Jingle All The Way - It's the 2023 Christmas Chatter Thread!

Spendless

Just had a straighten up of the 'present cupboard' OMG there's more stuff in there for DD's birthday than I realised. There's also a travel brush set and some make up brushes with a flight sleep mask. I'm giving DD these too as I prefer to give her travel related items for her birthday as the next thing she thinks of is summer and holidays rather than at Christmas when she overlooks smaller items. There's also a facial cleaner brush that we bought on hols that I think she'll appreciate having now rather than later. Decided not to give her the MT case. She's got several cheap sunglasses cases she can put the FC sunglasses in, and I think someone else would appreciate the  MT case more. I found a nice gift bag to put the glasses in instead, the whole reason I'd bought something in the first place cos I didn't know how to present it.  Decided against adding a bath bomb. There's only one left as I gave her one the other day as a welcome home for Easter gift. The other Lush items left are a bubble bar, novelty xmas bath bombs and snow fairy products all of which will be given later this year.

 I'd also forgotten all about the Ralph Lauren bag I bought - as I also bought a MT bag (in the same style I already own) for DD thinking of later this year I need to have a good think about who is having what, or am I keeping for myself. 

mandco

Princesskitty  Good luck with the PTA events   Happy anniversary   the gloves sounds like a perfect gift for dh 
Coxy sounds like your mothers day gifts were a success and you got some lovely gifts too
Spendless sounds like your present cupboard is doing well this year - forgotten gifts are always a bonus. Good luck to dd with her auditions

We had a lovely break the weather was pretty rubbish - mostly wet & windy but it was great to have some down time and just spend some time chilling and not have to worry about the day to day for a bit

ordered taz a tracksuit & some joggers from underarmour 1/2 price in the sale + extra 15% off he growing like a weed at the moment and I'm struggling to find bottoms that fit him in the usual places now as he's gotten really tall but he's super slim. There is a huge gap in the market when it comes to older boys clothing

Easter is coming around quickly now so really need to crack on and get things sorted for that. Did pick up an easter egg each for the kids as tesco had an offer on the bigger ones for £3.50?- ds had asked for a galaxy one & dd maltesters plus managed to get taz a plain freefrom one from aldi - more choice for freefrom eggs this year but a lot of them are flavoured and he prefers just the plain milk chocolate equivalent. 

Really hoping the weather will turn around soon and spring will finally put in an appearance 

Spendless

Today is DD 'very merry unbirthday' (to quote a song in Disney's version of Alice In Wonderland')  It's her actual birthday tomorrow but since she is setting off this afternoon to audition in another part of the country, celebrations start today which mark the last day of her teenage years (dare I say I'm also happy to celebrate the end of teenagers too -lol).

DH is taking her, I can't go with them due to work, so birthday gits are in 3 lots. 1st are the presents today, which I'm pleased with, they all look  good/useful/specific to her but cost me very little, either because I already had them in from a previous occasion or were a free gift. Tomorrow morning DH will give her her card with money in (her main present from us) and then when she arrives home late tomorrow evening I'll give her the theatre tickets. 

This will be the 5th audition she's had this week. 1 she hasn't heard back from. 2 she doesn't think were successful (disappointingly at the drama schools were she is/has been a student on short courses and when she described what happened, I think the whole process was unfair/strange!) and the 5th she heard back from yesterday inviting her to the next round. Ironically this is the one that I don't think is a financially viable option, though we have to look very closely at it. She's aware but is still going for the experience. Then we get a week's respite from it before she does her next lot a week after that. 

This morning I have a blood test for my thyroid then I have suggested to DD we get brunch at a nearly really nice place. 

Abbafan1972

@Spendless happy birthday to your DD. It’s my DD’s birthday tomorrow as well. 

princesskitty29

All of the PTA events were a success this week and I’m glad to have those ticked off. DH and I were lucky enough to have a spa day yesterday as part of our 10 year wedding anniversary celebrations so that was lovely and today is going to be a substitute Easter Sunday as we’re away over Easter. I’ve made the boys baskets with Easter goodies in as I always do and we’ll do a treasure hunt for those, I’ll also give them the eggs that family members have given them. I’m making a roast beef dinner and the boys can have some of their Easter eggs for pudding. I have got some little foil wrapped eggs to take on holiday with us and I’ll hide those around the hotel room next Sunday for a little bit of fun. My youngest was asking me if the Easter Bunny was real the other day and it’s weird how I can so easily pretend that a man is pulled through the sky by flying reindeer delivering presents to every child in the world, yet I struggle with a bunny hopping around leaving chocolate everywhere!

I’m going to start laying out our clothes on the spare bed today ready for packing, that way I can see what we’ve all got. I’m very nervous/anxious, I’ll be better when we’re packed and on our way! I don’t think it’s just because this is our first trip abroad with the boys, I think it’s also because I haven’t been abroad for 10 years so it feels a bit out of my comfort zone now. We’ve got two more full nights sleeps then we’ll be getting up at 3:45am Wednesday morning to catch a 6:25am flight, it’ll only take us 20mins to get to the airport. I don’t even know how to wake my children up as I swear we’ve never had to as they always wake up so bloomin’ early!

