Crepeyistmas Time, Camel Toe and Whine...

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Pandering to the uncouth...

I would like to say well done for stopping your DM from going, but perhaps she could have gone on her own?!

And I am not even able to spend my Selfridges vouchers online as they only take up to 5 in a single transaction and I have 11 to spend. Apparently I will be able to spend them all in one go in the store Shite Service Selfridges

Stropps, glad you had a good day yesterday and a bit of loafing today. It sounds like you probably should consult the NHS re DD and NOT Mr Google!

Should get on with prep for our party later, but I might just relax for a bit...

BTM - that's v poor from Selfridges! I would ring them when you can bear it and give them some advice - I bet they will find a way round it.

Have had lovely Boxing Day lunch just the five of us - naice ham, naice bread, Nigella's Boston baked beans (yummy and v easy, unless you are ds2 who thought they were "disgusting", sigh) runny cheese, salad (optimistically cancelling out all other over-indulgence) and various dip-type things we found in the fridge. We then had a choice of 7 (seven, VII) dessert offerings due to MIL turning up with three extra puddings yesterday. [sgrin] Luckily one of them is smothered in cream, so I won't eat that and will no doubt maintain my sylph-like figure eating the other ones as they are mostly fruit-based...

Thank you for my Secret Satan - I know who you are (obviously)! Pretty napkins were mostly used for tea time yesterday, but will post pic of other parcel elements, very pleased with it! I have been guarding the chocolate from the rest of the family a bit like the seagulls in Finding Nemo - "Mine!"

Off to gathering at lovely friends house in a little while (Auriga - it's the mutual friend who is in the same line as you) whose house will be stuffed with all sort of people and children of all ages, so should be fun. Won't stay long though as I have a sofa to lie on, mustn't neglect the soft furnishings for too long.

Oooh, and in a bit of personal development news - I received no books for Christmas, which in the past has sent me into a huge spiral of self pity and resentment at dh's lack of memory about this ishoo (my dad always bought me books, and the first Xmas after he died I didn't get a book and had a meltdown at dh, telling he had always to buy me a book or IT WOULD NOT BE CHRISTMAS!) But this year, in an unprecedented attack of being a grown-up, I interrupted my pity party and bought myself a couple of novels from Amazon. I feel much better, have Christmas books arriving tomorrow, and am free to admire dh for his positive pant-buying qualities - I got these in my stocking, and also some cute ones with penguins on them. They are v v comfy.

Forgot SSatan pic - here it is. Pretty crochet candle ring thingies (don't know what to call them!) and chocolate. Thank you!

Aw thanks Wilbur you made me happy.

Lovely pants, Wilbur. I would like some. And well done on the book-buying. I did much the same, although secured said items before Christmas and have just spent a very pleasant hour soaking in the bath reading Alexander Mccall Smith and drinking the Champagne dh gave me. Decided that I am happy to pay the price of another night's disturbed sleep in return for imbibing half a bottle. After all, normal service will be resumed soon enough.
Time for a little Christmas ramble...
I gave dm a print of a portrait of an ancestor of hers for her Christmas present. She has long had a tiny black and white faded pic of this same portrait, which was handed down through the family, but didn't realise that the original was a painting by A Name. So she was pleased and this also prompted much reminiscing about certain (Scottish) bits of her childhood. Like when she and her brothers got sent on "holiday" with their Gaelic-speaking nanny to her family on Skye and had to sit through very serious Sundays in the church with very long sermons in Gaelic.
Dm grew up in a house with quite a number of staff. "Nanna" stayed in contact with the family until her death and came to stay with us often when I was a child. As did the gardener and his wife, who came to stay with my parents for their holidays. We all only knew the gardener by his surname: it was X and Mrs X. Mrs X taught me to knit, while X helped my father in the garden (not sure how this constituted a holiday for him). They always sent us a fiver for our birthdays.
How incredibly different my life is now. Dh just looks at me like this when I tell him this stuff. I find it quite odd to be so totally estranged from the world in which I was brought up, but also good.

ps: Beachy, you are not the only one with a believer in Y5. Ds gets mighty cheesed-off with anyone who suggests that FC isn't real.

Sorry, hideously self-indulgent, but I am having a day of ruminations about Christmases past and "where's it all going" etc.

