'Bless your heart' fucking /drag/ them oh my god. I'm keeping on eye on that thread lmao, what assholes.

I have never been to a Christmas party that wasn't just our usual Christmas eve get together. Hope you have fun :D

Dang! People need to lighten up :( especially for the holiday!!!

I'm really sorry to all of you for replying so late.

- So did it end up snowing where you live? - did you enjoy your time offline? :) - I'm not doing too bad myself. I hope you're less tired now. - haha, thank you!

Yeah! We got about an inch of snow, but it all melted the same day and hasn't snowed again since. :P

But it was fun while it lasted!

They do. I have my mom's krumkake recipe and I made my own krumkake last year. Mom and I make it every year before Christmas. I have a number of other cookie recipes that my mom and I have made together during Christmas as well.

I like spicy, but I have a limit once my mouth feels like its on fire. My husband loves spicy food, but I don't think he likes Sriracha sauce. True, mayo does tend to knock out other flavors, I always have to add more mustard to my deviled eggs to overpower the mayo.

I was very happy to not have any injuries, though I was quite sore the next day and may have developed shin splints in my right leg from climbing up into the chute that many times. Two years ago, I didn't tape my arm with KT tape, and my elbow got very sore halfway through, but the KT tape does an amazing job.

She is pretty sweet, still tries to sit in your lap because she gets jealous of the kittens. Ruger has now tripled in size, so she doesn't fit in laps very well anymore.

Glad you could get some financial help with the cleaning and for showing up prepared to the party. I need to start bringing my own food to the extended family Christmas parties on Chris's side of the family. I noticed I can't do potluck meals anymore, don't know if its due to the food sitting out or just a food coming from many different places. Chris and I went to one of the extended family Christmas parties yesterday, I barely ate anything and still ended up with stomach pain. I ended up sleeping until 1 pm today because I was so exhausted from the party.

Chris has another side job putting up some lights tomorrow, but he's hoping it will take a couple days. Chris had the interview Saturday and he said it was really weird because he had 5 seconds to read the question off the screen and think of a response. It was for a phone sales job that might have 100% commission, so he isn't looking forward to that if there isn't an hourly wage.

Yeah, I've always thought that guy and his family seemed very stuck up. He seems to take or get all the credit for anything the company donates, like a kiosk and shelter for a giant Czech egg in town, even though he didn't do all the hard work. It just sucks that Chris can't do anything about being unfairly fired.

I slowly have, my neck is better, but my back is still sore. Had a slight headache yesterday, but that was due to a Christmas party and playing Bunco with about 23 people.

I still need to finish Christmas cards and get them mailed, just need stamps. I've hand delivered 4, and will hand deliver 2 more. My mom gave me a lot of Christmas cards that she's stockpiled over the years, so I should have enough cards for a few years.

It is. I end up refreshing the page and then scrolling back down to the achievement. Sometimes it still doesn't load right, so I move on to a different one.

Luckily I only have one bad knee, but I've injured it twice. First time, I enlarge a growth cavity (took 5 years to figure that out), the second time I got thrown off my horse. I don't know what all I did to my knee the second time, but I know I at least had nerve damage. Running is out for me, unless I'm running after cows. Where I live now, the land is pretty flat. Chris and I also have a half mile long drive way, so once its warm enough, I'll try to ride my bike down to the mailbox and back every day. In the city, there was a bike/walking path, but it was 5 miles long, I believe and skirted around town.

I came home from chores this morning and crawled back in bed, sleeping until 1 under 5 blankets (one of them is electric). Its been cloudy most days, but haven't had any snow yet. Colder weather is moving back in, so it might bring some bad weather with us. We plan on packing overnight bags for the last two Christmas parties we are traveling to, in case the weather takes a turn. Last year, we didn't go to his grandpa's Christmas party, because the weather was nasty. I think it had rained and froze on the roads.

It took me a couple weeks to break down my wishlist. I still need to sit down and reorganize some things, but it might not happen before Lumi.

Only two more Sunday's of traveling for us, then we should be done until the new year. I might have time to be crafty this week, but I still have Christmas baking to do.

That's a fair point. I'm used to getting lots of gifts for my birthday, even when I've been told that I won't be getting much. I know someone whose birthday was lumped in with Christmas, so that would be a little difficult, I'd imagine That's a really good deal on Christmas wrap, its normally $4 or more here. Last year, Nordic styled paper seemed popular. Most of the stores have very modern looking paper, or paper with too much going on at once.

