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.

Went into town for a nice lunch with my friend and her ds today, and nipped in The Works for some new paintbrushes. I picked these up for £1.50 each & am now kicking myself for not getting a second of each 🙈.

They are lovely Lucysmam

They are lovely @lucysmam Are you planning to decorate them?

@TheBucktoothedGirlFromLuxembourg I think I'll paint the houses like gingerbread maybe...not a clue what direction the tree will take yet.

I can't wait to see the finished results, @llucysmam

We had a very busy day. All christmas decorations came down this afternoon. Everything was boxed and taken back to the attic. Our tree is snow flocked, and we spent a solid 40 minutes vacuuming absolutely everywhere after dismantling and then hauling the tree up the attic. The artificial snow went everywhere!

We had our New years Day roast this evening. No one was home to eat New years Day, so we postponed the roast.

One of the 'chikdren's' stockings has given up the ghost so I got X2 new ones for next year and hopefully until the end of their stocking days

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I'm on with dismantling the tree this morning. I've taken everything off it & it looks sad and small now, sat in the corner with no sparkle 😢

Just stopped for a break before I bring the decoration boxes down for a sort through & then take apart the actual tree.

I have decided on this year's colour though (white/silver, I think), and that we need some new tinsel.

Happy New Year everyone.

I’m finally getting over covid, although day 7 of positive tests so haven’t been out anywhere. Offered to make wfh DH a cup of tea and a gingerbread, then realised we have no milk!
Taking the decorations and trees down today, they’ve been up since 18th November. I’m still enjoying them 🎄 As I’ve been ill for such a large amount of the holidays, I’m feeling quite sad about packing it all away. DC still off school until Tuesday, so failing miserably at having a fun time off school. Can’t be helped.

That's it, all down & boxes upstairs ready for the loft. There are more delicate baubles than I thought - they're currently in a small bag but overflowing so need to find a way to store them that they won't get broken. Any suggestions? The tree's sat in the middle of the floor too - need a hand to move it upstairs, it's heavy!.

I've re-jigged one of the bookshelves too, put my new books on there, and had a sort out of randomness I'd put with my craft stash.

Furniture to move out and mop underneath/behind tomorrow, and a few bits still to put away but I'm going to wash up brunch pots & finish off my peg people this afternoon 😊

We have a load of large Really Useful boxes. They aren't the decoration ones, but I think they do exist. We just keep ours in either the boxes they came in (John Lewis) or in shoe boxes with tissue paper, then they're put into the big box.

Lucysmam my delicate baubles are kept in a sturdy cardboard box (the one from the satchel I bought DH when he graduated I think). I put bubble wrap on the bottom, wrap them in tissue paper and squeeze them in. That box then goes into a plastic box along with any baubles that get put back in their original boxes, and a shoebox for any non sentimental or delicate ones.
Pretty sure I also have a sturdy bottle gift box that looks like a post box that holds a few of the bigger glass ones.

Ideally I'd like a proper baubles storage box but they always seem £££.

Work has been mad today so I'm only now breaking for lunch.

Having a dental nightmare as I need treatment but struggling to find anyone that can do it without bankrupting me but I don't want to deal with the waiting times with my NHS dentist. And while I'm trying to sort this out I'm in pain and it's making me miserable and snappy poor DH

@NoCheesesForUsMeeces you have my sympathy, toothache is rubbish. I'm having a wisdom tooth out soon - it's root has grown funny & it's now causing trouble every now and again. Would have happened sooner or later but the timing's not brilliant & means 3 weeks off one of my meds 🙄

Thanks for the storage suggestions - I have some bubble wrap upstairs and think I have a large, fairly flat, box that they should fit in they're still staring at me from where I left them earlier on

@lucysmam

That's it, all down & boxes upstairs ready for the loft. There are more delicate baubles than I thought - they're currently in a small bag but overflowing so need to find a way to store them that they won't get broken. Any suggestions ?

