Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness...and ramping up those Christmas preparations! Countdown to Christmas 2024 (thread 3) (title edited by MNHQ @request of OP)

[NoWordForFluffy]

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(Saves us checking the old thread tomorrow!)

Here goes, folks. New thread to see us through autumn!

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Hallowe’en 🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛
I’m on a train now going up north. Decided not to risk the broomstick .
And …..I bought the December Good Housekeeping with Dolly Parton on the cover.
So glad it wasn’t Nigella or Lorraine Kelly who manage to grace the covers most years though Mary Berry was last year .
Not opened it yet

Hello all, I'm de-lurking as now it is Halloween I'm starting buying some food for Christmas each week to spread the cost. I'm planning on making the pigs in blankets and stuffing balls for the freezer this weekend. I always make loads as DH and DDs seem to inhale pigs in blankets during November and December 🤣

Morning. Much more awake today thankfully!

Happy Halloween to anyone celebrating 🎃

All fun and games here. DH and I are trading LO off every hour so we can each get some jobs done.

Toy kitchen arrived yesterday and is being sent to my dad's to be hidden.
I'm now in the bedroom sorting the shelves at the top of the wardrobe as this will be my Christmas present hiding place but it's packed with handbags and clothes that don't fit me anymore

I’m not a hand-baggy person but I was searching though my collection to find one for travelling and I was surprised to find a couple I completely forgot about!

Thee clothes need sorted Meeces. Either store them to keep / charity shop / Vinted.
You need the space for Christmas Presents
priorities

Tag teaming, Meeces. Those were the days! Ours just mooch round ignoring us now!

I hope you have a good journey, 70.

Oh, we forgot to build DD's kitchen for her 2nd birthday until the morning. Luckily, she had no clue it was her birthday, so I just kept her out of the room until it was built! 😩🤣

There is something to be grateful for when your DC are older. I had to wake DD up this morning to say Bye (she insisted)she said she was going back to sleep as she was on a study at home day so I could envy her all cosy .
Didnt attempt to wake DS
DH was WFH so up early anyway
And the cats couldn’t give a rats arse if I’m there or not .

I may be slightly under the weather grape wise...having given my DPs and DSibs a good start to my 50th weekend. Going to sleep shortly...

Dd not arriving g u til sat am... t
tG!

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Morning! Happy November! 🎆 It's Christmas next month!

Hopefully your head isn't too sore today, Biddy! 😬

The dog took me just over 7km today, so I'm already tired.

But at least it's Friday. Whoop whoop!

Tiptoes by BiddyPop with water and AlkaSeltzer

November. 😲already .

This month is when it all hopefully pulls together so December can be calm(ish) .

I will updated my To-Do list which includes wrapping the Dec1st presents. I bought some Christmas cat paper for DD

I don’t wrap DS Dec 1st things as I know from experience he’s a little Christmas Humbug so they go in his gift bag that is reused every year

DH has booked a Sainsbury delivery slot for the weekend before .

Other than that it’s cleaning , tidying, recycling, sorting the freezers , couple of appointments and a trip to London. And we’ll busy at work as ever.

Happy November!

DC were out last night so I watched Scream with DH - years since I've seen a horror film. It was quite funny though - put DH to sleep!

I've done some xmas wrapping and the rapesco sellotape dispenser is a THING OF JOY. Honestly I was like Mrs Superwrapper. I could have wrapped as an Olympic sport. So thank you Fluffy and 70 and whoever else suggested it.

I cannot justify another tape dispenser. I've got a heavy mini dispenser and about a dozen reels of tape. I checked today and I have enough wrapping paper and tissue paper - I made sure with a quick trip to Sostrene Greene yesterday when I was in Liverpool. I was unusually restrained 😇

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I got home last night and had coffee , water, teeth brushed and straight to bed .

I had a quick look through the Good Housekeeping , couple of the Real Life stories were heartwarming but it is pretty much of a muchness , though that won't stop me buying it next year

I did see there;s an ITV mini series with James Norton ( my DDs not-so-secret-crush ) I bought her a JN coaster for her birthday but she cannot bear to put a hot cup on his little face so it;s only used for a glass of water .

Morning. Another tired one here - LO has a cough and was awake 2-4 this morning (but up like it never happened at 7am 😩).

