It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Off Topic Chat

Not back to work till the 8th monday ,sitting here still admiring my christmas tree it will stay up with the outside lights until the 6th, but feeling as if i missed Christmas as it came and went so fast again but it will come around as fast again.

Hope the first day back wasn't too bad for those that were in. I was quiet on here as was spending time up in Dublin with the family.

It was a brilliant Christmas and not gonna lie nearly felt like crying going back! But we go again next year, a great one ahead!

Also to mention the darts given it's part of the build up - that Littler lad is a joy to watch can't wait to see the final tomorrow!

Have to be honest, not taking to him at all, real whiff of arrogance off him. Hope Humphries wins it as he's been the best player in the world for the last year.

Thought TV would be back to normal being most people back at work but how often would you see BBC1 and ITV showing films on a Tuesday night at same time.

Not back into work today but I still had to spend about 4hrs on the laptop doing work. Grrrrr

However, regarding lights and decorations, our estate has quite a few older people in it so although the decorations go up a good bit later, they keep them up until the 6th.

Just doing the Lego "Santa visit" set.

The set is 18+ however I was building with the elves.

On one of the instruction pages it states , something to the effect of "presents are hidden around the house as a nod to parents who had to go the extra mile to hide them from curious children "

I suppose it is innocent enough and could be easily explained away but it was a shock to see it there.

So anyone else sitting down with elves to do it, be warned!

Yeah I acknowledged the fact it was 18+ .....it's Lego I would see that as a technical ability, not that there's "adult content"

However building Lego is a nice way to spend time with your kids.

We've already built the Christmas tree, wreath, gingerbread decorations, polar bears and Santa's sleigh.

I wasn't expecting that sentence in the instructions.

I posted in good faith to give a heads up to any other parents who may have the set to build.

My whole family do a savings club for Christmas. Each member give various amounts to my mother who puts it's weekly into the credit union and takes it out two weeks before Christmas then. I put 20 a wk in. It's great being handed €1000 in the run up.

Day 2 - still could not get out of bed. Littlest elf asked me when she came pottering down the hall after 8am "Mam, why we up in the middle of the night". Still I'm off tomorrow so not too bad. Although we will start the slow de-Christmas of the house 😭 We will take the sitting room tree down as the man is coming to collect it on Saturday at some stage. We've a wedding on Sat too so don't want to be killing myself & going wrecked to it. I Think I will leave my garland on the mantlepiece up until the Bank Holiday though. I did that last year & it gave a nice cheer to the room in the dark Jan evenings.

We've started little bits like that - Mr. CL is currently stripping the Christmas bedding off the beds & I've all the Christmas jumpers in the wash. I'll start lining up the Christmas delph later on to box away tomorrow. Like that, it will take us a few days to do it & then the house will need another deep clean.

We have the Christmas bedding stripped & waiting to be washed, we dont have a tumble dryer so will be watching the weather forecast closely to see when we can get out on the line!

The backlog of washing is off the charts as it is... really do need to invest in a decent dryer.

Still sitting with the glow of the Christmas tree I am sure my neighbour is horrified 🤣 I don’t get it….with this glory they give themselves for taking down their Christmas tree early

Anyone with toddlers and still loving Christmas tv there is a good 45 min show on Netflix Spookley & Christmas Kittens the cat is called mistletoe my little one is loving it she’s taking it all in

We use to do a family saving club too but stopped about 7 years ago I’m going to buy some Dunnes Stamps monthly for the Christmas shop and put another bit aside too. All the extra bits for the house, yourself, gifts and children add up

I am mentally doing notes on what I was short off for Christmas and what extra decorating I would like to do this year

@gidget I’m the same I look after the family graves I love picking up little bits to add to wreath’s or trees in Knick knack shops

I have no intention of taking anything Christmas related down till Saturday morning and will probably still have stuff up on Sunday.

Last day off work so we'll head out for some lunch in a few hours just to stretch the very last bit of joy out of the time off before day 1 workwise of 2024 starts tomorrow.

Is anyone going on the "dry" for January?

Yeah @BK5 I am going dry I am not much of a drinker these days but it’s so easy to have a couple most days over the Christmas

I stopped drinking in April 2020 before I was pregnant and went 2 years plus without a drink I would say I slept better, more energy

anyone else cutting back or doing dry January?

I dont really do dry January as like others wouldnt be a big drinker anyway throughout the year and could go weeks without alcohol of any description.

Will definitely be cutting out sugar & crisps though, I did the dog on them both over Christmas & am disgusted with myself for it.