To tell you that it is only

[RabidEchidna]

307 days till Christmas

Do I have the record for the first Christmas thread of 2012?

C'mon Rabid chop chop.

How many days left huuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhh ???

ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE

I am going to try something different and see if I can make a tree today instead:

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Hope that works!! [Santa]

Oh, I give up!!

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The trees are looking good!

I think my DH might downplay as I get so ridiculously excited, he has to reign me in a bit! He did get really into the elf on the shelf last year.

limejelly where did you find the reindeer jumper?

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Ladies: do you have a set Christmas dinner menu you have every year, or do you like to make new things?

We do pretty much the same menu (DH and I are vegetarian but DC eat chicken. We have a Quorn Roast and all the trimmings).

I do buy Christmas magazines but I shudder at the thought of changing my menu to anything modern and fangled.

The only changes this year is I won't make a Christmas Cake (only I are it.And that was just one slice)

We do Christmas Traditions - Christmas Eve is fish fingers for DC, vegetable grills for DH and I, chips,salad and trifle.

But I want to cook things I know, so I spend hours pottering around on Christmas morning (about 3 hours to cook a meal that is scoffed in 35 minutes last year) C'est la vie

Only 197 days!
I joined the Christmas craft thread only last week, actually But I'm 'late' with Christmas compared to some, would add, with tree and decorations not going up until the 23rd of Dec.

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[Squee!]

I got confirmation on my sister, her 3 children, her husband and my Nan, so there will be 11 of us all together, although one of those will only be weeks old so wont require a seat at the dinner table.
I still have no clue how I'm getting 10 people round the dinner table but we'll squeeze I'm sure.

I haven't brought any presents yet but I have lists of ideas I have had, otherwise I'll forget and come closer to the time I won't have a clue what to get anyone.

Dinner is usually the same,

Turkey
Chicken for BIL
Roast Potatoes
Glazed Parsnips
Sprouts with chestnuts and bacon
Red cabbage (for my sister)
Broccoli and Carrots (steamed for DS2)
Wintertime stuffing
Citrus sausage stuffing
Pigs in blankets
Gravy
Bread Sauce
Cranberry Sauce

A selection of desserts including a Pavlova for my Nan (the woman is in her late 90's and can eat a whole one!)
Something chocolatey for DP and a trifle for the kids.

We are always stuffed over Xmas, the last day of school the bowls of sweets come out and are dotted round the house.
We have tons of lights and decs everywhere, a real overboard celebration in the BumSquash household :o
DP joins in as much as anyone he has no choice although he is terrible at shopping and flaps around for weeks before dashing to the place I originally told him to go.

70's, that is a far better effort than mine. Lovely!!

Dinner, when we stay put and cater for ourselves, is relatively similar year on year. Turkey (we tried pheasant one year, went straight back to turkey), roast potatoes, sausage stuffing, brussels sprouts, proper gravy, 1 other veg (well, maybe a stir fry mix, and glazed carrots/parsnips - depends on what I have manged to grow that I REALLY want for Christmas, and whatever else we feel like).

It's usually only the 3 of us when we are cooking though (miles away from the rest). And neither Mum nor MIL really wants help in the kitchen when they are cooking - but then it's a full 3/4/5 courses and belts opened before main course is finished.

We don't tend to do starter as we have nibbles while opening presents.

We usually have pudding, but we don't tend to do any other desert.

We keep buying cheese, and forgetting to put it out (we eat it other days instead - we actually love cheese in our house). And I like, if I remember it, to have a french coffee with a few orangette chocs, later in the evening once DD is in bed.

titsalina it's going to be great fun round yours at Xmas! I think having all those people will be great.

I think I will just try to keep dinner quite traditional too. I really want to make a christmas cake, never done it before. Should I do I a few months in advance? Also do you make mincemeat in advance too? June is prob a bit early though!?

I can't do big family Christmases as if I had to spend any amount of time with both my family and dh's family at the same time I'd kill them all. So we visit dh's family on Christmas Eve and my family on Boxing day.

As for a Christmas menu - that's all up to dh as the cook of the house. He tends to do a great big version of his normal roast and as there has only been the two of us for five or so years there's no point doing a big feast, hopefully ds will actually be eating properly this year so there will be three! I never even had any Christmas decorations until ds was born IMO Christmas is all about the kids which is why I'm trying to make it special now.

My lights arrived and dh said they're really naff which is true but they're also filthy and require a new plug so I think he's just moody that it will be his job to fix them up

I've got most of ds's presents already - picked up a car play mat/rug in Ikea last week to add to the pile. I mostly just need to sort out his stocking now.

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194 people one hundred and ninety-four

Getting too excited are we RabidAnchovy :P

193 now it is 193

Ooh hello fellow Christmas lovers - can I join? I bought my first Christmas presents last week - a mini hexbug set for ds and a megablocks dora set for dd .

We will probably go to my parents for Christmas but we'll do the meal; chicken / quorn and all the trimmings. this is because we used to take turns going here or to pil until they totally blew us out one year to go to favourite sons instead

Welcome Wendy

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