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Post by Bean on Dec 5, 2021 9:18:31 GMT
Happy December everyone! I had a few minutes spare yesterday so started my festive decorating - what do you think? (Obviously not my home at all - this was just a corner of a rather large room, I think you could fit our house into it a couple of times!)
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Post by 3piggles on Dec 5, 2021 21:37:15 GMT
Very nice I wrapped the gift for hubby that I have, and will wrap the other one when it arrives, maybe tomorrow. I'll take a picture of our tree. We've had it for years. It's predecorated. It's like an old friend
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Post by Bean on Dec 6, 2021 8:43:03 GMT
Our tree is pre-lit, but not pre-decorated. If you find one you like just as it is, it's a winning idea. But with us having young children when we bought our tree, I don't think they'd have been too happy to be denied the decorating ritual!
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Post by 3piggles on Dec 6, 2021 18:09:49 GMT
Ours is a Martha Stewart. Not expensive, but pretty as we like it. So much easier than decorating a tree every year, Esposito hubby having the bah humbugs over not having endless time to play with his decorations. When we were kids, we loved the decorating, even if we couldn't reach up very high on the tree, and wouldn't have liked missing out on that. We had real trees, so that was part of the fun, going to the tree lot and getting a tree. We always wanted the hugest tree, that of course wouldn't fit in our house. In 1972 we went to a local department store, and they were having a sale on fake trees for the next 10 minutes. We got a fabulous tree, couldn't tell it wasn't real unless you looked really closely, and had that for decades. Not sure what happened to it, but I think my parents still had it when they moved to Lunenburg in 1987. We'd grown up, moved out, gotten married, etc., and they moved from Lunenburg to a tiny apartment in San Francisco, so not full-sized tree there. I think the fake trees have gotten even better over the years, more expensive, too!
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Post by Bean on Dec 7, 2021 14:27:16 GMT
Great stuff - it kind of looks like a Christmas tree lady with the skirt and the table legs underneath, and the bow on top!
The fake trees you could get here in the 70s were pretty awful, but they're really good now. I always loved the ritual of choosing a tree, and you can't beat the smell of them in the house too. But I can do without the needles and without disposing of it afterwards!
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Post by 3piggles on Dec 7, 2021 17:55:39 GMT
Those needles are like hay. They seem to spread all over the house. I did love the smell though. Hehehe, Christmas tree lady 🤗
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Post by Bean on Dec 9, 2021 8:51:11 GMT
We haven't decorated yet but here's my new Christmas friend (I found him at IKEA) - he's about 70cm tall and is amusing me greatly! I don't know about over there, but gonks are increasingly popular over here. I also have my advent candle, a birds one this year. They're mostly birds associated with the festive season like robins and partridges, but I'm not sure about the owls?! Anyway, I like it! I think I've already posted more photos this week than I have all year, I might need a lie down!
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Post by 3piggles on Dec 9, 2021 13:52:52 GMT
Lol, take it easy. You don't want to get holiday burnout before it starts 🤗 He's adorable 👍 I have no idea if they're popular over here as I avoid stores. Got some pretty snow, and so good cold to go with it ❄❄❄
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Post by Bean on Dec 10, 2021 8:33:40 GMT
Pretty! Hope the new heated socks and winter boots are doing their things for you!
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Post by 3piggles on Dec 10, 2021 19:53:51 GMT
The heated socks and gloves work great. I'm going to order a size medium in the gloves. I ordered xl for hubby, and L for me. The L fits hubby, and both are too big for me. We still have most of the snow, since it kept snowing. Just flurries, but additional snow for any that melted. Hubby is assembling the cab for the snowblower. He has the cab that goes with that snow blower, but it isn't tight to the machine, so he can't use it right next to the house or cars. This one is tight, so it won't extend beyond the snowblower, and he can do a much cleaner job. I'll take a picture when he's done, so you know what I mean by a cab. It protects him from the wind and wind-blown snow. He'll still need the gloves and socks, though Keep him toasty warm while he's working outside Temps in the teens today, and 50s tomorrow. Welcome to New England, lol I doubt our snow will survive the warm day.
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Post by Bean on Dec 11, 2021 8:42:11 GMT
It's great the heated gloves aren't too bulky for your husband to be able to do outdoor work in them. Hope yours tick all the boxes once you get the right size - it's definitely a drawback of ordering online.
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Post by 3piggles on Dec 11, 2021 21:31:35 GMT
I bought Large, and haven't been able to find any Mediums, at all? I'll keep looking, but I'd like to get a size chart, which most items have, but none of the gloves I checked have a size chart? One offered a S/M and says, "suitable for ladies." I guess all women have the same size hand. I have the heated gloves for now, and will keep looking.
