To tell you that it is only

[RabidEchidna]

307 days till Christmas

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

105

I bought Christmas Baubles from Costco- beautiful hand decorated glass (they are about £12 = VAT) so work out about £1.20 each.

^Jolly Old St Nicholas, lean your ear this way,
Don't you tell a single soul what I'm going to say.
Christmas Eve is drawing near, so you dear old man
Whisper what you'll bring to me, Tell me if you can^

Sang tunefully with gusto

Christmas chocolates in Tesco

15wks 1 day to go

I'm really excited! DH told me about some news that there has been a new monopoly game made in the theme of Alan Turing! DH is really fascinated by him. We've agreed to order the game. I went on the Bletchley park site to order it and they do gift packs with tickets! I might order that (and one of the 'enigma' T-shirts) for DH :o we've not been able to do any day trips for ages but hopefully by Xmas his back will be all better and he will really love to go there (2.5hr train journey though!)

104

I'm so jealous I've never heard of Costco or Lakeland. I dont think there are any in Scotland, or not in my part - only torsos and there is a ridiculous amount of them!

fuzz will you get Christmas day off even without using annual leave?

Do you all put lights/decs up in your garden? Geoupon has an offer on led solar lights, could I use these during winter? Anyone seen any bargains?

We were away over the weekend (Donegal) and I got 20 minutes in the shops there. And found the first Christmas stuff of the year!! It was a lovely craft shop (pottery, handmade clothes, knick knacks etc - not things to make your own crafts), and I not only bought myself a lovely hat to wear with my good winter coat, I found some lovely Christmas decorations and wee jugs with puddings or holly on them. I only bought 1 wee jug (to use for cream), but the decorations were lovely and not "standardised" merchandise.

I need to get my organising hat back on this week now. I have been lax over the past 2 weeks (outdoors and living room) but luckily the hall is easy so I can catch up (cleaning plan). And I can get moving on the purchasing and organising again too as it should be a relatively quiet week and weekend. My intentions are to make 5 more cards, finish off the lists and hopefully pick up 1 more present at least.

And MAKE the siblings decide what they are doing about KK draw. Mum did it with myself and 1 other sis in late July, and it was all agreed. (I hadn't been able to use the nice bag I'd already bought, but I knew I could give it to SIL instead if that happened). But now the OTHER sibs think that Significant Others (i.e. DH and possibly DBro's fiancee getting married in May, but probably not the other 2 fiance(e)s or the long term boyfriend of a 3rd sis) should be included too, and it is all getting messy. I had already started purchasing for my person. Grrrrrrrrrr!!!!

I've got a potted Christmas tree (bought it maybe 4 years ago)
It wears blue solar lights all the year round because it doesn't want to be naked.

I put it on the garden table outside the kitchen window so I can admire it. All it needs is some weatherproof decorations.

103

Ooh almost at 100!!

Well DH has caught the Christmas bug, and we have sorted what we are getting for dcs main present. We were also arguing about what lights to get for outside, he doesn't seem to agree that we need multi coloured fairy lights and a giant snowman for the garden. He wants to have tasteful white lights - bah humbug! . I think I am getting too carried away looking on amazon Christmas pages.

I've brought ds' main present, and have half if not nearly done on dds stocking, a few bits for ds, and dc3 due in december.

I've also been looking at christmas table cloths in dunelm

I was bold and wandered into the "Christmas Market" of the posh dept store near me at work this lunchtime...oh, I could Poncetastic there!! I spotted a few things for putting together the German "Bride's Box" that I am working on (I had been going to get real pine cones in the forest near me and spray them gold, thread a ribbon through, but they have beautiful glass ones that I may be tempted by). I have a bro getting married next year, antoher bro and a sis engaged, and another sis and SIL both looking like they could get engaged and married in short order. I have a few heirloom decs for 3 sets, and I am trying to gather together things like a fish, fruit basket, flower basket and house as the more tricky ones. (I may get personalised houses done for each). So I need 1 set this year (well, get them this year as the wedding is in May), and am trying to have at least 2 more sorted for whenever they are needed.

I could also be tempted by a few things for our own tree and house. I may have to drink a lot of coffee in the next few weeks to make myself go back in (the Christmas section is up high, beside the Nespresso bar to get my refill pods). And the nice ones always disappear pretty quickly there.

Must ponder my list again tonight.

102

70 thats a great idea.
I want a tree outside my kitchen window. I am soooo going to do that.
Is it too early to do it today ?

We have got the joint main present too (playmobil castle - I won DH round, he wanted the pirate stuff but we've agreed to get that next year :o)

DD (5) is mostly done but DS (just turned 3) has barely got anything of his own! He's got loads of cars, trains, dinosaurs, happyland, bricks/duplo... am totally stumped! Just want a few stocking fillers (but long lasting stuff IYSWIM as I hate party bag tat! ) and one main thing to open for about £15-30...

101

rabid you'll have to stay up tonight
this is getting exciting !!!!

We're almost into double digits!! Woo Hoo!!

note to self: Get the finger out this weekend and get cracking on the long list of "to do"s

Have done lots of my shopping now!

So excited, the playmobil should arrive next week (goodness knows where we will put it!)

DH has his operation a week today so won't be doing much Christmassy stuff for a while but thanks to the Internet I will still be able to plan a bit!

Sorry buzzgirly didn't see your question to me - yes, I get a few days off anyway, and our hours tend to be reduced a bit between Xmas and new year to make it fair on everyone. So it's not too bad really :) it would've been nice to have more time off to get festive but I am saving my leave for after new year as I will need a break by then if I'm not better.

100

100! Double figures tomorrow! 2 months until ds3 is due too!
I'm celebrating by doing a Phoenix trading Christmas order and eating a mince pie...I'm not even kidding 82p for 6 luxury mince pies in Sainsburys. No one in RL dare tell me I'm strange as they fear my heavily pregnant hard stare!