NST December 2025 A Different December

f0xh0les

champagne corks a-popping!!  Congratulations about pip's PIP. 

DS4 is enjoying his 16th birthday, and I have done the dutiful daughter-in-law thing on the phone ( Good Grief, Charlie Brown!!) with DH's family.  Guilt is trying to seep in, but I am putting up my flood defenses.   Nope nope not happening (waving my metaphorical stick) Keep back! 

I got rid of a half roll of loft insulation via a waste-not website, young chap came round and took it away and looked delighted with it. The silly thing is, that I have held on to it for 11 months, for no clearly apparent reason. I insulated our loft last January and then boarded the bl00dy thing with loft stilts.  

I am in the mood to be rid of things, to find a place for things, to make the ground floor of the house work properly for us.  Which is lovely, but honestly, why does it have to be this week that I get some motivation?? but then again, why not this week?  I am going to go for it. 

If I wear a Santa hat does it make it a de facto festive activity?(asking for a friend    )

Huge win!!  I am down to around 10 books left in my 't-b-r' pile, and I am not bringing any more into this house until they have 'b-r'.  3 are on the arm of the living room sofa, and 7 are next to my bed (and 2 of those are half read already), then they are going straight into a new 'charity shop bag' in the hall next to the front door and out of the door on the 29th.  Little and often. 

Cleaned quite a bit of the 1m of kitchen worktop next to the kettle and coffee machine that stuff gets dumped on and forgotten.  Will finish it tomorrow. 

Progress, not perfection, lovely Turtles. 

dizzyblnd

Nsd #10 today. Not bad for December so far I think. Merry Christmas everyone 

grandmanerd

Cards are still not done but my cousin phoned yesterday evening so I don't need to write her a long letter, we're all caught up. A card that came yesterday told me that one of my oldest friends is now in a care home as she has vascular dementia and alzheimers - sad news but that's another one I don't need to write a letter for. 

I have had a shower (really didn't feel up to it early on), washed my hair (still not feeling like it but told myself I'd feel better with clean hair) and scrubbed my nails. There are other grooming bits to do but I'm the only one who sees them so they can be done over the next week. I've washed my mask and hose thoroughly, put new filters in the machine. I straightened all the books, there are at least 3 boxes full of bedding so when I've made up the bed properly (not today, but I'm hoping DS3 will help get the duvet cover on).

I've decided all the presents for people currently in Australia will be going under the bed. That only leaves presents for darling daughter-in-law and grandpuppy to wrap and I may take back the reindeer gift bag currently holding all the grandchinchillas treats (last year's present so quite deleted now).

Anything in 'categories' in bags for life can go under the bed - I need to do accounts but not on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. One bag has clothes but mainly outdoor bits and extra jumpers (currently rotating my 3 favourites). My remaining clothes can be hung up and the towels folded and put away (many thanks to F0xh0les for suggesting using the dryer facility - my scarcity mindset again saying 'only for emergencies'). All that should leave a manageable amount of clutter to be sorted through and I have some long narrow trays to sort into.

I've made potato salad and the larger pieces of potato are in a bag, back in the fridge. Some extra mint and yoghurt dressing to dip veggies in and cheated with the rice salad (2 minutes in the microwave, put it ina bowl and stirred in a teaspoon of ready chillies, then honey mustard dressing when it was cool. I've taken a quiche, a pack of salami, some rainbow falafel and a bag of frozen berries from the freezer to defrost slowly and a pasta bake for now. I've pulled out tins of sweetcorn, rice pudding, mixed beans, peaches and mandarins. That gives me a lot of no fuss options for the next few days with salad from the salad drawer. I had fruit loaf toast earlier.

I watched a good film earlier - American but funny and not sacharine sweet. I listeened to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy whilst playing games and deleting emails (probably my 6th time - love that film). I'm mostly reading a book on my laptop and added several 99p ones from my favourite authors.

I'm not rushing anything, will do bits as and when I can. Still some aches and pains so I will treat myself gently.
Merry Christmas to all turtles and if you are doing the cooking ask for help if you need it (delegate), cheat if you need to and remember as long as no one gets food poisoning, it will turn out well. Hugs to everyone for whom this Christmas will be difficult.

