Woooooooahhhhh, we're half way there! Countdown to Christmas 2026 (thread 2)

[NoWordForFluffy]

183

Phew, it's a scorcher!

Happy birthday to 70's DD. Best date for a birthday ever!

Listening to Heart Christmas radio now 😁 🌲🎁🎄🧑‍🎄

I've been listening to Magic Christmas as Heart keeps playing 3 different versions of Jingle Bell Rock in a row, and that's too much even for me!

🎄 90 🎄!!

Morning. Came downstairs and it was really cold this morning. Not sure that should make me quite as happy as it did - even LO went back up to get his oodie thing and he never complains about being cold.

I haven’t listened to the radio in my car in ages (I always listen to music from my phone as I don’t have patience with the radio) but found out yesterday that there’s something wrong with it - only found out because I added magic Christmas to my channels and realised it won’t play/plays intermittently. Will need to sort that out.

Plans for today - cleaning while DH and LO go to club 1. Then we’ll all go to club 2, food shopping then home. Possibly taking LO out on the scooter while DH does some jobs. Very boring.

Ninety Days

We have a dry bright day , slight breeze .
I have washing on the go . DD wants her bedding washed so I'll get them done and out . Tomorrow is Half Price Electricity so DS sheets can go on then and in the tumble dryer as we have the promise of rain.

The weeds are like triffids <sigh> DS can sort them when he gets back from the gym, his spine is younger .
I need to drop things at the charity shop and post office .
DH is going to plough on with the decorating (Forth Road Bridge springs to mind here )

Morning! DH got the last C&C Buck's Fizz from the shelf in M&S today. It's a small store though, so didn't even have room for more than 6 in the shelf at a time. It's on 2 for £8 as well, so he got a 'Let it Sloe' fizz to make the most of that offer! We will try again another day for more bottles.

I have the food catalogue now, so will get some of the buffet bits once they're in store. The meat is already sorted, and I'll get my bought sides from Booths. I did pick up a lovely large red cabbage in Sainsbury's as well, so I'll get that made and frozen soon.

Oh, and I was chatting with one of the dog walkers I see regularly in the woods earlier on, and I said I was making mince pies this weekend, and he asked for the recipe! His partner's daughter is our neighbour, so I messaged her with it to pass on. Got to love the Christmas spirit.

I didn't do anything Christmassy yesterday either, it was quite a shit day, went to a different Primary school and the boy I was working with kept telling me "I can get you fired" (he can't obvs) and then running off just because I was trying to get him to do some maths.

Today is a beeyootiful day though and we have friends coming for dinner so I am whipping up yummy food. I'm doing a spiced plum pavlova for dessert and its basically cooking the plums in mulled wine so the house smells very festive.

Is the blummin C&C already in store then and nobody told me?!!!

Fluffy your dad sounds like a true Christmas hero.

I got the paper copy too - I just keep getting it out for a quick look. Nearly got the Sainsbos one today but didn't look as exciting as the M&S one.

@Magnoliasunrise, someone on the bargain thread mentioned they'd bought some this week, so I sent DH in today (we was coming back past there from somewhere he'd popped into). He picked up another food brochure as I could tell that mum was quite fond of the one dad had got! I've told her to let me know what buffet bits she fancies from it.

(The Buck's Fizz wasn't there last Sat as I checked.)

Brilliant news, i will be on the lookout from now on.

89

And we're into the eighties
I used my Hallowe'en bag yesterday , it's one of those foldaway ones that goes in my bag as we approach October . I saw someone out with a Christmas bag so they were way ahead of me
DD has chosen some pyjamas for winter (not full on Christmas ones )

I decided at 10pm to spray the inside of the oven, then saw the inner door was a bit manky so used the glass blade to theraputically scrape it away .

70 using seasonal shopping bags at the right time never occurred to me! We have a set of bags for life etc in each car. DHs are all sensible Sainsbury’s and Aldi ones but mine are: a grinch bag, a hotwheels bag, an M&S Christmas one (with a wreath on), one from the local Christmas factory shop and a sensible one. Should I rotate them do you think?

Im currently at a birthday party, a K-pop one and the kids are all being encouraged to sing as loud as they can 🙉

Looking forward to going to DM’s for a peaceful dinner after this. Then will be home, putting the playroom/conservatory back together, doing a wash and some ironing then calling it a day.

Sympathies Meeces. I've been to enough loud birthday parties to feel your pain.

We've got 2 hours free electricity happening now so the drier is on, the washing machine is doing a 90 degree maintenance wash and I'm charging the vacuum cleaner, my kindle and my power bank!

my sister and BIL are at a weekend event nearby so they are popping in for a quick visit later this afternoon. Apart from that it's a quiet Sunday - DH is cooking 😬 and I'll be knitting.

Ha, we have 5 hours of half price electricity, so I'm on my second 60° wash, the dishwasher is on, I've made a banana loaf and I'm about to roll my pastry out to do two lots of mince pies!

