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.

I made the mistake of draping the magic throw over my lap whilst sitting in the chilly front room. Sodding has settled in for a long nap on me. My morning plans have stalled for an hour. I’ve set an alarm and will turf him then. He’s warm and soft but I am resolute. Resolute, I tell you.

@soddingkitten your resoluteness shines through your post...

Christingle service was indeed utterly freezing, absolutely Baltic, but not remotely miserable. Am always impressed by the energy of children's ministers. Makes me even more sure that is Not My Calling.

DS has just come to tell me he found the cat on the downstairs sink asking for water whilst he was eating a banana. So he left the banana under his duvet in the same room as the rabbit to hide it from rabbit and went to turn on tap for the cat. He came back to find rabbit biting the duvet trying to eat the banana through the duvet. He said he obviously gave rabbit a bit of banana then came upstairs to eat the rest of his banana in a rabbit-free zone safe from ambush.

I can now hear DS telling the cat how beautiful she is and how her face is very pretty.

I'm about to trip lightly out of bed having managed around 14 hours sleep. I feel as fresh as a daisy

DH has gone to church, the bed loving heathen in me decided that God would understand my absence.

DS is of course playing the drums.

We'll walk DDogs in a bit and set to decorating the sitting room in a vain bid to feel festive.

@mathanxiety You obviously have excellent taste in kitchen electrics and holiday decorations.

@soddingkitten There is nothing wrong with being a free spirit when draping beads on a Christmas tree. At our house, when a cat (or kitten when we had them) uses you as cat furniture, we refer to it as being captured. Cats have magical powers. That's why you should avoid touching random kittens. It gives them a chance to cast a love spell that makes it impossible to give them up.

Not much news here. It was very cold and windy when I went running. I'm still agog that Boston got a foot of snow yesterday and last night. DS says he wants to make cookies this morning and I've got some more decorating to do.

I had zoom yoga this morning. Came downstairs after a few chores and a shower to make a cake but DH had started to make biscuits so no cake this week.

I was indeed resolute and did a successful kitten transfer to DS2 when my hour was up.

I went to the big Sainsburys, surveyed the empty turkey shelf and then bought a whole duck (on offer), two turkey thigh joints, a pack of chicken breast fillets, some streaky bacon and two packs of posh stuffing. DH made some space in the freezer for the whole duck. I made the two bird Franken-roast, lining a foil-lined deep dish with orange slices, streaky bacon, then the boned turkey thighs and alternate layers of stuffing and butterflied chicken breast fillets. The 3kg bundle is now safely wrapped in foil, tied with string and sealed into a ziplock bag in the freezer ready to defrost on Christmas eve. I can stop stressing about Christmas day. If Franken-roast is a disaster, we’ll still have the duck to fall back on. 👍

Tidying my fridge drawer I came across my sparkly red nail polish (W7). I shall wear that Christmas day at work. It takes ages to remove it though!

I already have my Christmas meal in the freezer - a pack of two small nut roasts with cheese filling and some blinis for the salmon and creme fraiche.

DD has just been trying to persuade me to buy £138 off Hello Kitty stuff from China for Christmas for her, she's 15. I checked out reviews of the site and both said scam then I went on it and the first pictures were of adult lingerie It then got more normal and DD assured me it was the normal stuff she was after but nope. So she's off to come up with another great idea.

Just about to have a Sunday roast with roast pork and stuffing. Hopefully will get chicken house done but pushing it with daylight hours.

Had a lie-in, went for a run and saw lots of running Father Christmases.
Have cleaned one room ready for decs. I should now be painting wooden decs to help out a friend but instead I'm snuggled on the degree under a throw. Debating if 3.30 is too late for a coffee.

You've all put me to shame with your Christmas dinner planning and shopping. I honestly haven't given it a thought since we've just had Thanksgiving. It'll just be the four of us for Christmas so a big bird isn't really an option.

I might do ham again. Or possibly pizza.

I was a bit 😮 at the weight of the finished Franken-roast. I wanted leftovers so we can have the cold meat with bubble and squeak and pickles on Boxing Day and in sandwiches etc but it’ll take days to finish it.

Round 2 of tree decorating beckons, when we will learn how potty the baubles send Sodding.

@MissConductUS

We had a lot of rain here today that finally stopped mid afternoon. I didn't realize that 30 miles away it was snow and that New England got hit with a major winter storm. I'm glad we collected DS from Boston last week.

Yes :-)

Coastal New England here. Actually only got about 3" of snow in the end and did not lose power. Very pretty today.

ChampagneCat was an able supervisor of the decorating. So far The Twig has survived her attentions.

How many are you feeling with the Franken-roast. I am agog that it is already prepped and in the freezer.

I was feeling irritated by the DC earlier as all playing together had an obnoxious edge to it. So I told DH that I was putting my headphones in and going upstairs to sort the laundry. I have put away clothes for all four of us and stripped and remade all three beds, whilst listening to a fair bit of Meatloaf and The Greatest Showman soundtrack. You can't fail to be uplifted by From Now On.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=PluaPvhkIMU

Still no decorations up in Eggy Towers. Still far too early.

I’m too embarrassed to say how small our Christmas Day gathering is. Franken-roast is bigger than initially conceived.

DH is getting the boxes of tree decorations down from the loft.

We’ve done our Advent window for the village trail. And I’ve got the Christmas playmobil and cribs out of the loft, plus two other cribs. Proper china one is still in loft along with all other decorations and tree, still too early and I’m standing firm!

Franken-roast has a cousin in the US called a Turkducken (turkey, duck, chicken). I've never made one or even sampled one. They seemed to be popular a few years ago but I haven't heard much about them since.

Speaking of Advent windows, that reminded me of an obscure bit of UK history I learned about years ago, the window tax:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_tax

It's not mentioned in this article but I recall the article that originally brought it to my attention (possibly in The Economist ) that some people had wooden panels made so that they could quickly conceal their windows if they heard the taxman was going around counting.

@ZZTopGuitarSolo - Hello neighbor! There's at least one other US resident on this thread and you've probably already noticed who. Are you also an American or an ex-pat from the UK?

DD is baking the promised Buchteln (Rohrnudeln - I don't know what this would be in English). She is wrestling with the numbers.

I tunneled into the office and did about 5 h of work.

The tree decorating went about as well as could be expected. I had to retrieve a chain of beads from the kitchen which Sodding stole while DS2 and I were untangling the other chains. He likes (and seems hellbent on stealing) the felt gingerbread men, some embroidered felt stockings and the small wrapped presents (decorative only) resting on the branches. He likes batting at the silver tinkly bells, which is entertaining. He’s having a pitstop rest on my foot right now. I sense the real mischief will start later when he gets past being overwhelmed with excitement and hones in on what he wants to steal.

Didn't get the chicken house done before dark, ground wasn't level at the back and not enough space at the front so near to do some gardening first.

Just ate some chocolate cheesecake and having a cup of tea and watching Virgin River on Netflix as part 2 is out. DS is having a nap.