Ho ho ho...here we go round again! Countdown to Christmas 2025, thread 1

[NoWordForFluffy]

365

Evening!

I'm tired after today, but the buffet was a success. Tomorrow it's dinner!

Everyone seems to love their gifts, which is always good. 😊 Bed soon as it's all go again from the morning!

Evening!

What a day. Very tired after a long week. I also had visual disturbance, but managed to stave the migraine off with paracetamol and codeine. Felt rough til the codeine sickness stopped (but at least I could see again quite quickly after taking it).

I've just been to Sainsbury's which was exciting. Not. DH had two different points offers which stacked, so the pay day shop netted us £6.66 in Nectar points! I was playing trolley Tetris though, squeezing everything in!

278

Been nice here - I did three loads of washing - actually four if I count my work clothes ! Go Me eh?

Collected a prescription
Did the Traditional Friday Buy DD a croissant and drive her to work
Vaccumed and tidied
Made some cakes with Nigella Lawson Peanut Butter icing ( practice run for DD Birthday cake which is in June ! but I thought I;ll give it a try . ) I made some fairy cake sponges and the PB Icing is sooo nice

I'm doing my clothes organising for going away , don't know exactly what I;m taking as I need to check the weather ,

Morning!

70 were you organizing clothes at half past midnight? Go you.

That peanut butter icing sounds delish, I might give it a try.

I'm off to the gym shortly. Then later I need to figure out how to get DC to hang clothes up rather than leaving them on the floor and I also might teach them and DH the tricky job of putting a new toilet roll on the holder.

Afternoon!

It's been nice here today after a little rain overnight. We're due rain again this evening / overnight. It's apparently shitting down on the other side of the Pennines, so hopefully that's coming our way, as we've not had decent rain in ages.

We're on our third load today on the line. It's never ending!

Evening. Lovely day has been had yet (probably boring for most of you but it’s still new to me)! We had a lazy morning in our PJs, eating jam on toast, playing games and reading books. Shopping, out for lunch, a visit to BIL then another pit stop at Sainsburys where we bought some plants. Finished the day deciding what plants are going to go where and building duplo towers.

Have since done some tidying and ironing (rock & roll over here 😂). Am now going to sew some elastic into a pair of trousers I bought for LO that are a bit too big and treat myself to a rum/whisky/cocktail-in-a-can.

70 I’m jealous that you have a trip to pack for.

Magnolia how did the lessons for your family go? I have yet to teach DH how to notice clear crumbs off the worktops and him learning to hang his coat up was a slow process 🙄

Fluffy I have no idea how you keep on top of washing with a full time job and 2 DCs. I’m on leave and only have 1 small dc here but I’m drowning in it most of the time
We had a lovely day on Thursday and I cleared the wash basket. Friday there wasn’t quite enough for a load. This evening, as if my magic, there are almost 2 loads in the basket

277

Afternoon
I am (hopefully ) finally sorted for clothes ( including tights which I never wear IRL so it;s something I don;t think about !)

I was looking for a cardigan/cover type to go with a long flowery dress but could I find one ? No!
Even my beloved Marks didn't have the one I wanted instore (I;ve ordered it online so it is sorted )

I bought a dress I've been lurking after and changing my mind and finally thought "Stuff It" and bought it . I can wear for evening ( not formal ) as it;s nice to make a bit of effort .

276 Morning from the seats in a busy, chaotic toddler group. It's been a long morning here 😳 and the weather looks a bit sad - cold and grey/dark.

What sort of dress is it 70?

I have an absolute aversion to clothes shopping so I avoid at all costs. Online shopping is so much easier!

No real plans for today so we may stick on wellies and go for a walk after lunch and finish filling the planter in the garden (as long as it doesn't rain heavily).
My car will be on charge so we need to stay local.

Mesh Jersey Mini Column Dress | M&S Collection | M&S

This one Meeces but in the black/white
I liked it for ages but they had annoying seams down the front which oddly no-one mentioned in the reviews .
I found one that wasn;t obvious ( I think as well it depends on the luck of the draw with the pattern )

Evening!

We've had nice weather today. It was frozen in the parks / woods this morning, but melted fairly quickly once the sun was up properly. My hands were cold during the dog run though.

Nice dress, 70. How long is it? Im
congused that it says 'mini' but is only just above the knee on a 5'10" model. It would be more useful to have the leg and body length of her to see what her proportions are like! (Most standard length mini dresses on me are positively indecent due to ridiculous leg length. 😳)

Meeces, I also detest clothes shopping (see: having stupid proportions above!) and do it all online.

Tomorrow is another Rudolph Day - the 3rd one this yera .
We have got a couple of Christmassey things booked <organised> which is great because it takes the pressure off -need to book train tickets but cannot do that till April

I tried it on (over leggings so I need to try it on properly but it's not mini on me , I;m about 5'5" (probably shrinking )
It's about knee length , I;ll wear it with black tights .

We have nothing booked yet. The Polar Express at Embsay is 60 sodding quid each. Not a bloody chance are we doing that! The kids are at that weird Santa cusp age too, where finding a suitable activity is difficult and I'm a fussy bugger who's never been anything other than underwhelmed at light displays.

I might book Chester Zoo again (booked two years ago but we ended up moving house so couldn't go), as maybe their lights will be OK?! 🤷‍♀️

I'm giving blood tomorrow. Not v Christmassy!

we have panto booked. And 4 nights before Christmas at Butlin’s. I think we will probably stick to that this year with the new baby.

we did the polar express 2 years ago. While kids loved the experience. I don’t think it was worth the £250+ we paid for it.

