amazing offer even if she decides it not for her right now the fact she got offered a place speaks volumes. I'm sure there will be many heart vs head debates over what to do and its probably going to be a tough few weeks working out which option to go for as like you said sometimes the best offer isn't always the best option but she should be incredibly proud of herself. Great that they are already working on putting extra support in place for her should she need it - A lot of teens have really struggled over the last year so I think they are a bit more proactive this year.  


Kerri good luck with the toms. We planted various seeds a while ago and most sprouted I re potted about 1/2 as they were getting big for the starter pots - they all died    weirdly all the ones I left in the tiny pots are still going strong and growing like weeds    

woke up to fog this morning and a temp of about 1 the icey blast I got when I let the dog out was not a good start to the day. its meant to clear skies and sunshine today so hopefully it will warm up later 

ds is not impressed its back to school today so he's procrastinating I'd better go and gee him up before he's late

kerri_gt

@mandco it might have been the shock of being repotted that killed them - so frustrating when that happens isn't it. I grew a couple of runner bean plants last year and accidentally left them out one night when I was hardening them off - slugs promptly munched the tops off of them. 

Spendless

We travelled down South at the weekend to one of the areas DD has a drama school offer. She liked the area. She's leaning towards the 1 year offer. She says that the other offer the thing is has in its favour is who the drama school is (not naming but has trained many famous names)  everything ese points towards the 1 year place. She also mentioned her MH and that she hasn't enjoyed education for the past few years and is concerned about taking on a 'high powered' degree which she hadn't originally applied for 

I'm still in 2 minds about what would be better. Whilst we were there I went to sleep thinking 1 year offer and woke up thinking the 3 year one would be. I'd like her to seek some guidance from at least one of her college tutors but she's reluctant.

Anyway on the way back we went to Bicester village. Daughter's request to spend her 18th birthday money. She shopped like mad and we pretty much left her to it. She bought designer jewellery, shoes and sunglasses. Then just before we left I spotted a shop that we'd missed on the way in. It was a pop up designer charity shop. DD had less than £100 left but  sought out and got the following things Dolce and Gabanna sunglasses (£20). She's already splurged earlier on some, so I tried desperately to get rid of hubby so I could buy them instead and save them for Christmas for her, but I  couldn't get him to go! These were from the 'new' stock section (I suspect old season lines). From the pre loved part she bought yves sant laurent heeled peep toes (£28) and Gucci pumps (£25). I'd spotted the last pair and tried them, but they didn't fit. Daughter is a 5 and I'm a 7, so she was the common size with plenty of choice. She also gathered together 3 designer dresses. Looked brand new, Gucci, Prada and Versace I think, priced between £35-£85  but as you weren't allowed to try on or return she had to leave them. For me well though there was nothing in the charity shop, I bought a Cath Kidston salad bowl as it having a wodden lid on it appealed -lol and an Aveda hari care set which is to be put away for DD for Christmas. 

mandco

Spendless  Its a hard choice obviously the 3 year course is an incredible offer esp when its not something she had actually applied for but if dd is having concerns over the workload and her MH then maybe the timing isn't right for her? It might be hard to consider turning it down but if she's not ready then the extra pressure could mean she struggles and it could end up a wasted opportunity or worse still damaging to her MH . Have they given her any idea of how they plan to run the course? With ds course they are planning on cutting back in person lessons so they will be responsible for keeping up with the work from home on the other days which some kids find a lot harder.

Sounds like dd got some fab bargains 


Not done much this week to to keep things as settled as possible as I'm trying to prepare Taz for the fact that I have to go away for a few days soon for a hospital appointment.  I've never left him overnight for any length of time before and he's really not good with change at the best of times. I'm kinda dreading it I'm worried about being so far away and the fact its going to be a lot of work for dd. She's usually good with him and often watches him when I go out for shopping or appointments but she's never had him totally on her own overnight before.

C_J

Congratulations to your daughter on the offer of a drama school place, @Spendless. Could she maybe hedge her bets by accepting the three year offer and deferring entry for a year, and do the one year course in the interim to see how she gets on with it? 

Glad you enjoyed Bicester Village! I live only about a half hour drive from there, and used to go quite regularly but gave up a few years ago when they expanded the site (again) and it had become ludicrously busy. Coach loads of tourists arriving nonstop all day made it much less enjoyable 😀

I have made a good start on bits and pieces for Christmas. I bought a job lot of scratch art keyrings which will go into the little Christmas gift bags for my daughter’s class (she is a year 3 teacher).

