The Bluestocking: Next stop, Christmas!

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Join us as we open our slightly wonky advent calendar. 🌲

(copies available behind the bar £12.50 each, no refunds)

Love that song. That's a lovely sentiment @MarieDeGournay

There are also some who find Christmas difficult because Very Old Reasons. I'd like to send love to them & say: make Christmas how you find it comfortable & know that you're not the only one who finds it difficult, & there are plenty of people out there who won't be having the picture-perfect traditional Christmas. 💙

Like this?

Hugs to all.

Oh my. This is the image produced to my prompt of:

'make image: woman in a dress inspired by a man in a dark suit & subtle tie, with short ginger hair, a short ginger beard & metal-rimmed glasses'

😱😂

Not what I was thinking of AT ALL.

BTW, is @StarryCat realted to another starry Christmas Bluey patron? Is it rude to ask? If so, I didn't.

Hugs right back attya, Puffers!

Thank you, Rosie.

Yeah, he was a bit of a twerp.

And in fairness, he didn't forget the invitation, it was Ben who completely failed to listen to his wife and pass it on per her instructions.

I've been saying to him for years that he doesn't listen to me properly. Clearly this is a vice shared by many men, Ben included.

On the plus side, he makes excellent mulled wine.

I think so too, and worded my welcome appropriately, an unTiggerish 'lovely to have you here' - I've learnt my lesson

Fuzzy, that is the loveliest photo of Rosie everrrrrrr

I don't do Christmas Day for "reasons" so I spend it alone not doing Christmas things. Which was exactly what I promised myself I'd do when I grew up!

I don't have a dislike of Christmas as such and when my mate decided the week before Christmas one year that she was leaving her husband at home and coming to mine for a week as her last two Christmas had been shitshows I did do Christmas for her (even did her a stocking and presents from Father Christmas). I'm not a complete twat!

But I'm in no rush to ever do it again!

And my God, the cost of Christmas food shopping is bloody ridiculous! I'm glad I don't have to do that every year.

I spend Christmas alone by choice - I have had to fight off offers from kind neighbours who think I must be one of those poor people on Help the Aged ads on telly:-)
I think they've got the message now that I'm perfectly happy being on my own, and when I tell them I'm a vegetarian, any enthusiasm for inviting me for christmas dinner evaporates
Around Christmas was a popular time for my elders to die, so lots of December anniversaries, but long enough ago to a matter for mild memories rather than sadness.

I love Christmas carols, and also the way people are a bit nicer to each other at Christmas.

But I find that is fading: I usually go for a walk on the afternoon of 25th, and it always used to be the case that you wished everybody you saw a happy Christmas. Last year I was surprised at the number of people who just walked by and said nothing, didn't even return my greeting. Very sad. The annual outbreak of bonhomie is one of the few things Christmas has going for it, if you're not religious!

I am such a numpty - I didn’t realise we had a new thread - all the signs were there, but I missed every one.

Anyway, I'm now in the part of the pre-Christmas period where I start to get a bit bored and look around for something fun to do.

Over on the big thread I mentioned the late John Le Mesurier, not the actor from Dad's Army, but a carpet salesman from Cardiff who was on trial with Jeremy Thorpe in 1979 for allegedly being the bagman in the plot to bump off Norman Scott, and who just happened to have the same very unusual name as the actor.

And I was thinking, if the famous John Le Mesurier had been a part of the plot, handing over brown envelopes to the world's most incompetent hitman, it would hardly make the top ten strange things in that story.

In my time of idle boredom, I'm wondering whether to sketch out a comic novella in the style of Tom Sharpe, where the cast of Dad's Army get involved in a convoluted blackmail and murder plot.

It's just a whimsy, but sometimes I do these things for my own amusement.

@EdithStourton You have two options: Bunbury or the large flask of Grand Marnier. Your choice.

I don't have a dislike of Christmas as such and when my mate decided the week before Christmas one year that she was leaving her husband at home and coming to mine for a week as her last two Christmas had been shitshows I did do Christmas for her (even did her a stocking and presents from Father Christmas). I'm not a complete twat!

You are a good friend, @Boiledbeetle. But we knew that already.

Fond regardlettes,
As With Gladys.

John Le Mesurier, not the actor from Dad's Army, but a carpet salesman from Cardiff

I hope his Welsh neighbours called him Le Mesurier the Measurer.

There are times when I've had to spend Christmas Day on my own, and it was fine. I did make myself a stripped down version of a festive dinner, but otherwise just chilled. In principle I have no issue with doing that again.

I do though like to go and see the folks, for I don't see them as often as I should. Also, I find that listening to their ailments makes me feel more cheerful, because however bad I've been feeling, they've all inevitably been much sicker than me. It's like something out of Hancock's Half Hour.

I love her dearly. We are sat next to each other on the class photo when we were in the first year of infants!

So pretty but a little confusing ... Summer in the foreground and winter in the background?

That's lovely, thank you!

It's the Bluestocking. Anything is possible!

We didn’t really bother with Xmas in 2020 when DD wasn’t with us. We went for a nice walk with a picnic and found quite a lot doing likewise - and very cheerily exchanging greetings. Other years, with her, we’ve swapped which day we do the lunch and presents if the weather has been nice on the 25th but not one of the adjacent days.

Oh Woley, I have this heartwrenching image of a cold wind blowing, with sleet in it, and you peering in the windows of the old Bluey!
Come in quickly, sit down by the fire and let the entire team of gerbils pamper you to make up for it💙

I read MN on my laptop, I get a list of all the threads so the new Bluestocking one appears on the list and I have no difficulty finding it - in other words, no matter how many times you move, you'll never shake me off😃

🤣