DawnW

It would have been NSD # 11 but I had to go to the corner shop and buy more cough / throat sweets for OH 

Anyway, I have taken a piece of pork belly out of the freezer to cook for dinner tomorrow. I am also making a trifle, to try to make things a bit more festive around here.

I made mushroom soup for lunch, and we will have pie, roasted veg and sprouts with gravy for dinner tonight. 

Incidentally, anyone who has bought the cheap veg from L*dl, be aware the sprouts at least aren't in very good order. I only bought one pack and will finish it tomorrow probably, but I had to cut quite a bit out as they were starting to break down. I guess it depends on the branch? Not sure, anyway, it is worth having a look if you have some. I know some people take the opportunity to stock up with a view to storing L*dl veg. I only bought one pack of potatoes, one of sprouts, a swede and a couple of packs of shallots, as that is all we needed at the moment.

I gave the fridge a clear out to make space for the 2 trifles, ours and one for DD2 to take to DS's for Xmas day dessert. We aren't going because OH has a nasty cold and we don't want to pass it on. Besides which he is like a bear with a sore head, poor thing. We have had colds / respiratory things almost throughout December, and it is getting very tedious. I even had to take one of mine to the Doctor's due to my asthma. She assured me that it probably wasn't covid - there are loads of different bugs going round apparently.

I will take the trifle round to DD tomorrow morning, together with the GCs' presents, before they leave. I will just need to add whipped cream in the morning, plus some sprinkles.

apple_muncher

We've just finished watching A Muppet Christmas Carol , our Christmas eve tradition. Remember, 'Wherever you find love it feels like Christmas ' (no, I'm not going to sing it to you!), so whoever you are/n't with tomorrow know that the turtles love you and have a happy day ❤️

weenancyinAmerica

Merry Christmas everyone. We may be celebrating on the 25th or on Sunday. The weatherman here lied about the weather big time. We will get there eventually.

dustydigger

Merry Christmas everyone. had to give up on cleaning a few days ago because I found Mr D hanging over the toilet cistern,had brought up bile and was too dizzy to move for ages. Was in bed most of two days but was muh stronger an brighter today Xmas Day. We Mr D and GD6. TheDS!,DD!,DD",GDs 1,4 and 5 came for an hour at 2.30 and it was lovely. He tried to talk,even though it was in his African lanuage nobody understands.Was delighted to send a lot of photos to his family in Africa,
Everyone has gone now,Mr D has had his meds and i expect he will be in bed soon. I hope to be able to sit down alone to watch a nice gruesomecrime drama,munching chocolate as I go,but wanna bet I fall asleep after about 10 minutes in the Sleep Chair./
Did well on my book vouchers,no less than £90 worth.Cool

Rowan9

Catching up with you all. 

Well done for the PIP @apple_muncher. 

Thinking of those having a challenging time. Sending hugs your way those who would like one. 

Grateful this evening for scrambled eggs, bubble and squeak with added bacon, baked beans for tea. We had the makings of a repeat of Christmas dinner but it is so lovely that I will save that for another day rather than ‘use it up’
Grateful also for our lovely local library staff. They are so friendly. I order a lot and am so grateful to go to the shelf and find all my reservations. Such a lot of work they all put in. 

Also grateful for family. Was lovely seeing the Scottish based children and grandchildren. We saw the southern ones earlier in the month. 

I have continued to be inspired by you turtles having been a lurker for years now. I do plan to jump in and join you again in January and will hopefully be a monthly turtle 

f0xh0les

Today is Friday !! Yay!  It's the weekend! 

The Xmas Pud has been vanquished. Nearly everything Xmassy has been eaten. I think that means I did not overbuy, or overspend, or over-cater.  Good job too, payday is soooo far away still.

Child Benefit comes in on Monday, but I currently have less than £90 left in the budget and 2 kids are muttering about new trainers in the Sales.  Its going to be a quiet weekend I hope. 

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for a good sleep, for plenty of food, for a lovely chat with big sis + family, for continuing improvements in my eye.