I saw an offer on the bargain thread the other day - 3 issues of GH for £3 via Hearst so signed up for that. It should mean I get the Christmas one that I wasn't going to buy but it's a bargain so I don't mind.
Will probably cancel the subscription once I have it.

Also, it appears DH has become Santa. When I told him I'd cleared space for Christmas presents, he produced quite a few from various hiding places in the house so my space is almost all gone, however, the shopping for LO is also almost finished

Ahhhhh, didn't I predict that would happen, Meeces?!

We're just having bacon sarnies after I walked the dog. Then it's shower, shops, and back home to rearrange DD's bedroom. The excitement!

I am now very close to being done!

Things I got today:

• Advent calendars;
• Selection boxes;
• Small Pringles tubs for stockings;
• Jelly bean tubes for stockings;
• Nephew's (Why's son) present; and
• Penultimate part of DH's presents (his birthday is 23.12).

What I still need:

• Coffee for DH;
• Yard of either Oreo's or Jaffa Cakes (I think the latter...were they in Aldi, @Magnoliasunrise?); and
• Why's birthday present.

I also still need a couple of bottles of the M&S Buck's Fizz (cranberry and clementine). Then I reckon I'm just trying to avoid The Twitch done!

Have you got your wine @NoWordForFluffy and your Baileys or Aldi Baileys ?

<Twitch>

4 litres of Bailey's and 12 or so bottles of wine in the garage. With a litre of vodka plus beer and fruity cider. Fruit vodka is still brewing under the stairs!

<<Impressed >>

I have Britvic orange mixers ( for me) , Prosecco/Aperol/Soda Water (for DD)
I'll get more J20 for DS and some nice beer for DH .

DH buys diet bottles 2 litre so that will be in our delivery pre-Christmas .
If DH is good then we;ll get some beer on the Christmas Market trip

I got the Buck's Fizz from Ocado when they had the 2 for £7 offer last month. I'll get some more red wine when one of the supermarkets have their next 6 bottles with 25% off deals.

I'm having a shopping trip with my DDs towards the end of the month but DD1 is done, DS is struggling to think of something he'd like - possibly some gaming gear and I'm hoping DD2 will give me some inspiration when we are shopping. DS has the yard of Oreos every year. I bought them from B&M a couple of weeks ago and they are stashed in the wardrobe. They're a bugger to wrap and every year I wonder why I bother as I don't think they make it much past Boxing Day 😂

I didn't wrap the yard of Party Rings last year, Woolly! No chance.

70, I have 3 x 4 San Pellegrino (lemon, orange and blood orange), 4 bottles of ginger beer and some Shloer as well. On top of the healthy booze selection!

Ooh I might see if I can get Appletise in Costco <adds to list>

52

Morning!

Yes @NoWordForFluffy the jaffa cakes yard was in Aldi - they're still sitting in my car boot so thanks for the reminder.

I haven't managed to get the M&S cranberry prosecco though, is it going to be that thing I can't find? Amazon had a good deal last year on Hotel chocolat espresso martini - think it was 50% off so about £11 and it was lovely. It kept me going over the Christmas week.

Ordered the Christmas tree yesterday and as I just got a shock at 52 days to go I got the remaining amaryllis and paperwhites bulbs out for planting today.

I'm also not far off done but DC won't write lists till December 1st so I'd better wait till I see those and then can finish off.

Morning!

The Buck's Fizz is definitely in stock in M&S, as I went to find it the other day in Liverpool. I've not checked my local one yet. That's next week's job as I'll have a £10 gift voucher by then (I get points on an app for walking the dog, which you then convert into vouchers for various things).

I shall head to Aldi at some point for the Jaffa cakes, as we made the decision that DS will probably like that more than Oreo's plus DD will too and we have to get matching shit still sometimes with them!

Today is tip run day. Dear god we moved house with far too much extra stuff than was needed!

The tip run got done today. Thankfully no real queue when DH got there. We also sorted through our bedding basket and have ditched all the 'claim to be king size but aren't anywhere near' fitted sheets, as well as some babyish Christmas bedding which the kids are a bit old for now.

I've also made the red cabbage to freeze. It smells amazing. DH apparently binned the redcurrant jelly which is optional in the recipe. I've ordered some and will add it when we reheat it at Christmas.