Countdowners united

[MamaPizzaChristmasToppings]

I miss Christmas I want baileys and chocolate and Christmas dinner!

How are you all?

I could have sworn I posted on this thread, oh well.

Hello!! how are you all?

I've started the preperation for this years Christmas.

Ribbon - check
Cards - check
Wrapping paper - check
Sellotape - check

I've bookmarked the site where I got my indestructable tree from (real tree, delivered on the 8th December, hasnt been watered for 3 weeks - because I keep forgetting - and the bloody thing is still going strong),

bookmarked a few of the more expensive pressies for the kids

and I'm starting to plan what to make the swags and other live decorations from.

Glitter - put away for next years reindeer food and cookies.

Savings account and spreadsheet opened and accumilating money, not much at the moment though.

Gosh your very organised mole

I need to book a holiday and have another countdown thread

Wonder if I could just leave decorations up? I like them

I'm not organised, just bored and th ekids have been driving me insane for the past 2 days - thank god they are back to school tomorrow.

Hi, can I join in please? Don't want to take the decorations down, don't want to stop eating chocolate and drinking Baileys, and most of all, I don't want it to be all over for another year.

Of course...welcome.

Pull Up a chair barry

Can't believe they're back at school already, has flown by mole

I know, tell me about it. I'm not ready to do that whole school run/meetings/funds palava already.

I've set all 4 alarms in my room to get me up tomorrow morning just for insomnia to kick in again tonight so I know I wont be going to sleep at all tonight anyway...argghhhhh.

Ooh, can I join in! Glad to see I'm not the only one looking forward to this years Christmas already, dp looked at me very last night when I started to stitch the girls' names on their stockings so there were no arguments like last year (sounds very odd saying that since it's only days ago)

He's just started a new job & will be working late quite often though so I can plan to my hearts content

Am off to town Thursday after my washing machine's delivered to see if there's any cards/wrap left on sale rather than spend a fortune & starting with random stocking filler bits as well.

lol, welcome to the thread.

Welcome to the newbies. The more the merrier!

Mole, you are very organized! Should we share our Monica Gellar medal?

So far I have got some items in the post-Christmas sales, such as cards, pretty decoration and a lovely big plate for Santa's mince pie and Rudolph's carrot. And I gave in and got DS one of those bloody annoying singing Christmas trees even though he already has a singing reindeer and that drove me nuts . It goes on for ages. He had it for two days until it got locked away in the big sack in the garage.

I got myself one of those saving tins, the ones that you can only open with a tin opener, and the rule is that as soon as we are given a £2 coin it goes in. So far we have already £10 in it, not bad for a week This will be our extra Christmas spending money.

I have also started a spreadsheet with present ideas for DS, but I also have one for his birthday in August, some things might get swapped around.

I also know exactly what my tree will look like, but didn't have the money to buy decoration yet, it will be pricey. Think of real tree, nordic decoration theme.

Oh dear, I sound like a total lunatic, but well I am in good company here

Good luck with the school run everyone. We have no plans for the next days, so food shopping and walks with the dog it is.

Can I join? I started shopping for Christmas 2012 before Christmas 2011. Good sales were my excuse.

I spreadsheet everything and have them saved by year (have done it since moving to the UK MrScout has a large family compared to mine). There's a tab for each gift-giving occassion birthday, Christmas, Boxing Day, Easter (we just do chocolate eggs, but I list the variety/type we got each person), etc. I got home for Thanksgiving (American living in the UK) so try to be done by then so I take my family's gifts with me (saves on postage!) and they send their gifts to us back with me (so it helps them be organized, too).

wow scout, i like your thinking.

mama, you keep the medal, if you look into my kitchen right now I would be disqualified and disinfected anyway.

Hello all! Oh no now I feel inferior as I don't have spreadsheets

I really should take the tree down, but I don't wanna

How is everyone?

