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Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day

1000 replies

Mumtobabyhavoc · 25/06/2025 19:30

New one!

Previous:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5276546-come-and-tell-us-your-dull-and-unexciting-news-33-calmly-through-the-day?page=1

OP posts:
Thread gallery
382
MyrtleLion · 01/12/2025 08:46

The reality of proper snow, math! It looks so pretty but causes a lot of work.

It has been a long slog and more left. I can't have supplements because it might affect the action of the antibiotics. I have live yoghurt and immodium which helps and I used zovirax for the cold sores.

We have a very nutritious diet so the medical team are very pleased with progress. It will be interesting to see how long they follow up afterwards as well.

I really do value the support I have from MN on quite a few threads. Amazing how unknown women can be so supportive, despite not knowing me. Thank you all.

First day of the advent calendar. I have a Candy Kittens one because chocolate is not my favourite. Lots of sweets.

Mumtobabyhavoc · 01/12/2025 09:11

Myrtle, the kids have Lindt advent calendars to start. Havoc is very excited. 🤗

I should be sleeping... 😵‍💫

OP posts:
Mumtobabyhavoc · 01/12/2025 18:20

Happy December 1st!

Starting my morning with an iced latter, stollen and fresh figs.

Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day
OP posts:
mathanxiety · 02/12/2025 01:13

I have four people on my gift list done and dusted. Five more to go.

HildaTablet · 02/12/2025 11:10

@MyrtleLion was it you who makes the amazing models? I thought of you because there’s a new BBC show where they make tiny miniaturised rooms/buildings. It’s on in the afternoons at 2pm. You probably know about it but I'm just mentioning it in case you don’t!

MyrtleLion · 02/12/2025 11:56

HildaTablet · 02/12/2025 11:10

@MyrtleLion was it you who makes the amazing models? I thought of you because there’s a new BBC show where they make tiny miniaturised rooms/buildings. It’s on in the afternoons at 2pm. You probably know about it but I'm just mentioning it in case you don’t!

Yes. I have recorded it. I use kits though and I think the show makes them from scratch. Knitting has replaced my model making for the time being, despite having two kits unopened.

sproutsandparsnips · 02/12/2025 23:03

I really enjoy reading everyone’s (not so mundane) news.
@Umanresourcesi have a cupboard full of baking trays/roasting tins and they all fall out whenever I try and take one out or put one back!
@mathanxietythat is a lot of snow! I feel you re writing off a team! DS’s lovely bunch of boys in his rugby team have really improved and now we enjoy watching them play - even though they lose it’s so much more competitive.
@Mumtobabyhavoclovely pics again, I do like the decorations!
@HildaTabletthat sounds like a lovely morning any way.
i will post some pictures of my trip to Chatsworth with friends. We stayed in a lovely, cosy cottage.
I stopped in Tideswell on the way home.

Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day
Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day
Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day
Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day
Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day
Mumtobabyhavoc · 03/12/2025 01:04

Gorgeous pics Sprouts. 😍

OP posts:
Mumtobabyhavoc · 03/12/2025 07:02

DC are asleep and I've snuck into the living room and am about to watch an episode, or two, of Parenthood on Netflix before the series is pulled Dec 14. Just boiling some eggs first for the dc's breakfast tomorrow morning. Am also having some stollen and strawberries with a hot cocoa and marshmallows in my new holiday mug!!!
🤗🎄🥳

Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day
OP posts:
Umanresources · 04/12/2025 00:54

Went out for lunch with friends today and gave out the cards and bookmarks. I hadn’t mentioned that I was giving bookmarks and one of our friends had bought books for us all. A perfect match and we had a lovely laughter filled lunch. I had hoisin duck wrap and salad. I’m a very slow eater and we were chatting so much I had to ask to take most of it home, so got a box for it. OH had a surprise afternoon snack 😄

@MyrtleLion cold sores are a sure sign you are run down. Have you tried Compeed cold sore patches. They work so well covering it up and stopping it from smarting when eating or drinking as well it’s a long recovery for your poor ankle.

@mathanxiety your Thanksgiving meal sounds delicious. Do you have the same meal at Christmas too? What sort of stuffing do you make? For the past few years we have bought a Christmas dinner for 8 from a really good food company. Everything is provided from the Turkey crown wrapped in bacon, to the gravy and all the sides. I usually add more sage and onion stuffing, sprouts, and carrots and turnips. I might do some pork as well. The timings are included, minute by minute, and my son and daughter cook it between them. It’s really stress free.

@HildaTablet i watched the programme about the miniatures. I am in awe of those creators. The girl who made the library made 3,000 individual books! I enjoyed the back story to each miniature. The library one was where the lady it was made for had met her husband there and they had been married a long time, but he died a couple of years ago. He had his school cap in his pocket but had tried to pretend he was a uni student.. The model maker made a mini copy of it, which was the tear jerker, well it was for me!

