The Lost Challenges discussion

What's everyone doing today? Busy day at work? Family day out? Or just chilling at home with a cup of tea and a book?

Brace yourselves - I'm about to mention the C word! Today I'm going to be baking my second batch of Christmas (yes, that C word) cakes. I'm making 12 in total, but not full size ones - about 5 inches. My house smells lovely from the first batch yesterday!

Ahhh - housework and yard work are on the plan for the day....

Nothing too exciting. Ahhh - maybe carving a pumpkin or two - my daughter has been wanting to do that.

Watching football and doing laundry right now. Later in the day: vacuuming the carpeted floors and sweeping the non-carpeted floors, tidying the kitchen, starting to put together a grocery shopping list. And of course, reading. Reading is *always on my list!

Penni wrote: "Ahhh - housework and yard work are on the plan for the day....

Nothing too exciting. Ahhh - maybe carving a pumpkin or two - my daughter has been wanting to do that."

I haven't bothered carving a pumpkin this year as last years (first ever) attempt collapsed in on itself! Not one of my skills...

Barb wrote: " And of course, reading. Reading is *always on my list!..."

I squeezed in some reading time while waiting for the cakes to cook. All done now and shut in a dark cupboard until it's time to 'feed' them with brandy :)

I am preparing the next part of my lesson plan for my work and of course can't forget about reading

We have patterns that we pin on and then use the super duper tools they give with the kits and it works pretty well. Delaney isn't letting us off the hook. I have 2 pumpkins from mom and dad's so that should be more than enough.

Penni wrote: "We have patterns that we pin on and then use the super duper tools they give with the kits and it works pretty well. Delaney isn't letting us off the hook. I have 2 pumpkins from mom and dad's so t..."

My brother is amazing at carving pumpkins - he got all the artistic talent in our family. I think I probably scooped it out too much and left the shell too thin! I have a plastic one now :)

My brother's pumpkin.

Happy Halloween everybody!!

So who's going trick or treating?

I didn't get ONE trick or treater knocking on my door yesterday! I don't know what happened - it was like a ghost town around here. I didn't even see any going up and down the street. I'm going to have to eat all the sweets myself now... (It's a hard life!)

Yeah, we had one group of about 6 kids, which is 6 more than we had last year. But we always buy candy, just in case.

Last year, we had 15 trick or treaters. This year, we had even less. When we first moved into this house 15 years ago, we had over 150 kids, but I guess they've all grown up now. Next year, I think we won't even bother...

You all need to move into some working class districts! Last year the weather was kind of lousy and we had about 30 chocolates left over of 150.

This year it was clear (though cold-ish about 40 degrees). I had 142 chocolates, we gave them all out in about an hour. The street was still relatively full of kids so we ran to the pharmacy (the only place close enough) only to find they'd cleared out their Halloween display and were in the process of putting out Christmas stuff! If we'd had it, I'd say we could have given to 250 or so... next year I'll buy more.

I live in an apartment complex full of families with young children and I've figured out it means they all go away for trick or treating. By this point, I totally buy candy while saying "oh it's for the kids" to my housemates when I know 100% of this candy will be mine. <_<

Tonight, curled up with Wallander and a heat pad. (I can confirm that Kenneth Branagh's Wallander is as depressing in atmopshere and excellent in writing as the books written by Henning Mankell).

I do live in a fairly small village but there are some kids here (nothing like the 150 that came to you Caprice - I bought enough sweets for around 20) and I didn't see any of them out and about. It was weird! The weather was pretty good so I don't know what happened. Halloween isn't really such a big deal over here as in America I suppose but I'd normally have a few kids knocking. Looks like I'm going to be eating Smarties and mini Mars Bars until Christmas!

I just turned the TV on and stumbled across a Christmas film. So that's it is it? Halloween's over - it's Christmas now. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas (and yes, I know I brought the subject up and was baking Xmas cakes a few days ago but that's different - cakes need plenty of time to mature!), but I don't want to watch Christmas movies (or hear Christmas music in the shops) in November. It's too early! Anybody agree, or am I just being a Grinch? Lol.

Caroline wrote: "I just turned the TV on and stumbled across a Christmas film. So that's it is it? Halloween's over - it's Christmas now. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas (and yes, I know I brought the subject ..."

Not alone.

Lol. Love it!

Caroline wrote: "I just turned the TV on and stumbled across a Christmas film. So that's it is it? Halloween's over - it's Christmas now. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas (and yes, I know I brought the subject ..."

Oh no, I totally agree with you. I think the last week of November or preferably December 1st is plenty of time. Plus with everything starting so early, I don't enjoy it. Take Christmas music, I don't want to hear it now and when I've already heard it for a month solid, I'm sick of it by December when I would have enjoyed it. More and more now I do my holiday shopping online (except food) and just avoid the shops all together.

I'm so glad it's not just me! Come December I will happily watch Christmas films all day and sing along to Christmas music in the shops but not in November (or in some cases even October!).

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving all! Love the pic Caroline.

I've just spent a large part of the day writing a million and one Christmas cards (this may be a slight exaggeration but that's how many it felt like!) I have wrist cramp and a sore tongue from licking envelopes but at least that's one job ticked off my list :)

Congrats! I've got everything ready for that project, but I haven't yet sat down to finish it off. I've only gotten a couple of cards from other people so far, so I guess I have time...

BTW, ours is a photo card. We did photo cards every year when the kids were little, and it's great to see everyone grow up over a period of 15 years or so. Now hubby and I get together for a photo card every couple of years. Last one we did was in 2013. It's not as much fun to see the "graying" of our family now.

