Countdown to 2016 - A whole extra day to wait...thread 2!

[MrsDilligaf]

Well hello avid countdowners....

A shiny new thread for us

Link to the last thread here

I try to buy the Christmas shaped crumpets in Asda for Christmas breakfast, but no one likes them apart from me. This year it will probably be pain au chocolat, with chocolate on the side!

Another, slight, obsession I have is finding the perfect chocolate decorations for the tree. They have to be bauble shaped.

Glad that you are all ok Mrs D

Oh no MrsD, glad all ok though, I'm sure you'll have thought of this but make sure you claim for a new car seat on your insurance.

Breakfast on Christmas Day, I don't plan anything nice, I tend to eat biscuits/chocolate and toast. We eat Christmas dinner around 12:30 to 13:00 though.

Woolly That's exactly what DH said. It's just metal!

Blue I wonder if there is some pretty way to hang the Lindor chocolate ball things on the tree? They might work? Or maybe Ferrero Rocher? I HATE lindor chocolate but my Aunt gets me some every year. DH is very happy to eat them though

Ratbag DH (aka the Google King) was banging on the door of mothercare this morning to get the same car seat and has done exactly as you said, I wouldn't have thought of it.

Now because I was in a big not big in the slightest crash I needed comfort food today. ALDI have a Sticky Toffee Pudding which is abso-bloody-lutely delightful. So delightful, that I am considering having one of those instead of a Christmas Pud.

Ooh Mrs D , what a horrible experience.
Hope it gets sorted out and you're back behind the wheel soon.
Martha being ok (and you of course) is the main thing, cars are replaceable.

I had a bump (car came out of a side road) when DS was 2yo and I was 5 months pg with DD. She's 14yo now. DS doesn't remember it, too little. I can now drive down that road without the shivers.

Blue IIRC Costco sell round bauble shaped chocolate tree decorations (huge bag, they're hollow, about squash ball sized) . I haven't tried them but 99.9% of Costco things are good.

When my DC were little I put some Cadbury tree decorations on the garland on the bannister. DS was coaching his younger sister in how to open the wrapper, eat the chocolate and leave the empty wrapper hanging

And she'll never know

DS:- I knew

Mumsnet hates me today

Why Mummy what have you been up to ? [f nosy emoticon]

Can't be any worse than the threads kicking off on AIBU !

For Christmas Morning Breakfast - if its a full house then its a Full Breakfast (sausage,bacon, eggs,beans,toast) for the Non vegetarians.
Beans,eggs,mushrooms,toast,potato scones for the vegetarians.

I don't eat bread (so no toast) and very limited wheat/dairy (I do for special occasions and hope I don't regret it later)

I want (in my mind, not IRL) to go to Costco on Christmas Eve to buy almond croissants and one of those patisserie round things with the vanilla middle bit. But I'm not completely barmy

It won't let me tell you we will be stuffing cinnamon rolls and show you a bit of Costco bkrwising! 6th attempt.

When are Costco going to open up in Ireland? It seems like a magical world of wonder!

89

There were so many lovely things to look at, gifts, toys, decorations, wrapping and treats. Dh is getting down the wrapping box before I'm allowed one of the 36m rolls and some other bits!

MrsD my mum does the Lindor thing by tying cotton onto them, and I am too lazy to do that

Note to self, must find nearest cost cutter.

More Christmas stuff has been added to the John Lewis website, and Next have added theirs. Apologies if these have already been mentioned, as I am skimming!

MrsD one more car seat thing (and then I'll shut up) before the car seat that was in the crash gets taken to the tip, please absolutely destroy it, cut the seatbelt straps and slash the fabric. Lots of people pick stuff up from the tip and sell it on. Id hate someone to buy a second hand one (esp if it looks amazing) and not realise it's been in a crash.

Anyway back to te Xmas stuff, I am now all sorted for my baby sale on Saturday, dd (3.5) has room for the influx of stuff that will no doubt be on its way. I'm also clearing some of the loft in a couple of weeks as dh rudely has buried my Xmas tub!!

I've bought soap making materials! First step towards home made presents.

