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!

Happy Birthday why 🥳🥂

Great nails hoping

Your lunch sounds lovely woolly - I'm imagining it at a cosy country pub...

I've had a nice day. Toddler group then popped to Morrisons where LO was beyond excited by the little kid trolley, and we stopped for lunch in their cafe. Amazing deal - kids eat free with an adult meal so £6odd for the 2 of us 😮
Spent the afternoon having a cold and wet walk along the river collecting sticks and watching birds.

Have also made progress on my job list as I've wrapped everything that's here (have 1 thing due to arrive tomorrow and one box of car track to wrap but I'm using the box for something else at the mo). Then I'll be done with wrapping. And I picked up stickers and plasters for LOs stocking (random but they love plonking a plaster on and mine are all clear - the ones I bought are multicolour)

Tired now though!

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I am off to bed now , I woke up at 05.15 on Thursday morning ( DH alarm was on 1 hour ahead) so I had an extra hour to snooze then up , shower , dressed . breakfast and we did the final packing and home .

My DD has done her Christmas Nails too Hoping , not nail art though , they;re Leighton Denny "Provocative" a pillar box red . I used to watch Leighton years ago on QVC , some of his colours have been classics for 20+ years and this red is one of them.

Done 3 loads of washing , need to tidy tomorrow then some shopping .
Weekend will be the last ditch tidy up and the remains of the laundry .

Happy Birthday for yesterday Why

Those are lovely Christmas nails Hoping, I had my toes done red which is a bit festive.

Been busy at work with carols and performances and the kids are sooooo excited so it's all lovely but I was very glad to finish yesterday!!

Radio 2 is playing Fairytale of New York right now, DH's favourite!

Tasks today:

Clean oven

Clean kitchen unit doors

Put presents around the tree ready for DCs return from school (a family tradition but unusual I know!)

Sample new hot chocolate (Starbucks)

Morning!

I'm just back from taking DD to school and I'm off out again in a bit as I have a massage booked at 10.15. Then it'll be time to pick DD up as they finish at 12 today. DH will collect DS who finishes at 2!

They're having a sleepover with the in-laws tonight, as we're off out for a boozy lunch tomorrow which was my parents' present to us for Christmas.

DH and I did some magnificent team work yesterday and made our third dessert for our Christmas dinner (which we're having on Boxing Day). We just have madeleines and cinnamon swirls to make and the gammon to cook on Christmas Eve.

I'm slowly starting to slow down - I need to go back and write up a few reports but I have bought my wrapping paper, cosy throw, extra pillows and multivitamins (which were all on my list) this morning and also collected a spare key from agents so DH can have one when he's here (and other visitors when they come). And I got the tree up on Tuesday when I had no meetings in the afternoon.

DH arrives Sunday, I'll do a big food shop tomorrow. And DD either Monday or Tuesday, depending on when she booms her train (she goes back to Amsterdam tomorrow, after 2 days at home home coming back from a hockey tournament).

But DH is sick at home, and I started a chesty cough and temp this morning - this always happens that our bodies give out when there is a chance for some down time!

Against all odds I'm still in Whamageddon. I've been to Dobbies, Tesco (jeez, it was rammed!) and M&S today (full of shopping 🧟‍♀️ 🧟) and managed to avoid it.

I hope you get sorted, Biddy.

Ohh hope your DH feels better BiddyPop

DD and I went to Bluewater ( it wasn;t as busy as I dreaded ) then quick divert into the local Tesco Metro .........where they were playing Wham: Last Christmas

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I bought some Waitrose Brown Butter mince pies (believing all the hype) but they aren't as nice as I hoped .

I did manage to swerve the Lindt shop <hurrah> but bought a tub of Heroes for the DC ( in my defence , they were on sale in Tesco whereas Lindt is ££)

For breakfast I'm eyeing up the panetonne in the pantry and I don;t plan to go out so a quiet but busy day going through my lists .

Evening!

I'm out of Whamageddon. Got in a pub before we went to the restaurant we had lunch in. 😩

Really annoyingly, if we'd left 5 mins earlier, I wouldn't have heard it at all today!

Very wet and windy today. Same tomorrow; up to 60mph. Touch breezy!

