A follow on thread ...

[Festivepussy]

here for the fag free few!

Tracked mammya last post down....to this Well I haven't had any fags per se but toked on a few spliffs at at party last night. No intention of getting back on fags but feeling a bit aaaaaaaaaargh today (IYSWIM!). Am debating whether to put my counter back to 0.

good for you fp, sitting with a friend/partner who's chuffing has to be THE hardest thing! And am sure you have done it this time - although as bm says, slip ups are so easy - we've gotta be strong girls! we had friends round last night and dh fagged it but I was ok.

TA SO MUCH FOR CHOCS, CARD & PINGO PACKAGING FP!! Pounced on my my kids, snaffled instantly, much enjoyed - ta!!!

Your dp sounds love bm. Scruffy? I go for that myself, could never have gone for a groomed be-suited man, far too off putting. My dh is an old muso, used to play in a punk band eons ago, now working in v un-punk computing... (poor sod!)

mink, some of your festive vives have finally filtered out of the PC into our drizzly corner of scotland - am finishing off work this a.m., then getting dd at lunchtime for the school church service (only time am ever in church... last year the head teacher saw me trouping in and said, 'Never mind, Fiona, you can always admire the lovely ceiling'!)

oh yeah fp - you must know about these things!! - wanna make an effort to have the house looking lovely for xmas morning when kids wake up --- do you do reindeer footsteps or anything? What do you use? You mentioned glitter?! I have heard of people using flour.... any ideas hon?

good luck with your family trip bm - keep smiling, lady, and if your smile's gonna crack & fall off, just tank into the wine

xxxxxx

big pair of boots FG...put one down sprinkle gently talc over it...then a touch of glitter...repeat from chimney to back door...dont drink too much before hand and dont giggle too much or youll wake the kids up.
Find those irritating wrist bells in the grim corner of the toy box and get dh to dangle them outside trotting off the other way with a santa suit on.....

I was thinking about you and your DH though, I dont/cant/wont sit face to face with dp while hes smoking, mUST BE BECAUSE IN THE PAST IBE SNATCHED THE BACCY AND SAID oops...bugger it and had one...so i know not to go there...cant you still spend your evening together but get him to bugger off to a different room to smoke???????

Ok everyone this may be my nearly last post before heading off to MIL hell (yes, fg, I've got a small 'totty' in a flask in my bag for dire moments ). I may get on again this evening briefly but imagine it will be a flurry of disorganised packing as we have to be up and out early tomorrow morning.

So ... I DO wonder what happened to mammya then ... I hope everything's ok ...

Fg, I would find it virtually impossible to see dp smoke and not have just a couple of tokes on his. I even want to ask strangers for a quick drag ! Fortunately for me, since I 'quit' dp smokes spliffs only with hideous herbal baccy so I'm not the least tempted. I've never been a spliffer, much more a boozer.

So just in case I'm not back later ... fp, fg, mm, m and everyone else who's popped in and out:

HAVE A LOVELY FAG-FREE CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have all truly utterly been such a wonderful support. There's no way I'd have done this without this thread. Thankyou! And all being well I'll see you in a week ...

have a lovely time bm, we'll see you when you get back and try not to be too stressed out over those 3 days! we'll be thinking of you

have been putting up even more decorations this time in the dining room as i realised that whilst having our christmas dinner it was going to be all un-festive as most of the decs are in the sitting room and corridor. so, went to my fav shop and bought cheapo sales decs and have started to hang them up.

i can't wait till the kids are old enough for me to play those magical games on christmas eve! my illusions of F.C were dashed when i woke up in the middle of the night aged 8 and found my mum scoffing the mince pie and clementine i'd left out for him despite that, i carried on doing it for my sister until i was 20-odd so have managed to remain v. childish about the whole affair and can't wait to do it all again!

speaking of kiddies...fg, got your card today and fp is so right! they look like perfect angels there but it is so easy to imagine them all running around and having towels smacked around them ds1&2 are so cheeky looking and what lovely hair! i always wanted my boys to have longish hair but alas with the sort of hair we've got (i.e. poker straight) it just makes them look like girls. and dd is so angelic - what hair colour!! you should stick her up on top of the tree

off now to rest a bit before i go over for a coffee with a friend then get ds1 from nursery.

i did wonder about mammya too, but didn't realise it had been that long...

fp, how was your bday evening?