Ratbag you're right - I said to DH that as well as cutting the straps that we needed to slash the seat fabric. It will pain me to do it but god forbid anyone picked it up thinking it was okay. I just wish there was someway to recycle the materials rather than just becoming landfill!

70 I would love to be a fly on the wall in Costco on Christmas Eve. It'll either be complete chaos or dead. I dare you to go

And now I'm off to AIBU to have a look at the fighting!

Christmas Eve we always have a family meal with part of my family so I've never seen Christmas Eve chaos. I'm always intrigued to see what's going on!

MrsD, I hope you are feeling ok after that drama, and BabyD too.

70s The Good Homes Christmas Special is out - I bought it at lunchbreak! But no others were on the shelves yet, apart from the Prima Makes special (at €20!! - thta's too steep for me, even froo a Christmas mag!). I have a stash of Good Homes, Good Housekeeping, W&H and Prima Christmas Specials, some going ack as far as 1999, and they do have a sense of familiarity but I still cannot resist the new ones. I must restrain myself though until tomorrow night (when DH is away) before getting into it!

I also bought DH's present today, a lovely jumper and scarf that match the new jacket he bought himself as he is travelling so much (they don't have to be worn together, but the colours meant hat they can be).

I'd better get on witht eh load on my desk though - and my computer is acting up something awful so apols for all the typos!

Another though (car seat related) if the covers are removable put them on eBay, I've always tried to have a set of extra car seat covers. You may find someone is prepared to pay £10-£20 for them and the bonus is the car seat goes to the tip with no cover and slashed harness.

88

I'm in full December organising mode. When I see my mum at the weekend we will book our trip to see the garden centre grotto and local national trust. I'm going to make gin this afternoon and I might even put a Christmas song or two on while I do it. Just to get a bit more spirit.

We just have eggs and ham on christmas morning, with pickles - I think it might be a northern thing from my grandmothers family in Durham? possibly IDK we have always done it!

I think we had a discussion about the ham and pickles last year. Was there someone who had a porked pie?

I just went for a quick look in Poundland on my way to Sainsbury's and managed to spend £30 on Christmas bath stuff. FFS. I didn't think it was even possible to spend 30 quid in Poundland.

In my defence however they do have nice looking Christmassy things for the bath and I buy for a lot of cousins' children/friends' children so I did a job lot in one go. Thought they would do ok as little extras. I usually give them a present and then add some sweets or chocolate into the box when I post but I thought I would add these instead this time as they're getting older now. Just as long as they don't try to eat them.

Hope you've recovered now MrsD - you might, I don't know, need a Christmassy themed Baileys or something for the shock?

About the breakfast thing, we usually have pastries or something on Christmas morning as the kids have absolutely no interest in sitting and eating. But on December 1st, I do a special breakfast to mark the start of advent. We have done the ASDA crumpet thing in the past but they weren't too keen on those. I decorated them with red and green M&Ms to make them look more like Christmas trees. They liked eating the 'baubles' but not the actual crumpets so last year I just made toast and used Christmas-themed cutters to make them look Christmassy. I also do hot chocolate with cream, marshmallows and sprinkles. One year I made 'candy canes' out of slices of bananas and strawberries. Another year then they were really into Frozen, I made Frozen-themed popcorn balls. Don't know yet what I will do this year, will have to get my thinking hat on.

We also dont have breakfast till after church, so 11ish, then Christmas dinner is served between 3 and 4, so I suppose it's more of a brunch than a breakfast!

We usually cook some nice JusRol croissants, with lovely bitter marmalade for me and strawberry jam for DD (DH eats them plain), freshly squeezed orange juice and fresh coffee. There are so many nibbles available in every house we visit that we don't want to go overboard (and we have 2 dinners when we travel anyway - a lunch and a dinner, both turkey and ALL the trimmings). I want to have some fresh fruit this year, and also try to figure out a way to only have 1 big meal on travelling years.....although, after 16 years of marriage, that might be hard to change.

I spent some time this morning printing off the Holiday Grand Plan sheets, as I think I need to go back to what I know this year - I was trying out the Houseworks Holiday Plan but life is too hectic to introduce other changes this year. That said - I have fully completed the master bedroom and haven't done dreadfully badly on getting some additional deep cleaning jobs done.