I'm going to get a cranberry and orange turkey crown thingy too... For me... It feeds 6-7

omg,, lol.. be eating it til next xmas !...

500g per person i think is the recommended amount.. how i know that im not sure lol.. but it was confirmed on some day time rubbish i had on the otherday ....

I have nothing to eat. I'll probably be making pasta Christmas teatime when everyone else is stuffed. Or maybe I'll just eat chocolate.

Morning all, frosty here this morning but sunny

Poor Jen... hope you put a cold compress on that noggin of yours...please mind the wall next time you flip

Have got Mum booked in for a facial this afternoon, a pre Christmas pressie from her man...and I'm getting the old bows waxed, they're like whatshisnames? dennis healey at the moment, haven't had them done since Aug!

Her facial is 75 minutes long and has all the bells and whistles, as it should, it cost bloody 95 bucks! Posh looking place though, all swanky and stuff.

First off I need to do a rubbish run, amazing having the boy of mine back, how much rubbish he generates, from all his snacking... beanpole that he is.

Helen, have fun at your two Christmas parties...and well done for running in ice this morning, I know I wouldn't I hate stepping outside to go to the car when it's icey out...let alone run, which I don't do anyway

FTT, enjoy your loving evening tonight, Mrs. claus hey? SEXY!

Ok, finish cuppa, and then rubbish run and walk with pen and lew... he'll be needing his coat this morning.

Morning. Wet day here.

I have to go to the dentist today and physio, fun.

2frus ouch that sounds painful. I'm impressed back flips you must be very flexible

Chris did you ask them about a massage? You should treat yourself and get one. Last time I had a facial was just before my wedding day. They will probably try and sell your mum some skin care products.

Caramel Baileys haven't seen that over here. Sounds lovely.

Very cold and frosty here with some freezing fog when the sun goes in. Very slippery walk this morning.

Working from home is not all its cracked up to be!

Yayyyy - I just waved goodbye to the last courier so thats me finished work for Christmas. All my lovely eBay buyers have paid up instantly and I haven't got any more listings running so I'm now officially a lady of leisure until February. I've had some nice surprises today - the five different courier companies I use all sent me nice bottles of wine.

Just waiting for my Sainsbury delivery - can't wait to see how many items they substitute and with what! Last year we had Tescos do the Christmas delivery and it was awful - most of the stuff was short dated and loads of subs.

Euchhhh I don't like Baileys to drink (its okay in cooking) and the thought of it mixed with caramel is .... well........

I had a couple of the white choc covered berries and found that the white choc didn't seem to be agreeing with me - just hope that DH is okay with eating all 7 kilos!!!! I found a little printed label on the bag saying that they had been manufactured for Julian Graves - aren't they a health shop? Can't think what a health shop would be doing with choc covered berries.

Nah Julian Graves sells loads of stuff like chocolate covered berries! I bought some white chocolate jazzies there! It's just bagged sweeties... I think they might do some nuts and seeds too, but nothing really healthy/supplements like Holland and Barrat.

Does anyone else start needing a brain transplant around xmas time.

So far I've taken 10 year old to swimming lessons on Monday night only to be told they had finished last week (I asked the plans twice the week before).

Last night I did the tree, put lights and all the tinsel on only to find the 2 new sets of lights I bought last year were the next thing in the box(I left it with the old lights on).

I've just been to the school xmas concert, came to get in the car only to find I'd left the lights on for 2 hours, managed to open up with the key, (the automatic unlocker would'nt work), and the car alarm came on, and I could'nt turn it off, just sat there as it was getting weaker and weaker, have just had to walk home half a mile in just a thin jumper and high heels.
Got to go back later when hubby comes home to jump start it and put the battery on charge. (If we manage to get it open and the people whose house I've left it beeping outside don't beat me up).
Why don't I like xmas again?

Carole

Ahhhh! Chunky Carole - it'll be alright on the night! I think everyone goes a bit doo-lally at this time. I kept losing my Christmas list so in the end had to do an excel spreadsheet of what pressies I had got and what I need to get!

Yup, Julian Graves have lots of nuts and dried fruit and seeds, but in chocolate covered varieties as well as plain. I do get a fair bit of stuff there, but I always have to remind myself not to touch the chocolate covered dates because I can eat a bag in seconds.

My boss has just been into work and given me a load of food for christmas. A HUGE container of Jaffa Cakes (recommended by sports nutritionists, but not 60 at a time ), and some cakes and biscuits from Betty's. Why do people insist on buying me food???