Nice to see the Christmas Thread hasn't withered away and shrivelled up

I bought my money tin (£1 from the Range) on NYE to put my £2 coins in (I saved £200 last year in my £2 box, so hope to excell myself this year)

Also noting what I don't need to do next year:

Christmas Cake- only one slice got eaten (by me)
Magic Reindeer Food- it's sitting in a lump on the lawn

On a plus note:
the DCs loved the wrapping paper over the lounge door to 'burst' through. Might do that for birthdays as well

Christmas Eve Hampers -they loved the,the boxes were gorgeous. I meant to save them for next year but DD threw up on DS box so we had to bin it

LordOfTheFlies, it must have been you! Have you started the thread during December writing about the £200 in the money tin? I wanted to thank that person for the idea, but couldn't remember who it was. So if it was you, than big thank you As I said before, we got a tenner in it already. We can compare when we open them in December.

Don't do reindeer food, I got mine for a quid from a charity shop (I think it was British heart foundation). It contained oats and edible glitter and the reindeers have magically eaten it overnight swept away with brush for the birds to eat

Spreadsheets rock, I have one for virtually every walk of life [geek]

Mole, I clean your kitchen and you can clean my living room. Deal?

I'm very of those of you with spreadsheets but seem to be completely unable to manage them so I do lists......lots and lots and lots of lovely loooooong ones

Have not long been in from town where I got giftwrap for 40p from Wilko's for the kids presents & some more grown up stuff for grown up people. Am going to sit down tonight & go through last year's list for food & start crossing out bits that were wasted or could have done with a bit more of.

& sending dp to the bank at the weekend to open a savings account to put a fiver a week in which I'm hoping will cover stockings, food and 'other people'. Should easily do that plus more with a bit of careful planning.......

Love the idea of the wrapping paper to burst through on the door, that'll go on my list of things to do next year (think I have some of that extra wide paper lurking that didn't get used

Best feed the small 1 before she notices my attention is not 100% hers

Not long after moving here I did that £2 coin thing (I was, and still am, fascinated by £2 coins for some reason) and in six- to eight-months had over £120 worth. I splurged and bought craft supplies for myself (this was long pre-ToddlerScout now I'd probably buy him some books or new trains for his tracks). It might be an idea for me to do again I have £8 worth already just from yesterday and today....

Deal.

Thanks for the welcome

I'm feeling the need for spreadsheets now. (Will have to learn how to do them/use them first of course .

I too will not bother with christmas cake next year as hardly any has been eaten. I also still have lots of mincemeat left as, after having made one batch of mince pies, my mother declared my pastry as being "rather heavy". So being the adult that I am, rather than making any more, I sulked. But I can still use the mince next year, right?

Took the tree to the recycling centre this morning, twas very sad. On the plus side, I bought some lovely cheap ribbon in Wilkos ready for creative present wrapping next year, and I bought ds1 a baseball jacket which was on offer via Groupon! I also found a tin of Quality Street at the back of my wardrobe which I will try to save for next year (who am I kidding).

Put the tin of chocolate in with the decorations, you'll soon forget about them.

Ive just taken the tree down it looks so bare

Found a 25p pack of christmas cards yesterday!

mama any joy on the job front?
Hows things mole?
Barry eat the chocolates
Hi newbies

Woooooh Christmas smilies are still here

DD2 has pinched my stash of bows for next years presents and hidden them! Grrrrrrrr, they were the last on the shelf. Will have to keep an eye out for some nice ribbon now to make some with

Looks like we're stuck in for the day here so am going to start browsing online toy shops to bookmark some of the bigger stuff for the kids. DP just started new job so xmas will be mainly done by me this year. And I'm going to start looking for a recipe for a small & inexpensive xmas pud, dd1 was a bit put out we didn't make one this year because nana told her all about making them when she was little (thanks nana )

Woohoo to Christmas smileys I wonder if they will be gone tomorrow? Might aswell make the most of them while they are here.

No job, nothing in sight. If it wasn't for the money I could happily live indoors in joggers for the rest of my life

I am back to normal name, but not sure whether to change it or not. Everyone got used to calling me Mama, but there are so many Mama's around. Didn't think when I registered here. Thinking of SalamiPizza which makes sense when you know who I am in real life.