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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I hope you're all better soon, Jennifer. It's a nightmare when germs travel through the house, prolonging the agony!

We're also decorating next weekend, at DS' request! The in-laws are coming over to help the kids with their tree and I'll do our two. The hall one may wait until the week after, mind!

We've ordered wreath kits online from Etsy which are arriving on Friday, so my MiL and I are also going to do that.

Magolia, I would fit clothes better if they did odd sizes too! I'm definitely a solid 11 in most places!

Our Christmas lamb and beef arrived on Friday. The beef is salt marsh beef reared locally and the lamb is from Farmison and is apparently badger faced sheep breed.

Back in the mists of time, I was able to run into M&S and grab my size off the rail knowing it would fit. No need to try on. Not any more.

A friend who worked there told me they now allow much greater 'tolerances' in sizes from their suppliers, so there can be quite a bit of difference in what should be the same size. I found she was correct when I tried on some trousers a while ago; took three of the same size into the changing room and only one fitted! felt like Goldilocks 🙄

Which is all going a long way round to say it may now be worth trying on more than one of the same size if you really like them @Magnoliasunrise

(And apologies if you already know this).

I get really busy in January so it's not unusual for our Christmas decorations to still be up mid-January or into February 😳 so they don't go up until December.

I'm going to do a North Pole breakfast on 1st December for DC and DN so going to try and at least get the tree up by then, though.

I have orange slices in the dehumidifier and my plan for the day is to wrap some presents this morning and then plan our December activities this afternoon before DD and I go to a Snow Queen panto later, so definitely feeling festive today!

NoWordForFluffy okay I give up. Nope don’t want the bargains thread. I thought this was Christmas chat. Now I don’t know what it’s supposed to be. There are other Christmas threads. I will go to those. I need to be there getting a Christmas vibe. I steer clear of any that feel stressy. It’s just Mumsnet. So I will go. No hard feelings. Life is too short. There are loads of Christmas chat ones I am enjoying and I will leave you to run yours for whatever and however you wish. A little early but Merry Christmas 🎄 have a good one. 👍

It is Christmas chat. Not a lecture about animal husbandry chat (where nobody had intimated they were buying an animal for Christmas).

You've been really rude to me in a number of posts. If you don't like me mentioning that I've noticed, don't bloody do it. I'm not the type to lie down and take veiled (or not so veiled) insults, sorry about that.

We rarely have issues in this thread, and it's been running for a very long time.

What will you do with your orange slices, Firefly? Are they for a wreath?

Thanks for this @IDareSay I actually took them back and bought some silvery wide legged ones that are really nice BUT given what you've said I may well go back again and try a few different pairs of the ones I really liked on - fingers crossed.

I have bought :

Some Lush "Kalamazoo" for DS (beard cleansing lotion)
Cosmetic toothpaste /polish for DS
Earrings for DD that she knew what she wanted but couldn't find .
Chocolate Selection boxes and tubes of sweets for Dec 1st
Sol de Janerio spray

I just need to find my present now

I've made sausage rolls. They're bloody yummy if I do say so myself!

Mmm 😋 looking good Fluffy. I made cheese and rosemary scones yesterday so that was lunch sorted for today. And tomorrow...

I decided to arrange a Christmas craft session next weekend with my Am dram group (you know, with all that spare time I have 🙄) and one of the crafts is going to be making a garland with kraft stars/paper baubles/orange slices. I'll post pictures if I remember!

Ooh, can I have the scone recipe please, @FireflyGirl? 😋

There's a recipe (which I cannot find at the moment ) using flakey pastry , spread with Harissa paste and halloumi cheese that has been dusted with herbs IIRC basil and oregano)
Make them up like sausage rolls , all sealed in ( egg/milk to brush) bake .

Delicious , quite salty so I don;t add extra .
Nicest warm or cold .

I just used the Good Food recipe for cheese scones and added a couple of tbsp chopped fresh rosemary when I added the cheese. Theirs are the best scone recipes I've found (although I double the sultanas in the fruit scones, I like them fruity!)

DH is dairy free (kids are pretty much tolerant now!) so I used dairy free spread and cheese and oat milk, but the Good Food recipes work well with the switch without needing to change quantities.

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Those sausage rolls look deliscious Fluffy, are you freezing any or did they all get scoffed?

I made an enormouse macaroni cheese to go in the freezer for when SIL and BIL and their families come.

Morning!

We had one of each type each (we'd forgotten to eat lunch, so were very hungry by that point, especially as they smelled so good!) and the rest will be frozen. I also made a batch of mince pies. We had two each of those too, and the rest will be frozen!

It's blooming cold and misty this morning. We're forecast snow overnight (which is rare here), which will be fun. Not.

We've had a couple of flakes tonight, but I doubt we'll get proper snow. We very rarely do because of the geography around here.

DSMIL has it laying in Sheffield.

Proper frost this morning, though. Killed all the cabbage white caterpillars which were feasting on my unprotected brassicas because I wasn't expecting them in November!!

DS started gymnastics tonight. I've been trying to find an activity for him that he enjoys, and he made friends with a boy at DD's gymnastics club so has joined his class. There were only the two boys, and then two older girls who were practicing independently, so he's not in a class full of girls who run rings around him, which was my worry. And he enjoyed it! Hurrah!

We have settling snow, which is disconcerting, as snow rarely happens here, and doesn't settle even if it does snow. It's set to snow all night! I won't go into the office tomorrow if there's snow on the ground when I get up.

That's good re your DS. Nice to find something they're into!

I had a wander round Aldi today and picked up some bits for the Christmas cupboard. A bottle of fizz, some stollen cookies for DH and a box of crackers for the Boxing Day cheeseboard. I also booked in a pre-Christmas meet up with a friend I haven't seen in about 6 months so it'll be lovely to go and have a coffee and a catch up in a few weeks and maybe wander the Christmas market.

I can't believe how fast it's coming round now!

I'll be going to Aldi at the weekend to stock up on the cheese we get from there! Plus some crackers. They do some nice boxes which are one flavour.

It's properly rattling along, isn't it?!

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I really like the rosemary crackers from Aldi.

The snow has actually laid here! There's a good couple of centimetres on the cars, less on the ground. DS won't get to enjoy it, though, which he's gutted about. He's been up since 2.30am running a temperature 🙄 Duvet day for him, and I'll work from home.

Morning!

Yes, the rosemary crackers are one of my favourites too. They do a beetroot one too which is nice!

Our snow has kind of settled. I imagine it looks better in other parts of the town, as we were gritted yesterday. But the road we look onto is maintained by a different council to the one we pay council tax to, and they grit more than our council. Obvs.

I hope your DS feels better soon. I've decided to WFH as I don't fancy trying to deal with Merseyrail today. The trains don't do cold, let alone snow, so I'm going to stay here and not try to be a snow hero!

We have snow here as well which I didn't want. Supposed to be shopping with my daughter. Will assess what she thinks in a little while.

Good morning- quick note re excess puff pastry- I use it to make a French twelfth night cake (galette de roi) either marzipan.

oooooh jealous of all your snow - although I know it is a pain if you're trying to get to work. We've just got buckets of rain in London :(

I'm planning an Aldi trip next week so I'm adding lovely crackers to my list. And puff pastry.

Not a huge amount of snow in the village but am told lots in surrounding areas. DH has cancelled his trip to Edinburgh and I am waiting to see if the school is open.