Soz, another thing: dd has now announced she is "feeling better", so I'm hoping I can put off discussions with medical professionals until Monday.
Over and out.

Here the dog has nicked a lump of blue (rescued and consigned to the bin) I had a moment of rumination too. Where are we going? Stropps must swop notes...

Glad dd better - Ds covered in boils/bites - bed bugs?

Dp

Stropps, I'm doing ancestors too. Always interesting to hear how other people are doing with theirs.

BD, sounds worrying - ds or dp?

Dp - think bed bugs... From hotel last weekend, but seems odd D's and I not affected....

Oh and thanks for SS - no idea who but have you picked up my stationery fetish from FB??
Oh and welcome newbies (don't see you that way!) Molly hope things are on an even keel....

BD, I am still pondering..
Hope dp's bites are not bedbugs. Bummer to get rid of - or so I've heard.
Molly, no research required here, the info has always been there, rather oppressively so.

stropps your poor DM and also DD...did you say back in another post that your DD also had a kind of rash? You don't think it's shingles, do you? Just a thought...probably way off the mark. I do wish her better and hope your DMs injury heals ok.
tilly gosh that was brave of you. Online is the way to go but annoying re gift vouchers and only being able to use some of them....

Nice morning with friends and without DC in the village. Tried really hard to have a long walk this afternoon but after 30 mins of feeling like someone was hurling buckets of water in my face we abandoned ship and ran in to the restaurant. Now cosying up in the flat and about to watch something by Victoria Wood. Feeling a bit like I need some space... As the DC have got bigger I sometimes find the flat a bit claustrophobic. And getting tired of the arguments about who sits on what sofa.....

Stropps, in that case, publish it...

Bedbugs - yuk, but at least they will be at the hotel, biting other people, not about dp's person, I hope?

Well yes assuming ds and I okay dp left them insitu..... Not pleasant though...
I'm just how he could get bitten and we weren't...

Oh dear,v sorry to hear about the bedbugs BD. Have had experience myself from a dingy hotel in Adelaide in Australia. and it's not pleasant.

Another day, another round of rellies- Dh's family for mince pies ( although none of them like them ) and mulled wine ( that no-one felt like)
Still they hung on for hours as both dh and I struggled to keep our eyes open. Since they left ( phew) I have been zonked out on the sofa in front of the fire. Tis snowing too.
Monty, yes I am a wreck ( thanks for thinking of me) but back to work tomorrow ( oh yay).......

Probably was bedbugs BD. We had a very nasty episode in a hotel in the US where dd was bitten everywhere, but no one else.

We are home (hurrah) after two nights away. Dylan's first trip away and he only escaped three times! But he did master the Free Willy leap from the kitchen to the dining room twice, through a hatch! He's going to teach my dbrothers dog next time, just to piss him off.... As his dog is so well behaved.....

Nice to be home. Super blob out day tomorrow, need a whizz round a supermarket as we have nothing even resembling food in the house, will stock up on naice things....

I hope you get a decent chunk of time off soon, Crem. I am in awe of your phenomenal staying power! You haven't stopped.
Rose, hope you're not getting cabin fever! Re: dd - she has a rash on her face that looks like a cross between acne and eczema. And a fearsome pressure headache that keeps coming and going.
Molly I find it all very, very dull and my heart sinks into my boots when people unfurl their family trees, so no. Tracking down this thing for my Dm was a labour of love and I can hopefully now go back to ignoring all that stuff again.

x-posts, Beachy. I must say I do enjoy hearing about Dylan's escapades. He sounds like my kind of dog.

Haha, Stropps, so well put re unfurling the family trees. I won't unfurl mine in your direction then.

Maybe I'll adopt that as a term of abuse for rellies who get my goat: "I unfurl in your general direction...my pedigree..."

Stropps, next year, Secret Santa, large wriggly SSatan package, Dylan shape just for you!

Genuinely, he was far better behaved than I could have hoped for.... No peeing everywhere and he didn't kill their cat ( which was great as at the cat is 21 and sensibly stayed upstairs). I think the killing of the cat could have caused many unhappy Christmas's to come......

Beachy :) re dog.

Mine pinched the blue off the cheese board - I had thoughtfully left s chair close by...

Here we are all getting some serious zzz in and I am going to detox for a couple of days/week now.

Have a good day people.