I haven't looked for any dairy free cheesecake recipes, might have to do that. My parents recommended looking into a lactose pill (had never heard of it before, so I'll have to do some reasearch). Took the fudge to a Christmas party yesterday and only brought half of it back home. Its getting pretty dried out though, so it might be time to toss it. Oh, that would be good. I've got a recipe for holly wreathes, just a Christmas-y rice crispy, but I can never get the marshmallow colored the right shade of green. I did have some fun with the baking, but I got tired of standing for 2+ hours. I love cheese too, but I have to limit how much I have now :(. I did have a good time. Didn't really want to be there at first because some of the extended family tends to be nosy (have to know what everyone has been up to for the whole year). This year they didn't have families talk about what they've been doing, so that was a pleasant surprise. Chris and I stayed to play Bunco because I had never played before. I took home $7 because I had the most wins out of 18 rounds (15 winds, 3 Buncos).

There are a few antique stores left here (one town has 3!). Sometimes you can find a good deal, but most of the time you end up walking away from something you really want to buy but can't afford. Thrift stores here are cheaper than in the city Chris and I used to live in. The Goodwill in the city started charging $5 for all books, paperback or hardcover (little steep), and clothing ranged from $3 to $10.

I always wanted an American Girl doll. I used to get the catalog. They are expensive, but they also have a whole lot of accessories, even wheelchairs and splints/casts. I've got some crocheted doll clothes, but most of them are older, so I've got them in storage. I've made a micro chainmaille bracelet before, which was a headache, so I can imagine that mini dolls clothes wouldn't be too easy.

Typically the family that hosts the Christmas at their house also provides the whole meal and everyone else can bring deserts if they wish. If Chris and I host, we may ask other families to bring side dishes while we provide one main dish, but we'll see.

I could also try my hand at making mini quilt block ornaments. It would be something that I could easily stitch together by hand, and I could use fabric scraps for it too. Joanns sells some white birds during Christmas, so I might buy some of them during the after Christmas sales. I've read that the pickle ornament can be used as a game. Hide it on the tree and the first person to find it gets a special gift. I'm not sure what happened to the pickle ornament my mom has, I didn't see it in the box of decorations.

I have some jersey knits to make blankets for some of my larger model horses. Haven't gotten around to it yet, but I still have the fabric. Thrift stores here don't have to test electricals, because they tend to write 'as is' on the price sticker. So tend to not buy electricals, unless they are vintage.

I've got The Christmas Carol (animated with Jim Carey), The Muppet's Christmas Carol, and Polar Express (my favorite). I also ordered a DVD of Classic Christmas Cartoons, that should have all of the cartoons from the 30s, 40s, and 50s that have somewhere on VHS.

I could buy another planner to turn into a food diary. That way I should have enough room to note when I've had a migraine from other things.

Darn! It showed up when I first posted it. :( Just noticed that it didn't show up. Let me try posting it to my DeviantArt account and see if I can share it that way. I'll have to dig into the account settings on Photobucket a little further and see if I can figure something out, because the Hexi picture is the only one giving me any issues. [edit] Lets try two different options and see which one loads.

Hexi Block on DeviantArt

Feeling better. Just looking forward to a two week break :D

Unlocked Free all the Fairies!! Free 1,000 Fairies to continue their good work for Melody!

Thanks to everyone that helped! Happy happy.

I'll try to reply to people later in the week if I can. I got my Christmas basket today (good amount of food plus a frozen chicken). Tomorrow is a Christmas party for those that do day classes, Thurs is my last class, Christmas day is at my aunt's, the 28th it'll be the first time I get a cleaning lady. So, things are getting busy in RL :)

I just need to learn to mind my own damned business. LOL

It is crazy that even the most innocent comment can set someone off. I would hate for us to have to walk on egg shells all the time. No fun!

That's just one of the reasons I rarely post on the boards, except for the Shark boards. Too many jerks out there.

splashes down Well, sorry for vanishing yesterday, real life got busier than I was expecting!

Well, know that we absolutely appreciate your efforts, and let us stay positive and full of gifting fun. Because we're just jawsome like that. ❤

Just for when you're ready...

Some of our Sharks have hit 3 years And want to celebrate it Let's party on and have a ball Because they're really greatest!

