Countdown to Christmas 2023: get past the post-Christmas slump by thinking about the next one! (Thread 1.)

[NoWordForFluffy]

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Morning (just)!

I failed at eating yesterday which meant I got blotto far too early and wasn't well. Oops! 🙈

But we had a great time anyway and I avoided having to tidy up!

Countdown to next year is go go go! 🎄🎅🏻🎄🎅🏻🎄🎅🏻

Hang on. You're in a 3 bed semi, aren't you??
E around here is a big 4 bed detached with a huge garden.
There's something wrong there. You need to find some similar properties (floor area and garden size) and use those as evidence of being put in the wrong band. Also - have you got local council elections coming up? Might be worth contacting your local councillor and asking them to raise it, before you email your MP.

Yep three bed semi (three floors but teeny tiny garden). New build estate - the detached houses here are a band G. I managed to find the value and put that into money saving expert which converted it into the supposed value in 1991 which would have us at a band D and that’s my first step so have submitted that. I’ll see what happens. My local MP is Gillian five houses, no free school meals, never experienced white privileged, votes against NHS pay rises Keegan unfortunately.

Not quite sure who the local councillor is as our postcode isn’t coming up on the district council website but can try and find out

puss your illness has really dragged on hasn't it? Really hope you're on the mend soon.

Wreck that council tax is extortionate!

I'm very pissed off. I've had a full on day at work and DH, in his infinite wisdom, decided it would be a good day to empty every drawer downstairs so when I came down to get half hour of peace before doing the jobs I had planned, the house looked like a bomb had hit it. And to top it off, he pointed me in the direction of a fucking mountain pile of random stuff that is mine for me to sort - AND HE'D PLACED IT WHERE I SIT.
I have exploded at him, spent time in the garden to chill out and retreated upstairs. I hate when he gets restless because it's school holidays.
He has a huge job list for these 2 weeks and funnily enough sorting the drawers wasn't on it 🤬😡

Sounds like you're married to my DH, Crazy.

At the moment he's specialising in winding DS up to the point of meltdown. Every. Fucking. Day. 🙄🤬

My patio is a bit lumpy. It could do with some levelling up.
Maybe we can start with Gillian-5-houses and top it off with some DHs?
Just need a small space for mine, he woke me up because he wanted , so like a knobber, I got up and made him one...then I carried on cross stitching from 4am. 🥱

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Hmmmm, I reckon my digger dog could assist, Puss! 🤔

I'd have been raging if my DH woke me up. You're a better person than I am.

I wouldn’t have been happy either! I woke dh up at about midnight as my sugar level was really low and I couldn’t face the two flights of stairs down to the kitchen. I think that’s reasonable though!

I’m taking the dc bowling this morning, I found a discount code online, it’s still expensive though.

Morning all, I have decided to finally show my face on the thread again 😳 I will try and catch up with what I've missed tonight.

We were supposed to be doing a portrait sitting of my DC and my DNs this morning, to try and get one photo of the four of them with them looking in the same direction, so obviously DS has woken up with heat rash all over his cheeks and chest 🙄Thankfully the photographer is absolutely lovely and has let me reschedule and just moved my deposit.

We're off to the local nature reserve to run around instead. Or we will be if DD ever agrees to put some clothes on!!!

Puss is your DH under the patio yet?

😁

She's waiting for me to appear!

Long working day today; only just finished. I'm off from tomorrow, so wanted to get two sets of court papers drafted. They're now with my supervisor for review.

It's a long weekend, she's been waiting so she isn't disturbed . Plus she's leaving room for Crazy's DH 🤭

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Remind me again why I've got 8 people coming for lunch on Easter Sunday 🐣

...the house looks like I've not cleaned it since the millennium 😖

He isn't, but I might be.

The telly has been on the blink for a couple of weeks or more, so I put my slipper down today and ordered a new one.
Then I had a fiddle around the back and adjusted the power lead...yeah, it seems fine now. 🤦‍♀️
I've not said anything yet...

Well fixed, Puss!

