What are you doing for Christmas this week?

[Deliveroo]

Disclaimer - yes I know it’s early, but this is the Christmas Board.

Over the years I’ve worked out a 12 week plan for myself so I can get it all done a little bit at a time. Last week was for reading back over my notes, starting my lists, putting aside money for gift cards (I don’t buy them until December but I put the cash in a card now), and dropping off a bag of unwanted Halloween bits from last year to the charity shop.

This week I have to have the who’s going where conversation so I can get stuck into menu planning. We typically host or visit one set of parents, and then have another family get together on each side too. I need those dates on the calendar so the teens can fit their much more exciting social lives around them.

What will you do for Christmas this week?

We have found the elf and sorted the advent chimney. Phew.

Did a bit more Xmas Shopping - another name off the list!! Still waiting for some deliveries which will clear a few more names. Some of which need wrapping and then mailing off. Some of GCs decorated the tree yesterday and the living room is also clean and clear.
Also blitzed the kitchen diner and got it ready for Christmas. There is usually loads of junk in it, DH's tools, ironing pile - you name it - it's usually there. So all clean and clear now with a new Christmas cloth on the table with DH and myself told - don't even go there!! The sideboard is beginning to look festive with Xmas ornaments and festive treats stacking up on there. Plastic boxes are outside the back door acting as an external fridge for the beer, wine, fruit juices etc
Next room to do will be DS's room which needs a good clean before he, his fiancee and GDD come for a few days at Christmas time. DH and I have decided to do/clear one room at a time in the run up to the big day and then stay on top of it with a dust/hoover.
We were de-cluttering but an excess of work and of GC childcare commitments have blown that out of the window. So doing one room completely at a time over a day or so is more manageable. The downside is .......... the smallest bedroom is allocated as the dumping room for spring decluttering but we can live with that!! I'd rather one room full of stuff than scattered throughout the whole house.
Shopping list for Christmas food and booze is shrinking - it is now just pretty much frozen foods for snacky nibbles and all the fresh stuff to get in and we are done apart from a load of present wrapping to do.

Finished all my Xmas shopping and got the tree up 🙌🙌

Well I got the work rota this week and will be working quite a bit in the run up to Christmas. Whatever happened to retirement?!!
So will need to see NDN next week and have a few spare days that I can take her to the shops in and around doing the school runs. It also means that I need to shop for my freezer nibbles so that is one job out of the way.
DH has been clearing the spare bedroom for DS, his fiancee and GD need to get in to clean, dust and put fresh bedding on the bed. The little bedroom is now chock-a-block with allsorts but we can shut the door on that!!! 😉
Fresh food shopping is looking like a late night evening shop on Christmas Eve eve!! But DS will be here by then so we can do it together. Need to plan dates for removing Christmas meats from the freezer so it has plenty of time to thaw out.
Also now only need to sort presents for 3 people and I'm finished with that. Have also wrapped up NDN's presents from her daughter abroad so she'll have a nice surprise on Xmas Eve/Day. Presents for nieces and nephew have also arrived and have been wrapped, parcelled up and dropped at the Post Office this morning.

I too have work Rota up and it’s going to be a mad one! (Work in retail)
This week just ended I’ve:

• finished up Christmas cards to extended family
• inside decorations all up
• wrapped some gifts, around a quarter

Need to do next week:

• put up outside light up reindeer
• wrap at least 75% of gifts
• make a loose buffet plan for 3x buffets

Things I shouldn’t have done:

• booked a 4 day trip to Devon on 15th Dec 🤣

Not sure how it happened but the decorations are all up.

Left to do; put the wrapped presents in sacks, write some cards for neighbours, have a reorganisation of the freezer and finalise the food order. Oh and some more deep cleaning.

Making a big batch of biscuits for colleagues, to be packed in Christmassy bags.

I got DD’s main present! Absolutely delighted, at a class birthday party I was chatting with some school mums about what the kids had asked for etc, I said DD wants the Barbie dream house and I’d been looking for second hand as I just feel like there’s enough plastic in the world, plus as much as she has been consistent asking for it I’m not convinced it will be played with that much.

Later on one of the mums messaged me and said her daughter had basically never played with hers and had said she didn’t want it any more as she wants bunk beds and a high chair for her baby dolls in her room instead. So we could have it, she didn’t want any money but said just get her some wine so I got her a few bottles, beers for her partner and treats for the kids. Picked it up this week - it’s bloody huge and dismantling it and getting it in the car was interesting.

Now reassembled in the garage ready for manoeuvring into the living room on Christmas Eve! DD will be delighted but I’m not looking forward to having it in my living room for the foreseeable. Going to see if I can make room in her bedroom for it to live!

I’ve also picked up a few bits for her stocking, a few bits for DH’s stocking, and a couple of little craft kits for the friends of hers we swap small gifts with.