You've done really well getting to 21st December @NoWordForFluffy
But you'd have heard it I'm sure they play Christmas music on a loop .
I knew I'd spent too long in the supermarket one year when I thought "Wait up - I've heard that already"

Well done for surviving this long Fluffy!!!

I've spent the whole day cleaning and washing but I did start the mince pie vodka. Tomorrow I'm off to the shops to use a Boots no 7 voucher (on myself).

I'm still in! I've been to a couple of shops today too. If I'm still in on Christmas Eve then I'll definitely be out by lunchtime as I'm doing a thing where there will be lots of Christmas music.

3 (Eeeek)

Morning!

Having a bit of peace and quiet this morning as DC had loads of sports stuff and events last week which meant no lie ins so today said they can sleep till noon. Although have to take DS to buy his christmas presents for the family later which I will pay for (and probably wrap) but its the thought that counts 🙄

Then making the gingerbread house with DD but its a kit so quite easy.

DS doesn't like Christmas pudding so he wants millionaires shortbread on xmas day so I'm trying to think how to make it more festive - maybe with a chocolate orange topping and some white chocolate marbled in and some mini choc xmas trees on top - like we will need any more chocolate on Christmas Day 😂

Magnolia the Millionaire Shortbread sounds lovely ,
Cadbury do that Winter Wonderland chocolate that you could break off and press into the chocolate , or Matchmakers , or Terrys Chocolate Orange segments

Then making the gingerbread house with DD but its a kit so quite easy.

Famous last words, Magnolia!

I'm not a massive Christmas pudding fan, but I don't mind the Mary Berry one I make. However, I also do a chocolate pudding and have made lemon cheesecake as dessert 3 this year too! The Millionaires Shortbread sounds nice. 😋

I was going to make chocolate brownie, but outsourced to M&S and got a Yule log for our buffet. I'll put a bowl of lebkuchen out as well, plus some mince pies, so that's plenty of options.

So bloody windy here again. We were going out to look at the lights on the estate tonight, but it'll be crap in 60mph winds! Tomorrow or Christmas Eve now!

70 you are a genius - that will totally pimp it up with Winter Wonderland chocolate.

Its windy here too - I'm spraying some red charger plates with metallic gold and the bloody gold has gone all over the grass and me!!!

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I'm off to the butcher shortly to pick up my order. Fingers crossed he listened when I said last year's turkey breast was far too big 😬

Morning!

It's DH's birthday today. So I've sent him off to collect our Booths order as I'm not driving yet! I sent him with my bank card and questioned the amount he spent...apparently the bakery tempted him! 🤣

I have lots of washing to sort after I've played fridge Tetris, then we're off into the village to collect our cheese order and have a birthday beer!

The van delivering my Ocado order has broken down 😭
So now I'm on Christmas tenterhooks; will my order make it?

Happy birthday to FluffyDH

We've had a rough few days here - I think the changes to routine have thrown LO so their sleep has been effected and we're all tired.
Managed a nice calm day and fairly decent night last night though.

Big plans today - DH is taking LO out with his family for a couple of hours and I'm going to blitz the house.
Then I'm taking LO to my sisters and he will finish any jobs left before leaving to pick up 2 parcels, brave Sainsbury's for 2 things and do the 2 hour round trip to collect turkeys for us, FIL and DM while I wrangle LO for solo bath and bed then frantically try and finish my dads cross stitch card (right now Santa is riding a half finished bike, the basket on the front has no presents in and he's in midair as I haven't done the snow yet ).

That's like the plot of a cheesy film. Good luck!

Happy Birthday Fluffy DH.

I braved M&S, TK Maxx and Boots first thing this morning and it was soooooo quiet. Sainsburys yesterday at 3pm was like world war 3 though so i think folk may have been finishing their shopping yesterday.

I got some lovely Eucalyptus, thistle, gypsophilia and ranunculus from the market so I now have a beautiful festive floral display. Am going to make a little floral candle display as well when i can be arsed.

Still trying to finish the Christmas cleaning but the DC rooms are such pigstys that I'm not even going in there. I've had to resort to "no chocolate or treats of any form till you tidy up"

Happy Birthday FluffyDH ,
Hopefully your order has made its way to you Dare

I was at work today , plan is to pick up the rest of the food -boring vegetable things but I'm sure I will find something that catches my eye ... I just checked my list again, there's chocolate too