I will try and get on again before I go but if I don’t I hope you’re all well and that you have a lovely Easter.

Spendless The only good thing about DH not shopping is that it helps me when present buying for him! Fingers crossed for your DD’s auditions, I hope she had a great birthday. I hope your blood test was ok.

mandco the great thing about Butlins is it doesn’t always matter about the weather as there’s so many things going on indoors. I know what you mean with boys clothing, my eldest is tall for his age so I keep having to go up a size so it fits him in the leg but he’s got a tiny waist – if anything he needs a size down in the waist!

Spendless

Now Easter is over, if anyone sees a non confectionery Easter item suitable for an adult female  on sale, will they give me a heads up please. My DD's 21st falls on Easter Sunday next year. Don't know where she'll be by then or what situation she'll be in but want to get some her some Easter themed presents as gifts to mark the special day. I'm thinking along the lines of jewellery and toiletries/cosmetics so far. I know it's a case of any items will only be available now or in the run up to Easter next year.

mandco

Spendless  I popped out on the Saturday and honestly you wouldn't have thought it was easter the next day as there was hardly anything easter related left in the shops despite there being loads the day before - it felt like everywhere had just removed it all as no way it had all sold esp in places like the works where the entire easter crafts section was gone . 
you might have more luck online have you tried places like etsy? I got dd some bunny shaped candle melts £4 ish  you'll often find reductions post seasonal events and Some sellers will do themed items all year if you ask.

What's going on with the weather? its flipping from glorious sunshine to torrential rain & wind then back again in a matter of hours at the moment

Smythstoys have some bargains at the moment I ordered some kindi kids dolls reduced to £9.99 each(still £25+ elsewhere) which will go away for the grandkids 

found a break in a caravan over the coronation weekend for £130 which I thought was bargain considering its a bank holiday on the Monday. dd gave me money for my birthday & mothers day rather than presents as we're going away later this year so used it that towards that instead  
anyone have any plans for over the coronation? 

Crazycatlady2

We are going to centre parcs for the coronation. We booked it before it was a bank holiday though as it’s for our eldest 18th birthday. Holidays are very hard for us due to our youngest disabilities so we giving it a go as don’t live far away so no travel stress added. It’s 5 of us plus the dog and my packing list looks like we away a month 😂 good job we have a big car and roof box which I need to find key for I’ve just remembered 🤦‍♀️

Spendless

Enjoy Centre parcs crazycatlady - we went frequently when the kids were young and enjoyed it. 

mandco - that's what Thursday evening was looking like for chocolate eggs. Thankfully I already had most  but the £1-ish eggs I wanted proved difficult.  I eventually found them at Lidl but  it was the 5th place I'd gone to and B & M didn't have a single egg left. I was also there at 8.30am Good Friday otherwise they'd have all gone too. That's strange though to take away the Easter stuff - they don't do that with Christmas decs!  I don't know what I'm thinking of for DD just thought it would be nice to get her some 21st gifts that also have an Easter theme. I'd not considered a candle, that's a good idea.

princesskitty29

Hi all, I hope you all had a lovely Easter? We had a lovely time in Lanzarote, after all of my apprehension I’m very glad we went. The hotel was great and perfect for the children and Playa Blanca is a lovely place. It reminded me that I do enjoy going abroad but I really don’t like flying, and our landing into Luton in gale force winds was pretty horrendous! Still, we are very lucky and it’s given us some wonderful memories.

I’ve just been catching up with washing and what not since we got back, I’ve got chicken pie with roasties to make for lunch today and DS2 has a party this afternoon.

Spendless Could you do something with the fillable eggs you can get? I’ve had some of the plastic ones in the past but I imagine there’s all sorts of different ones out there, you could put small treats inside them? Then the gifts themselves don’t necessarily have to be Easter themed but will come in an egg. I’ve also seen some lovely mugs with rabbits etc on (Wrendale design and others) that look nice and are available all year round.

mandco Wow that is a great bargain for a weekend away! I hope you have a lovely time. We don’t have any plans for the coronation yet, although I know it’s fast approaching! It’s my birthday on the 29th April and I don’t know yet whether we’re going to visit my parents that weekend or the weekend after when the coronation is happening. It usually depends on my brother as he’s a carer and works every other weekend so we try to go when he’s around and we can catch up with him too.

Crazycatlady oh it will be lovely being at Center Parcs for the coronation. I’m sure your holidays aren’t easy so not having travel stress is a huge bonus. We actually have a Center Parcs five minutes down the road from us too, we’ve been a couple of times and it was so great at the end of the holiday knowing we only had to pop down the road! The great thing is that when you’re inside the park you could be anywhere and you forget you haven’t gone anywhere. I hope you all have a lovely time.