Here we go again...Countdown to Christmas 2026 (Thread 1)

[NoWordForFluffy]

365

Evening!

I'm a bit tipsy and very tired, but it's been a good day.

Round 2 tomorrow with the roast dinner!

275

Happy Rudolph Day

It is Blowin' a Hoolie here ,I'll need to scour the garden retrieving things .
I finally bought the Easter Eggs for the DC after looking at them for weeks on end .
I've got some A/L so going to faff about the house doing things I'd been putting off . Putting my winter clothes in the attic ( though looking at today that might be a bit hasty ! ) starting with my heavy duty coats for now .

We've had rain, hail, snow as well as 45mph winds! It's sunny again for now. Not for long, no doubt!

My mincemeat ingredients arrived today, other than glacé cherries and potentially currants. I need to check what we have and add them to Sunday's delivery if required.

Our first stash of booze also came today! I tend to do about 4 orders across the year when it's 25% off 6, using Nectar points. We'd got to £300 worth, so I decided it was time to splurge!

Sorry to hear your news, Fur. I'm glad everyone got to see her though.

I made mincemeat years ago @NoWordForFluffy , the Delia recipe where you cook on a low oven heat . I cannot remember how it turned out but I think it was okay . Didn't put it in the bin but I didn't repeat it either .

Easter HotCross Bun selection is trickier than Mince Pies as they bring out so many new outlandish flavours . One I read was a HotCross Bun Afternoon Cream Tea , where you have jam and cream in the bun rather than a scone .
The jury is out on that one

But I was wafting round M&S looking for the Lemon Curd ones ( I had a £1 off on my Sparks ) they had none . Denied !
Some very odd offerings though (Tiramisu, Red Velvet, Lemon Curd (I would try) , Cheese, Chocolate, Mini Millionaire ,Granny Smith ) that's just M&S .
I;m sure everywhere else is branching out too !

Happy Rudolph Day too!! That came round quick!

I am not making mincemeat again this year, I still have a jar in the cupboard from Christmas just gone but I wasn't impressed (think it was a Nigel Slater recipe). This year I am buying mince pies.

Haven't had a hot cross bun yet so I will enjoy mooching the M&S offerings although the tills piss me off at M&S, they never recognise the bar codes and I always have to swipe many times. Grrr.........

We had BIBLICAL hail and lighting this afternoon, quite a shock.

I put a load of towels out today , windy but blue sky ....then we had hailstones .!
I left them out , they did get 99% dry which was amazing . Got them in as the sky went grey , not going to push my luck too much !

I get through loads of mincemeat. I love a homemade mince pie! And I'm biased, but mine are really good! 😋 Recipe attached. I prefer this mincemeat to a more traditional one like Delia's (which I used to make til I found this one).

70, our towels also did amazingly well considering they were hailed on. 2 hours in high winds is very drying it seems! 🤣🤣

It was my office day today. Thought maybe I’d misjudged the weather when I was at the station in my coat and woman next to me was in a cardigan and sunnies - but about 20 mins after I got to the office we had loads of rain and hail.

I don’t like hot cross buns and DH was horrified to realise he’d accidentally picked up choc chip ones by mistake (he is a staunch traditionalist for them).

I bought all my Easter eggs today (including 15 for one of LOs clubs). Sainsbury’s woman looked at me like I was bonkers 😂

Im tired and have pulled a muscle in my back but also have loads of stuff that needs doing as we’re going away on Sunday. Sigh. I can’t be arsed!

Fur I’m very sorry for your loss. I think it may be too early to think about how Christmas will be this year (unless it’s helping you). I hope you and your family are as ok as they can be

274

That recipe looks good @NoWordForFluffy I think I will give it a try on a Rudolph Day. I like it that it is a specifically freeze ahead recipe. They will probably be gone by Christmas but hey ho.

Would you like the full recipe, @Magnoliasunrise, not just the mincemeat part? The pastry is so tasty (it has egg, cream and orange zest in it).

It's a gorgeous day here today so far. Cold, but bright sunshine. The dog celebrated by taking me on a bit of a trek round everywhere this morning! We have some rain forecast later though. Not as much as yesterday / last night, however...it was chucking it down when I went to bed!

I would LOVE the full recipe please @NoWordForFluffy - my pastry was also a bit shit like the mincemeat 😂

273

Grey here , luckily I got most of the washing out of the way when it was bright and very breezy yesterday .
I am looking at two nearly empty washing baskets . They will never be properly empty as some little gremlins fill them . Nature abhors a vacuum 'n all that .

I made a delicious vegetable soup yesterday , no pulses this time , I might do it again over Easter but fewer potatoes .
Need to think about the menu over Easter weekend too . Apart from chocolate , obvs

Very quick post from me. Have literally just found out I didn’t get a job I went for so I’m feeling upset/stupid/annoyed and am stepping away from my screen for 5.

Thankfully we’re going away so I don’t have to deal with work for a week.

Weather here is shit. Plan for today is to finish work (half day), pack for holiday, dry the load of washing I have on, nursery pick up then a nice hour or 2 doing some craft stuff with DS before I get to watch him get a badge for swimming.
This evening I’m going to curl up with a book and have an early night I think. I feel rubbish and exhausted.