Tribe, I think you're mad! I'm cooking for 7 at some point though. Not quite as bad. 😁

I worked until gone 7, as I'm off til 17 April now. Hurrah!

DMIL is cooking for us on Sunday.

We've already decided to have Christmas dinner at ours this year. Now the extension is finished, we have the room to fit everyone in, I have a range cooker that will manage to feed 11+, and it means the kids don't have to leave their toys.

DSis has offered to do the cooking - she originally suggested hosting but her downstairs is made up of 4 separate rooms whereas we now have a very long living/dining/play room, so it makes more sense to have it here.

I'm usually organised early, but it's impressive even for me 😊

The most I've cooked for was 4 and that was stressful enough for me. I don't envy any of you!

I may have spoken too soon about the telly. It's had a hissy fit when I just turned it on to watch the news. Pity really, as I'm not cancelling the new one either way, but was going to swap this one for the smaller one that's upstairs in my sewing room. Oh well. 🤷‍♀️

Have you got much planned fluffy?

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Morning!

Shame the TV is still being awkward, Puss. If it's a loose connection or something, maybe it can be fixed?

We're going down south with Ddog to see Why and my parents. Not sure my mum is quite ready for a mad dog! 🙈🤣 Luckily they've a big garden he can play in.

Morning peeps

I think our patio needs jet washed , fortunately no-one needs buried under it (though DH was snoring so much last night I had to keep prodding him so he might've earned a place ......)

I've done Christmas Dinner for 8 before -6 adults , 2 DC . It takes planning , lists and work out your timings .
Get someone to set the table for you .

We're having late breakfast then dinner later . I;ve told DS that we're eating at the table , he looked at me like I;d suggested he lick piss off a nettle .
And he's having fish (more piss/nettle looks ) We're having Aldi Vegan fish bites .

Hope DDog behaves flufffy
pussycat enjoy the new telly

70 DH has been cleaning his patio this morning 😸

fluffy good luck with digger - I hope he copes with the car better than my cats...
@whydoesitalwayshappentome good luck 🤞 I hope your Mum has a stock of "treats" bribery for the pup and some 🍺for you and fluffy.

70 piss off a nettle?! That's a new one! <sobbing>

Whoever's patio has room, my DH is in desperate need of a place 🙄
Yesterday he announced we can work together on the job list over the BH weekend because he hasn't done as much as he'd hoped. Was told a swift no, he has 16 days off, I have a job list of my own and to bugger off.
Today he's asked for help, turned the conservatory into a junk room (sorting things out apparently) and is now cleaning windows.
He's huffed and puffed so loudly, presumably hoping that I'll help, that I've popped my headphones in and continued my potch around the garden <evil cackle>

We're not doing anything to celebrate Easter specifically, we're going to a gig instead (rescheduled from a month ago), although even if we do host for a special occasion, DH does the cooking.
I am an excellent table setter, drink pourer (ie drink & chatterer) and dishwasher stacker so put those skills to use instead

...there is a small corner of my patio reserved for your DH @CrazyBaubles especially if he empties one more drawer.
What you need is a big roll of black bin sacks and some scissors. Does he really need vinyl records? they're so 70s/2022

Haha puss. My parents are very unlikely to have any treats of any sort.

puss if he ends up under the patio, I'll have the record player and use it to play all the music he doesn't like. He's already having kittens that I bought a Taylor Swift album and was playing it on there the other day 😂

I've just put a roast on. I did venture into the conservatory but have retreated again because it's just too bad - think furniture pulled into the middle, table covered in random stuff, photo frames propped up waiting to be hung, and some things that were on the back of a chair that he's knocked onto the floor. Can't be arsed with that so I'm sitting down with a cake now 😋

How are you feeling today?

why I thought the best thing about seeing parents is that they keep a stock of treat things?
I'm not allowed cadburys fingers at home because I can't eat any less than a full box - but my mum always had a mini stash for when I pop up

Not in my parents house Crazy unfortunately. It is a very unique place to visit.