(OK, it's probably what she got for everyone, what with having a 4 week old baby and no time for shopping, but still...)

Anyway, it's time to get changed and head off to PARTY! (In a sober, restrained manner...)

Ahhhh Carole - its something to do with the constant playing of Christmas carols - it turns your brain to mush.

Yayyyy - good for Sainsbury - I got my entire Chrimbo food order with only one sub and that was a good one (better than the item I ordered originally) AND they sent me a nice little paper carrier bag full of freebies. The poor little bloke doing the delivering looked very frazzled and got jumpy and upset when I tried to give him a tip - apparently they aren't allowed to accept them.

I just spent a happy half hour making patterns on oranges with cloves (piled them up in a basket with cinnamon sticks on the edge of the fireplace) and I also tucked cinnamon sticks down the back of radiators (tied on with ribbon) - my house smells very Christmassy.

at Chunky Caroles imagination of being beaten up by people whose house she left her car beeping outside of... I'm sure you'll be ok luv... you sound like you've got it busy.... Christmas concerts and stuff, used to love it all when my kids were little... made it feel more like Christmas.

Sarah Ann, that sounds nice, cinnamon sticks down the backs of the radiators, and oranges and cloves, you are inventive

Glad you got your Sainsbury order all sorted...and that you've got a break from work until Feb....sounds perfect.

CG.. didn't book myself a massage or facial, bit too rich there for my blood, I'll find a different one with better rates.

Have been for a nice walk with Mum and dogs along to the fishing ramp... nice out in the sun, but in the shade you can def feel a lot cooler.

Baileys, love the stuff, over ice or in a coffee, got very piddled on a plane once drinking Baileys in my coffee, and then couldn't get out of the loo, the nice steward had to rescue me. They have a mint flavoured one as well as the caramel one, I think I'll buy one of each....

Ok, that's it for now....need to find Mum's glasses before we go off to be sorted in the faces.

I just laughed out loud at Chris being locked in on the plane.

I'm having an aggrevating day, one of those days where everything is just annoying. It started when I went to get dressed and found my cat resting comfortably on one of my cashmere sweaters. I know my sweater shouldn't have been sitting on my desk but......it was, and she was all curled up on it. Just now the little pain in the but just sneezed on me, I thought she was crawling on my lap but she walked over sneezed on me and then went to sit in another chair???

Then I got to school and a couple of kids who haven't been in for about a month showed up and just basically caused problems all day. Came home for lunch to do an errand and realized someone was parked in my parking spot. Had to call the tow truck because I rent my spot out during the day and my tenant couldn't park there. Dumb person will spend $150 getting their car out instead of $30 had they parked on the street and gotten a ticket, or $20 in a garage.

Then I head back to school in quite a foul mood and end up sending 2 kids home for their behavior......

Going for a run now and then to an xmas party which I intended to not drink at but I need one or 2!!!!!

Oh and the liquor store was closed this morning so I have to go tonight to find my Baileys.

Sorry for the whining, I need Christmas break BAD!!!!!

There was a programme on UK TV Food this evening - they showed the mint flavoured Baileys as a topping for ice cream. Bleughhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't like the texture and it ALWAYS tastes off to me - same as all those other creamy liqueurs. The only sweet liqueurs I like are flavoured schnapps - raspberry schnapps from Lidl is especially nice.

Chris - I can't take the credit for the oranges studded with cloves and cinnamon sticks - they are things I used to get to do as a kid.

Hello, parties survived without a mince pie ambush The work one was nice food, and the portions weren't too big, but the service was just SOOOO slow. I can cope with my colleagues for a while, but it just went on and on. In the end I left before coffee - and even that was an hour after I'd intended to leave. I managed to stretch out a single glass of red wine to last 3 hours though, which was good going!

Then running club, the good news is that most of the food was gone by the time I got there so I couldn't nibble. The bad news is that most people had finished eating so didn't want my cheese straws, so I've brought them home and ended up nibbling a few of them in the car on the way back. I'm trying to decide whether to throw them out or eat them.

I wish I was doing London. The club places went to a really nice group of girls it would have been nice to train with, all roughly my speed too. I'll try to co-ordinate my Edinburgh training with them as much as possible I think, although I'll be about a month away from them on my programme so my longest runs will probably fall during their taper.

I must brace myself for work tomorrow. The family size tin of quality street is due to arrive at lunchtime...