Well, as we are obviously not going to get a Summer I have decided to start my list for Santa as is it is only 24 weeks away !!
Can't wait !

I keep thinking I must start shopping and feel like I'm LATE -but then looking out the window I could be forgiven for thinking it must be November!!

Nnnooooooooooooooooooooooo this must be the earliest ever I have had to start the anti Christmas discussions , bar humbug is what I say ;-)

Get ye behind me Crimbo !

I'm looking forward to Christmas for the first time in years, I told my "kids" (22 & 27)  last Christmas so they had a year notice that we would be away and we are going with other friends in the caravans with all our dogs. If we want to have a BBQ  on Christmas Day then we will! the plan is to go out to a hotel but I can't wait to share it with the dogs and like minded people.
Family Christmas will be moved to the New Year.

OMG!  Please, no!!  If the retail trade gets wind that we're talking about Christmas now we'll start seeing last years crackers and mince pies amongst the back to school.  Place your bets on the first supermarket to get the tinsel out.. 

> Place your bets on the first supermarket to get the tinsel out

Harrods always have their Christmas decorations out in the summer as they sell them to tourists from abroad :) :)

Is Harrods your local supermarket then Daisy? :-)

You are so right though, as we went to Harrods a few weeks ago and the Christmas stuff was on display.  Surprised I forgot after throwing all of the toys out of the pram.  It's really not on!

bar humbug from me. I want summer please without wellies

Aargh no, no talk of Christmas until after my birthday. That's next Saturday, so not long! :-D I've come up with some good ideas for once, I have high hopes of getting a gazebo for rally trials.

the plan is to go out to a hotel but I can't wait to share it with the dogs and like minded people.

This is going to sound really bizarre but one of best Christmas's i had was about six years ago and i hired a bungalow on the Dorset coast. Just me, my son and our two dogs. It was bitterly, bitterly cold. The place i rented was a real hovel. Mould on the walls, one portable electric radiator with only two legs instead of four, no hot water, snail trails all over the kitchen, electricity payable by a coin meter (averaging £10 a day) and ice on the inside of the windows during the day never mind during the night. It used to take me over an hour to run a bath on the electric hob using saucepans of water. It really was a tip!
I couldn't get hold of the holiday company who i booked it with as it was Christmas so it was a case of "Lets make the best of it" The four of us slept in the double bed as we just couldn't get warm, even the dogs were shivering.
On the plus side we would walk miles every day, so many friendly people and sharing a bag of chips and doughnuts on the sea wall with the dogs, priceless!
Looking back i don't know what ever possessed me to stay the week but it was a brilliant Christmas. Made me appreciate what i have and how lucky i really am. 

My mum and I have escaped with the dogs a few years,one of the best was when we went to the fab cottages on the Penrice estate in Oxwich bay for Christmas. There's a wonderful beach within walking distance. Having a brother with significant mental health problems Christmas is usually taken over by emergencies and disasters (we now dread it every year) but every few years we pass responsibility to another and escape to open fires,copious wine,food and an empty vast beach-bliss!!

We either have my parents over here (now we have a bigger house with proper spare room) or we have to go to the in-laws, we usually alternate. I prefer the ones where my parents come to us. Not that I don't get on with the in-laws, but 3 days with the 2 small nephews and all the stress of 3 families with very different lifestyles having to fit in with each other is very tiresome. And my sister-in-law is terrified of dogs, therefore the small boys are a bit nervous, so we are relegated to the granny annex, and I have to negotiate times when I can go spend time with my dogs and let them out for a wee, because I am expected to spend most of the time with the human members of the family! When people are at my house, although the dogs still spend more time shut in the kitchen because of all the food around at Christmas, at least they can go out to the loo when they want!

I was just sat here thinking fine if we aren't going to get a summer then hurry up and get Cmas outta the way. I don't like it and keep saying I will escape and end up on a remote island in the sun, but that never happens!!