Meeces, you may need to invest in earplugs for the whole class party years! 😬🤣

I was in M&S today (didn't go anywhere near alcohol though so cannot update on the Cranberry&Clementine Bucks Fizz availabilty ) bought something quick for dinner and Christmas patterned kitchen towels .

Last year I happened to find the Aldi Candy Cane ones .
In the past I've bought The Snowman ones in Iceland
M&S ones have a Robin pattern.

I have ordered The Snowman loo roll online as I can never guarentee that I'll be in Aldi when they have it .

So this year - I will wipe my bum on The Snowman&Snowdog , and drain hot crispy roast potatoes on an innocent robin.

Meeces I will happily use my Hallowe'en bag in March but I'd get the raised eyebrow from DD..

The rest of mine a polka dot or plain

Haven't you got some left from last year's stash?! We still have about 6 packs of Snowman loo roll.

If I have it's only a couple of rolls .
I start 1st Dec in both toilets ( upstairs bathroom/ downstairs loo)

If I find any spare then the new packs won't go to waste . I usually buy some M&S silver star loo roll but I;ll leave that one .

Last time mine arrived in a spice rack box , DH was all "What'cha been buying ? Spice Rack ? "

Ah, I'm tight. I only allow it as every other loo roll at first (and we only have it in the downstairs loo and main bathroom. I don't need it in the en suite!). We go to every loo roll in Christmas week.

Mine arrived in a similar box too. Took me until opening it to click what it was!

88

We also have Snowman loo roll still left - this will be the third year running (How much did we all buy???) But I am also a bit tighter with it. Every loo had one 1st December then probably just the week before. Might start mid December this year and finish them off.

I need to do a Christmas stock take. Cleared out some shelves in the spare room and have got 2 bin bags of rubbish plus 2 bin bags for the charity shop plus another bin bag of stuff to take to school. Found about 30 random christmas cards so I probably wont buy any this year. I am finding people are sending cards less and less each year.

Morning.

I miss Christmas cards magnolia. I give cards to my immediate family but some are disorganised so we don’t always get one and the amount we post has dwindled drastically over the last few years (family fall outs and some bereavements).
I do make DH hand over his teacher cards so
I can put them up but even they are getting less and less each year now.

I doubt there’ll be snowman lol roll here unless we see it in Aldi.

I’ve decided to try and make some crochet cushion covers as Christmas presents. I have some spare cushions taking up space in the attic and a large stash of yarn, plus I feel like I need to be making something at the moment.

Our Christmas card list has dwindled too - however we live in a cul-de-sac and its been a tradition here since the close was built that we all send a card to each household every year. All hand delivered with various neighbours meeting and crossing paths as they pop a card through each other letterboxes from 1st Dec onwards. Its a nice tradition its only 20 houses so not too expensive with a box of charity cards.

Evening!

We've been over to Delamere Forest today which was lovely. The dog had a great time with all the new sights and smells, plus lots of new doggies to say hi to! It was nice and quiet too, as it's a school day. The benefit of home ed is being able to do this kind of thing.

I don't do many cards. I'm not sure what I'll do this year as I've not started stitching them yet. I'll have to do some small ones so I can bang them out quickly!

87

I won't be stitching any cards this year as the one I started last year (or was it even the year before??) is still only half finished!!

I haven't made my cake yet, one year I did it in July, this is the latest ever I think. Not doing xmas pudding this year for first time ever. DS prefers cheesecake, DD doesn't eat xmas pudding and I think DH only eats it to humour me.

But in good news - not only did I get the C&C bucks fizz I also got a bottle of Clemencello (Limencello with mandarin) - sooooooooooo exciting.

Grace one of the things I love about living here is exchanging cards with the neighbours. We’re on a very long street but we send cards to the 6 houses near us and they do the same (hoping new neighbours 2 doors up join in). It was a nice way to get to know them and they’re all nice except for opposite neighbours 20yo DS

Fluffy I was going to ask you, do you follow any of the school holidays now you home school?
One of the home ed mums is very unhappy with me and someone who runs another club our LO’s go to as they don’t run over school holidays (I manage one of the sports teams but we don’t have a coach during half terms etc) and it never occurred to me that home ed means you’re not bound by school holiday dates (I don’t think anyway).

I wanted to stitch a snowman card for LO but haven’t bought the kit yet so not sure I’ll pull that off in time. I’d forgotten until now 🙄
Only other cross stitch card will be the one for my dad that I didn’t finish last year.

Im having a break from work as my head is pounding and it’s effecting my eyes. I was in a meeting for 3 hours earlier. I had to present part of it then answer questions and support some of the others so couldn’t switch off at all and I think it hurt my brain 🤯

can't edit my post but obvs should be with clementine not mandarin hence the name - I have had one of those days!!!