Meenzer

Meant to say, Alex, I tried out that lasagna sauce - with added meat - and it worked a treat.

This is not what I expected from "MEN ONLY"

Definitely Tilleys before then? The story of Fish's empty belly and the rest can be sorted out anon.

Canny meal today. Not enough booze though. Doing it all again tomorrow with the other half of the family but going out to a pub, so [a] can order something that isn't turkey, and can get on the lash.

Good call. I was in the crowd for that - it was Smooth Operator's birthday party.

This makes me so damn happy.

Merry Christmas to all and sundry!

I actually can't imagine a situation where that would occur. Unless it was the stereotypical bad-taste sweater or something. But that's what charity shops are for.

Sounds good actually.

I'm sorry, I don't normally dismiss posts out of hand, but.... Starbucks

And "anyone for a nice piece of breast?" à la Adrian Mole?

Surely you could take it to its logical extreme and serve up a turducken. Lazy sods.

Wey that's it, I'd rather have seconds of roasties and gravy than have to fanny around making soup and nibbles on Christmas Day. Mind you, I've never had to actually do anything more than the peeling and chopping myself, so the point is probably moot.

I know it's the season of joy and goodwill and all, but the new Lotus isn't really Lotus, is it? And those Donnelly clips/pics never get less shocking.

Do people really do starters on Christmas Day? Don't get me wrong like, it sounds lovely, but surely there's enough effort involved already!

10-day trip to the States already booked for June, so once you factor in the usual city breaks (Hamburg in February, Stockholm in March for Eurovision-related purposes), there's not much time left for anything more than that. Will try to get away to somewhere low-maintenance like Lanzarote for a week of catching up on reading/relaxing in the early autumn again though.

Stuffing balls? Spicy chipolatas.

I'm going to the fella's family for Christmas for the first time, so I'll take whatever I'm given and I'll like it. Should be as trad as it comes though, which is good. I can have poncey stuff the rest of the year.

Have a purr-fect birthday! DO YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE

Gretchen Peters - Northern Lights If you're going to do a Christmas album, this is how to do it.

Aye, most of the time I'm on Facebook it's either (a) to moan or ( to comment on other people's moans. As for the flight thing, I'm just bitter on missing out on a weekend's boozing with friends because Easyjet had three days of cancellations into London while most other airlines were largely unaffected. You get what you pay for, I suppose. Anyway, it's not just the Brits - one Christmas on the way back from Frankfurt to Newcastle I was stuck on a KLM plane at Schiphol for three hours because they had to de-ice an airport's worth of planes... with one de-icing machine. Genius.

I do take the point about people complaining about the cold if it isn't affecting their lives in any way other than the fact that it's cold, though. That's what jackets and hats are for.

Meenzer sent you a Happy Holidays through Christmas Cards!! Do you like this Gift? Comment below!

Yeah, fuck people for living abroad and wanting to come home for Christmas. They should walk if they're that bothered.

That's the thing, I could actually take the "Hallelujah" track last year because - whether you approved of it as a fan of Real Proper Music or not - at least they were doing something with the song that was different to the Cohen/Buckley interpretations, had a vaguely seasonal feel to it, etc. Whereas not only is "The Climb" effectively a karaoke version using near enough the same backing track as was in the charts just a few months earlier, but the production on it is exceptionally cheap even by X Factor standards; the sheer amount of autotune on Average Joe's vocals almost lapses into parody. You can't imagine they ran short of cash for studio time so he could do a second or third vocal take - and the lad can obviously hold a tune under normal circumstances, after all - so it's all quite puzzling. I think ultimately, the whole X Factor thing felt particularly half-arsed this year - "chuck anything out there and they'll lap it up" - so it's appropriate that this is the year the project got a bloody nose. Of course it won't change a jot in the grand scheme of things and it'll be normal service next year, but hey, it's been good for a Yuletide giggle.