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 always get the twitch! I've been told there's no cure.

I obviously talk about Christmas a lot as my 3 year old keeps asking if we can go and buy a tree. It's my favourite day of the year. We go to a Christmas tree farm, drink mulled wine and pick a tree. This usually involves a tape measure and negotiations. Ds2 will be in a sling on my back, ds1 will be running around excited and we will take loads of photos. I really hope my kids remember it. We often take two cars and they drive home with daddy and I drive the tree home

That sounds idyllic, legz. I like the idea of going to get a real tree, but I do really like having a fake one in the house! And we don't have two cars.

We could do it in one, I just like a really big tree we have artificial trees too.

I strayed out of the usual blue fir and back firmly into childhood norway spruce last year and LOVED IT, I realised I had MISSED pine needle drop! I remember my own presents being under layers of pine needless!!

I also like the needles dropping, it's weird to like but hell, I do.

I love the scent of the trees.
Also I have seen lots of advertising for booking Christmas lunches and parties so it is not too early to be on this thread.

I've got a confession. In my dining room I have floor (almost) to ceiling units along one wall - I've had a Christmas garland running along the top of them all year. When we were putting the decs away we thought we'd leave it. No ones mentioned a thing!

I've got a confession. In my dining room I have floor (almost) to ceiling units along one wall - I've had a Christmas garland running along the top of them all year. When we were putting the decs away we thought we'd leave it. No ones mentioned a thing!

Btw, how are you getting your Santa faces??

I have a Snowman Snowglobe in my kitchen and a little The Snowman toy all year round for the past 10+ years.

They are part of the furniture so never get put away.

Santa faces:

(You do without any spaces)

[ f grin ] or [ f smile ] or [ f wink ]

111

Night all!

After a lovely relaxing (which is surprising with a 3yo) holiday with bloody lovely weather. I am now checking back in. Was slightly panicking as over spent on holiday by about £200, but then rang Npower as was told I was in credit. £229 winging its way back to my account. Phew!!

Anyway I feel need to start adding to my Xmas pile now. :)

Checking in on the new thread. DS goes back to school tomorrow - so I'll probably spend this week and next playing catch up on the housework that went to pot over the summer holidays and getting DD1 ready for uni. Once I'm back into a routine then I'll get cracking on soaking fruit for cakes.

I haven't made a Christmas cake in years. I don't like it or mince pies and my children can't have dairy. I made mince meat and gave it as gifts last year. Makes me sad not to be able to join in with that tradition!

Me and DD feel sooooo festive this morning... It's the first time we've woken up to properly cool, drizzly autumnal weather and there was so much Christmas in the shops yesterday! We've just spent a good hour or two looking through old Christmas photos and are desperate to do our annual 'sort-through' of the decoration cupboard, but we're forcing ourselves to hold off as that's a job we do in October.

In the past this coming week feels like a real start to the (long-term) run up because DD's back to school - this year she starts uni so won't be 'back' until the end of the month. I'm so glad she's just as excited for Christmas as she ever was though!

Anyway, the Christmas notebook is Go, and I've already done lots of food shopping, bought all the decs/crackers/lights/cards etc we need, and about 98% done gifts-wise. The start of September is a good time to take stock isn't it.

And my beloved Christmas UK goes full-tilt from the 16th

Mummy, my two are thankfully growing out of their lactose (DD) and cows' milk (DS) intolerances.

I love making mince pies. It's one of my Christmas traditions. It's the only thing I make my own pastry for! Just-Rol pastry is dairy-free though, which has been helpful.

My two don't have dairy because we are vegan - they never lack for cakes and cookies - I can veganise any sweet treat. I've got a huge board on Pinterest for dairy-free desserts etc. I am, however, trying to cut back on sugar. Maybe just have a December blowout though!
Hate mince pies and Xmas cake - don't like dried fruit at all. I think mince pies look very Xmassy though, so maybe I will find a filling we like and get to it this year. DS loves baking.

We bake a lot (big up stork!) but I dislike dried fruit so even though I could make a dairy free version there is little point as only Dh would eat it. I might make some mince pies with the boys for the grandparents.

Ds1 is 3 and had a year of eating dairy and we started off slowly and did the milk ladder. But, he had real problems controlling his asthma and eczema and bowels. So now he is almost 100% dairy free. No asthma meds and no eczema. And no accidents. We may start the milk ladder again and find where we can get to. I let him have the odd small chocolate or some yoghurt flakes once a week. Ds2 is 1 on Thursday. He will start the milk ladder in a few months. He couldn't tolerate nutramigen and reacted very badly on it but has no eczema or asthma. He is on neocate and I am really not sure how far we will get with him as he seems more sensitive. One day we will get back to dairy. One day!

My mum used to make me individual apple pies instead of mince pies. We might just do that :-)

We are going to make individual gingerbread houses using three oblong biscuits. I'll probably make them myself and then we can glue and ice them and stick the sweets on.

DS had Nutramigen. Grim stuff! He also has milk soy intolerance, but he copes with it OK.

He's up to chocolate on the milk ladder with stuff he knowingly eats. He won't touch yoghurt or cheese, but sometimes cheese gets sneaked into his scrambled egg (made with a dash of milk) and he will mostly eat it then (though sometimes refuses!).

I think he probably has grown out of it, but until he wil go near the next stages of the ladder it's hard to tell!

DS is just 2 and DD is just 3.

She was quicker to start having dairy but she just grew out of it more quickly. She does still have 50/50 normal / lactose free milk though and you can tell if she's had too much normal milk or ice cream as she won't poo for days! 🙉🙈🙊

Neither have eczema or asthma though, thankfully.

Why bother with dairy though? They really don't need it, and it is my opinion based on years of research that it is more detrimental to health than beneficial. My two are thriving without it, as are DH and I. nutritionfacts.org is a great resource.
There are so many alternatives now, easily available in the shops.

Because I want to! Same as you don't want to.

DS doesn't have much in his diet and he is thriving too, but I'm not going to intentionally narrow his options. I'd rather he was willing and able to eat it.