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....the Sky TV guide music is playing a seasonal tune!!!!

Coca-cola ad

I quite liked the new Sky menu music, thought it made a nice change :D

the neighbours put up all those bloody ridiculous lights

......every bloody item on my daughter's santa letter is out of stock in Argos!

Actually got all my shopping pretty much wrapped up now (wrapped up, geddit?) and think I've done pretty well this year - looking forward to it :D

when u think u r in with a chance of getting a bit from the mrs.




or is that my birthday?

When your mother starts boiling the
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In November

Been to my mums today and we all fancied a bit of chocolate when the footy was on.

'Do you have any chocolate mum?

'yes, but its on the Christmas shelf so you cant have that'

'oh come on, just buy some more tomorrow'

'No, its for Christmas,oh hold on then, Ive got some Quality Streets hidden under the bed, you can have some of them instead'

and she did have some Quality Streets hidden under the bed too, along with some Ritz cheese biscuits and a 24 pack of Walkers crisps

I know when Christmas is coming when my Mum starts a Christmas shelf!!

I start on the port and brandies.

No mention of brandy for AT LEAST another 2 more weeks, please and thank you.  Waterford was a killer!   rotflmfao

mmm brandy

When you see the shops stocking up with easter eggs

and i thought this was just my mum lol

every year from early november things started to appear on the christmas shelf and god help anyone who touched anything on the shelf before xmas eve at the earliest !

Yer EVIL!   ;nemesis;

Well, ya know it's Christmas in my house when 12 kids start harassing me about 'cookie night'...and only 3 of them are mine. 

Cookie night - My mom used to do this with us and the tradition just carried on.

Objective - To make/decorate cookies and pick 'that special one' to be left out for Santa on Christmas Eve.   

Mission, should you choose to accept it - Make a batch of cookie dough.  Size of batch dependant on number of children involved.  Separate said batch into decent size individual balls of dough and put each one into a plastic sandwich bag.  Place in fridge for about 4 hours.  (Or freezer if you've forgotten to make it in time   ;whistle; rotflmfao) 

Gather up 2 - 4 families of children and their mothers.  Designate one house as 'host' (rotated each year).  Host supplies non-alco drinks and mini bites for everyone...ie chicken nuggets, chips, pizzas...that kind of stuff.  I supply the dough packs for each child, grease proof paper and the Christmas cookie cutters handed down by my own mom.  Other moms bring wine (lots of it - how else would we get through the night?), baking sheets, icing in 3 colours (red, green & white...obv), sprinkles and other Christmas themed baking decorations.

The lot of us land at the host house around 5pm on cookie night.  First we have the mini bites...and open the first bottle of wine.  Then we break the kids down into 3 or 4 children per group, starting with the youngest and work our way up to the oldest.  Each child's name is written on a sheet of grease proof.  From here, depending on age, you either have to help them or hand them rolling pins and cutters and let em at it.  Open the second bottle of wine. 

I've the size of the dough balls down to a fine science at this point and each one = enough to fill one baking sheet.  When the first group have theirs cut out and on sheets, into the oven they go and call in the next group.  By the time the next group is done, the first lot are cooked and chilling on the counter and 2nd lot are in the oven.  Call in the next group...and  open the 3rd bottle of wine.  Trust me, what's coming next will explain the need for the bottles of wine.  It's for the benefit of the children...honest.   rotflmfao   

Now the fun starts.  Picture 12 children positioned around a large dining table with their sheets of cookies.  All smiles and giggles.  Each choosing their 'special cookie' for Santa.  Innocent enough, right?  Enter into that picture of cuteness...9 bowls of icing positioned around the table so everyone can reach (with a few spoons in each bowl), 4 lots of sprinkles (in the large shaker style containers) spread out around the table.  Now then...anyone who has even let ONE child 'at it' in the kitchen, KNOWS the mess about to happen.  Times that by 12 and open the next bottle of wine.  Thank you very much. 

While the kids are busy trashing the kitchen decorating their cookies, we sit back sipping our wine.  No shouts of 'Johnny!!!  Don't toss the sprinkles around like that!" or " SARAH!!!  Jeez...that's enough icing for THREE cookies, nevermind 1!"  Nope, we don't utter a word...apart from, "Isn't this wine lovely?"

When they're done trashing decorating...it's time for the moms to start the clean up.  We've gotten cute over the years.  Clean up used to take AGES, until we started using cheap plastic or paper table cloths.  Anyway, we send the kids off to play while we open another bottle of wine.  (We might have gotten cute about the clean up, but mustn't break tradition with the wine.)  Out come the paper plates.  Each one with a child's name on it.  Transfer cookies from the grease proof to the paper plate and cover with cling film or foil.  At this point, the cling film roll can be a bit tricky to operate, so we're probably going with the foil.  Of course, using foil for 12 plates causes another problem which we never discover until the children come tearing into the kitchen.  Enter a chorus of "Which one is mine?".  Feck.  Now we have to open another bottle of wine to get us through the 'sorting of the plates'.  At this point, we've given up on 'individual' and go for the 'family' theme.  Each mom is responsible for putting her family's plates in a spot she'll hope to remember later.   

Once the clean up is done, we phone the husbands to let them know it's time to collect us.  They used to say we were using 'Cookie Night' as an excuse for a piss up amongst the women...until we offered to let them take charge of it.  Now they just drop and collect with a smile on their face and don't utter a negative word between them.  Anyway, while we wait for them to arrive, we open another bottle of wine...to celebrate our survival of the annual 'Cookie Night'. 

'Twas the nocturnal segment of the diurnal period   
preceding the annual Yuletide celebration, And   
throughout our place of residence,               

Kinetic activity was not in evidence among the     
possessors of this potential, including that     
species of domestic rodent known as Mus musculus.

Hosiery was meticulously suspended from the forward
edge of the woodburning caloric apparatus,       

Pursuant to our anticipatory pleasure regarding an 
imminent visitation from an eccentric           
philanthropist among whose folkloric appelations
is the honorific title of St. Nicklaus ...       

My Mum buys copius amounts of cheese...

You know Christmas is coming when it's December 26th.

WHEN THE LOCAL HOTEL PUTS UPTHE COUNTDOWN TO XMAS SANTA STARTING @99 DAYS...

lol, you were lucky. On Christmas Eve my mum used to stand on 'pantry duty' to make sure we didnt dare try to pinch a nut or a Viscount biscuit before time. Then when we were allowed onto the shelf after Christmas she would moan that we were eating everything too quickly!