Countdown to Christmas 2024: And So We Begin (Thread 1)

[NoWordForFluffy]

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It's a leap year next year, so an extra day to wait!

I've ordered 120 baubles today, as WeRChristmas sent me a 50% code for today only. Annoyingly I could get our new tree way cheaper today! 😭

I'm exhausted now I've finally had time to sit and relax. Tomorrow is a chill day.

338 Afternoon. Storm has hopefully passed now - my bird feeders were on the lawn and a few pots have been blown around but nothing too bad here. It sounded bloody awful though.

Wreck it never rains but it pours when it comes to expenses does it?
Hope you can find a cooker on sale or something.

I'm supposed to be going to out for tea with a friend who hasn't been well but I'm really not in the mood. I'm so so tired due to being woken by both tooth pain and storm noise 😴

Have you got a date for the tooth work yet, Meeces?

I actually slept through the wind last night. Benefit of being ill is that I couldn't have stayed awake if I'd tried! Though I did wake up sweating loads at some point. DH said it was the illness, not our warm room for a change! 🤒 🥵

Wreck, that's annoying re the cooker. I'm surprised your house didn't come with appliances though, as most new builds do. Seems rather tight not to have included them really.

I'm amazed I've not heard about more damage round these parts given how strong the wind was last night. Maybe it all fell apart last time so there was nothing left to damage! DH knocked on a neighbour's door to make sure they knew about damage he spotted after the last winds.

No appliances in HA houses. It’s extra annoying as we want to buy in a few years so would have liked the old one to continue a bit longer! We popped into curry’s and they had a grand total of zero available to take away.

Meeces tooth ache is the worst I feel for you.

337

I've had to cancel my dentist appointment for this week as I've developed a very attractive cold sore 😢 I look as if I've overdone the filler on one side of my top lip.

Good morning!

Battening down the hatches here - Storm Jocelyn is on the way now. Its blustery, grey and miserable and thoroughly depressing.

However...I found a box of After Eights!

<passes them round>

I'll take an after eight please MrsD

Fluffy I have an appointment next week for part 1 of treatment and another a week later for part 2. Will be glad to get it done but am dreading it at the same time because I know how much it's going to hurt.

Wreck any luck with a cooker?

Today is a disaster, my bop is randomly high, I have a headache and feel exhausted even though I slept fine.
Battling to log off time then going to put a cold mask on my face and lie in the dark for an hour listening to the wind which is already howling here.

We’ve got a cooker coming Friday. Resent spending money on one!

I didn’t sleep well at all, woke at 2am and that was it.

Buck that’s really rubbish. Actually I have the dentist on Monday, think I need to rearrange as I’m working.

Meeces hope it’s not too high? Would certainly cause a headache.

Ooh I do like After 8's 😋 neglected to buy any this year though. I realised I forgot matchmakers too 🤷‍♀️

I've been baking this afternoon for dd1's 17th on Thursday, and uploaded a few more things to Vinted, while I had a brew with my bestie.

Doing nothing else for the evening. Cold, wet, and miserable outside & I feel like I'm coming down with a cold 🙄

After Eights you say ....... ours are long gone
Not impressed by the Matchmakers this year , funny taste like plaster (not that I go round licking plaster you understand )

Wreck I suffer high bp but it's usually well controlled. Is def up today for some reason, and I've had a nosebleed which makes the headache worse. I feel in the wars 😩
I hope the cooker wasn't too £££. Is it a freestanding cooker and oven or just a hob?

You weren't missing anything with the Matchmakers lucysmam. As 70 said, I'm not sure what they've done to them but they were gross different last year

When I went out yesterday, it was with a friend I haven't seen since November as she's been very ill (didn't want to risk infection etc).
Anyway, we exchanged Christmas presents and for me, she literally went for a Christmas theme so I had an adult Christmas colouring book, a Christmas tin, a small decoration and a mini stocking with my initial on containing sweets and chocolates. Was a very nice surprise.

Oh yes, Matchmakers were bloody awful. I concur!

Meeces, you're in the wars. Hope all is well soon. Sounds like a lovely evening / present last night though.

I feel absolutely rotten today. Took myself off to the GP: viral. 🙄 God knows why I bloody bothered really.

It's sodding windy here again. Bit bored of these named storms now.

Fluffy there's a d&v bug doing the rounds at work, and a fluey...thing 🙄 Several staff off sick. Rubbish all round.

I'm eating a block of marzipan I discovered while looking for the block of red icing I was sure I had. I don't have red icing, I used it on dd2's birthday cake last month 🙈

336

My DS is feeling ropey - headache, hot, feels sick but not been sick, achey
He;s resting with water and paracetamol in the dark
I await The Dressing Gown of Doom ......

