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!

234

70 that sounds like a lovely day.

I've got my bunting and flags up plus my union jack hats out. DS said it looks like a Reform meeting - shame that their generation don't seem to understand being patriotic. Too young I guess.

Later I'll be making everyone eat quiche, sausage rolls, cucumber sandwiches and trifle. But not until I've finished painting the bastard ceiling.

Happy VE celebration week everyone.

Morning. Temp is due to start dropping here from today thankfully!

I’m out and about today. I’d booked to go out for tea with a friend tonight and DH didn’t realise so he’s arranged for us to meet friends with LO an hour away and have lunch out so I need to think carefully about my food choices today!
Also taking LO swimming in between - fingers crossed today is the day they finally try a stroke or 2 on their own 🤞🏼

No VE celebrations anywhere around here as far as I can see.
I’ve only participated once, during COVID when we had a socially distanced street party. We didn’t live have particularly nice neighbours in that house but I think we all desperately needed to socialise 😂

Fluffy my abandoned tomato seeds have sprouted I need to check some pics to make sure it’s actually the tomato plant and not some random weed or something growing in there though - I’ll be amazed if my seeds came through!

And I finally started my Christmas card cross stitch on Saturday. I’m starting with the penguin but my focus is rubbish so over 2 nights I’ve probably only managed about 100 stitches 🙄

Meeces, I go through fits and starts with my cross stitch. Some nights I do nothing, others I get loads done. I've just ordered a whole load of Christmas card kits (enough for a couple of years), but they are at the back of quite a long queue!

A friend of ours is flying the Lancaster for the fly past later on, so we will have that on to watch.

Red Arrows have a Flypast due over Essex this afternoon , not sure if we'll see or hear anything though .

Windy , cool but not raining here ( so ok for washing )

I'm doing some kitchen tidying and sorting clothes ( how will my frail heart cope with such excitement ?)
DD and DH are watching The Last of Us , it's not my thing at all .

70, all of the aircraft went over Essex (we were tracking on Flight Radar!). Did you see them go over?

It amazes me how slow the Lancaster looks in the sky, every time I see it. Beautiful old plane. 😍

233

Fluffy your friend did a fabulous job, I loved seeing the Lancaster. They went almost over our heads. Brilliant day.

Its gone very cold here, I'm almost tempted to put the heating back on 🤔

He said it was quite windy, Magnolia! If you go onto the BBMF Facebook page there's a video from the Lancaster as it's flying over London. It's fascinating!

Cold but sunny here too this morning. Office day here, so I've marched to the station and feel warm and cold all at once!

How was your office day Fluffy?

It was warm enough today for me to clear the wash basket (just 1 load) which was good as LO had a bit of an accident at 3am requiring a full change of pjs and bedding 🙄

I've had a nice day mostly potching around the house, playing then having my dm here for tea.
Will go in the garden and throw water on everything in a minute then settle in to cross stitch maybe

It was cold, Meeces. The air con was up way too high and I had goosebumps. Thankfully the direction of breeze changed after lunch and I was warmer. My poor colleague then had the brunt though!

I'm doing cross stitch now. I'm desperately trying to get this done as I have far too many other projects to do before September (a new home and two babies!).

Oops we missed out yesterday ........

Sooooo:

07/05/25 (Wednesday) was 232

And today is :

231

Cold here too and a bit grey !
I have loads to do over the weekend (nothing exciting ) tidy up , food delivery , washing,
Nothing remotely festive but hoping to waft round the garden looking like I know what I;m doing (Ha!)

230
Morning. It’s meant to be sunny and warm
here today (18°) but I’m full of a cold thanks to DH so it’s of no help to me 🤧

Nothing festive here today. My plan is to survive the morning, give the house a little tidy (majority was done yesterday), take LO to nursery and use the time to pack the final bits as we’re doing a long weekend in a caravan, leaving as soon as DH gets home. And if there’s time for a nap in there somewhere I’ll be taking it.

I’m losing momentum with the garden. LO makes doing stuff so hard. I was checking on some sweet peas in one part of the garden the other day and in the 3 minutes I was there LO pulled the petals off all the flowers in one pot 🙄

How is yours going 70?

Ahh the joys of LO

Mine used to do this and hand me the petals as here's a present Mummy

The sweetpeas are ones from last year that self seeded , no flowers but the plants are doing well.
Waiting for some compost to get the tomato plants settled in.

Enjoy your weekend away meeces

229..into the two hundred and twenties now

Nice morning , I have the first load of laundry out and next one in the machine .
Got those pesky flying ants on the french doors , they rock up every year ( and this is ahead of Flying Ants Day which is like something from a horror film )
As I'm kind (ha!) , I open both doors and sweep them out with a long duster , telling them if they dare to come back I won't be so nice next time .

