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!

I’ll take my tree down tomorrow but I’ll keep some twinkly lights. Much declutterring to be done but insomnia is affecting my motivation.

Christmas has gone now chez cooking The tree has been sawn into chunks to await collection, towels, mugs, decorations all packed and put away. I am cheering myself up with the fact that Advent starts on 30 Nov this year so I can put it up in 330 days!
I will use up remnants of Christmas soaps and candles this month.!

353

Morning

@ElsieElf love the idea of the £50 in the decorations box for a takeaway when youve put the tree up. Am stealing that one.

@70isaLimitNotaTarget glad to hear you're feeling better.

Jealous of all you folk with snow. Saw some photos in the news of kids sledging and building snowmen, so cute. Just very wet here.

The house has been officially de-Christmassed.....already missing the lights on the tree.

Still lots of Christmas food left which I'll take to the food bank....I need to get OFF the shortbread and ON the fresh veg!

@ElsieElf I too love the £50 idea, fantastic!

I've already started putting beauty bits away for DD's advent calendar.

We’ve de-Christmased the house. I have ordered posh Christmas socks for DDs.

DH is sulking about the Christmas tree coming down because everything looks too dark. I know what he means 😢.
We had a big roast yesterday beef, Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes, so good. I'm not cooking today though because I trapped my fingers in the clothes airer and they don't want to bend. Pizza tonight

I forgot when packing up the decorations that we altered things slightly so the giant laundry bag contains cushions, blanket, wooden advent calendar and Christmas clothes and is placed deliberately st the front so we can get it down ready for 1st December and do the rest a bit later.

I'm afraid I was also one of those people who got the decs down early this year but I had a good reason. I usually like them up as early in December as I can get away with and down on NYE though.

Have realised we missed a fair few things though - a plate and 2 mugs, the doormat, a candle, a scarf and a snowman baubles. Oops

Meeces I painted some MDF letters one year that spelled JOY and put them up in the kitchen on the side of a cabinet as part of our Christmas decorations. They stayed up for three years 😂

I bought some letters XMAS many years ago (20+ years) and put three of them M-A-X on the mantlepiece (DS name )

No idea where the S went to , could've spelled out MAXS

I obviously missed a trick 70. I should have called one of my DDs Joy - although that would probably have led to accusations of favouritism 😂

My DD watched all the episodes of "Playing Nice" and she made us watch the last 2 because they wouldn't play on her TV so she watched on the main telly .

No Spoilers , it is one of those "Suspend Belief" dramas rather than "Well that's 4 hours I won;t get back"
DD loves James Norton ( she watched Happy Valley and Grantchester so many times !) but prefers him as TLR in Happy Valley .
He;s a bit of a wimp in Playing Nice

Completely off topic, but James Norton was brilliant in "Joy" If you haven't seen it, it's worth a watch.

Ugh! Sorry! I meant to quote 70!

352

Morning!

Wintery weather here. I'm meant to be in the office today, but the paths are lethal underfoot after wet snow froze, so I'm not risking the walk to the station (it's 2 miles, so many opportunities to come a cropper!).

I think it's meant to be rained away through the morning though, thankfully.

We binge watched The Cleaner on iPlayer this weekend. The earlier seasons were funnier than series 3. Some proper snort laughing moments.

Looks like being a dry day here today thank goodness coz I'm off to work shortly.

We watched The Day of the Jackal which was brilliant. I also watched Lockerbie (very good) but DH scared of flying so he wouldn't watch.

I also started Bad Sisters series 2 coz I love Sharon Horgan.

Playing Nicely is on my watch list. DH watched The Cleaner without me so i need to catch up on that.

January is definitely the month for box sets.

Greetings all!

Veeery cold here but no snow.

MonkeyDog was sick on the rug last night..will take him in a shorter walk today.

We started watching Playing Nice last night.
It's good but the storyline is slightly preposterous!

I think it's the only series I've seen where I'm not loving James Norton...and his accent keeps changing!

@Magnoliasunrise
Bad Sisters 2 is great and has the amazing Fiona Shaw in it.

@MonkeyTennis34 I said to dh that his accent keeps changing and it's very offputting!

I enjoyed Playing Nice but it was very as if, that wouldn't happen! Still, it's not real, it's only tv!

The Guardian didn't think much of it! 🙈😬

I haven't watched "Joy" but I'm sure my DD has .
DD has a James Norton coaster that I bought her but she "diesn't like to put a hot drink on James' wee face "

I was watching the end of Playing Nice Thinking "Now James as a Type 1 Diabetic you should know better than to walk barefoot on a beach , there could be glass or sharp rocks or all sorts" (not Liquorice Allsorts)

351

I am bally freezing !
It isn't as cold here ( in East Larndarn) as it is elsewhere . My car thermometer was 0 this morning and 2 on the way home .

There was a house I drove past yesterday with Full On decorations outside , inflatable Santa , lights . ( They will incur the wrath and realise the error of their ways . Or not give a toss . Who knows)

I reckon everyone is hibernating !

Well, the dog had me ice skating earlier, as there was black ice everywhere. Plus the path in the woods was sheet ice, so I had to walk on the foliage to the side of the path to have a hope of staying upright! Loads of slips. Might have used all of my luck in not going over, I reckon.

We're forecast -3° overnight. And it's going to be a wet cold, so no doubt there will be dangerous pavements again. Exhilarating! 🙄😩

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to exercise more. I try to keep fit but let it slip lately so I wanted to throw myself back into it but my word does it hurt!. My thighs are burning.

I’ve been wanting to watch Playing nice but haven’t found the time, I might be able to this weekend.

It’s absolutely Baltic here. I can’t seem to get warm, even under a heated blanket. It was slippy out this morning, we almost fell a couple of times!.

350

I went back to the gym today and I could hardly walk down the stairs afterwards. Its amazing what 2 weeks off does.

Very cold and icy here. But such a beautiful day.

I put some suet balls out for the birds then wondered if they might fancy the leftover Christmas cake but theres so much booze in it it may be bird abuse.

Ain't no party like a pissed up birdies' party, Magnolia. 😬🤣

Bloody freezing here too. I took these photos on the way back from school this morning.

I went on the cross trainer on Tuesday. I had the same issues with my thighs (ongoing, tbh). It's very different to running, which I obviously do daily with the mutt.

It was mercifully less slippery today, until it snowed / hailed (soft, but in tiny balls, like polystyrene!). Then it was like running on teeny marbles! I avoided the woods due to the ice rink path (and saw a dog walker on my way back from school doing the same with her dog!).

Tonight will be as cold. Hopefully it won't freeze the ground again (the cars were igloos though!).