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!

@Gracesquirrel I’m glad she is comfortable and not suffering. Awful for the family though and sounds very tiring.

I went to the garden centre. I’ve bought sprout plants and red sprout plants and sever types of cabbage. I’ve planted red cabbage, parsnip, corn and pumpkin seeds. Also got peas, beans, courgettes, tomatoes and beetroot to plant. So lots of things to go in the allotment and hopefully veg for Christmas.

I made my 1st Christmas buy over the weekend! 2 'postbox' tins with biscuits. The biscuits will be a month passed best before but I think that's fine. The tins are really lovely

242

Monday done. Four days until the three day weekend.

And a Palindromic Countdown Number

I'm going to try and buy some tomato plants this weekend , I've grown them the past two years and they are delicious off the vine .

Also looking forward to the BH Weekend , Going up That Lardnan (I know probably bonkers move but I'm hoping everyone else will think it's too busy and stay away !)

I have 3 days until a 4 day weekend as I worked my day off today, and have swapped it for Friday. I had to have a client meeting today.

I'm looking forward to it!

70, I got my tomato plants too early. I currently have baby tomatoes on my lounge windowsill! 🤣 They'll have a shock when I turf them outside soon enough.

I made a lovely chicken pie at lunchtime, which we've had for dinner. And I've got a beef box coming from our local saltmarsh herd on Thursday, so it'll be lasagne on Thursday night (I got the pork mince from Abel and Cole last week)! 😋

DH has curry to make tomorrow, as I'm working from the office. I've just marinaded the chicken thigh pieces so it'll taste amazing once cooked in 24 hours.

70, I'm taking DS to London on the second BH Monday for the night. We're booked into the NHM on Tuesday morning. No doubt we'll visit the Leicester Square Lego shop on Monday evening!

241

Afternoon!

Office day today. Always hard work! Although nice to see people.

It's always chilly in Liverpool, for some reason. God knows how that works!

I'm invigilating today. Was crazy busy yesterday getting stuff set up but today a lot calmer.

Enjoy your office day Fluffy.

240

Afternoon all - going clothes shopping with DH to get him some tops for our up coming cruise might also get myself a couple of new eye liners then we are off out for a meal this evening with DH's old colleagues, looking forward to seeing them.

239 into the two hundred and thirties
Grace did you get your cruise clothes (well your DH)

My DH just has to take some shirts, nice trousers, jacket, tie, smart shoes .
I have to take enough sequins to make Dame Edna jealous .

My Evening Cruise wear is bagged up till we go away , but I have some naice frocks blousey looking florals mainly , for evenings that aren't formal

@70isaLimitNotaTarget

He got 2 of the 3 tops he wanted but they are having a restock tomorrow so hopefully it will come back in stock.

I'm the same with my evening cruise wear - its kept in a seperate wardrobe in plastic laundry style bags, I rarely wear any of those outfits other than on a cruise as we don't tend to go anywhere needing to be that dressy. Mine consist entirely of tops, black trousers (I dont wear skirts or dresses) & a pair of sequined trousers. Lots of sequins and sparkles theres usually only 1 formal gala night when DH wears his suit, most evenings you can dress as fancy or casual as you like or to match whatever that nights theme is (White night, Tropical Night, Disco Fever). As I use a powered wheelchair on the cruise skirts or dresses tend to get caught in the wheels so best avoided. We are super organised when traveling so my clothes and shoes were all sorted a nonth ago, hubbys now pretty much done,

I also went through my make up bag hence getting a couple of new eye liners - again I only really wear make up in the evenings on the ship, most of the time I never wear make up these days. We like doing the photo shoots in the evenings - I have always always hated photos of myself cos I look huge but on our first cruise we went on the first night then saw the photos in the shop the following day and I burst into tears as I had honestly thought I'd never see a pic of me that I liked and there were 20+ I liked so we went every night and at the end of the cruise we had 300 😂and I like a good 100 or so of them - even have one on the lounge wall!! Last couple of cruises we only bought a 5 photo package and just chose the 5 we liked the most but this time they did a black friday sale and I got the full digital package for less than 5 prints would have cost me so we'll probably have another few hundred - it will be interesting trying to get into the poses with my balance issues this time but thats half the fun.

238

And Happy May Day!!

Excited to hear about your cruises Grace and 70. Where will you sail to? I quite like watching Jane Macdonald on her cruise shows.

Lovely day today and I am not working so gym, then shopping then gardening with about 4 loads of washing at various points of the day.

My tomatoes and courgettes were looking great but I put them outside on Wednesday to start acclimatising and it was so windy they got a bit bent 🙄I am going to plant in troughs today so hope I can stake them somehow.

238

Morning!

What a lovely day yesterday. Bit breezy, but beautiful. We apparently have rain on the way today, but it's sunny for now.

I'm off today, and also took yesterday afternoon off as I've got a rotten cold and feel crap. I didn't even take FluffyDog out yesterday morning (DH did instead) as I just wasn't up to it. I have today though...kill or cure! (Felt like kill to start with!)

I'm popping in to see my parents later. Not for long though as I don't want to transmit germs.

Magnolia, my tomatoes went out yesterday for the first time. I think they were a bit windswept last night too! I need to turf them out again today. They need potting on as well. Something else for this weekend.

We are a tired house today. LO has been off school ill since Wednesday with me and DH tag teaming who has to look after him and who is working. Today I’m working the morning then DH is going in this afternoon which means LO is going to have to come to the dentist with me.
We’re all exhausted.