Going to do some gardening and faffing about today .

Afternoon.

Busy day so far: dog walk/run; hair cuts; defrosting the freezer as it wasn't cooling enough (we think we'd been over filling it, so the vents weren't working properly and had frozen up). We're now waiting for it to cool to see if we've fixed the problem!

70, our third washing load has just finished. Typical Saturday!

Meeces, enjoy your caravan weekend.

228

Morning!

Looking like another beautiful day today.

Yesterday I got to the bottom of the laundry baskets. Yay. For about 40 minutes till DS came back with loads of stinky sports kit. I don't know how he manages to wear it all.

Today will be church then gardening then a nice big BBQ.

Happy weekend everybody.

Afternoon!

Absolutely nothing productive going on here today as the weather is just too nice to spend time inside cleaning!

We're having beer in the garden instead!

Ahhh . I think FluffyDog has had a bit tooo much beer

Our cats (being jet black and fur-coated) are sensibly staying indoors but I can bet the farm when I go out later FemaleCat will get a lease of life and demand to "help" .

I planted up the tomatoes , so looking forward to a bumper crop <cross fingers>

227

Morning!

70, FluffyDog isn't a fan of the sunshine. But he does like to be near us, hence where he conked out!

It's cloudy and clammy today, but biting off later when it's going to be rather warm indeed.

I have lots of errands to run and cleaning to do today. Because I was less than productive over the weekend! It's easier to be productive in an empty house, I find!

226

I'm sitting with the door open listening to all the noises of people in the gardens - NDN two little children playing , magpies in the trees, someone mowing their lawn. It is quite restful as I am waiting for dinner (Tuesday Take-Out)and not actually doing anything.
I;ll water the plants and put a load of washing on later, just to give the pretence of activity .

I’m glad you said that 70 - I’m the only one near me with a LO this young and I worry that it annoys people to hear random shouts etc when we’re in the garden.

I’ve had a much less productive day than I should have. We got back from our mini holiday with a ridiculous amount of washing and stuff to unpack and I managed not to do any washing at all today (I put it on timer, went out, got back and realised I hadn’t quite closed the door properly 🙄) so I need to do lots tomorrow.
I’ve unpacked lots but lost the will partway through so some is left.
And right now I’m supposed to be sewing a gazillion name labels into school uniform but instead I’m eating ice cream and scrolling through mn instead.
I’ll be productive tomorrow

Meeces I am oooold and I far prefer to hear shouts and giggles from children playing than the thumping techno that at least one of my neighbours insists on sharing with us the second there's a break in the clouds.

225
Afternoon from a ☀️🥵 Wales. I’m not a fan, it’s too hot in my house for me but the plus side is that I’ve been productive today and have 2 loads of washing on the line. That’s all it can hold so I have the last one ready to go. Will put it on the delay thingy so it’ll be done to go out in the morning.

LO was randomly clingy this morning so not as productive as planned but I’ve done 3 out of 4 phone calls (doing 4th one now as I’m multi tasking), kitchen and conservatory are clean and tidy and living room will be in the next 5 mins. Then it’s just utility room while LO isn’t here.

I’ll then have a break to do the school run, some playing and cook tea before my mum comes for a visit. Then after bedtime etc I’ll sew labels on and I need to iron at least 2 school T-shirts and a pair of shorts 🙄

Woolly the lad opposite is 16 and has a moped and some friends with cars/motorbikes. They’ve taken to going out at 8ish and coming back around 11pm and sitting with engines running while chatting to each other on the street. It’s so loud.
I was debating saying something but last night his mum came out, got them to turn their engines off then we heard her giving them all a right telling off about how inconsiderate it is and if they keep it up, she’ll be “picking him up when he’s out with you and you’ll have to listen to my music all the way home” 😂😂

Missed yesterday
So 224 for Thursday

Today 223

Just eaten toast made from breadmaker bread ( I don't eat much bread so it has to be worth it )

Washing , tidying , going to look for some gym trousers for my DS

I'm also doing washing today, its a lovely drying day.

My tomatoes are coming up really well, I think i'll plant them out into their troughs tomorrow.

DS is knee deep in GCSE's so I'm just feeding him and absorbing the stress and wading through shit loads of pieces of paper that are EVERYWHERE except stuck in the goddam books where they should be.

Ahh good luck MagnoliaDS ... but be aware it gets worse ! Mine liked 2am studying , both seemed to focus late at night .
Which is fine as it's quiet but I'd wake to go to the loo thinking "Are they still awake ? Or fallen asleep and they'll get a stiff neck ?" Or they need tomb like quiet -when the rest of the time they're surrounded by all electrics noise .TV, music, etc
Get bitten if you ask "D'you want a hot drink" but it is just a short time to endure thankfully .