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!

Ah maybe that is it @70isaLimitNotaTarget!

It is storming outside. Was planning the garden centre today to pick up our annual new baubles but might have to stay home.

Morning. It is freezing here (although we're all still cosy in bed).

hoping about 10 years ago DHs parked car was hit by someone who had taken a work van home for the weekend and wasn't insured on it.
I remember our insurance telling us that theirs was saying he was uninsured so they wouldn't cover it but I fought that hard.
In the end we claimed via our insurance, the van insurer paid our claim back then they went after the driver for the costs.
At the time I worked in claims and it was something to do with differing levels of indemnity but it was so long ago I can't remember.
Definitely push to find out if it's the van or the driver that isn't insured as I think that makes a difference.

On the Elf debate, I discovered a cartoon musical version the other day which LO enjoyed. Not sure if anyone else has seen it?

We finally have Christmas plans here!
Our day is starting a little boring - lunch in the Sainsbury's cafe then food shopping. Home for a few hours then out to the local town light switch on. It's our first Christmas family outing and I'm so excited

Morning!

I'm going to bore you on vehicle insurance now! If there's a valid policy, but somebody not covered under that policy is driving and causes an accident, the insurer is liable as RTA insurer (there's legislation to cover it). What they will do before settlement is get the person being compensated to sign a document which gives them permission to claim all costs of their claim back from the negligent party.

Weather is terrible here, and Bert is blowing at the front of the house. The windows have shit vents which don't close properly, so it's breezy indoors, as well as out.

Meeces, have an amazing day!

Ooh, that's very exciting Meeces!

Kids are still recovering here, DD is back in our bed (now watching Bluey instead of Meekah/Blippi) DS slept until 12.30pm yesterday and 10.30 today.

I haven't left the house since Monday, so I have delegated slaving looking after the kids to DH and I am going to look at Christmas decorations in Home Bargains. And grab loo roll.

#rocknrolllifestyle

Sounds like a top day out, Firefly!

Weather still shit. But all trees are decorated now. I also fitted in cleaning the kitchen before the in-laws arrived earlier, so that's a job done.

They've taken the kids to Dobbies to look at the Christmas section leaving us in peace (DS' squawking makes my ears bleed and head spin when he's excited!).

MiL and I are making wreaths once they're back. Could go one of two ways! 🤣🤣

Enjoy the wreath making Fluffy! Can't believe you've got your trees done. I'm going to clean the stairs and put the advent pouches up as soon as I've changed the beds right now. Or I may just fanny about reading Mumsnet for another half hour.

Sorry to hear about the insurance issues Hoping, what a massive pain in the bum.

Its very blustery here in London but thankfully kids sports fixtures this morning managed to go ahead. DH and I are going out out tonight so I need them to be fully exercised and a bit knackered so they'll just slob on the sofa with I'm a celebrity on.

We went out for a Family Breakfast too ( 'Spoons) then DD and I went off to that Larndan

Lots of station closures due to engineering works r flooding (but that was more to the West )
Covent Garden ( busy ) and Oxford Street ( busy as well) . DD got a couple of things off her list and I was decent and didn;t make her go into M&S or John Lewis ( her most unfavourite shops )

We're going to the Serial Killers Exhibition next week but no shopping planned .

I am knackered now

No decorations here (yet) the winter bedding is on , I will wash the handtowels ready for next Sunday .
Decorations probably the 2nd week of December .

Glad you know the details Fluffy - I had RTA and article 75(?) in my head but couldn't remember enough about it to be certain. I do remember being sure that if the van was insured, they had to cover us as an innocent party then essentially it was up to them to pursue costs.
Was awkward in our case as he was a neighbour (but he was also an arse so I didn't really care)!

Also, hope your wreath making went well!

Hope your shopping trip was successful Firefly - the break was definitely well earned!

I can't believe I'm the Christmas lover in my family but my dad has full decorations up already (with coloured lights as I predicted), my mums tree is up with lights on and decs will go on tomorrow and my sister is planning to do hers next week. I'll be last!

Christmas outing was a success. We saw Santa, LO loved the lights and thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment despite the awful weather.
Me and DH are celebrating with our first drink in months - a lovely Red Stag & coke 😋🥃

How exciting Meeces

I bought a thing to go over the table from the Range, a selection box for the cat from Santa, some (non-festive) loo roll and some chocolate Weetabix for DD.

And a Christmas diffuser that I have hidden in the hallway because if DH sees it he'll decide he doesn't like the smell and needs to get rid of it 🙄 But if he doesn't see it he never even mentions it!

Sounds fantastic Meeces

I'm shopping tomorrow with my DDs for the last of my stocking fillers plus some other bits and bobs from M&S.

My wreath making course was cancelled today because of the bad weather. The place where it was being held is surrounded by woodland and they were worried about trees coming down in the wind. I've got an artificial one I can use but I was hoping for a bit of a festive atmosphere.