Oopsw sitting here after mad day with 4 kids running about, just got an email saying ill be there at 6 instead of 5.30 for dinner...id invited her round and totally forgot Back Later xxxxxxx

eek, dh just back from asda, says it was like war in there!!
Ta for festive tips fp !! HOpefully be back later xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Im heading for all out war at the supermarket tommorow...ill let you know how it goes!!Oops just read my last message and I meant my sister...id invited her around for dinner and forgot up until 16 mins before she was due to arrive...thankfully she was half an hour late so it didnt matter!!!
I have no idea how I found out about FC not being quite as he should be....probably at school.
Dashing off again.xxx

DON'T DO IT FP - don't go to the supermarket, you'll never make it back alive!! apparently asda's down here is jam-packed and other crazy people are declaring war at tesco's...we have decided to opt out of the big shop and ordered our bird and ham from the butcher's and got our veggies (only a few) from Sainsbury's and the grocer's.

i was in town after picking up ds1 and whilst it wasn't too bad crowd-wise, i had the nightmare shop with two uns as both decided to go mad on me and all they did was complain and cry. felt like i was going to explode and going to m&s just to get a pie for dinner was the final straw! then, after all the complaining, ds1 decides to lose his rabbit so i go skidding down the path in m&s rapidly losing hope of finding him only to find at the end of it a lad (at least 20yrs old) using his dirty trainer to turn it over and inspect it!!!!!! in a very mum/protective way i shouted 'excuse me, can you NOT DO THAT?' to which he replied, 'oh is it your's?' and clenching my teeth i said 'YES' and just glared at him whilst he scampered off to his friend in embarressment. i very loudly added to ds1 that he couldn't have rabbit now as the man had stepped all over him and had made him DIRTY. what kind of person sees an (albeit ragged) toy and uses his foot to look at it????

rabbit now firmly tucked in bed all nice and clean and safe. close shave. mentally smoked a packet as soon as i got back

that was my day, too stressful so cleaning the house in prep for xmas tomorrow should be a doddle.

does your sis live quite close to you then fp?

She did live close, she doesnt now, shes using my house as a stopgap at the moment as her and her dp share 1 car but he works longer hours than she does...so shes spending the cold evenings here whereas she would usually hang around the shopping centre/park reading a book...they now live about 7 miles away from and theres no point her going home only to come back an hour or so later.
Ive said let me know in advance if you want dinner...im cooking anyway but tonight we had had dinner at 4.30 me totally forgetting about her so I had to start all over again!!!!!
Could have slapped her though...shes 21 and has no kids...I said Oh I got that(playstaion game) from a charity shop for a quid" and she said "Cor I wish I could spend all day searching charity shops for bargains"
I felt like saying Oh right would that be before or after getting 2 kids and yourself ready and organised and fed and washed and delivered to the correct places at the correct times before you have a 2 hour "break" (in which you get to a charity shop)before returning to collect child A.....and linger for another couple of hours before collecting child B...That obviously wouldnt be on the days I work for 4 hours...
I cannot wait till shes bogged under with shit and snot and then Im gonna remind her. Evil
I felt like saying Id love to sit there for 2 hours doing f all saying such an outrageous thing being completly oblivious to how naive it sounds.
Im due on...can you tell

LOL and im so enraged I forgot to mention that im there with you in M+S, you descibe it so well I can see you...
...I wonder if scruffy trainer clad teenager was going to take him home to bed with him

LOL fp, i'm already on, could you tell? do you think the scruffy teenager could tell?!!

yes, wait till your sis has kids then she'll know the true meaning of a precious 'break'!! i can honestly say that as the kids are still so young, i don't actually remember what it feels like to completely 'forget' everything for even 10mins. please tell me it does eventually happen and not when they're 18!!!

off to bed am still ragged from this afternoon. good luck for tomorrow's shop, don't forget to wear body armour

night night xxx

Is anyone else getting eeeever so slightly worried (or in my case terrifed!) about Christmas? Stress stress stress.

oh poor jenni, what's stressing you out?