I bought two wooden boxes (each about the size of 3 stacked reams of A4 paper) which I will decorate for the grandchildren. Last year I made them Christmas Eve boxes but I realised they didn’t get much time to do the craft items before Christmas Day, so this year I will decorate and fill these boxes to be “It’s nearly Christmas” gifts which they can have in the week leading up to the big day. I bought them online from The Works, and also bought some clearance Christmas craft sets and a Christmas Winnie The Pooh story book each for them too, so I’ve made a good start.

mandco

CJ sounds likes you've made a good start on the xmas stash 
I really like the idea of the nearly time for xmas box esp for younger ones - I do the kids/grandkids a dec 1st box and then we have the xmas eve box at home. That doesn't really contain much now the kids are older but yes when they were little there was often too much in it to actually all get used on xmas eve. 

I've barely even started the xmas stash this year mostly because I've just not found anything. I did get a 6ft pencil xmas tree reduced to £5 which we're using for our celebration tree and I also ordered the child monopoly for Taz -1/2 price on amazon  
I do have a couple of bit for the xmas donations box too but I think that's it so far.

DD is bringing the girls over later and the weather is looking like it should be good so I said I'd set up the paddling pool/sandpit for them which will hopefully keep them occupied as we're meant to be be doing some work in the garden today.
.

Spendless

Morning

CJ - Thanks. Most drama schools unlike Unis do not allow deferral. We did  double check just in case, but they don't. 

 Asking around though, we've come across more info on the 3 year course and it doesn't sound like it's the right one for daughter. So, the 1 year course it is. Me and DH look like being skint for  12 months lol as we'll also be supporting DS in his final year of Uni. Hopefully I can pick up work before long. Am probably going to start applying end of next month. Housemate 2 sick of the restrictions that come with student accommodation which include that people are now allowed to (and have)  physically view the property (whereas last year they weren't and only saw the property in the flesh on moving in date)  had him thinking he would buy somewhere and the 3 of them could live there, till he and DS graduated and found jobs. It's not clear whether his inheritance will come through in time to do this though. They are invited back to us for the late Spring break so we'll have a chat to them then.  

Bicester was busy but not that busy. I'm guessing that coach trips aren't currently running though or at least  not at full passenger capacity. When I went to put the Aveda haircare set away I saw that it had a turkish towel in it, so will have to think of the right time of year to give as a gift, either Christmas or birthday in anticipation of a hol, or split down. I'd also forgotten I picked up a small glamglow skincare set with mask for DD. She loves this brand. I did see a pack of about 6-7 of their masks, but it was over £40, good value for what it is, but too high a spend to put away just yet when we don't know what will be needed later this year. Other than that I have very little stuff for Christmas put away, but I'm not into online shopping and non essential retail has only recently opened.


We ate out last week at DD's request. Afraid not doing it again until all restrictions have gone, They were short staffed which they did warn us to be fair, so meant food took longer. I got colder and colder sitting outside as the evening wore on. Husband ordered me the wrong thing on the app, as staff not taking and reiterating order to you and I'd already offered to drive home. Drinking diet coke in the cold eating a salad I hadn't ordered or wanted just doesn't appeal. There's also that even hot food is getting too cold before its eaten as who in normal circs would eat outside in April. My parents have already been put off eating out  due to the number of places requiring orders via app only as they don't have smart phones 

At Bicester village there was a shop (Rituals) that told you on entering that you can't  pick up any of the products unless you're buying them. I have come across this a couple of times before and I can't shop this way. If I'm interested in something I need to be able to look more closely, read the small print on instructions etc, otherwise it reduces it to no different an experience to online shopping. This 'rule' is a shop policy not a Government one. If it was the latter I'd accept and abide by it however daft and contradictory I think some things are. When it's a shop policy, I am wearing a mask and have used the shop provided hand sanitiser and used it in front of a shop member, I fail to see what risk I pose by picking something up to look more closely. The items will have passed through many pairs of hands from production to shop floor. I believe there's never been a confirmed case of covid being transmitted through handling of items this way and if the supermarkets imposed the same rules we'd have all starved months ago. So enough, I know not everyone will agree with me, but I'm not longer prepared to contribute to these places and will take my business elsewhere.    

kerri_gt

@Spendless last time I visited Bicester (many years ago) a large proportion of visitors seemed to be organised trips from East Asia so I guess they won't be happening atm...actually might be a good time to visit on that thought. 

I know what you mean about the prospect of eating out - I  did meet a friend in Dec where we sat outside for a meal but at least we had hot drinks, rib sticking food and blankets / heaters and it felt a teeny bit festive but in April, well it's just cold. Esp this year, I remember this time last year going out in shorts and people having BBQs. 

Totally agree about the pick up / touch thing in shops too - whilst I don't fondle the goods with abandon I want to have look at what I'm buying. I'm finding that frustration with shops and changing rooms. Whilst I understand their rationale (loosely) it means I either need to go home, try things on then trail back to store (which is then two store visits, two lots of parking etc) or go and do what other people seem to be doing and try stuff on in public toilets then take items back. Which is pretty gross. 

Harrumph.