An epic tale of Tanks and tasks Events we've had a fair few The battle fought and snowballs worn It's crazy what we can do

So raise a glass to year 3 Or wherever your count starts This Tank is full of groovy folks - We're proud to call you all Sharks! ;)

Oh, that's always the problem with kits, one colour is used up way before all the others. It's good that you can get more though.

My real life stuff got in the way of gifting yesterday, so I will be playing catch up over the next couple of days. But have an Xmas lunch one day and Pantomime with my niece tomorrow! So busy...

Sounds like you need a holiday-holiday! Don't worry, we're just glad to have you around. :)

We had a really nice party, I read a poem, there were some other performance poets and a keyboard player along with the usual Xmas and pop music-ness. Lots of fun.

Yeah, visited some nice Xmas markets, ate way too much food, so I count that as a win! xD
Don't worry about being busy, it gets many folks this time of year.

Well, I'll keep sending positive thoughts for Chris with the job situation.
I know my other half had a 100% commission job years ago and found it very hard - because he had to drive to the sales locations, some weeks he LOST money. Will keep fingers crossed that if Chris gets it, it will be better than that.

I officially name him the wiener boss. Workers rights aren't always protected, it's shocking sometimes. Here, in a previous job I had, we were warned that as a front-facing receptionists if a customer had a problem with us and made a complaint unless we had joined the workers union, there was no job protection!

Aw, well hopefully the Xmas part was still fun. And fingers x-ed that the headaches and neck aches are on the way out.

Just got my Xmas cards completed today, so that's off the check list now. Wow, enough cards for years is highly organised, I like it!

With anything damaged more than once, I guess looking after it is even more important.
The gentle cycling sounds like a really good thing to help keept he knee moving without too much pressure.

It's sensible to keep supplies with you in case the weather does take a turn. Hopefully it won't so you can get all your socialising done safely. Weatherforecast here is for a cloudy Xmas, so no snow - unless you count the fake stuff a neighbour has on his outdoor decorations! xD

Yeah, any kind of wishlist organisation will take some time - best of luck with that!

Here's hoping you can find some craft time! We have a lot of travelling over the holidays, so it's probably for the best that the weather is staying fairly mild.

Indeed, it's almost unfair to not have the two separate lots of gifts, at least in my opinion. No one should miss out just becasue of their date of birth.

I think I am mostly done with gift wrapping too - just a few smaller pieces to sort - so hopefully no more paper needed, I can just finish up any current supplies.

If you have food isues, it can be worth looking into alternatives - and you can discover some fun recipes for all through that.

Would the fudge survive to be baked into something like moist brownies or is it definitely 'past it'?
The Holly wreath recipe sounds very cute! I have had to use LOADS of food colouring when I made orange coloured krispies shaped like pumkins, it was a small recipe/batch but used a whole tube of colour. We need some Alt-Cheese baking for you. Time to investigate!

Well done on your game win too, that's great! Yeah, sometimes it's nice to just do some fun things and have nice food, not go for an interview with family members!

I am not even sure how many antique places we have locally... maybe 5-7 - some of them are split over a couple of buildings.
It's good that you can still get some decent deals. I feel old when I remember the days that you could get books for 79p each in some of the local second hand shops. Those were the days! xD

Maybe one day you can treat yourself to one of the AG dolls and some accessories!
Apparently, the little dolls have decided they want some knitted fair wings, so the next project is on!

Oh, it's definitely worth getting some help with catering bigger events, that's for sure. Hopefully it'll all run smoothly it it does go ahead.

There are always scraps leftover from bigger projects, so a mini project is a nice idea. And that can fit in around longer-term projects too.
I hadn't heard about the Xmas pickle game, that's a fun thing. I hope you can find the vintage one at some point.

Aw, thats a good idea to use the jersey for the horse blankets. My niece wanted blankets for her barbie & smaller doll pet horses, but I just knitted some rectangles for that! I should have looked online for some patterns.
I don't think I have ever seen 'as is' type sales except for private listings, like eBay or stuff like Gumtree.

The vintage cartoons should be interesting! Muppets are great, I think that's on TV here over the Xmas period.
And some New Father Brown episodes, I think someone said. ;)

I would recommend it from other people finding their trigger foods. Plus long term, I know for some folks, if they remove the trigger from their diet for a good long time, and introduce it back very gradually, it is no longer a trigger So maybe it's not forever!

