August 2008 - I wish it could be Christmas every day, with the TV rows and the ILs you'd like to slay-ay-ay.

[steaknife]

Hmm might be a bit early for a festive thread title but thought we could get in the mood.

None of that tasteful two colour decoration scheme in my tent - oh no. The gawdier the better.

PB yay for the Secret Santa arriving, glad you like them. I bought myself a pair and they are just too cute, so I was super-happy to get you as my giftee cos I knew they'd suit

Also glad to hear of giggly fun stuff, there's been plenty of that here the last few days even despite DS missing his nap window today.

Big shout going out to all the hairy truckers!

hairy truckers are all here
dp coping admirably by focusing on his knitting!
pimms going down very well
dinner ready in an hour or so

oh Lordy am now cacking it about my secret santa gift [meep]

hope all the hairy truckers are well and enjoying themselves

have had visitors all day, one of whom is a very old friend of mine who I bully asked to help me put up shelves/ fix sockets etc all the wee jobs that sit here forever not getting done - and they're now all done [glee][glee][glee]

chinese and strictly tonight whilst I ignore the girls who are driving me nuts!!!

ah ffs a friend of mine who was meant to be visiting with her wee one tomorrow has asked to confirm in the morning apparently she's had another offer - her brother may or may not pop in she does this to me ALL the fecking time but at least because I know this I hadn't told the girls to expect her [grrrrrrrr]

DH was meant to be going out to meet some mates from Uni who are up here for a stag but due to his very early start he's going to pass on it

DD2 has been walking about all day as if she's jaundiced because she had her face painted as a lion yesterday at the Brownie fundraiser and refuses to let me wash it off. DD1 looks like she has a massive monobrow as she got a rainbow on either cheek and one between her eyes we got a lot of funny looks when we popped into tesco earlier!!!

Oh, I hate it when people do that Dizzy.

TS - the truckers are just sitting down to dinner and will take calls later.

the truckers are ready for skyping....

We are here!

Well you know, apart from the beards they really seem quite normal.

cheeky mare!

I didn't say a proper hello to Buckets.

I knew everyone else's faces from facebook and got a bit befuddled as I was doing line corrections on my book project when the phone rang.

It looks like you are having a great time ...

Good to hear you are all having lots of fun and also just a teeny bit . By the time of the next one I will have a webcam if I can't stretch to tickets

Hello everyone,

DS now asleep so just popping on to say how lovely it was to meet everyone again via skype, I'm sorry for being rubbish on the phone, but really enjoyed chatting, especially the comment about trying to get a connection being a bit like Eurovision ...

Have a lovely rest of evening

Hi! Those Hairy Truckers looked mighty familiar!!!!!! LOL!! I'm so sorry to have been difficult to reach. Life in the Surfer household was a bit like total chaos today. Ya'll missed the #$@& Christmas train. Just as I turned Skype off DD1 turned that noisy thing on. My head is still pounding. I think my relatives were happy to head off to the hotel.

BTW....after our conversation about the receipt of my SECRET SANTA gift I got to thinking (scary, yes I know). That said, I've completely gone a different route and MY SECRET SANTA GIFT IS SENT! Yes I said SENT!! Some lucky lady will receive a special gift in the post next week (well hopefully next week).

Oh and Dizzy you made me chuckle with the description of your girls this evening. Mine's bounced around since dinner with food all over her face.........she wouldn't let any of us wash it off. Oh well.

Night Night

Good morning I have JUST woken up . Boys at mum and dads. Wow, I think the last time I had a lie-in of such biblical proportions was when I was a student

Sounds like you all had a fab time at your meetup/sleepover/skypemeet. and not to be part of it. Must get skype sorted....

hotpot I have 3 messages for you -

1. you and I remain KK virgins.
2. I have the photos from our meetup on my camera which I have yet to upload to pc
3. Yay, let's pencil in Feb 15th

ann/qod how was your weekend? Have S's molars appeared? Hope you got some quality time with dp.

buckets loving the sound of your fun with dh .

dizzy is your middle child still yellow? We once had ds1 painted as spiderman which he refused to have washed off. He just looked dirty, like we'd sent him up a chimney by day 2

thankyou secret santa my gift arrived yesterday . Are we waiting til Christmas Day to open them?

Hope everyone has a fabbo Sunday, I'm off to enjoy the golden silence

sazz how's your Dad doing?x

sazz how's your Dad doing?x

eh?

argh! i let sazz on my computer for 5seconds and she's changed my mn settings! she says she didn't but hmm, i'm not so convinced!

sorry for the girls we didn't manage to skype with
thanks to the ones we did

they've all gone now, house looks reasonably back to normal, DS shattered from entertaining so many lovely ladies so is asleep and i'm about to have a quiet cup of tea!

thank you all for coming

a big big thank you to Sazz for her clear up and sous chef abilities! it was very noble of you to help cook a fry up and then not eat any of it

Oh so all the ladies left soon after my lot left!

Twas a great evening, and after going home to my bed (bliss and no babes waking up ), dd, ds and I went back for brekker (yum) and a play.

Thank you so much for hosting miamla

So sorry this is a crap attempt at catching up.

Just wanted to say sazzles I am so sorry and to hear of your dad being ill.
Hope things improve,I am thinking of you all.

Glad to hear that the trucker sleep over went well too.
me? nah

ok maybe just a bit.

Feeling too crappola atm. No idea what is wrong.Poorly kids too,will catch up properly soon I promise.

Big thank you to Miamla and her lovely little family, had lovely night. Apols I was big old slug lying around most of the time but you know, someone's got to take it easy so everyone else doesn't have to. Was also rather shy on the old Skype, confirms I won'tbe signing up to it!

Anyway, am quite ready for bed again after 4hrs drive home - took me 2hrs to get to the M25 due to flooding, no satnav or map, and the whole rain/visibility ratio quotient thingy. Only cried once (when I finally got on the M25 at J23.)

PB you were NOT shy on my Skype call!

Allow me to apologize for my too close to the camera call. It just dawned on my what Sazzles said. I was too close but I couldn't hear my laptop speakers otherwise. There was one moment where I thought, "hey this is so cool. i feel like i'm sitting in the circle with the group." However I couldn't hear all the fun chatter. Having a house full in the next room didn't help either. We definitely need to do that again though. Maybe I won't seem so silly.

Captain were there instructions NOT to open our Secret Santa gift until Christmas.

No1 I'm heading towards that monthly low point so I'll join you soon.

VG sounds like you could use a box of chocolate....or a good read.

So...........the dcs are too quiet. I must go investigate!

Sounds like everyone had loads of fun, how fabulous. I wonder if any of the other PN thread gangs are as RL-friendly as ours?

no1 did you get to go and sing in the end? Hope so, and hope you enjoyed yourself despite general low vibes.

We are shattered here after a virtually napless weekend (not usual, just missing of window due to circumstance). Had a wonderful get-together with NCT mates this afternoon where much Thanksgiving-themed food was consumed: turkey, mash, roast potatoes, green beans, Boston baked beans, sweet potato Dauphinoise and three different puds (including pumpkin pie, TS, you will be glad to hear). Everyone enjoyed themselves and all four toddlers looked totally cream-crackered after a few hours of chasing each other round the house and stealing each other's cups/dummies/shoes.

Now I am supposed to be working on my dissertation and DP is supposed to be working on his live set, but neither of us can summon the energy.