The FastDay Forum

Welcome, Bee. I know you'll do great. Congrats on your baby boys!

How do we have so many "bah, humbug" folks on this forum? I say that "tongue in cheek" since we also do a low-key Christmas. Even before the kids were all grown up they didn't expect - or ask for - tons of presents. Simple is nice. But most people I've ever known seem to go all out. We don't have food traditions at our house either (I wasn't raised Christian) so I don't have to confront lots of elaborate desserts.

Congrats on yr twins Bee!You have some magical wonderful Christmases ahead!
Welcome to the teeny tent and best of luck with 5:2 x

[Debs]

Thank you for your concern CandiceMarie!! I am all grown up now and we make a big deal of it as we don't celebrate Xmas (Ba Humbug!!).
Last year the OH gave me a surprise flight down to Melaleuca for the day in the Tasmanian South West Wilderness area to see the Orange bellied Parrots which was just fantastic, and usually we do something nice involving good food and lots of wine!!
I wish my parents had thought of the alternate birthday though!

Ahh am so glad you have great bdays..and i'm sure if they had only thought of it,yr oarents wd have given you an alternate day!
Birthdays are so important,we all deserve to have that special unique day thats all ours and totally separate from other celebratory occasions!
Those parrots sound fabulous! X

Coooeeee.....
Just crawling in to check you're all behaving yourselves in the shorties' tent! Hope that's Ok with all of you petite lot!

We will have Christmas dinner by ourselves this year, as dear DiL's sister is expecting her first on Christmas day (how could they?) so most of family will decamp to Brizzle. However, Boxing day will see a good family feast. I'm not worried about the calories, 'cos I know I am physically incapable of eating a massive dinner any more!

It's my birthday a week tomorrow - hub is going to buy me a nice pair of boots (promise, no heels, so I can continue to crawl around in here!)

Enjoy your holiday @rawkaren. Very envious.

I've been out of the tent and in the garden the last several days buttoning up before winter. I missed the Christmas chat activity. So, my two cents.

We were 3 sisters 4 1/2 years apart (2 more siblings several years later). Christmas was the best. We would wake up and look down on the tree from upstairs and imagine who the presents were for. We weren't allowed to come down until our parents were up. My brave sister would dash down and look at the tag on whatever one we deemed the most desirable looking and report back as to whom it belonged.

Fast forward to my marriage. OH is an atheist. I'm a recovering Catholic. OH has a daughter and granddaughter from his first marriage. His daughter was a single mom and didn't want to spend money on the crap kids think they want and was opposed to fantasy. But, OH and I bought Diane a gift from her wish list to Santa and had it at our house. She came over after opening all of her practical gifts and was puzzled by why Santa would leave it here. We told her it was because she visited so often. She opened it and I heard her say "He DID listen!"

That was the best Christmas of my adult life.

Now THAT'S a sweet story. I hope you are continuing to support Diane's fantasies. Kids need fantasy, and come to think of it, so do adults.

[Debs]

I agree, that's why I love Harry Potter!!!! Old enough to know better but it is good to escape from reality every so often!!

Hey, @Debs, I read the entire Harry Potter series aloud to - no, not the kids - my husband. He has a vision disability that makes prolonged reading difficult, but I think more to the point he likes being read to

[Debs]

That sounds like a labour of love to me wendyjane!! I hope you had the suitable voices going, how was your Snape voice?!

Also largely because of the vision issues, he listens to a lot of books on Audible.com. And he much prefers the ones that are just read straight, not as if they were plays with the different characters. Speaking of fantasy and imagination, that way the reader (or listener in this case) can imagine what the characters sound like.

Back to HP, the movies were very good, but in a way they ruined our personal visions of Hogwarts. Now when we think of Harry, we all envision Daniel Radcliffe.

What funny things we write about at midnight. My midnight, anyway. Off to bed.

Hi wendy and all teeny tenters!
Just calling into the tent to catch up on all the latest news and wish everyone a happy weekend x

Hi wendy and all teeny tenters!
Just calling into the tent to catch up on all the latest news and wish everyone a happy weekend x

Umm. Not many in the tent at the mo. Back to #strictly. OMG check out Dave Myers in a catsuit. Wrong.on.every.level

I keep meaning to ask if I can duck my head and get my 5ft 3in self into this tent.
The thing is I think I may have got shorter, because M&S short jeans used to flap about my ankles and now they fit fine.
So based on being an M&S Short can I join please?

I've peeked in, @rawkaren, on this lazy Saturday afternoon. But since I have no idea what you are talking about, I'll leave you to be shocked with your fellow Brits

Mostly we are a big crowd of virtual friends who have a surprising amount in common, and then sometimes (usually wrt popular culture) all some of us can say is "Huh?".

Hi, @SianS. Welcome!