Yay, the DeviantArt one is showing for me! You've done a lot of work already, very nice. I don't quilt, so do you tack things together first or just sew them straight together?

** For Secret Santa no. 1: Though starless likes to be quite good There are no guarantees here! I hope this won't upset my gifts I'd like to get some this year!
(Thank you so much!) :)

Same! I only post on event boards. Other than that I just hang out with all of you great people here :D

That sounds like a great time! :D

Is the site super lagging for anyone else? Trying to get quests done before going to bed because it's late here and I have to get up early and it's taking forever with the lag. Might have to give up and try again tomorrow.

OK after taking several minutes to do 1 quest I had to give up. Hope it's working better today.

Well, I really hope the lag and server updates are done with, I have been having issues getting things to load all day!

It was a good day. We have a couple of friends visiting this coming weekend too, but we're going simple and just hitting the fish & chip shop. No planning required!
Are you all prepped for the 25th?

Secret Santa Shark no. 2

The ThistleThief did steal my heart With such fiery surprises I must now check my ornaments Before the Snow Shark bites us! (Thank you so much!)

Not-secret Santa Shark (With apologies, I have been admin-ing like a nut and missed some of my gift boxes from earlier in the month!)

Your lovely gifts are really great Though they look slimey on the pate So many thanks and much good cheer For Lumi and the coming year!
❤

Awesome gifts, and thanks so much for doing this.

Oh wow thank you so much to all of my secret sharks! The gifts are amazing <3

OMG what is going on? Lag was so bad last night I had to give up and go to bed without doing most of my quests, then when I logged on during lunch break for a short time the site went down at least 2-3 times and now the super lag is back. Can't get anything done. :(

For presents? Yes :D For everything else? No :( I am going to be running around like crazy on Saturday lol.

Ooooo a Lumi in July would be fun! How cute! XD

Hmmm Layla... it sounds a little strange but it's namey and not spelled weird so I think it'll feel normal in no time! And it'll be so pretty to write in cursive! Lmao, I judge names that way sometimes? XD That is great your in-laws can visit them sometimes instead of always being at your place (or wanting you guys over.)

AW , I'm sure other people would have suggested the use of the "gifts for empty trees" thread if you hadn't. I hope it was just a misunderstanding where they thought your tone was harsher than you meant, but there's no telling with people online. Sometimes they just wanna be sensitive or cranky. faints Sorry you had to deal with that. sharky hug

Same here, I am almost never on forums unless I'm in sharkland. And even then, it's typically only for the site events. I should try harder to hop on in between events cause I miss the chats but man, life can be a butt sometimes. XD

Congrats on the fairy achievement!!! cheers

sniffles My goodness that poem was beautiful. Lol. So appropriate with your shark raining HA as well. Lol! I just realized my kiddo hasn't watched any of the Sharknado movies in quite a while. :o He's been on a King Kong and Godzilla splurge lately.

2nd last week of classes, I'm trying to get a head start on final projects and exams so I don't have as much to do on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. XD The online courses have weeks that go from Monday to Sunday night so most due dates tend to be Sunday evenings. I picked the wrong year for that! Hopefully I'll be able to find a job without too much hassle after the holidays, will have to go clothes shopping first, though. cries Someone shop for me, I hate it, unless it's for books. Lol. After being settled in job land, I will prob have to start working towards a bachelor's, can't become a CPA or CMA without that. Bleeeeeh....lmao. If only I could win the lottery and play video games. ;) nudges Santa Claus

My mom had a 9mm kidney stone "rocking" out in her, so I rushed her to the ER and then helped out as much around the house as I could. She's had them before but it's obviously freakin terrible every time, and that was definitely the biggest one she's ever had. I ended up doing the majority of the baking Monday and Tuesday but today she was feeling better so she made the M&M cookies while I did school stuff. <3 It was frustrating to bake cause I wasn't feeling good either, but I was clearly in a MUCH better state than her, so it made sense to just do it. XD I told her I'll do the gift wrapping, too, so she was glad but I hope no one minds that I'm not as good as her at it! Lol.

Besides that, I've been playing Animal Crossing Pocket Camp on the phone, and Stardew Valley on Steam. They're such cute and calming, addictive, little games. =)

"They're such cute and calming, addictive, little games. =)" My favorite kind of games :D

Hey and Hi everyone!!! waves

The snowball shield is now in the millionaire center for 2.5 million.