WEST LONDON MEET-UP THREAD - DECEMBER 2006 - from Acton to Sunbury everybody welcome

[MrsBojangles]

The brand new general chit-chat thread

oxo I'm disappointed in you! If anybody could thing of an excuse to get out of that it would be you! Seriously, sounds like you've got the short end

Congrats veneer on the exchange!

good morning all

hoxo that is awful, and do they expect you to be cheerful and pleasant? you are a better person that I

2cute my sympathies but you are a brave soul, are you also supposed to do the cooking? ask for a raise thats above and beyond

hope all is better at mrsB and foxies and everyone else is ok.

its quite chaotic here,dh has some sort of deadline and is to busy to get his christmas presents so asked me to do it today i think i will have an extra one. also helping sis move.
can't wait to be at inlaws tomorrow and put my feet up. but am not relishing the prospect of a long drive in the fog with a bored toddler

and quokka thanks for sorting out the parcel, sorry i keep forgetting to paypal you, will deffo do it today.

Cveneer - congrats

morning all

dare i be smug and say dd slept 7:15 to 6am then had a quick feed and went back off till 8am!

my come-uppance was waking at 2am and only dozing till 4am when the noisy neighbours left for some trip somewhere or other. trolley cases up and down teh street, doors and boots slamming, 7 year old boy yelling "Grandad sit in the back with me!" all outside my window

ah well, dd is very cutely playing by pushing her monkey around on top of the eski i keep in the kitchen wearing my nursing necklace.

god love her, she's a total crack up tho ay Quokka. Your boys are too. I should think with such a sook nature ds1 won't have any probs and ds2 is going to be a proper headbutt charmer

right, if i buy xmas day food today will it keep? am doing Xmas Dinner in a box from M&S with some vouchers we have been given!

must go and stop dilly-dallying around here!

ps: 2cute, hopen you're feeling better soon.

hoxo, have had something similar at this end when i said i was staying here with dh xmas eve/day. ils don't care but ma was a bit ticked off.

she's told bro and s-dad that they're having beef on xmas day now as she's saving the turkey for me and dd when we come on boxing day LOL!

Oh FFS Oxo, you are being a wuss. Tell them that this is your Christmas too and you are spending it with both of your kids. If my family said that, I'd just "um, I don't think so". And, being youngest of four children, I often find myself not listened to. So, I might have to say it two or three times before anyone listened. But, I would certainly not be splitting my kids up.

Hey, my house has a few openings if your DD wants to come hang out with my DS and DD -- both of whom would be delighted to see her.

I'm seeking a female drinking buddy for the day so I don't get stuck cooking dinner all by myself like the hired help. Dh doesn't cook -- and trust me it's better that way.

Okay, that was terribly written. Didn't mean your DD was the drinking bussy. I meant you could come with her. (jokingly of course, as you are of course going to spend Christmas with your family)

Bussy? OH F it. I obviously can't type. I'm going now....

Uwila pmsl, your having someone to cook?

now I have a suggestion to make for everyone. I do this every year - buy myself a pressie, wrap it up and put it under the tree with a card "from Santa". I'm a bit worried though, my pressie still hasn't arrived from Boden, which means I may have to buy myslef another one just in case!

PC you sound more aussie than me sometimes. Hands up who knows what a eski, and a sook is?

I am the cook. Oh joy.

yeah i know Quokka! i was there for nearly 5 years and in my defense my birthplace has a vernacular very similar to Aus. ie: lengthen short words, shorten long words. the only difference is Aus words end in an O and Scouse words an Y eg: arvo and avvy.

i never should've been born in England - Wales, somewhere on the Med or Antipodean is where I should've been born!

Good idea, I made myself a mug at the pottery cafe when dd and i made one for dh.

with it being first xmas, what's the norm with FC pressies? do all dd's pressies come from the Big Guy?

It's up to you. I think it's more common to have stocking and perhaps one other present from the Big Guy, but some people do have him bestowing everything.

I always do one pressie from mummy and daddy, and the rest are from Santa

We do stockings full of cheaper little things, big pressies from Santa, and then a medium pressis from Mum and Dad. No doubt if we didn't DD would want to know why we didn't get her anything.

cool, thanks for the tips.

quokka, dd currently transfixed by tellietubbies on cbeebies. baby einstein wasn't cutting it last night but maybe she was a bit tired out..........

PC: baby einstein is a god send. I have nearly all of them (thanks to a mate whose mum translates them in Italy!) so if you want to borrow any.
Disney ahve the next version for older kids -Little Einsteins, and I love it. So do the kids.

Re Christmas: I've fought my corner. Told MIL &FIL to F**K off last year (whoops) - not a great day for relations. Problem is that they make dh suffer for my insubordination; and he does suffer as he hates to upset them as they are old etc. But, we are NOT being split up on Christmas day - we ahve fought off that one, along with MIL beating her chest and gnashing her teeth as we are 'ruining christmas - again!'. But we DID stand our ground. She now thinks we are all coming to stay at her house: Fight number 2 coming up
Deck the Halls with boughs of poison Ivy.

Uwila: been on the cooking sherry already love, eh????

Hoxo - lol at your version of Deck the halls! Make sure you stand your ground. IKWYM about the insubordination, how DARE a DIL stand up for herself! My DH can't stand up to his parents to save his life and they are the most difficult people I have ever met. Poison ivy, now there's a thought. Can we get discount if we buy in bulk?

Snowfall - Yep, i'm afraid I am expected to do the cooking. Don't know how with sick DS, bug in my tum and can't cook won't cook DH. Does that make DH cancel, hell no. What a considerate man I have.

Cov - Congrats!!!

2cute seriously, cooking while handling bugs iyswim really makes it likely to pass it on, guess it serves them right

hoxo good on you! still i guess a little alcohol might help smooth things over or at least make it easier to bare

do you know the stores are running out of gift vouchers? guess most people are as thoughtless as i am and go for the easier option oh dear! where is that bottle?

Snowfall - who do you need to buy presents for? I'm good at gift buying (even if I do say so myself ) so happy to throw ideas around.

most kind 2cute i have bought stuff for nearest and dearest, but tricky one is BIL fiancee she seems to be allergic to everything and is probably too stressed planning her wedding for may2008
i am sure that will be a big production with no children allowed but i digress.

would love to get something nice for dh, just got him 2 jumpers and i have not had the time to shop alone.
i think the rest up north will get bottles of booze purchased from off license on christmas eve - is that evil?

havent' got the energy to catch up. Party went well and now there's peace and quiet again in the MrsB Household. Totally shattered but nearly done with clearup, now to wait for dh to put furniture back to where it belongs . then stuff kids into bed, grab bottle of wine and box of chocolates and collapse

Just had my first childminding experience today, and it wasn't as hard as I thought! She is a quiet little thing, so I suppose that helped .

Sympathise with all the IL issues, I'm sure mine will rear its head any time now

Sympathies oxo. That sounds rough.

My MIL tries my patience at the best of times so much so I grit teeth when we see them.

You have my full moral support.

BTW, PC, I've done my Christmas food shopping. I've just got to pick up the turkey from the butchers on Sunday. I couldn't face the crowds over the weekend and the local shops don't deliver.

My rationale is that the food over the weekend probably comes from the same shipment (or close) plus they keep if you manage to keep veg and other stuff refrigerated.