I'm going for indecent on 5'11" me (of which 4ft is floor to waist!) in that case!

Ahhh giving blood is the Spirit of Giving <halo> literarly the best present you can give .
I cannot donate ( I recieved blood myself) so I sometimes make DS take one for the team. ( to give the pretense that he's a decent person and he gets a biscuit'n;drink) he's not done it for a while though ...
DH is a regular donor

I only go for the lie down and biscuit after! Donation 25 tomorrow. I ate steak twice this weekend for the iron boost! 🤣

275 and Happy Rudolph Day!!

Good luck with the blood giving Fluffy. They didn't want mine as my iron levels were too low so I'll go back after 3 months and try again.

No Christmassy plans today but I'm at a school this week with a big lidl and garden centre near it so I might pop there at lunch to have a mooch.

Happy Rudolph Day 🎄

70 That dress would 100% be too long on me (I'm a short arse 5ft). It's lovely though.

I haven't booked anything for Christmas yet either. I only want to do a Santa train really - LO is still little and some things will be pointless I think.
We'll do a local Santa visit and we have a Santa sleigh that visits the end of our street so we'll have that. With that and a few visits to the Christmas factory shop and their amazing Santa (and hopefully LO's first ever Christmas show as they'll be in nursery 🥺) I think we'll feel busy enough.

We're also considering a short trip somewhere cold between Christmas and new year ⛄️

Thanks for the reminder about blood donation Fluffy They turned me down last time because I'd been to Turkey but that was a year ago so I should book myself back in.

Nothing Christmassy planned here although I did randomly decide yesterday that if I have enough time I'd like to make something for my friend for Christmas. She's a fellow crafter (cross stitch mostly) so appreciates home made stuff and she's been amazingly supportive since we started the process for LO. Maybe my Rudolph day could be used researching what to make her

My Rudolph Day will be writing in my Planner (I bought an A5 folder with removeable/refillable sheets - biy like the 80s Fil-o-Fax for the ancient amongst us . My DC would look startled and puzzled if I started on the virtues of the FoF ....... you could just put that on your phone ...we didn't have phones , only mega wealthy city boy yuppies had them and they were brick sized !

I have written a few notes already , mainly what I need and don't need next year .

274

Warm'n'Clammy in work today so I;m glad to be home now

Nothing festive going on here

Nowt festive here either. I'm busy trying to find a holiday for May half term. Lots of rabbit holes have been gone down working out which location is best for the flight times which give the most time in resort.

I did say to DH that he could have the sunny holiday this year (one person stays home with the dog), but I'm regretting that now! 🙈🤣

273

Morning!

I didn't do anything Christmassy either. I did buy some mini eggs from Lidl though.

Fluffy I'm intrigued - do you never holiday all of you together then? I get a cat sitter to stay in the house as I don't like putting mine in a cattery, would that be an option for FluffyDog?

Its a beautiful day today. I just had to do an emergency dash to Tesco for milk as blummin DS selfishly drank about 2 pints after I went to bed. Grr........

Morning! Have just waved DH and LO off to work/nursery. Am going to do a job off my list (removing clothes that are too small from LOs wardrobe and putting the bigger sizes we've stashed in the big drawer under his bed and listing what's there) then will have a cuppa.

70 I have a running 'Christmas master list' note on my phone that I put ideas on when I think of them, but it all gets periodically moved into the Christmas planner. Hand writing things just feels nicer to me, and it's nice to be able to look back at previous years. It's not the same on a screen!

Fluffy what sort of places are you looking at?
Also, how do you think your dog would cope with Kennels if you did a few daycare days before going?
Ours loved kennels - we'd walk in the door, drop the leads and they'd put themselves behind the reception desk or scratch at the door to go through. Only stopped when last ddog was blind and getting a bit confused (we would leave him with MIL as that was like a home from home for him).

Or, if you're def staying home, consider the freedom you'll have!

My plans for today are a bit of tidying, relaxing for an hour or so while I can, then town to order new glasses and hopefully find some nice indoor plant pots in either one of the charity shops or maybe Dunelm, then pick up LO and go to the park.

@Magnoliasunrise, Ddog is a bit 'keen' on his walks. I wouldn't trust anyone to walk him who wasn't one of us, as we're used to him. So an in-home sitter wouldn't work. And I hate the idea of him in kennels, Meeces. He's not spent time away from us, so would probably hate it. 😭 He's also intact which limits boarding options.

But anyway, I've gone from no holidays to 2 holidays today, as I've booked a cottage for all of us for August BH week (4 nights). It's amazing how many 'dog friendly' places have either no garden or a garden which isn't fully secure! Took me ages to find a suitable one. The owners are clearly switched on, as they'd taken photos all round the garden to show the fencing.

I booked the Costa Del Sol for the other holiday. Also 4 nights.

I've started on the Christmas booze shopping as Sainsbury's has its first 25% off 6 offer of the year, so I've ordered 6 bottles. I'll get my mincemeat ingredients soon as I tend to make it at Easter.

@NoWordForFluffy
pup is a freight train on walks if you don’t know what your doing.

we use home boarder (not in home as son is autistic and can’t manage the stranger in the home business). But we found someone who actually dog trains as their full time job.

We started off with them doing a lunch time walk 2 days a week. Then occasional pet sitting before we boarded him. It gave us peace of mind but also allowed them to get to know pup and his typical stupid behaviours.

it did take us a while to find him because our main focus was finding someone who will crate pup in their home. As in our home he’s crate trained for sleep and when out… my floor discovered he can’t be trusted unattended.