Years ago (I'm talking 1990's ) we bought two suitcases from Woolworths in the sale , our delicate baubles go in there with layers of bubblewrap in between . Can store loads and we know what's in them so they don't get moved or stacked up .
In the Toddler DS years and Toddler DD years they stayed in the cases . Then we used and admired them . I bought a new set every year from Costco to add . Some got broken some got moved to another room .
Now we have The Cats Years they haven't been used as the moggies are little vandals !
I'm going to give some to my DC when they leave home

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No Bum Vases here

Everything was ready to go up in the attic but our FemaleCat had bagsied one of the Christmas cushions and wouldn't shift - she's not the sort of cat that you want to try making her do something she doesn't want to ....could lose skin that way .

I was looking at what food we had left -
Christmas pudding
Some Sticky Toffee Puddings (frozen)
A panatonne

We ate the rest of the sprouts , roasted them , bloody lush !

We are also still currently working away through christmas food.
We have about 5 tubs of chocolate left, gingerbread men, and pringles (these we're slowly making our way through), and our fridgefreezer is still full of christmas delights
We finished off the beef dripping Yorkshire puds off with round 2 of beef dinner this evening. Tomorrow, I plan on using up the pack of streaky bacon I never knew I had 😅 I wrongly assumed asda had substituted my streaky bacon for back bacon so on Christmas eve I made my way to the local londis slating asda for their incompetence to buy some streaky bacon for the turkey and pigs in blankets only to realise on boxing day that I actually did have streaky bacon and forgot that I had also purchased back bacon 🤦‍♀️
Tomorrow's dinner homemade pigs in blankets, chips, gravy and leftover brocoli, carrots, and stuffing.

I have half a jar of apricot jam that I used on the cake , so I need to eat that with toast . It's a jar of Hartleys , not as nice as Bonne Maman but I'll cope

@NoCheesesForUsMeeces hope your tooth feeling better, toothache is so awful, @lucysmam I'm using empty choc tubs for the delicate baubles (they dont fit much in but we had a LOT of choc tubs 😂) Diet starts Monday Gah. Happy weekend everyone. Feeling like I should buy some bum vases.

We don’t have any Christmas food left as we didn’t buy much.

meeces sorry about your dental issue it’s a complete nightmare and so expensive. Awful.

I’ve been to the gym need to put some washing on, maybe cry in the shower and make some soup for lunch (parsnip I think) 🤣

Meeces, what a nightmare. What's the difference in cost between private and NHS? Does your dentist have any creative ideas for payment plans or anything?

We still have cheese here, plus a few mince pies in the freezer. We always get enough cheese to last months though. 🧀 🐷

Our council have buggered up bin collections this week too. Grey bin was due Weds, but wasn't collected. Told to leave it the next day too. Still not collected. Also not collected yesterday. One day! 😩

We still have many many cheeses here! Tuesday is usually "fend for yourself" here, evening meal wise, so it'll get eaten over the course of a couple of weeks😋 May need more chutney though!

Also have a few mince pies, few Heroes, a full bag of Lidl lebkuchen (unheard of!), and a box of biscuits. I'm hoping not to need a shop until the end of the week & use up most of what's in my freezer too. No chance with the veg drawer which is heaving, but the rest is slowly emptying.

I've suggested we make the gingerbread house next weekend - the dough's in the chest freezer waiting to be used!

Decorations are coming down after lunch. We have lots of food left - but it's all stuff that lasts a long time so will be eaten in the next couple of months. We had our family Christmas dinner quite late in the holidays so didn't have as many cold meat & pickles meals/sandwiches as expected.
I bought some plastic boxes in IKEA for baubles yesterday so I can re-organise my storage!
Back to work on Monday (plus the start of the diet!)

I've eaten most of the Christmas food. The second Christmas pudding and the second chocolate log will be eaten for dessert this week. The tree and decorations are being packed away today. I started dismantling everything yesterday.

We have mince pies and a chocolate log left. We don't eat huge amounts of cheese so I don't order any extra. I will admit the Morrisons Christmas pudding was reduced this week, so I bought another to have for pudding tomorrow it was so nice.

Oh yes. We have some Christmas pudding left. Must do something with that!

We have:
Two boxes of mince pies
a box of after eight mints
A few bags of crisps
A couple of packs and an enormous box if crackers
Loads of cheese to go with the crackers
Chutney
Half a Christmas Cake

DH declared he was on a diet as of 27th December (helpful...🙄) so the weight gain is on my shoulders.