First Rudolph Day of 2024 tomorrow
I might celebrate by cooking some chocolate chip cookies after work

Has he got a cough, 70? That's how I'm feeling too. Plus a sore throat. My head is pounding today and has been impervious to painkillers. 😩😩

I shall celebrate Ruldolph Day with a steroid injection into my wrist. 🤢

Lucysmam, did you locate more icing for the cake? I'm not a marzipan fan, it has to be said. I have been to the marzipan museum in Tallinn though. Obvs! 🤣

70, that sounds like whatever delight 3/4 of us at work have <cough>. I have deployed my fluffy, hedgehog covered, giant hoodie 🤣

Fluffy, no, I came up with a new plan instead. Didn't fancy tootling to town just for a block of icing. I'll post a pic tomorrow when it's assembled.

I've lost the thin red ribbon I wanted to use for the ornaments I've painted 🙄 I remember seeing it recently...not a clue where. & I'm still waiting for an amazon delivery that's coming today any time up to 8pm.

Rudolph day this month is taken up by birthday celebrations for us 🥳

335

Afternoon!

I'm on the train back from my wrist injection. Which was a little bit grim when the needle went in, but OK. I may have stopped for a couple of pints before getting the train home I may also need a wee now!

If the results are as good as it feels right now, it's promising. I'm without pain for the first time in ages in the wrist. It's probably the anaesthetic though!

Rather damp here now. But at least the wind has dropped.

Nothing Christmassy done today here, mind. Happy Rudolph Day!

Fingers crossed the injection carries on doing the trick Fluffy!

Happy Rudolph Day all, I just told my DD (12) about rudolph day and she rolled her eyes and said sarcastically "are you going to start the christmas cake then". I didn't think I was that bad (but I am just secretly opening a box of sale xmas baubles that I bought 😂)

Hmm, well, birthday has been a bit of a disaster - crocs a size too small after following their destructions to size down (already on their way back), last present still not delivered, piercing place not replied about booking 🙈.

Dd2 picked plenty of random gifts that dd1's happy with though & she had fun squeezing Taylor Swift references (there are a few) out of her birthday cake 🤣 & laughing at my random finds.

Pic attached of cake 🎂

I love the Merry Birthday cake sign Lucysmam

Hope the injection helps Fluffy

I lost a chunk of today to a migraine so I'm only now able to look at screens (on as dim as they'll go). Can 100% blame this one on hormones.

I'm having a little look through my Pinterest Christmas craft board and try and decide what to work on next. I need to use a lot of yarn this year so I'm thinking of making a blanket. That will be my nod to Rudolph Day

Love the cake @lucysmam

334

Morning!

Great cake, Lucysmam! DS had a Christmas-themed cake a few years ago (July!).

Windy here again overnight. And thanks to the ongoing bin (lack of) collection saga, there's now recyclable waste strewn all over the place. I just got a bin bag's worth which had gathered by our garage door, so that's now in the general waste bin as I've no clue whose brown bin it came from and ours is very full indeed. 🤷‍♀️

Thank god it's Friday. I plan to do very little this weekend.

Morning. Was windy overnight here too.
My neighbours think it's terrible that we don't put our bins out the night before but when I put them out this morning, a few of them were out pulling up their fallen over bins and gathering up recycling that had blown over the road...

My plans are similar to yours this weekend Fluffy. I cleaned most of the house on Wednesday and DH did the rest while I was in bed yesterday so housework will be minimal.
My to do list is basically empty the wash basket (2 loads) and move the contents of the cabinet on the landing into the new ottoman so the cabinet can be collected and the ottoman put in its place.
If I can be arsed I may throw some seeds in the propagator, and I'm doing a sauna and cold dip thing which we'll walk to.
Apart from that it's resting and crafting mostly.

Lovely cake @lucysmam

I bake cakes twice a year only - one for each DC. I’m awful, and they never turn out as I would like. I’ll be attempting my first of the year next weekend - I suggested buying a cake for DD this year. She said she loves it when I make them. It must be due to the tradition, it’s definitely not due to the flavour or design 🤣 she wants a bug cake. I’ll be attempting bugs made out of fondant icing (snails, beetles, worms). Oreo biscuit for mud. On top of a Victoria Sponge. Each year I have a grand plan, carefully selected google cakes to aim for. Then my cakes stay like pancakes and there’s barely space for much on it either. We’ll see!

I've never heard of Rudolph Day before 🦌

Excellent cake! Dd was desperate for TS tickets but we never got a code 😞

Busy day of appointments for dd including opticians so new glasses purchased.

New cooker delivered, just need to get it wired in which fil will do later.