@sproutsandparsnips those are some gorgeous Christmassy pictures. The decorated fireplace is lovely. That cottage did look very cosy. Stunning tree.

@Mumtobabyhavoc I’m very envious of your Harry Potter experience. My DSIL lives very near to the one in the Uk. Her daughter has an airBnB ever closer. We have an invitation to go and stay there for free, hopefully next year we will make it. My DD has been to Harry Potter experience three times now. We have wands, scarves and Griffindor robes. We bought all the books as they came out, and even queued for the last one when it went on sale at midnight. We’ve got beautifully illustrated editions as well. We also watch all the films every year, leading up to Christmas. Our tradition.

Mumtobabyhavoc · 04/12/2025 03:04

Uman, I'm really glad to know you liked it so much! 🤗. My dc are young, just 4 and not quite 2, so I'm not buying the extras. They haven't seen any of the movies and I haven't introduced the books yet. I figured the walk-through would be enough. Based on your experience, would you agree?

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 04/12/2025 04:04

Uman we'll have roast beef at Christmas, plus leftover Thanksgiving stuffing that I'll freeze, plus a repeat of all the side dishes. We'll have another pecan pie and pumpkin pie, and also tiramisu, and DD bakes cookies. I make a basic sage and onion stuffing using a stale baguette, fresh parsley, usually two onions, dried sage, S&P, about half a pound of butter, and chopped chestnuts.

Tomorrow will be the coldest day of the week, with a high temperature that is 18 degrees F below freezing. I'm going to bundle up on my way to work.

HildaTablet · 04/12/2025 08:07

@Umanresources we also live within a short drive of the HP studios but (perhaps luckily) we haven’t had any friends or family who’ve been desperate to go, so we haven’t ended up as repeat hosts. Small children wearing horn-rimmed specs, carrying wands and dressed in long scarves are a common sight on the local railway line!

MyrtleLion · 04/12/2025 10:40

Umanresources · 04/12/2025 00:54

Went out for lunch with friends today and gave out the cards and bookmarks. I hadn’t mentioned that I was giving bookmarks and one of our friends had bought books for us all. A perfect match and we had a lovely laughter filled lunch. I had hoisin duck wrap and salad. I’m a very slow eater and we were chatting so much I had to ask to take most of it home, so got a box for it. OH had a surprise afternoon snack 😄

@MyrtleLion cold sores are a sure sign you are run down. Have you tried Compeed cold sore patches. They work so well covering it up and stopping it from smarting when eating or drinking as well it’s a long recovery for your poor ankle.

@mathanxiety your Thanksgiving meal sounds delicious. Do you have the same meal at Christmas too? What sort of stuffing do you make? For the past few years we have bought a Christmas dinner for 8 from a really good food company. Everything is provided from the Turkey crown wrapped in bacon, to the gravy and all the sides. I usually add more sage and onion stuffing, sprouts, and carrots and turnips. I might do some pork as well. The timings are included, minute by minute, and my son and daughter cook it between them. It’s really stress free.

@HildaTablet i watched the programme about the miniatures. I am in awe of those creators. The girl who made the library made 3,000 individual books! I enjoyed the back story to each miniature. The library one was where the lady it was made for had met her husband there and they had been married a long time, but he died a couple of years ago. He had his school cap in his pocket but had tried to pretend he was a uni student.. The model maker made a mini copy of it, which was the tear jerker, well it was for me!

@sproutsandparsnips those are some gorgeous Christmassy pictures. The decorated fireplace is lovely. That cottage did look very cosy. Stunning tree.

@Mumtobabyhavoc I’m very envious of your Harry Potter experience. My DSIL lives very near to the one in the Uk. Her daughter has an airBnB ever closer. We have an invitation to go and stay there for free, hopefully next year we will make it. My DD has been to Harry Potter experience three times now. We have wands, scarves and Griffindor robes. We bought all the books as they came out, and even queued for the last one when it went on sale at midnight. We’ve got beautifully illustrated editions as well. We also watch all the films every year, leading up to Christmas. Our tradition.

I have never heard of Compeed cold sore patches. I use Compeed for blisters so I will get some for the next time. They've almost disappeared now.

I have a second interview for a role I want so maybe I will have a job in time for Christmas. As is tradition we had prosecco to celebrate and then had a brilliant two and a half hour conversation about lots of things.

DH has Christmas sorted out - big planning document that is added to every year. I saw a wild venison joint for £18.99 a couple of weeks ago and it's been in the freezer ever since. DH thought it wasn't big enough for three and leftovers, so I suggested instead of buying another joint that he get a duck. We He can airfry it before Christmas and then freeze it, and then we will have more leftovers.

