Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget - 2021

Wednesday2000

That looks stunning Phoebe.

Wednesday2000

I will tentatively say I had a champagne moment as we have been given a (vague) date for completion on our house move. At least the people we are buying from have found a property and had their offer accepted.

We still have to find out what the person buying ours says about the date and if they are prepared to wait even longer for our house!

phoebe1989seb

Thanks so much, ladies 😄😄😄

Sugarbaby...how lovely of you to prepare and cook the Christmas jerk chicken for your group (although sad you will not be there to share it with them). It reminds me of regularly making choir teas for twenty boys when DS was a cathedral chorister and being initially wary of the huge industrial equipment in the cathedral kitchens 🙄 Us choir parents took it in turns to provide cooked tea after school for the boys who sang evensong twice on weekdays (as well as two Sunday services).....

Wednesday, that sounds like positive news at last on the house front! Hopefully once Christmas is over you won't have to wait too much longer as it does seem to have dragged on for ages now.

Champagne moments today - more parcels arriving in the post, including the item I'm most excited about for DH 😆

florianatwobob

Today’s Champagne moment was singing Christmas carols. The parish church joins together with our local Rotary Club and the town brass band to put on a carol service. We didn't have one last year but this year it was held opposite the church so we could socially distance. About 200 people turned up.  This year’s service included a goose joining in (the church is next to the river). He honked every time we stopped singing. 

sugarbaby125

Floriana that all sounds so delightful  It must have lifted everyone's spirits 

florianatwobob

sugarbaby125 said:

Floriana that all sounds so delightful  It must have lifted everyone's spirits 

It really was a wonderful community moment. 

phoebe1989seb

That sounds lovely, Floriana 😄

Today's champagne moment was getting the first load of gifts wrapped ready for our road trip from south west Wales to the south of England to deliver them tomorrow 😆

The remainder - those for each other - will be done next week ready to put under the tree on Christmas Eve, although typically DH hasn't quite finished shopping yet 🙄😎

Really looking forward to seeing the family tomorrow 😍

sugarbaby125

My Champagne moment today was having my oven cleaned professionally by Fantastic Services. As I am a member at the moment, I get £30 off each service I book to a maximum of 10 services throughout the year for the cost of £79. The man did a excellent job, he left my oven looking like new again. As they do not use chemicals, you can use your oven straightaway if necessary.   

As I am no longer able to do the messier, big household jobs, this membership with Fantastic Services  was a great option for me.   

I am having the rug in my Living room professionally cleaned tomorrow. 

I am having such a relaxing run up to Christmas Eve, as I do not have a long lists of tasks to do.   

phoebe1989seb

That's great value for money, Sugarbaby...plus you get to relax which sounds perfect 😀

We safely delivered our Christmas gifts at the weekend 😊

Despite setting off at the crack of dawn, it was a whistle stop tour - but fabulous to catch up with the family and spend some quality (albeit brief) time with them after so long 😄

DGD (who turned three in July) is as adorable as ever, showing off her counting and adding skills and just giving us lots of hugs 😍😍😍

We even managed to cram in a quick whiz around Chichester Homesense (which always has a great selection of lighting, although this time we passed on that as we don't currently need anything in that department), where we found a couple more green pampas grasses to boost those we already have, two stunning bird pics and a Bjorn Wiinblad angel candle holder to add to my Christmas tablescape 😆

Then we stopped off at our favourite kebab shop to treat ourselves to a delicious road trip supper, before eventually arriving home exhausted at 2am....

Final champagne moment for now - DH bringing home the beautiful gothic arched, stained glass window that the owners of the Victorian property he is currently renovating didn't want (and have replaced with an ugly uPVC version 🙄). Not sure where we'll put it yet, but we'll find somewhere!

phoebe1989seb

Happy Solstice day!

Today's first champagne moment was getting outside into the beautiful winter sunshine to plant up lots of paperwhite and hyacinth bulbs in bowls ready to bring much needed colour and cheerfulness into the mill once the decorations come down on twelfth night 😄 By reusing bulbs from last year I've saved some money too 😀

My second champagne moment today was receiving a Christmas card with enclosed letter from my first cousin once removed. He and his wife (both in their seventies now) live on the opposite side of the UK in East Anglia, where my late mum's family were originally from. 

A while back I'd asked him to share some info on that branch of our family tree which I knew he'd done extensive research upon. What I hadn't realised - and part of which he covered in the letter, the first of a few he plans to send me - is that he has traced that side of our family back to the twelfth century 😮😁😆

I can't wait for his next installment although I'm tempted to begin some research myself now that I'm armed with more pertinent information 😄

Hope everyone's Christmas prep is taking shape!

Edited to add a pic of our free(!!!) stained glass window 😊