Ahhh Meeces that is shit .

Will they encourage you to have a meeting for 'feedback' ?

( I had similar feelings a few years back , I was encouraged to apply , I did , had the interview and not successful . When they asked me if I wanted to discuss I thought "Fxxk It , no . I obviously wasn't right - the interview wasn't my best work )

Use your time off to unwind . Difficult not to gnash your teeth and go over things I know

It’s so annoying. I wasn’t sure I was ready as only been back 6 months after LO and am still getting to grips with balancing everything but was encouraged as I’m ’practically Doing to the job anyway’ so I feel a bit silly.
And yes, they’ve offered a feedback meeting and I’ve said yes but not until after holiday and I would prefer written feedback as I won’t take it in if it’s a video call.

Ah, Meeces, I'm sorry to hear that. It's especially frustrating when you've been encouraged to apply as well.

We are having all seasons in a day here. It was wet and cold for my dog walk this morning and now it's blazing sunshine. Still chilly, but annoying how cold and wet I got earlier!

I'm pretty sure my little tree is dead. There's not sign of this year's growth spurt, and I think it looks more brown today. I've fed it again in the vain hope it does something, but I may need to get a 2-3 ft tree this year. Oops.

@Magnoliasunrise, recipe is attached. I don't make any other mince pies now (unless I put a frangipani top on these ones), as they're so tasty.

272

Morning!

It's a hair cut day today, so I've taken the dog out bright and early and breakfast is imminent.

Bright and breezy so far. Not sure if it'll hold or not. Time will tell.

My bulbs finally have a couple of flowers. One pot is rammed with green (oops!) but no flowers. The other is more sparse with some little purple flowers. No clue what! 🤣

Hyperventilates
Posting to shift this forwards as it's on 666 posts !

Ahh that's better .
I got some Easter decorations .
Just going to dust off the Easter Wreath ( it's Spring flowers , not bunnies )

Went out to find a jacket but not anywhere instore so ended up ordering online . Now it is getting to Spring I need to shed my padded coat and think about something light weight . I am still of the age where I think "I need to take a coat"

I need to book my hair appointment
I got my mammogram booked and going to book a dental appointment so I'm getting organised .
Might dye my hair tonight <on a roll>

271

Morning! And don't forget the clocks have gone forward.

I did my Easter decorations yesterday so I have an Easter tree (branches in a massive vase with eggs hanging off them) and some blossom/little hand painted eggs the kids did over the years on my hall console table. I will get a bunch of tulips later today.

Off to church shortly then garden centre after the gym.

It was sooooo windy yesterday I managed to get 2 loads dry. My new thing is to hang everything on hangers and clothes peg to the line so if it doesn't need ironing it can go straight into the wardrobe. Really good for the mountains of sports kit that the kids go through.

Morning! We had family over last night for a takeaway. I took myself off after eating as I’m just exhausted at the moment. We don’t decorate for Easter, I do fancy some giant branches!

Morning!

I can't imagine things on hangers staying safely on the line, Magnolia. I imagine it frees up space for extra washing though!

We have a dry, windy, spell later on, so I'll wash the bedding once it's half price electricity and hang it out for then. Bedding dries dead quickly in the wind.

We're having roast chicken for dinner. 😋 Can't wait (we may have some potatoes in the freezer for roasting, so will eat those if so).

I have some hanger holder thingies cannot remember when I got them but I know they were QVC.
Imagine a chunky hook and two arms that fold down ( press button release ) each has 6 holes to fit a clothes hanger in ( so twelve hangers on each hook)
They do stay really well in place , I hang them over the metal arm of the airer . I also use those flock non slip hangers in a variety of colours from off white through to black )
When they get hung out or brought in , it is a case of carrying one hook ( the arms fold up laden too )

If my DC ever leave home I will give them one each ( I think I've got five or six of them )

270

Morning!

Bright and windy again here. More washing being done, as ever.

I now have little white flowers in my other bulb lasagne. Still no clue what they are, mind you!

I saw some beautiful tulips in somebody's front garden yesterday. Mine are nowhere near flowering (assuming they've even grown...hard to know at this point!).

Its sooooooo windy here too. I've got bedding on the line and I reckon it will be dry in an hour.

I've been to the gym, now about to make a couple of lasagnes for the freezer.

I've got some tulips up already and the bulb lasagne has some lovely daffs and some pretty white flowers and blue flowers that I can't remember the names of.

269 Afternoon. We're on holiday but temps are a bit all over the place. Windy and 12° one day, a clear and bright 18° yesterday and mix today. I don't mind, I'm not a heat lover and anything is better than being back in work and dealing with the embarrassment of not getting the job.

Absolutely nothing festive to note.
We don't decorate for Easter. Tbh for years both families barely acknowledged it apart from my mum liking to do a lamb roast but last year she went a bit mad with Easter presents for the dc, eggs for everyone and decorations everywhere which she's repeating this year.

Now I'm going back to sitting on the balcony with a book while DH entertains LO with some drawing (we've done lazy morning, park, beach, lunch, more beach, more park and walking back so need to chill out now).