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

[NoWordForFluffy]

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Phew, it's a scorcher!

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

A quick trip to M&S today to pick up 2 more bottles of C&C fizz and a pack of chocolate lollies to add to the collection for the 3 advent calendars I fill. All paid for by Sparks rewards so I'm happy.

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Not at work today so gym, washing, housework, cooking etc 🙄

Might sort out the Christmas cupboard in the spare room as I have been dumping stuff in over the year and I don't want to have any spare gifts this year. DSis birthday soon so I am sure there will be something suitable in the pile.

Absolutely gobsmacked this morning while we were at home but cars off the drive for the bathroom fitters arrival a minibus drove into the close straight to our drive a man got out rummaged through the bathroom stuff on the drive helped himself to some bits and drove off all while we were oblivious inside and its all in glorious HD on our web cam! The flipping cheek!! DH reporting it as theft as we actually don't know if the fitters needed any of the stuff he took.

Wow, how cheeky Grace! I’d be quite tempted to post the face on the local fb page if he took stuff you needed.

Good luck with the sorting Magnolia.

My all day, in person meeting has been cancelled due to train issues for a lot of people so I’m at home. I’m glad, it means I can avoid the bright overhead lights as I’m still dealing with a sore head.
Also means that between work tasks I can do a few bits around the house - both productive and let’s me get my eyes off a screen.

Im slowly working my way through my decluttering and tidying house list (the list is long). Have done my car, the drawers in the living room and some of LO’s wardrobe (including shoes).
Todays jobs - hoovering my car, the plate cupboard in the kitchen and the rest of LO’s clothes.

Evening!

Meeces, we do still have school holidays to an extent, not least because the online provision doesn't run in the holidays. However, we don't have to follow them, and learning doesn't just stop anyway; there are always learning opportunities going on.

Having said that, I wouldn't expect clubs to run generally, as those aimed at school aged kids often don't in the holidays (which affects the majority).

I too have had an absolute 🤢 headache today. I had to resort to codeine when paracetamol didn't work. The office lights are grim and the noise levels hideous at times.

I popped to M&S before work (we had a quiz at lunchtime, so I couldn't go out then!), and got 2 more bottles of Buck's Fizz we have 3 now, so I'm happy. I do need to go and buy some Baileys from Asda as I have £20 in my cash pot, and they're £13 each, so I won't have to pay much for the initial two I'm getting. No doubt I'll get at least 4 more soon enough!

Sorry about your head Fluffy. Hope the codeine helped. If not, try 900mg dissolvable aspirin in a small amount of squash, that, toast and a can of full fat Coke is my go to if all else fails.
Def agree, the office is the worst place to be with a headache.

And thanks for the home school info. We have 2 kids in the club that are home schooled. One mum talks to everyone, she’s nice and friendly and doesn’t seem to mind that the club stops in school holidays.
The other has approached me twice, once to say she didn’t think it was fair and again the following week to essentially kick off that we are discriminating against her dd, I clearly have people who home school and I am also ‘up myself’ so I’ve discounted her anyway. She hasn’t given up though and has messaged the team WhatsApp trying to get the other parents on her side.
I’m so pissed off, I can’t magic up a coach - the ones we have are brilliant but volunteers and I only got them because I agreed to follow school holidays so they could have some weeks off 🤬

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Thank you for the headache tip, Meeces, I'll try that another time. The codeine kind of worked, but I was only really able to shift it once I'd left the office. Those lights are just 🤢-inducing. It wasn't as bad where I used to sit, weirdly. I think I'm only going to go in every other week, as I can't have a headache like that every week.

It rained quite a bit yesterday, but is forecast to be nice today. We have washing on the line for when the sun gets a bit higher / the humidity drops.

My face found another spider web today. Apparently just floating in mid air. 🤷‍♀️ I wasn't anywhere near anything it could've been attached to when it attached to my face. Bizarre!

It's really quite dark when we go out now first thing. Thankfully it's getting light about half way round for now. Not for much longer though.

Morning! What a horrible spidery start to the day Fluffy 😩
We have a lamppost light thing in the garden and I often find spiders just randomly alongside it. No idea what the other side of the web is attached to as there’s nothing nearby

Aiming for a better day today. Parents of the kids sports team have told the mother kicking off to basically shut up, the club is all volunteers and if she makes it horrible we’ll lose coaches and manager (me) and no one else minds that it doesn’t run in the holidays.

I need to be productive today in work, I have loads to get done.
I also need to use a break to drop something to the dr and throw a few last things in a bag as we’re away this weekend.

At the weekend though I’m going to be LO and DH free on Saturday from the time I wake up until around 2pm so I’m going to get started on either a cross stitch or a crochet cushion for Christmas so I’ll be doing something festive (kind of)

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Twelve Weeks Today
The mornings should be lighter after the clocks change @NoWordForFluffy

Unfortunately , the FurCoated Ones in our house never get the memo about "let your hoomans have a lie in" and stomp about at an unholy hour telling us how uneasonable we are , starving them , we should get up NOW so they can ignore us .
Our Male Cat gets an extra hour to dislike me , so he wins there !