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I bought a reed diffuser too Firefly not a Christmas one but Rituals Sakura ( I love the shower foam and I;m using it at weekends at the moment . Workday showergel is some Faith in Nature , nothing fancy )

I had to wedge it into a space on the corner table and tell the cats to Leave It !.
Smells lovely very soft .
I;m usually the one who insists DH moves any air freshener thingies as they make me heave .

We have Storm Bert here I think , weird name as my DD s old guinea-pig Bert was the most laid back inoffensive little animal that drew breath. I think he'd be mortified to have a storm named after him. !

That's a fancy over table thingy! I'm not quite at that level of fancy yet. I think we may share a husband re diffusers though. 🙄

That's a shame about your wreath-making, Woolly. We had fun doing ours at home. Mine ended up very, ummmm, rustic! I'm glad I didn't pay £65 to go somewhere and do it as the quality of my wreath isn't worth £65! 🤣🤣🤣

Sounds like you had a lovely day, Meeces.

Bert's wind has gone from here. Soggy for a while longer, but then dry. We've two loads of washing ready to go out and a third will go on when we're up! The washing we played weather chicken with (and lost!) was put on airers in the garage as it's both indoors but breezy, so hopefully that's dry now.

Oh, we looked in the loft for the first time yesterday after next door said they have their decorations stored in it. We'd anticipated it being rubbish as the bedrooms are in the roof already. But it's not. It's amazing! So we can put a load of stuff in there rather than the garage.

So glad you had an amazing first family Christmas trip @NoCheesesForUsMeeces ❤️

That over table thing is amazing but I know I would hit my head on it every time 😂

I have a free wreath making workshop on the 6th. Our local community centre does amazing free events, we are very lucky.

Up and at it early today as DH is running a 10k in Cheshire. The weather is horrific however. Parts of the village flooded yesterday but we are uphill so safe.

After the run we have Sunday lunch booked in the v posh restaurant in the village. We have lived here 3 years and this will be our first time going and only because we won Sunday lunch there in a raffle 😂

Fluffy I read that as your neighbours have their christmas decorations stored in your loft but you think they're rubbish! Had to read a second time! (It is early).

Had a nice time out last night - the restaurant was very festive and had lots of trees and gold everywhere so it got me back in the mood after having a bit of a lull.

My paperwhites have started flowering and last night when we got back there was a strong floral smell almost jasmine like in the kitchen and I wandered round sniffing everything for ages before it dawned on me that it was the paperwhites. (I was a bit tipsy) So I fully recommend paperwhites - VERY quick and easy to grow. If you bought some and stuck them in a bowl of water now I think you'd have flowers for Christmas. I've got some more coming through.

No, it was written badly. Should've said in their loft, not 'it'! It was very early! 🤣

We're hoping to put up our decs next weekend.
The italics are being used as we have rats!!!

Trying to stay calm about this.

When we returned from holiday about 3 weeks ago, there were about 30 big black flies trying to get out of the patio windows. We've had damp smells on and off for years, which have always fine and gone.

But the flies........😱

Pest control have been round and diagnosed rats. She put down traps in the loft and front garden and is returning on Tuesday.

I can't deal with the idea of it not getting sorted before Christmas.

First world problems.

I’m going to do my paper whites today. Got a bit late with them. Does anyone have the post or link where you put them in water with a solution of some sort? Thanks.

@MonkeyTennis34 yikes! Good luck!

Oh goodness, Monkey. Good luck with that. Any clue where they came from? I had rats in my first house thanks to grim neighbours! They went pretty quickly though once the council put poison down.

I've just potted up my little trees from Tesco. They look lovely by the front door. Can't see me lighting them up much though, as that involves remembering to turn them on and off again!

You can get battery operated outside lights that are on a timer. We have some and they only needed one new set of batteries over the festive season. We put the battery pack in a sandwich bag and bury it in the foliage to protect it from the elements.

I didn't actually check to see if the ones with it have a timer. I did double bag and put into the foliage though. We're going to check at 4pm!

The table decoration looks good Firefly , there's sooo much decorating potential there . I have ivy in the garden that could wrap-around and some of those glass sphere thingies that have a candle ( LED) in them. I could use some nice baubles on ribbons to hang , then hope the cats don't think it;s an amazing ping-pong toy for them

Sounds lovely 70

The decorating potential was why I bought it, but I haven't got that far yet; going to see what I have when I pull everything out of the loft. Then probably forage/buy new stuff 😁 RCat has never really bothered with the Christmas decorations, even the tree, so fingers crossed it should be pretty safe.

Hoping ours is a 6 seater table and we tend to sit on the short sides and one long side, with the other long side pushed against the wall, so I'll be putting it at the back of the table on that bit, out of the way 🤞

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Happy Rudolph Day! Last one of the year, yikes.

Sorry to hear about your unwelcome guests Monkey. We had mice when we moved back in after our renovation and it was so awful - one of the reasons why we got cats!

Had a busy weekend baking and prepping. And being blown away.