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Post by Bean on Dec 14, 2021 8:03:49 GMT
One offered a S/M and says, "suitable for ladies." I guess all women have the same size hand. Learn something new every day, eh?! We didn't get round to putting our decorations up this weekend, but I've got them out of the loft at least, and it will definitely happen by this weekend!
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Post by 3piggles on Dec 14, 2021 19:58:35 GMT
Having them around and under foot usually gets action, even if it's just to put them back in the loft, and pretend nothing happened, lol
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Post by Bean on Dec 15, 2021 7:38:42 GMT
I've just had my booster jab and there's no way my arm is lifting that stuff back up into the loft, so I guess it's decoration time!
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Post by 3piggles on Dec 15, 2021 18:54:58 GMT
I didn't have trouble with the booster, but the pneumonia shot felt like a flu shot. Wasn't doing anything with that arm for a few days! Hubby ordered me some Christmas gifts. I know about one of them, because we agreed on it together. He loves doing the whole cloak and dagger, no peaking thing until he has the gifts wrapped, lol It's wrapped, so I can go in the office, again
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Post by bazookagoof on Dec 16, 2021 1:31:41 GMT
Oddly enough, I never went hunting for my Christmas presents. I don't know where my parents hid them, but it never occurred to me to go searching for them. I suppose one part of it was that on Christmas Eve, we would exchange gifts from each other, and on Christmas morning we would open our presents from Santa. I need to remind myself to pick up my mother's present from the local Walgreens; I get her a photo calendar of the grandkids every year. At her age, it's the only thing that matters anymore. She really doesn't need "stuff."
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Post by Bean on Dec 16, 2021 7:52:25 GMT
I think there are a lot of people who feel like that, and it's great if their loved ones respect that and don't buy them pointless stuff because it makes them feel better.
We used to do a calendar for my husband's parents and grandad, but the kids no longer tolerate enough photography for a calendar!
I'll be intrigued to see what your husband's bought, 3piggles! Have you been told not to prod it?
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Post by 3piggles on Dec 16, 2021 17:21:40 GMT
No touching until Christmas, lol. What? Does he really think I'd do that We didn't need to hunt for the gifts, because they were all under the tree. I don't know who's tradition that was, but we were given a really stern warning about disturbing the gifts before we were allowed to open them, and back then, all parents had to do was issue a stern warning. It's not like now, where finding ways around the warnings seems to have replaced just accepting that we would get our hides tanned, and not bothering the gifts. We also bought the gift for each parent, with the other parent(they paid, we didn't), so understood the idea of secrecy until the opener got to have a nice surprise. We never did Santa, nor did our parents ever give us a gift from Santa. I always thought "what did Santa bring you?' was the equivalent of "what did you get for Christmas." I had a roommate whose family always did a New Year's gift from Father New Year, on New Year's Eve. I think it's a great tradition. Ring in the new year with a gift, after ringing out the old one with gifts. It's a whole lot better than those stupid new year resolutions no one ever followed. It's also a great way to start a new year when it's a dark time with cold and snow, so any gift that helps take people's minds off the post-holiday winter doldrums, is good in my opinion
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Post by Bean on Dec 17, 2021 9:30:43 GMT
I think the presents only went out under the tree on Christmas Eve in our house, so not much time to resist prodding (it's the stockings that were from Santa, and they only had small things in to keep us amused for an hour and buy our parents a bit more time in bed!). As a young child, I think I would have found it hard to resist giving something a prod if I'd been able to see it for a few weeks! You only spoil your own surprise if you look/ guess though, and the anticipation is a big part of the excitement of Christmas, especially for kids. I remember a couple of my son's friends admitting to looking for their presents before Christmas, and finding them (I didn't grass them up!). On that thread, I've thought of you a couple of times, 3piggles, as I've been reading a book called Talk To The Hand (<- link) - it's a humorous (at times anyway) rant about the loss of manners and respect in younger generations, and covers some stuff we've discussed before. The part I just read was about how companies used to employ switchboard operators to greet you and get your call to where it needed to be efficiently. Now we get a recorded greeting and have to play switchboard operator ourselves, choosing from long rambling menus that usually end up at dead ends. And despite having so much of your own time wasted doing all this, if you manage to get in the right queue, you're repeatedly reminded to have all your details ready so you don't waste the company's time. I was in a car with my mum earlier this week, and our car was directed to a parking space by two rather grumpy looking stewards in hi-vis gear. My mum lowered her window and called out a cheery 'Good morning!'. In response one attempted a slight smile and the other just looked up with a doleful expression on his face and said 'Is it?'. It made us laugh (after we'd gone round the corner anyway), but it's certainly not a great attitude for someone in a customer-facing role!
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