Basically we have beef on Christmas Eve, venison on the day, Chinese party nibbles on Boxung Day, pork on New Year's Eve and leftovers for the rest of the time. We never go hungry.

Umanresources · 04/12/2025 16:36

@Mumtobabyhavoc I do indeed love Harry Potter 😄 I do agree with introducing HP as an experience first, whilst they are so young. I trained as a nursery nurse and always loved working with children. Everything is new to them and it really makes you appreciate the magic they can see in everything. I re-trained as a primary teacher and loved working with older children as well. I am just in awe of children’s imagination and creativity in this harsh world.
My son decided that his sons wouldn’t be watching any of the films, until they had read the books, so he could explain things to them. He used to read them a couple of chapters every night, after their bath and they would snuggle into his bed. We watched the first film together one Christmas and it was really magical for us all. They are 9 and 11 now and he still reads to them, even though they read books themselves.

@HildaTablet Id love to see the children in their costumes. It’s just so magical. A few years ago my OH and I were having a coffee, watching children going to the theatre opposite to watch Frozen. There were so many girls dressed as Anna and Elsa and a few boys dressed as Olaf, the snowman. One small boy stood out, because he was marching to the beat of his own drum; he was dressed as Batman! Brilliant!!

@MyrtleLion the cold sore patches are very good. I love your Christmas week menu. Leftovers are some of the best things about Christmas food. We had a friend who would make stuffing sandwiches and said he could imagine the turkey. I like that idea. A couple of years ago I ordered some meat from an online butcher. They delivered the wrong order so I got in touch with them and they said to keep that order and they would send me my order as well. The spare order turned out to be quite large joints of beef, lamb, pork and steaks. Plenty of leftovers that year! When our Portuguese family are here, we have Bacalhau on Christmas Eve. Each Portuguese household has their own version. There are supposed to be 365 variations of it. Ours has salted cod, potatoes and hard boiled eggs. I love Chinese nibbles. We used to go to a Chinese restaurant that had buffet food. I used to stick to the dim sum and duck with pancakes. I very rarely moved onto a main course.
Fingers crossed for your job, hopefully you will hear something soon. I am now wishing we had Prosecco here. When we get some I’ll toast you as well. Cheers 🥂

@mathanxiety your stuffing sounds amazing. I was never sure of the difference between stuffing and dressing. I’ve never had pecan or pumpkin pie, but I’d like to try. We watch some US sitcoms, like The Middle, which we loved and they used to have a side dish of green jello with marshmallows, not sure how I feel about that. When I lived in Canada, the housekeeper from another family made sweet potato mashed with butter and brown sugar. I’m not fond of sweet and savoury food together and I did not like it. I didn’t try sweet potatoes again for many years, but I like them now as wedges and roasted or air fried. I used to chat online to someone in Montana. He put his webcam on, in his kitchen and a few friends around the world joined in his Thanksgiving preparation and the meal, with his family and friends. That was a wonderful night.

I’ve just read that the Taskmaster television programme is taking a live version to the States in the new year. I would highly recommend this, if anyone gets the chance to go and see it. I watched the TV programme from the first series and can thoroughly recommend it. I’ve introduced it to family and friends and we’ve watched it multiple times. I’ve even watched the Australian, New Zealand and Swedish (with subtitles) versions, but they aren’t quite as funny.

MyrtleLion · 04/12/2025 16:52

The interview is 1.15pm on 12 December. Your Christmas sounds lovely.

Umanresources · 04/12/2025 17:49

MyrtleLion · 04/12/2025 16:52

The interview is 1.15pm on 12 December. Your Christmas sounds lovely.

fingers crossed 🤞

Mumtobabyhavoc · 04/12/2025 18:26

I am loving all the food chat!
I bought a duck at Costco yesterday for our Christmas dinner. I will cook dressing (stuffing) on the side (baguette, onion, cranberries, apple, butter, poultry seasoning s&p), corn on the cob, scalloped potatoes, and likely roasted Brussels sprouts and asparagus. I will boil the carcass for broth and make gravy from that. If you haven't made duck gravy, please try it! It. Is. Amazing. I make mine by browning four, adding butter to make a roux then slowly whisking in broth.

I had been checking for ducks at Costco for the past couple of weeks and they were finally in. Cost was about $25. Retail is around $40, I think.

Thank for the HP Experience chats. I think the kids will love it.

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 06/12/2025 04:09

I have a friend who makes a baked dressing with stale French bread and corn bread, onions, celery, broth, herbs, S&P, and gizzards. It's apparently a southern US thing. I have never tasted it and I'm not sure how I feel about eating gizzards.