We live hundreds of miles away from most of our family, so we send one of the dreaded Christmas newsletters with our cards every year. I'm waiting for hubby's input on this year's edition, then I'll be able to print all the copies we need and I can start stuffing, stamping and sealing envies. I hope to put them in the mail no later than this weekend...

What I'm mostly doing today is stressing over hubby's birthday, which is Tuesday. I have absolutely NO idea what kind of gift/s he wants, and he hasn't been able to give any useful suggestions. Ack!

That's the trouble I have too. When we each need something, we're at the point where we just buy it. That doesn't leave much for gifts when Christmas and birthdays roll around.

Barb wrote: "We live hundreds of miles away from most of our family, so we send one of the dreaded Christmas newsletters with our cards every year..."

I'm glad I don't do one of those! I'd have nothing to say - "Read some books and painted some walls. The end".

Connie N. wrote: "BTW, ours is a photo card. We did photo cards every year when the kids were little, and it's great to see everyone grow up over a period of 15 years or so ..."

What a lovely tradition! We tried doing a photo card one year but as we haven't got kids we thought it would be cute to put antlers on our Jack Russell. He didn't agree and refused to sit still. We didn't get one decent shot and gave up in the end!

Connie N. wrote: "That's the trouble I have too. When we each need something, we're at the point where we just buy it. That doesn't leave much for gifts when Christmas and birthdays roll around."

Same here.

Went to see Fantastical Beasts with himself today. Really enjoyed it! Enjoying a glass of wine by the fire now and about to read more of my book.

Elaine wrote: "Enjoying a glass of wine by the fire now and about to read more of my book."

That sounds good! I think I might do that today and chill out after the last couple of busy days I've had. Yesterday was my family's big Christmas get together so I spent the couple of days before that baking dozens of mince pies and cupcakes before packing it all in the car (along with a ton of gifts!) at 6.30 a.m for a three hour drive to my brothers house.

Caroline wrote: "Elaine wrote: "Enjoying a glass of wine by the fire now and about to read more of my book."

That sounds good! I think I might do that today and chill out after the last couple of busy days I've ha..."

A lot of work but sounds like fun!

Elaine wrote: "A lot of work but sounds like fun! ..."

Apart from the driving there and back again, it was a really lovely day. So nice to catch up with the family and see all the kids :)

I'm going to be away from my computer for a few days doing family Christmas stuff so won't be able to respond to questions or comments as quickly as I usually do. I'll be back on the 27th and will catch up with you all then. Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!!

Enjoy your family time!

Hey people!
Sooo I went back home for Holidays, I got papers to do and I still have lot of stuff to study. BUT I managed to finish reading what I think will be my last book for this year and now I'm on picking books for the next month trying to figure out how they can match the challenges *-*

Marry Christmas to everybody and enjoy your time <3

Anamaria wrote: "Hey people!
Sooo I went back home for Holidays, I got papers to do and I still have lot of stuff to study. BUT I managed to finish reading what I think will be my last book for this year and now I..."

Have fun picking your books, Anamaria. I want to try squeeze in at least one more book and one audiobook before New Years. I won't be doing any of the cooking tomorrow so hopefully I'll get in some reading then.

Merry Christmas!

Yeah, I'll mostly try to manage with my to-read list (which has only books I've bought) and not add new stuff, but I think it'll be hard since I bought a Kindle in September.
Now I'm looking for ebook format for my library since I live in another city and I can't carry the books (no space ç___ç)

I love the kindle, it's so handy! I have hundreds of books on mine and I still buy paperbacks!! Sometimes it's just better value to get the paperback instead of the ebook. Can't understand how they can charge nearly €9 for an ebook

I'm a little early with this but when the clock strikes midnight it's likely I'll be out at a wild party, drinking champagne and... ok, ok, I'll be tucked up in bed with a book and some hot chocolate!

Anyway....

happy new year everyone!

sounds like you a night have a caller sore Dee.

canker.*

I'm nosing around today - looking at all the topics, seeing what's here.
Trying to decide how I want to roll out the challenges that will start in January. I have one challenge - Reading the Seasons-Winter - that starts on Dec 21st. I think I'll post it around the 15th.

Just on my way home from work and donating blood plasma when I read on the breaking news that our politicians overturned a law that should prohibite smoking in all restaurants, cafes and stuff. I'm deeply ashamed of my country and that's not a nice feeling.

That's awful! When I hear things like that I think - how much are they getting paid from the tobacco companies. I am pessimistic that way!

Like the EU used to be against GMO seeds but then Monsanto paid some of them off and it's now allowed. But some countries like Italy say no and the EU is against them.

you know, JoAnne, our politicians that rule at the moment are so stupid, they won't have to be paid to do something like that. and they think we are stupid. they say: when you don't want to work in a room full of some, well, go get a job at a non-smoker restaurant! Because there are millions of job-offers to choose from. I'm sick and tired of this.

When you smoke, you can take several smoking breaks from work. When I talk for a minute to a co-worker we get problems because we are not working. Nobody offers me a reading break, or a "get fresh air break" or something.

Instead of this law, they change the age where smoking is allowed from 16 to 18. Yeah. Because this stopped all the under 16 year olds from smoking so far *rolleyes*

One of the guys that used to work at Sonic with Sophia told everyone he was a smoker so he could get breaks. The only break Sophia gets is to use the bathroom and sometimes she has to wait.

A million years ago (LOL) when I worked in a restaurant, we had a bar and you could still smoke in bars then. I hated to get put in there. I'd come home stinking.

Look at our Congress, they cannot agree on anything. For 8 years when Obama was President the only thing they passed was the stupid healthcare bill that only hurt businesses and costs more than most can afford.