Come one, come all ,to the countdown to Christmas 2019 Thread 1

[Mrsmadevans]

Welcome to the first thread for the 2019 Christmas countdown m'dears

We’re in a village so we only have a few independent shops and then a Tesco express, which seems more expensive than Tesco. But we live on the Main Street in our village so we only have a little walk to the chippy which is all you can really want.

Ah that's good. We have a little village shop and a pub £££££

Our first batch is done!.

I don't find Sainsbury's that dear overly, not per kg when you look at pack size. Though they've done their usual new year price increases this year, but will then drop them a bit later in the year. I find their fruit and veg better quality and lasts longer too, which is important.

I'd hate to be in a village right now. I prefer access to amenities!

How old are you, Cathy?

Hi all,
Just a placeholder to come back to after going back to work - Christmas has been full on and I’m just trying to get sorted before normality strikes on monday (-and before a 60th party tonight, and a 10:30 am christening on the other side of the city tomorrow!).

I hope you all had a good festive season too.

And next, to start planning for 2019.....

We buy all our fruit and veg at the market, so much cheaper!

I'm sad I have to do this. It's the last day!
On the 12th day of Christmas I gladly give to thee.
12 drummers drumming
11 pipers piping
10 lords a leaping
9 ladies dancing
8 maids a milking
7 swans a swimming
6 geese a laying
5 golden rings
4 calling birds
3 french hens
2 turtle doves
and a partridge in a pear tree!!

Happy last day of Christmas!! Tomorrow is my oldest's 15th birthday LOL

Fluffy I hope your ds is ok and goes back to his own bed without any issues! I have about 8 hours of sleep and it was nice!

Crazy With the government shut down they don't move any large sums of money. Food Stamps is a federal program and only enough money to cover January was given out before the government shut down. This is a big reason people are so upset. Dump is claiming he's going to keep the government shut down for months or even years because he's throwing a fit like a bawling baby.

That is some GREAT huge snow!! I love your Christmas plate too! That makes me so happy.

Hi CishandFips Nice to have you here. Your name made me lol

PSB I wish we could overthrow him. Unfortunately there's all kind of BS legal channels. I honestly keep he'll fall and break his hip or something and not be able to be president anymore.

Cathy I hope you have a fantastic day baking! Those cupcakes look fantastic! I would love to eat one lol

We have no real plans for today. Usually on Saturdays my kids go to my parents. But we are having their birthday party tomorrow at my parents so I think we'll have a nice day at home and just relax. My oldest has decided she wants to have her hair dyed purple for her birthday so I'm looking up salons that do colors lol

Welcome back Biddy

Luckily I live about 15 mins from a town (Cwmbran) which has Asda, Sainsbury's, Morrison's, Aldi and Lidl and there's a Tesco in my town (about 5 - 10 mins away) so there's a lot of choice here.

I don't find Sainsbury's too expensive for food but I tend to go to the huge one in Newport and end up spending £££ on clothes and home stuff so we tend to do a mix of Aldi and Tesco for food.
I hate going to Asda as it's in town and a pain to park whereas all the others are set slightly back from town so it's easier.

I'm still sewing in ends on this bloody blanket 🙄

When I got to Sainsbury's I spend loads because I get carried away. I cannot he trusted

Be not he

Cross posted with you Wheels Happy last day of Christmas to you too 🎄

It's awful that someone who's so emotional has been given so much power. I was a big Obama fan even if I didn't agree with every decision he made - I always felt as though he was willing to work hard and at least try to be fair. Trump just seems to be like a stroppy teenager with no understanding of the impact is actions have on the people in his country!

I don't really understand the government shut down can you explain it to me as if you were talking to a five year old?! I think it's because I can't imagine anything like that happening here?

Biddy Welcome back!!

Crazy I miss Obama so much. He was so level headed not throwing fits on twitter. And you've nailed Trump spot on. He's like a teenager. :(

You at Sainsburys is how I am at Trader Joe's! We can only go every few months so I load up lol

Good luck getting your ends in. That's always the longest part for me of blankets

wreck I don't think I've heard of anything like the government shut down happening there?

A shutdown occurs when Congress and the president don't sign into law 12 bills (which decide spending for government agencies) in order for these agencies to continue getting funding.

Federal employees who's jobs aren't deemed vital? Aren't able to work during a shut down and no money is coming in or out because the idiots in charge didn't sign the bills. The government has shut down 20 times since 1976.

Honestly it's pretty much the president throwing a fit because he can't get his wall and refusing to sign anything until he gets his way and not caring who it harms.

Here's a pretty good list of what agencies are affected by the shut down
list

And are the bills something that need signing at the beginning of every year? And will teachers and bus drivers etc not get paid until it's sorted? Will they then be back paid? It's a disaster isn't it? I sometimes read pro trump comments on fb etc and find it really hard to fathom that people really think like that

Fluffy I’m only 24, so we’re extremely lucky. DH is a year older than me, we bought our home at 18. It was in a really bad way, everything needed to be replaced, leaks everywhere, just not nice. The only thing going for it was the place it was in. It was really cheap and we paid off a big % in the deposit, so we were able to keep our monthly pay quite low and we managed to pay everything off late last year.

wreck yeah the bills have to be signed every year as they decide how much money the agencies are going to get. So Trump can do this every year if he wants until he gets his way. Trump shut down the government three times last year. But at this time of year it's a bigger deal because those times it wasn't affecting the funding of everything.

Most of the people who aren't being paid honestly have no idea when they will get paid. They will (probably) but no one knows when. Teachers and bus drivers are paid by our local school systems. So they thankfully will still get paid.

Cathy That's awesome you've paid everything off!! That's one thing I loved about this house. It's ours outright with no payments so we have more money to set aside and hopefully do repairs and such

Wheelie. That's appalling!

Thanks wheely what a mess!

Wheely We are extremely lucky, before we had June our families really chipped in when it came to money as we were the first in our families to buy a home and go to uni. But when we had June they wanted us to make it by ourselves, we both have good paying jobs now, but have spent most of it on paying off our uni loans and the mortgage. It’s quite tight a lot of the time, but we both want to get all our debt out the way now so that when the kids get older we can do more.

I’ll have to talk to DH about the American government, he knows much more than I do. I’m just very confused with it all!. I just can’t believe that it’s got this bad.

Psb and Crazy It's a right mess for sure. This is what happens when you elect someone who doesn't know their arse from a hole in the ground to be in charge.

Cathy I totally get it on the debt! I keep trying to catch up but unfortunately we've got a lot of medical bills that are needing paying. Hopefully we get to the point soon we can pay off more. I hate knowing I owe money to all these places. Makes me feel wretched!

Final bakes of the day. Some old school puddings!

I've done another few hours at the allotment today. I ache and am knackered now!

I finished weeding the bit where my spring bulbs are, quite a few of which are through nicely now, but I'm hoping more come up as there's definitely not 500 through!

I've also finished off the membrane round the shed and the slate in between the shed and the composter. And also completed the membrane path ready for slabs and slate to go on.

I can rest a bit now as although there's still some weeds round and about, it's way better than it was!

A project for this year coming is to sort the back boundary and either clear the old fence (which you can see lying down) or re-use it and get it put back up across the back. I'll let DH decide as it's his territory! 😂

I need to do some baking tomorrow as I've bananas to use so will do more mini loaves and also more muffins for DD. I'll do more lemon drizzle loaves for DS. They do like a homemade cake in their lunch boxes!