We’re working through the cards to her classmates a couple a night.

off on the Santa steam train tomorrow and then away for work, including our work Christmas meal next week. I bought a new dress but it was awful on so I’ve returned it and will make do with something or other from the wardrobe.

Picked up some nice bottles of fizz and a few different cheeses in Aldi, to have at some point Christmas Eve onwards. Finished putting decorative bits and bobs around the house. Not got much going on outside this year, every year I say we’re going to get lights up outside but never manage it. I know there’s time yet but can’t see it happening now. Maybe next year eh?

Do want something nice for the dining room. It’s a very bland white box of a room we’ve not really got round to since moving in 4 months ago - not even managed pictures on the wall yet. As it’s where we’ll be eating Christmas dinner I’d like to get it looking a little more welcoming - I’ve put a garland and some lights round the door and there will be nice things on the table but it needs something else. At the moment it’s just a dumping ground as it’s kind of between the lounge and the kitchen and it’s where DD does homework/ crafts etc so it’s kind of a tip.

I've a meeting tonight for a community group I'm involved with. We normally have tea, coffee and cake at the end of the meeting. We're going to have some Christmas goodies.

Tomorrow we've our Christmas lunch at work.

I need to pick up one or two more things for DD including a gift card for her favourite clothes shop.

I need to pick up gift cards for Nephew 1 (picked out his name in family kriskindle) and Nephew 2 (godchild).

I need to post out some Christmas cards. I suspect I've a few more to write.

I need to clear out the spare room, as I'll probably have guests staying next weekend.

I've two presents arriving tomorrow. I need to wrap a few more.

I might pick up a large decoration or lights for the porch. It's looking a bit bare.

The house is now fully decorated inside and out, it took me a few days as it’s been a busy week but lovely now it’s finished.

DH and I went Christmas shopping yesterday knowing full well we only really have vouchers still to pick up and somehow got each DD a jacket, DS a Lego set and DD’s partner a hoodie.
All that shopping led to dinner and drinks and a slightly sore head this morning.

We have family coming for Sunday lunch today so planning to double up the mash and make a cottage pie with the leftover shredded beef to freeze for the Christmas holidays.

I need to write the cards we send tonight as meeting a friend for breakfast tomorrow and I can take hers.

Roast potatoes all prepped and frozen. More wrapping done. Just the parsnips and carrots to go!

I’m sticking with homemade things this week as I’ve overspent a little on pressies this month. So I’ve made my wreath, found some holly, conifer, ivy with some pretty berries and so that was free as I used a wreath ring I already had. It’s lovely and full looking.
I also decorated the door after raiding the garden centre for their fir offcuts and lots of the above foliage. It looks super cute with twinkly lights.

Op I wish I had got a Christmas diary book when I had DC to note costs each year ,presents and general lists and preparedness .

Anyway today I have taken an old blue box out of my living room and placed oil and paint into it to put in the bottom of the under stairs cupboard.
It means three pots of paint that have been hogging kitchen counters for about two years are put away. It also means I am not worrying about oil spilling under the stairs. One small action but it's taken ages to get around too.

I made a full roast and puddings for 10, took it 200 miles to my dads and cooked it in the world's smallest oven, so thats one gathering and a load of stress ticked off! It also moved half the boxes of gifts out of the spare room which is good.

I've made all but one of the homemade gifts so they can be finished and wrapped this weekend. Today I have done a 300 mile round trip for a funeral so I am having the evening on the sofa when I get home (waiting to do taxi duty from the train right now) and I will be opening the very merry mix with no shred of guilt.

Aside from some big work deadlines that is all the pre christmas stress done now, just some parcels to post this weekend and then 10 days where all the 'duties' are fun ones!

I think the past week has been so busy we have all fallen away from this lovely chat.

I am about to ice two Christmas cakes then I will deliver them this afternoon.
DH finishes at noon after a staff breakfast and then we are meeting in Glasgow to get some Christmas Eve essentials from lush for the DC.

I've iced the Christmas cake this morning too @SkinnyOatFlatWhiteForMePlease. You're right that it has been a bit of a whirlwind! DDs are finishing school today and I've had the day off to get things prepped and packed as we are visiting my BIL and his family a few hours away this weekend.

I wrapped today, far too much. And I shouldn’t have done as I’m now in a world of pain.

Tomorrow is a North Pole breakfast that the elves will bring in the night.

The dining room needs a tidy so I can unload the Christmas treats either on to the piano or the dresser.

ive also got a cake to decorate, ive not fed it since it got shoved in the dining room, but it started well fed and its very well wrapped.

Glad everyone is getting their cakes decorated, I quite enjoy seeing it done but always find it stressful 🫣.

Today DD and I are off for a spa morning - DH is dropping us off so I can have a mimosa or two.

