Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 8: Calmly through the day

[MissConductUS]

I've started a new one. Please join us and share the boring and mundane things happening in your world. It will be calming for all.

Oops forgot cherry liquor to go with the rice pudding, and cognac to go with the Christmas cake.

There’s only six of us!!

But none of the food will go to waste - we’ll share it out if anyone wants to take some home, and we’ll have it in various forms right through till the first week of January.

Dh has Simpson’s on now for the next couple of hours if there’s one program a hate it’s that one I fucking hate it, but at least I can chill, next year laminate flooring so I’m treating myself to sheepskin rugs ethically done a bright red one for Christmas then a green for spring,

@Champagneforeveryone, that dog looks disappointingly normal .
@EggNogPegg - I’m so sorry that you’ve been discombobulated (I love this word!) by your mum making contact again. I hope you are feeling settled again now.
@HollyandIvyandallthingsYule, wow, that is a lot of food! Impressive stuff.
DS and I are going to attempt making bao buns from a packet mix this evening

EggNogPegg So sorry for all the stress your Mum is causing.
HollyandIvyandallthingsYule A seriously impressive menu there.

DH and DD have gone to Screwfix to pick up the mixer tap I ordered for the bath which hopefully the plumber can fit tomorrow, electrician also here. The kids have a half day though DD doesn't want to go - its only colouring in maths and watching a film, she's 15 so quite surprised they are colouring in maths.

Feeling Christmassy now and just played rocking around the Christmas tree. Got to do some cleaning and tidying before plumber and electrician come so that should knock my Xmas mood on the head.

@Nydj I’m just thinking to myself now that I might eliminate the gravadlax.

In fairness in a Danish Christmas dinner you have a lot of foods but you don’t eat much of each! So I’m not making as much as it sounds like, and there’ll really only be leftovers of the turkey and possibly the ham as the pork loin is very small.

I have just eaten something (a couple of things) out of the ‘spare’ selection box. Freddo and chocolate buttons to be exact.

Today we have been asked if we will offer our fosterling a long term placement and we have said yes, he is such a treasured member of our family and we would love him to stay. And today he has learned to roll from back to front to back again which is huge for us, he is doing so well in spite of his brain injury.

@bloodywhitecat oh how wonderful. to you and to the little guy.

Bloody white cat that is wonderful news he’ll be with you for Christmas.

I have a work meeting on Zoom in a bit, a lame stand-in for a Christmas party, which I hope will be the last thing I really need to attend to today.

I posted pictures in an earlier thread in this series of my deck with the fall foliage, so here are two more now with more of a winter theme. I think that if we keep this up long enough I'll eventually have done a visual interpretation of Vivaldi's Le quattro stagioni (four seasons).

Did you know that Vivaldi had red hair and was a Catholic priest? His parents were too poor to afford school fees so he went to pre-seminary as a child. He was eventually fired sacked from saying mass as he kept stopping to write down whatever melody was running through his head before he forgot it. He wound up teaching at a Catholic girls school for illegitimate daughters of the rich and famous. That's why so many of his compositions are etudes (student exercises).

I'll bet you didn't know that I'm a classical music fan, did you?

That's our 17 year old Honda snowblower in the picture. They're unstoppable. And Walter the weather station. He's pretty tough too.

My husband had a very bad day.

He vomited at work and shit himself with the force of the vomit.

He's quarantined upstairs.

I do not want a bug that could make me shit myself. I have Christmas activities booked the next few days and vomiting so hard I shit myself does not feature in these activities.

Oh bless that’s awful it really is poor thing hope you don’t get it either.

@HollyandIvyandallthingsYule and @Holothane

Thank you, hopefully he will be here for many more Christmases to come too.

He spent ages playing with a bauble on the tree today and feeling the branches with his little hands, he was mesmerised, he has no vision in one eye so I like to try to encourage him to reach out and touch things.

nancy he should really see a doctor. It sounds like norovirus, which is very contagious.

Aw bless I too have one eye so I can relate to that he sounds adorable playing with the bauble,

@halfpasteleven, just for clarity I am on the east coast. I'm in an area north of New York City called the Hudson Highlands. It's still snowing, so I think we'll wind up with at least 14 inches of the stuff

@MissConductUS hope my last post didn't come across as flippant- I was glad you didn't get caught in a storm scenario- I can imagine that up to 14 inches of snow is not easy to have to live with. (It looks beautiful though).

@bloodywhitecat your news is wonderful.. I hope you and your family have a magical Christmas with your precious little boy.

@Champagneforeveryone your dog looks great! (From a distance at least!)

@HollyandIvyandallthingsYule you've an amazing dinner menu! Lovely to have something different as well as traditional to look forward to.

I'm back in bed still feeling uncomfortable but I did get up to eat two vol au vents with chicken and mushroom (yesterday's dinner leftovers). It seems it takes a lot for me to lose my appetite.

@MissConductUS

He's ok now but still quarantined.

Personally I think he has over used the painkillers as he's in pain with a neck injury but he won't listen to me.

bloodywhitecat So glad to hear your foster child will be there for Christmas and that he is making progress and happy.

Personally I think he has over used the painkillers as he's in pain with a neck injury but he won't listen to me.

If he's taking ibuprofen, that's quite possible. When used excessively, it blocks the production of the substance that protects the lining of the stomach from damage by digestive acids.

@MissConductUS solpadeine

Our new neighbours on the other side dropped a plate of delicious meat patties round earlier. The family are originally from Pakistan and the Mum is an amazing cook. I think she often tones the spices down for us, but these had lots of fresh chillies including the seeds. We enjoyed them, but were all slightly sweating afterwards. We have such great neighbours here. They are all lovely.

DH and I have agreed that Shyboy next door will be getting a box of posh pouches from Sodding for Christmas. We will also buy Lovely Neighbour flowers to say thank you for being so tolerant of Sodding.

What a lot of news - and snow pictures! We have rain and about 10°C.

I got home about 30 minutes ago, and will perhaps have to work a couple of hours from home tomorrow. But yes - this is more or less it for this year until the 4th.
As the office payed for our own Glühweinmaker - we obviously have to use it, so we did.

Thanks for your kind words all. I'm okay. Waiting to see if I'm back in the doghouse with my grandmother for ignoring the attempt at contact. Hoping not.

@MissConductUS. Your photos are beautiful. My DC were talking about snow today as they want to go sledging. I told them that where we skiied this year, there's a 2km long toboggan run (they we didn't get round to doing this year). They have asked if we can go on it next year. I've said yes. They only have to wait 369 days... Just a lot of rain here. Not even a sniff of snow. Though I have enjoyed not needing to scrape my windscreen.

I want to wrap my Christmas presents in fabric this year. I have only just decided. I have no fabric and DH has already bought three rolls of wrapping paper at my request. So my organisation needs some improvement. I will be organised for next year.

I wrapped some presents earlier and got my first Christmas tingle (excitement about the big day). I am feeling more optimistic about feeling cheerful and festive once I’ve had a couple of decent nights’ sleep. This year and especially the last 6-8 weeks have been such a slog.

I got the chocolate from DCs green and Black's advent calendar.