My DCs were all huge HP fans - I remember one in particular putting her name and her money down to pre order a couple of the books as they came out. She sat in a long queue for hours waiting for the bookshop to open just to pick up the books she had ordered and get stuck into them at the same time as her friends.

We had such a cold day on Thursday it took me a while to feel I was warmed up when I got home from work. Today was still below freezing, but only by a few degrees and it felt balmy by comparison.

Best wishes for your interview myrtle.

sproutsandparsnips · 06/12/2025 11:00

Good luck for the interview @MyrtleLion!
@Mumtobabyhavocam I understanding correctly that you brown the flour first? Do you mean you put it in a hot pan then add the butter to make the roux? Your Christmas dinner sounds delicious. We will,have sirloin of beef with the trimmings for Christmas dinner as no one (at least not me and DH!) really like turkey.
All games off today - it’s a washout.
I think I will clean the bathroom and try and get a bit organised with Christmas wrapping.
Hope all is well with @MissConductUS.
Thinking of @bizzeyand @Deathraystare

Mumtobabyhavoc · 06/12/2025 19:42

@sproutsandparsnips Yes! For example:

heat pan with 2 tbsp / 30ml flour (I think you say, plain flour?) on a heat that would quickly melt butter, but not scorch it. On my stove top it is setting #3.

spread flour in pan, shake and stir so it doesn't burn. when it is a golden brown quickly add equal amount of butter. Stir to make a smooth paste.

add hot stock a ladle or two at a time using a rubber spatula to stir and smooth the paste into the liquid. You won't get any lumps this way.

continue adding stock to desired consistency.
if you need more liquid you can use water.
works every time.
btw, if I have brandy on hand I add a tablespoon/15ml with first addition of liquid.

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 07/12/2025 20:56

I think one of the reasons I love Thanksgiving and Christmas so much is the gravy.

DD and I went out to try to break the back of the Christmas shopping yesterday, and thanks to DD keeping me on track we got it done, and made it home again in time to make a lovely chicken and potato curry.

It snowed again overnight - about five inches - and I had to clear my car before heading out to Mass. When I got home I decided to shovel the back stairs and back path, and then filled my bird feeder.

Mumtobabyhavoc · 08/12/2025 00:05

Math, sounds like you have a handle on the season! For the first time ever I am ahead: tree/lights up since Nov 22; a bit of deco inside; almost all presents bought plus baby's birthday presents and decos. We've been going out to holiday / lights events for at least 3 weeks now, too. 🎄🎄🎄
Would love some of your snow. ❄️❄️❄️

The art gallery downtown has a ferris wheel again this year. Pics taken from my car. Also a pic of Hotel Vancouver and from the Christmas market.

Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day
Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day
Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day
Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day
OP posts:
Mumtobabyhavoc · 08/12/2025 01:53

Math, I was reading this thread from 2020. I thought you might enjoy this:

mathanxiety · 06/09/2020 05:57

I went to Aldi to get a bottle of maple syrup and came out with maple syrup plus eleven other items. DD3 had warned me against getting a trolley. "You'll only end up getting eleven other things," she said. "Oh pish tosh," I responded breezily.
We went out for a walk later in the evening and I took some photos of the moon.

OP posts:
Umanresources · 08/12/2025 18:29

@mathanxiety that stuffing sounded delicious, until I got to the gizzard part, which I had to look up. I think I would try it at least once, but not sure if I would like it.
Your trip round Aldi sounds like everyone’s visit there. Oh how I miss my trips there. We used to go regularly on a Sunday for the special buys. I used to get deliveries from there until they stopped them. My DD goes there for the drinks order at Christmas. We seem to have quite a lot in the drinks cupboard now, so it might be a small order this year.

i found a new online butcher with specialty meats, so I thought I might order some extra things for Christmas. Today, the latest delivery date changed from 10th December to 31st so ordering might have to wait.

@Mumtobabyhavoc I’ve written all my cards, posted all the ones I needed to, just the local ones to neighbours left to be hand delivered. Thank goodness my OH is very obliging. At one time we used to deliver 15 cards to neighbours, it’s now down to 5, as people have moved or died and we don’t know the incomers. I think we’ve got all the Christmas presents, apart from one, who is into bouldering, so a climbing linked something. I did see a poster with the periodic table, but using climbing terms instead of chemical symbols.

I’ve also wrapped nearly all of them this time, oh and everyone is getting a bookmark tucked inside too. I got some little stocking fillers for the DGS, nephew and niece, a bracelet with an animal which they can track in real time. They all have their own favourite animals, which is lucky for me.

My treat today is a mixture of my favourite things. Agatha Christie and children's
books. They might be given to my DGS to read as well.

Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day
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