I was SO organised, mostly bought by mid November, pretty much all wrapped by start of Dec, cake made etc etc.

Then I feel like I kind of took my eye off the ball and I’ve ended up way behind.

Presents pretty much sorted but I have a few extra bits and bobs for DH I’ll just do tonight - it’s our anniversary on Monday, we don’t usually do gifts but sometimes he surprises me so I have kept something in reserve and if not I can stick it on the stocking 😆

I have a food shop coming Monday evening, but when I went in to add something just now it told me the meat I wanted for Christmas Eve was out of stock so I’m going to have to try and brave the butchers - which will be nicer anyway I was just being lazy getting it all delivered (in laws have procured the turkey from a shop local to them!)

Weve also last minute decided we’re hosting a lot of family on 27th - we were always going to get together anyway but my sister who usually hosts has had a very stressful year, and finally relented yesterday and said actually she wouldn’t mind if someone else did it, so it’s fallen to us (I had of course offered before but my side of the family are not big on making concrete plans till the last possible minute!)

So I’m now trying to work out a menu that means I don’t need to spend Boxing Day trawling the supermarket, but also isn’t going to take up too much fridge space in the meantime! Freezer hasn’t got an inch of room in it currently.

Got to ice my cake too. It’s never the most aesthetically pleasing but it tastes good.

DH out tonight I’ve promised DD a take away and Christmas movie night.

Tomorrow we might do the elf trail at a local Tudor house, see how we feel. It doesn’t need booking. Also will do some more mince pies - made 36 on Wednesday and they’re all gone! (They are tiny though, I don’t like big ones).

Monday I’m working in the morning and then taking DD to the local theatre with a friend and her daughter to see a kids Christmas thing. Then in the evening DH cooking something lovely for our anniversary.

Tuesday relative from abroad arrives in the evening. I’m still working in the day but from home and will really just be a case of keeping an eye on my emails, the rest of my team have already finished as have 99% of the clients we work with so there won’t be much.

@SkinnyOatFlatWhiteForMePlease yes, it's a very busy time of year. I had the last of my Christmas nights out on Thursday night, so they're all out of the way.

And I posted all my Christmas cards on Thursday and Friday. I may send another one or two - I didn't have the addresses to hand when I did the rest.

Today I've to change the bedding in my bedroom, so I can get the nice bedding washed, and back on the bed, in time for the arrival of my visitors on the 26th December. I'll sacrifice my bedroom (double bed) for my guests and I'll sleep in the small, single room. I'll also dust and hoover my bedroom today.

I've to hit Tesco later, but that's mainly my normal weekly shop. The big Christmas shop will take place early on Tuesday morning - the fresh stuff like breakfast ingredients and veg. etc. I might get the booze today. I've been saving my Clubcard points all year - I'll use them today. And I may pick up another present or two.

As well as the shopping, I've to pick up a few Christmas related bits - like an extension lead to make it easier to switch on and off the Christmas tree lights. and a cute little reindeer for my porch.

Tomorrow I'll clear out and hoover the other spare bedroom. And clean one of the bathrooms.

I've a few presents to wrap - might do them later.

Aiming to have everything done by the evening of the 23rd December. I want to relax and put my feet up on Christmas Eve and watch lots of nice Christmassy stuff on TV.

@SkinnyOatFlatWhiteForMePlease I forgot to say, I hope you enjoyed your spa morning.

Today is about shopping for DH, PJs for DD, something for DF, and hopefully for my team (of 7). Also packing my suitcase. And maybe getting my apartment clean and laundry sorted (1 load dried, q load washing and still have to change and wash both sheets and towels, which is 2 more loads).

And checking in.

I have plenty more small jobs to do, and crafts. But those are the important ones.

We're getting the house ship shape today. I live with people who use every spare surface to dump shit on, so today it's going to find homes! The kids inherited the 'dump shit everywhere' gene from DH. 🙄

I'm going to wrap my niece's present and put everything into a bag to go back south with my sister who's visiting tomorrow.

Once the place is tidied (cleaning is Monday's job) I'll feel much happier.

DH is also going to collect two of the four chairs we're borrowing from his parents later today. We're having 11 people here, so are rather short of seats!

I’ve chucked everyone out as I’m cleaning the house this weekend. Just polished the silver cutlery, now making carrot and parsnip soup, then will get started upstairs.

Tonight, I’m going to sort out the non-perishables into the days that they will be used. Plus all the baking ingredients for the stuff I’m going to make.

I’ve just made some cranberry and pistachio biscotti, it’s lovely. Only made a small batch so I think I’ll do some more. Dough for the biscuits dd and I are also making is just chilling. Ignoring the rather more boring jobs in favour of baking.

I put our lovely ‘posh’ bedding on last week - I’m going to try and wash and dry it in one day tomorrow so I can get it back on in to have over Christmas - I don’t want to go back to the boring stuff.