Just the usual. Oh my god I am an adult with a family and I am cooking Xmas dinner for 6 people (+DD) ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Not bad stress, just Christmas stress.

will dh help you out with preparing things in advance like peeling veggies the night before? you're working on friday aren't you? my dad used to do everything even the turkey,the night before so that all he had to do was cook the veggies plus all the little things on xmas morning. it sounds a bit bizarre but in fact the turkey was much more moist because the meat had rested. sorry, off on a culinary tangent there but my point was supposed to be...can anyone help you out on xmas eve?

remember, it's only a meal that's what it's supposed to be please try not to stress too much about it [BIG HUG] how long are your relatives staying with you?

i'm off to bed now but am thinking of you! xx

I have stressed Jenni, but now my cards are done im ok. It will be ok...if theres any women involved in the 6 they will help you..you will be chuffed youve managed it Xmas night xxx
My cookings crap so I dont really care LOL

MIL, FIL, SIL come tomorrow.

My mum comes on Christmas Eve and she has promised to help clean the house. I am doing the veggies (with her) the night before and DH will pop the turkey in for me when I am at work.

I am working on Christmas Eve afternoon and Christmas Day morning.

I think Christmas is just so much more stressful as an adult, last year my mum did it all so it was nice and easy and DD was only a month. I think it will just be busy this year especially with me at work.

Oh god look at the time! Off to bed! I always end up staying up late on MN does anyone else?

Night x x x

Your an angel working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
If everyones helping hopefully by the time you get back in the dinner will be on the go and you will be able to put your feet up for 5 mins with a glass of wine/vodka/whatever before you start cooking/opening pressies/playing with dd.
It will be Okxxxx
I dont often get the chance to stay on the pc late...dp dpwnloads stuff which slows the pc to a snails pace and its not worth sitting on So I go to bed. If its making you more tired than ever you need to get on earlier and get off sooner!

poor mm, hope you recovered from M&S incident!!!!

fp, what a thing for your sis to say! I once mentioned to my dad's girlfriend that I was taping some programme or other. She said - btw she has no job, and no kids - 'Oh, we don't have time watch TV!'

The other thing that REALLY gets me about the child-free is when they think they can empathise with you cos they have a pet. Like, my dad has a cat called Trotter. I once complained about being sleep deprived when the boys were babies. I was demented with tiredness. Dad's g'friend said, 'Ooh yes, we're up in the night sometimes, too, with Trotter yowling'.

Slight difference methinks... xxxxxxxxxxHave been craving madly since my slip up earlier this week. Shows how bl&&dy easy it is to fall back into the pit. Am sucking like crazy.

ADVICE NEEDED PLS!
Should I ask dh not to smoke in front of me in the kitchen (as it really is torture) or is that terribly controlling & unfestive?

I would say its not at all unfestive, he knows its a ghastly smelly habit thats hard to battle...he knows he doesnt like seeing other folk smoke when hes not...if only because its like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey sometimes. Let him get outside and be chilly.
I find that when DP is "allowed" a fag indoors it just Ha Ha ...reminds him of how pleasurable it is having one on a comfy sofa.....not realising the sofa is comfy all by itself IFYWIM...like your dhs fag in the kitchen..the 5-10 mins peace he gets away from the kids/life in general are nice enough without the fag.
Just make it a fag free house Solves loads of issues in one go!

Thanks for that fp, am really finding it a struggle at the mo cos of my lapse, think about fags constantly and it really is too much to be sitting there chatting with someone who's chain smoking right in your face, it's just unbearable. I can't understand why he doesn't see that. He used to smoke in the kitchen when I was preg with dd too, and I'd be gagging - you know how you get all smell-sensitive and retch-y when pg! - and he'd just carry on puffing.

I did ask him a few weeks ago to smoke outside and he did for a bit, but now fags in in kitchen as soon as kids are in bed. Am not blaming him for my lapse, could just do with some support.

Maybe say "Well since your reeking out the kitchen and im struggling here to Stop Smoking...you can do all the kitchen chores....or get your ass outside and ill do the dishes"
Or something similar.
Poor You....You KNOW those fqags didnt do you any favours and you know one more would only delay the fact that you want and need to stop smoking....read a bit down this thread where you were feeling high on the fact you hadnt smoked for so long...you are doing great.
A sight lot better than all the smokers that hate it and arent even trying..........
.......keep posting an slurp liberally at any alcohol thats offered