With you there 70, on the rare occasion i can stay in bed past 6.30am I have cat feeding guilt. Mostly I come downstairs and he just opens one eye sleepily as if to say don't disturb me.

I am massively looking forward to the lie in tomorrow although I won’t sleep through - DS will 100% wake me before they go.

DS comes in every morning by 7:30 (typically, we sometimes need to wake him on a school day but he’ll be in with us at 6:30 on a weekend 🙄) but there is no relaxing. I swear he wakes up fully charged and starts talking before he opens his eyes.

My DS was the same Meeces, now if he hasn't got rowing or school I would have to chisel him out of bed at midday left to his own devices.

My Christmas cake is in the oven!!!! yipppeeee

83 Morning. As predicted, LO came in ‘to check on me’ at 7 this morning so additional sleep wasn’t an option.
I did stay in bed while DH got him ready for the day the surfaced in time to wave them off at 8:30.

Im now dressed, caravan windows are open to air and Im sat chilling with a cuppa. I can see the sea from the window and I’ve found a channel called GREAT! Christmas which is playing some CCF (corporate man learning about the spirit of Christmas from a local artist woman. I wonder what will happen… )

I’m about to start crocheting a Christmas cushion cover. Big morning plans - crochet, paint nails, chill, then walk into the local seaside town to wander and enjoy before meeting DH and LO, walk along the beach and have a chippy tea then horrific evening kids entertainment but we’re not thinking about that

Afternoon!

How is your day going, Meeces?

I've been vaguely productive, having touched up paintwork in the downstairs loo (second coat after DH sanded the wall during refurb works in there) and also the hallway. Just the stairs and landings to touch up and the bedroom to redo now.

We're waiting on a builder mate of DH's to come and look at the porch canopy before arranging a day to put it up (with DH assisting / labouring). The wait is annoying me now! 😫

The day went almost exactly to plan Fluffy. I ended up meeting DH later than expected which is good as I ended up having an afternoon snooze

Christmas cushion is going to be navy sky, textured snow on the floor then an appliquéd red Norwegian style cabin with snow covered roof and Christmas tree added later. So far we have about a third of the sky (I am not a fast crocheter).

Waiting on a builder is the worst. I swear they work on their own, out of kilter, calendar (I say this as the daughter of a builder who can build and fix anything but absolutely cannot turn up on time at all ever)!

Had the ole' flu jabs , so whinging about my sore arm now . It'll be fine in a while but I want the sympathy

A bag of clothes to the Charity Shop and bought DD Christmas Mug from TKMaxx.
I got the Tesco Festive Food to Order booklet .

Christmas pyjamas for DD

Sainsbury have their Christmas crockery range , robin pattern . It is lovely but I don't NEED anything . Maybe a milkjug for nice coffee and cakes ?

You sound like you've all had very productive days. Hope your builder turned up Fluffy.

I've been in Newcastle with DS for the day looking at the Uni. He veered between being grumpy, excited and indifferent (and constantly hungry as usual). It's a lot to do in one day I guess and I feel knackered from being chirpy the whole day so now we are home, he's gone out and I'm having a bottle of rosè. Happy days.

No builder! 😫😫 Trying to persuade DH to message him. Sigh.

Tell me more about the Tesco food catalogue, 70!

Magnolia, sounds like a long old day. Get that rosé in you!

@70isaLimitNotaTarget, 45 Snowman loo rolls on Amazon for £16!

That's the one !

Not arriving yet (I'd have nowhere to put it TBH right now !)
My hallway is full of paint pots , a ladder and an old shower curtain on the floor .

I need to clear a space in the small bedroom/dumping ground room.

Tesco is all foods you cannot get instore . I had a look at the vegetarian options for inspiration.

Theres a filo,feta,spinach and celeriac pastry with hot honey . Looks nice but not Christmas Dinner

82?

Afternoon!

It's a relatively productive day today, as I've been doing some bits in the garden, like cleaning the bird bath (full of pigeon scum, dirty birdies!), strimming the longer grass and hanging washing out.

I've also put dinner in the slow cooker (joint of beef in a golden ale gravy) and cleaned the kitchen and woodwork in the hallway.

I'm going to touch up more paint work shortly, after I've done a little sanding. Then there'll be more washing to hang out!

Not productive at all here. We went swimming and out for lunch before going back to the caravan where LO played with a kinetic sand set and we packed. Did the arcade then left to come home but LO had a danger nap in the car. His bedtime went from 6:45 to 7:45 but he didn’t go to sleep until 9pm so my evening has disappeared 😩

Tomorrow I’ll have to productive though as I need to do the washing from the weekend, the food shopping and generally tidy up, plus I need to got town to the craft shop to buy a zip and darning needles and while I’m there I will mooch around the charity shops as I’d like some quirky lamps for the office.
The local Christmas factory shop opened this weekend so I could also pop in there but I think I’m going to leave it a bit later in the month or wait until November.

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I remember the danger naps Meeces, I used to be on red alert singing, dancing, chatting, shoving snacks into their mouths on car or pram journeys any time after 3pm so they wouldn't sleep and DH used to say oh for goodness sake just let them have a nap. But he was never the one trying to get them to go to sleep at night.

Feels like its always Monday and I really can't be arsed today.