October 2010 - They've Got The Walking Down Pat, Now It's Chat Chat Chat

[NoHunIntended]

Hello, October Mamas!
Make yourselves comfortable.

Hope it's good news about your dd spook.
Ood I spotted you on that thread, thanks to it I've nearly finished my Xmas shopping. Dd also has far too much as well but her main gift is a wooden kitchen.
WWVD we are doing the hamper but the elf is going to bring it with the advent calendars on the 1st so she can get more use out her pjs, DVD and books that I've got. Because as much as I love christmas on new years day I want to put it all away! Also got a few little bits for through December like stickers, baking stuff etc.

Weve got a few Xmas books out now. Dd3 v excited about Father Christmas. We have stickers & stuff to make cards.

I hadn't heard of this Christmas Eve hamper....what goes in it?

Is that the book about the mole trying to find out which animal pooed on him? We have it in German!

I've mostly finished our Christmas shopping too, just waiting on a few orders to arrive.
I am also doing an Advent hamper, bp, our elf will bring it on the 1st with the advent calendar, some hot chocolate, some Christmas books, and festive socks for DH and me. I haven't found any festive socks for DS yet. Also looking for an advent candle.

Yes it is!

No specific results through from DD's x- ray a letter from the consultant to say go and see her on 10 dec. going to ring in the morning to see if I can change the date as we're moving house the week before and it's day 1 in my new job on the 10th. I can't bear the thought of waiting on tenterhooks til then. Am desperately hoping that having to go in to see the consultant doesn't mean bad news. . Last thing I want to do is move to another new area away from any friends and family support if DD needs further care. If I can get squeezed into an appointment sooner, then hopefully , well, I don't know, but it will mean less of the awful wait.

Fingers crossed its just that they like to give results in person or something needs redoing.
Make friends with their secretary and ask for any cancellations.

Will do.

Oh gosh, Spooks, how stressful. I would hope if it was serious they'd see you sooner? I don't really know. I hope everything is good.

New house, and a new job, what a busy whirl! But it will be nice to be in your new home for Christmas, and starting a new job just before Christmas should mean a week or so of work, then some time off. Or does it not work that way for you? My last job, I started on the 11th December, can't believe I remember the date! :) It was a nice slow start, people were merry and winding down for Christmas (I had a nice boss then, different to the horrid one from when I was pg), then a proper back to work effort in the new year.
What is the new job, or can you not say? Are you still a spy! :)

We are well, I have done most of my Xmas shopping (I bought a few more things since my last post, even though I was kinda done, oops), just waiting on some deliveries. DH and I were not going to bother with ourselves, but I really need a couple of hoodies for the harsh winter, as does he, and some socks and boring stuff like that, so we are making them into Christmas presents so it doesn't look like Santa forgot us. Do need a new camera lens too, hope DH can source one, he is better at tech spec than me.
Still not found an advent candle, there are some Christmas markets springing up in a few days so maybe I'll have some luck there, but I am very fussy (need one without paraffin, stearin or beeswax, and no lead wicks), ideally a nice soy candle. Seem to be very hard to find.
Did find some festive socks for DS, just waiting for them to be delivered.

I thought, for the NHS, 10th dec was quite fast, which is why I am worried. Am moving to just north of Winchester to be in charge of my service's catering training. Hoping to get some good knife skills qualifications out of it! Going to start on the 10th, come back to Wycombe for a couple of days later in the week then I am off from the end of the 14th until 7 jan. some of us a getting some extra leave to make up for being messed about over the Olympic period and it also saves the government tonnes of money if we're not all at work.

Well done on the festive socks. I took DD to winter wonderland yesterday and she saw Father Christmas who sounded exactly like Joe Pasquale....we were the only ones there!

Perhaps you could make your own candle? Just googled soy advent ones then saw someone had made their own....

Maybe, I don't know. Fingers crossed it's good news.

Knife skills, for vegetables or people? :)

FC sounding like JP is not right! :)

I Googled advent soy candles, but they aren't the decorated ones, quite plain soy candles. I am after something that looks like this: www.lightkeepers.ca/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_9&products_id=669. It says they are made in Germany, but I haven't found any. I emailed the company in Canada, they wouldn't tell me what the wax is, just that it conforms to regulations! Pah!

I just went to Amazon to look up the book of noisy bottoms, and it was there in my recommendations! :) I think I might get the noisy robots one, DS likes robots at the moment.

WWVD I was picturing knife throwing when spooks said knife skills!

Vegetables people!!

KVM on,hkhknkknkgk

Input from DD

But our view on your life is so much more exciting spooks

Re WhatWouldVegansDo:

We (Lightkeepers in Canada) are sorry that our answer did not meet your expectations!

All our candles meet the German general quality and inspection specification requirements (RAL). Here is a link showing the details with regard to the RAL quality mark: www.kerzentest.de/grafiken/news/RAL-GZ041_kerzenguete_en.pdf

The main ingredient for the candle is paraffin wax; the manufacture did not provide the exact composition to us.

www.lightkeepers.ca

Er, hi, Lightkeepers! Thanks for the more detailed response. Shame about the paraffin. It's a lovely-looking candle, but I will never buy a paraffin candle.

Random! How did they find you WWVD?!

Website traffic reports must have redirected them to this thread, if anyone clicked on the link, they'd see where it came from.

I reeeeeeally want a nice soy advent candle, DS loves candles, I think he was most excited about the candles on his birthday than his bike! :-) I may have to resort to making our own. It's just hard here, I don't speak the language very well yet, so me sourcing stuff takes blooming ages.

Spook, I thought you'd know that, being a spy and all!

I play dumb to protect my alias......

This is what I am thinking of for DD's Christmas.

We will do the Christmas Eve hamper as I think that's a great idea.

She needs new wellies and she loves them, so this would be something she needs and will like.

Want: I am thinking of a train set as she loves trains.

Read: not sure yet, but any story of babies and little children doing things goes down well.

Wear: definitely a pretty cardigan (or camel as she randomly calls cardigans)

Yes, the hampers are such amazing ideas! I am doing a small box on the first, too, to start off advent, to include:
Festive socks for all of us
Festive teeshirt for DS
Hot chocolate for the month
A couple of festive books - colouring, stickers etc.
Sparkly Christmas-scented bubble bath.
And we are doing elf on the shelf, so he will arrive with the box.

I have discovered soy candles don't cope so well in the advent candle shape (i.e. tall) so I am sourcing some nice vegan tee lights, scented with Xmas scents, and will use them in the pretty Xmas tea light holder we bought last year. Maybe I will make some sort of advent candle next year, but making your own candles has an expensive initial outlay, and I've spent enough this year, and I think DS will be a better age next year to enjoy making candles.

That's the idea! It may seem like a lot to people who do one gift, but stuff like 'something to wear' can be something you'd have to get a growing child anyway (DS is also getting boots!), and we like to surround him with books too.