I haven’t done tomatoes this year and i think I killed all but one of my chilli plants by forgetting about them and letting them dry and wilt. Not sure I can be arsed to replace them either tbh.

My mini cucumber plants are coming on ok though and I saw that last years strawberry plant has been growing in its basket without me noticing so we have that.

We’re planning to do a lot of moving and tidying in the garden over the long weekend as it’s a mess following building works etc. I’ll do a proper survey of what’s growing/what isn’t etc while we’re out there and make a plan.

Have been happily joining in the Christmas aesthetic thread on the board - it’s a nice festive distraction if anyone needs it (bit bonkers mind you, but nice all the same)

The Christmas Aesthetic Thread started off a bit bristly didn't it ! Very It's April what are you on about , countered with the Christmas threads that's what
Bit like The Christmas Fridge Threads

Did washing , tidying, DH did gardening . Bought my tomato plants .

I was going to recycle my white jeggings but DD said they'd be nice with my new jacket so they got rescued from the bag. They're not too Liz Hurley , I don't think . (and they still fit but will be better after my Birthday Bootcamp - I'm surprising myself how well I'm doing )

237

lovely here , we went Up That Larndarn this morning , it was busy as expected .
I had a few shops I wanted to go into but came home empty handed .
DD got clothes she was looking for .

I think shopping proper is online or shopping mall like BlueWater .
I did have a sniff at some perfume I was thinking about but decided against .
And couldn't find TShirts I was looking for in store
Or shoes
<meh>

70, I can never get anything in store being a giant amongst women. All shopping is online.

It's gorgeous here right now. Set to rain later and all day tomorrow. The farmer has been tilling the field across the road, ready to put seed in. The soil is a beautiful colour!

I'm still not well. Can't work out if recovery is on the way or not, mind!

We went to the dog field this morning and I've been less than productive since! I have potted my tomatoes and chillies on, and they're on our balcony. It amuses me that moving a plant to a new pot makes it go floppy, like it's a bad thing. 🤣 Bless them; they'll get over it.

Glad you said that about the floppy plants Fluffy as mine are really droopy. I've just chucked some mixed cut and come again salad leaf seeds in the troughs as well.

Very brave to go to London on a Saturday morning 70.

I had a stressful day, had to drop kids to various training then was planning to go to the gym but the cat hasn't been very well and still wasn't eating this morning so I managed to get an emergency vet appointment. Spent 2 hours in the vets having various tests and unfortunately he has pancreatitis. Its thankfully probably cureable/manageable - he has tablets, had an anti nausea injection and will probably have to eat special diet but thank goodness all ok.

And all that was for the very lovely price of £398!!!!!! I nearly fell over when the receptionist told me. That includes a 10% discount coz we are on the healthcare plan.

Pets cost more than humans I am sure.

£398?!?!?! Jeez! Is said cat insured to at least take some of the hit?!

The floppy plants are amusing. I got used to it when I had the allotment. They went all Kevin the teenager on moving! 🤣

236 Morning. Much better here today as LO slept with DH and I got a full, almost uninterrupted 7 and a half hours sleep 🥳

70 I enjoy shopping in person when I’m not in desperate need of anything but most clothes and house purchases are made online.

Hope you’re feeling better today Fluffy

Your poor cat magnolia (and your poor bank balance)!
Our old dog got pancreatitis when he was 14 and I remember panicking as he was so ill but similarly to you, some medication then a very gentle diet (scrambled egg/boiled chicken/tuna in spring water or randomly, a cheap, fish based dog food mixed with rice) and he recovered within a couple of weeks.

I made a start on the garden yesterday. I replaced my daffodil troughs with ones I made up of last years flowers that are coming to back to life.
Have bought some tall flowers (can’t remember what they’re called) to plant out the front and have some little blue somethings for our the back.
Am also pleased with last years plants for the front - the acer is growing some great red leaves and my 2 evergreen plants (again, no idea what they’re called) are growing like mad. One has white and green leaves and one is growing blue flowers so there’s a mix of colour and it looks nice.

We tidied up and moved some furniture around then abandoned the job as it suddenly started to rain heavily.

Plan for today is housework, pick up a c&c from Dunelm on the way out for lunch with ILs, home, garden or house jobs depending on weather, bath for LO, then ironing when hes in bed. Exciting but all part of the plan to get on top of stuff and feel like I can breathe rather than drowning all the time.

We are planting out at the allotment today. It’s inspections this week so we need to make it look loved! Cabbage and sprouts for Christmas. My little tiny greenhouse has parsnips and red cabbage seeds not germinating in it. I neee them to grow!

I don’t know if anyone has seen my thread about cheeselets. Treeselets are a big part of Christmas here. I fear they are gone forever if they have changed them in the same way they’ve changed cheeselets. I’m very sad.

magnolia, hope the cat gets better soon.

Glad you managed a good nights sleep Meeces - its a game changer isn't it?

Cat still not eating but I think it might be a slow recovery. Boiled chicken and rice is a good idea. Got some low fat food as well - he is going to hate me. Insurance is £100 excess and also an extra £50 as I didn't "triage" the cat through their online vet service first (had no idea that was a thing). But obvs paying £150 better than £398 (as long as they do pay me back).

Plants still sulking.

Bloody hell, I need to check our dog insurance to see if lack of video vet contact means we'd pay more for a claim. Hopefully not!

My tomato plants look very pissed off.They're enjoying being on the balcony as much as they enjoyed being potted on! 😬🤣

@FurForksSake, I used to sow my parsnips direct - 3 seeds per hole as they're not renowned for easy germination! Bloody things!