Twinkling

Sharon - bear has heard all about the Christmas dinners and thinks it's hilarious. That's the good thing about our family - we keep the stories going. I hope you have a wonderful day.

Fifitr - I will not forget that image in a hurry! Your poor parents wrestling with a giant turkey! My mother was also very particular and wouldn't keep cooked more than three days. This meant that we all had a large portion on Christmas Day (especially father), stacks of sandwiches on Boxing Day and then turkey scouse on the 27th December. Scouse is a stew from Liverpool, and traditionally made from lamb, like this recipe, or beef, but mother made it with lots of disintegrating potatoes, onion, carrot and swede with as much cooked turkey as she could get away with. It was a real highlight of Christmas for me, and I looked forward to it almost as much as the stuffing. I don't know how you were placed, but our tiny freezer just about held a bag of frozen peas and a tub of icecream when we were little. We couldn't save the leftovers that way.

I've had problems with Morrisons deliveries. To be honest, if I get a Morrisons delivery now, I no longer get any meat, fish, frozen or chilled as I've had too much stuff spoiled. They do much better bread than Tesco, and you can donate to the Trussell Trust with the online shop, but they aren't reliable. I really sympathise with your problems with them, Fifitr. The current issues are that there are a lot more deliveries going out than there were this time of year, and I can't imagine what the staff turnover is like. 

As someone who thinks about shopping far too much, my suggestion is to go early and use plenty of hand sanitiser. It's generally quieter first thing, though not actually quiet in an absolute sense. Suggestions for thinking outside the box are looking into Delifresh, if they deliver to your area. They aren't the cheapest, but their stuff is good quality, and they normally supply restaurants, so you get fresh stuff. It may be worth checking out local farm shops as well, as some of them do the less usual veggies and some of those deliver. I quite envy you your venison.

We put the lights up in the living room today. I made a slight error. I was rushing around, not concentrating, and picked up some lights from Aldi. We don't normally bother with lights, but I thought it worthwhile as both of the men thought it a good idea. I picked up three boxes, thinking that would be the livingroom window, the study window and the mantelpiece in the study. I should have read the boxes. The lights that are up, which are very pretty and bright enough to read by, are 30 metres long and easily go around our small room with lights to spare. Those are bright white. The warm white lights are 38 metres and the multicoloured ones are 45 metres. I'm moving some furniture around tomorrow to make space for the other lights.

Please note - the central light is off. I'm also digging out the box with the tinsel tomorrow which also involves moving furniture. I'll share how I get on.

Hugs and good health to all.