The Enid Blyton Society

I noticed that the supermarkets were selling ready-made pigs in blankets in their chilled sections in the weeks leading up to a Christmas.

I'm pretty sure ours here are ready-made, but they're very tasty and I like them too.

Huh....? Ready made pigs....?

It's feels pretty weird not to be in Spain for the Epiphany!!
I am just getting everything organised, buying presents and if time allows I will try to make the King's cake.
Hope they come to Ireland this year!!

Katharine wrote:Some interesting thoughts there, I shall certainly do my best to keep them in mind next time I'm opening presents - regardless of the contents.

You've reminded me I need to prompt my children to write their thank you letters. They are usually pretty good. I would prefer a written note myself, but I'd rather receive a text or even a verbal thank you than nothing at all. I sent a friend's son a cheque for his birthday a couple of month's ago, and haven't heard anything, not even a message on Facebook. I checked my bank account, and it's been cashed, so at least I know he received it. Now he's a teenager I expect his mother feels he's old enough to remember to thank people himself, and although it would have been nice to receive an acknowledgement, I can't honestly say I've always remembered to thank people, especially when I was his age.

I smiled recalling my dear Grandmama writing her thank you letters with a quill pen (she insisted it was the only sort that had a nib sharp enough) on scented violet paper in exquisite copperplate, and a recent text from a goddaughter saying "Yuge tx 4 scrummy goodies, big love", guess we're somewhere between!

Sounds great, but I wonder which was easier to read? I had to read the text 3 times before I worked out what it said!

Me too! I've never seen the text word 'Yuge' before! That threw me for a while! Must be getting old!

I hate that sort of text speak, it's so difficult to read, I think morse code would be easier to work out than some of these made up texting words! Even worse, on some forums some write whole posts like that, almost impossible to read through. I'm sure that's why some posts have such shockingly bad grammar and spelling too, people are using 'text speak' so much their forgetting how to write properly or don't know how to in the first place! .

Couldn't agree more! When I write a text I usually write in full sentences and complete words...call me old fashioned, I don't care!

We have just completed our last Christmas custom - taking the decs down! Can't abide seeing decorations up in January. Time to move on and look forward to 2017's thrills and spills.

We'll take our decs down tomorrow at some point. We've never left them up until 12th night either.

Rob Houghton wrote:Couldn't agree more! When I write a text I usually write in full sentences and complete words...call me old fashioned, I don't care!

Me too, at least I know people wil lhave understood what I've written. Some would argue it takes longer but I'd argue back that by the time I've thought of which text speak words I'm supposed to be using and decided if it's understandable to the recipient or not, I could have written and sent a proper message anyway!

Moonraker wrote:We have just completed our last Christmas custom - taking the decs down! Can't abide seeing decorations up in January. Time to move on and look forward to 2017's thrills and spills.

Mine never come down before the 6th here, I like to keep them up as long as possible and squeeze every last drop of enjoyment from the Christmas period, it goes so quick I feel you have to make the most of it. I can understand wanting to take them down on New Year's Day, starting a fresh year and all that, but I will never understand the idea some have of putting the tree/decs up in November then taking it down Boxing Day complaining their fed up of them by then!

I hate it when the tree decorations and tree are packed up - the house looks so bare. January seems such a long, cold month, often with grey skies, at least if I keep the decorations up until 6th January then it only means there's 3 weeks of 'nothingness', as opposed to a whole month.

The last couple of years I've made the room look a bit more cheerful by putting up birthday cards. My son, daughter and myself have birthdays at the end of November/beginning of December, and trying to put up 3 lots of cards at once was just impossible. So I decided to just put one lot up at a time. My son was away this year, so I didn't have his cards to display, but as I always keep cards up for a month, I've only just taken mine down and replaced them with my daughter's - so that will take us up to the end of January. Hopefully by the then days will be a little bit lighter, and although I expect the weather will still be cold and miserable, February usually sees a few bulbs poking up.

Thankfully I don't really have to write thank you letters (or txts). Pretty much everyone who gives me a gift at Christmas I see in person and can thank them face to face.

Katharine wrote:I hate it when the tree decorations and tree are packed up - the house looks so bare.

We love it! Normality again and Christmas is just a memory.