How are you celebrating Christmas this year?

[LaMedicine]

A good friend of mine sent me this link.
Catty Christmas.
I could not resist passing it on here.lol lol lol

 

[Lady Day]

Me?

Just like tofurkey day, at work.
I need the OT.
So Im sure to be on the Lounge all day

LD

 

[Salv]

Just like tofurkey day, at work.
I need the OT.
So Im sure to be on the Lounge all day

LD

Me too, working an early shift 07:30 to 15:00 - those planes are still flying somewhere in the world. But the OT is nice.

 

[farnham54]

Drinking, smoking and gambling the night (and day) away in Sin City.

Jesus would be proud :S

I jest; I'll be in Vegas but it will be with my family. We havn't ever had a family vacation before (I mean never--I'm 21, my sister is 24, and we've NEVER had one) and the last time my folks got away was for their honeymoon in 1981. Should be a real treat!

Cheers
Craig

 

[Spitfire]

Its payback time!

Last year we decided to get away from it all. The cold, the stress, the turkey, the gifts, the snow...and went to Cuba for 15 wonderfull anti-xmas days! (I can only recommend it!)
SO this year it's payback time!!!!
My father (85 years) and my mother in law (80 years) are comming over!!!!
Well it's not so bad as I make it sound. They are nice people and they truely enjoy being with us. We are a small family - spread out with half of them in US and the rest here in Denmark. So besides my father and mother in law it will only be my wife, my son (18 years) and myself. We will spend the evening as easy and nice and relaxed as possible. Eating the traditional roasted duck or roast pork and enjoy some gooooood wine.
Then we will light the candels on the tree, sing some (very few) hymns and then we will have the gifts. Those who feel up to it can then walk down the road to the midnightmass. The 25th we sleep late, have brunch and take a long walk in the woods.
26th is our wedding anniversary...so there we are always just the two of us. And our son offcouse.
Thats about it. Nothing to it...but NEXT year we are going to Argentina, to get away from it all! No gifts. No x-mas trees. No x-mas menu!!!!

 

[Absinthe_1900]

I just bought a set of Antlers and a Santa hat, to to put on the Boxer for Christmas.

I get the feeling he isn't too happy about that.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

This grinch will be working.

bk

 

[Warden]

I love Christmas. My fairy lights work first time out of the box. My tree does not drop needles. I do not eat or drink too much. I like getting long letters in cards from people I have not seen all year. I find it satisfying to wrap presents. The Great Escape is always worth watching. I love seeing my children’s beaming faces at 5 am. There is nothing wrong with Christmas jumpers and am always grateful for new socks. I do not get stuck in traffic jams or get in a panic about last minute shopping.

But this week I have to go to the office Christmas party. If I am honest I have always hated Christmas office parties. They have become even worse now I am the boss. Lets be honest the people we work with are not your friends and you would not normally go out with them socially at any other time of year.

When you are at the Christmas party you end up in a throbbing basement, looking at your watch every few minutes thinking, can I really go at 10 pm?

Warden D

 

[PeeWee]

I don't really know yet. I guess in the next week or so we'll get a wreath for the front door.

 

[RetroModelSari]

I´ll have a rather stressy X-Mas...

24th of december: 11 at to 5 pm I´ll celebrate with my father and his family. Than they´ll set me off my my great-grandmothers where I celebrate with my Moms family. Than we drive to my mothers place and have dinner. (We celebrate X-Mas at the 24rth over here)

25th I will first take a loooooong trainride between 3 and 5 hours to make it home in time to drive some more to make it to my boyfriends moms party.

But thank god I´ll have the 26th completely off... Not my boyfriend though...

 

[BAZ]

Much to my chagrin:rage: , our annual "Waifs and Strays" Christmas Dinner will be at OUR apt in Tribeca.
We have 12 people coming over!
5 Australians, 2 Brits, 2 Irish, 3 Yanks.
Oh, and our Dachshund, Ozzy .
LUCKILY, my wife and I DON'T have to cook anything!!
Our Aussie guests are doing it all, while we hit the Single Malt collection I've been amassinglol !!
Should be fun.[huh]

 

[Miss Sis]

I spent ages typing up a great reply and then lost it when I tried to post. :rage:

So, to keep it short, I will be with my boyfriends family, as mine are in New Zealand.

I will tell them that Christmas in Winter feels strange to me. I will have real Eggnog for breakfast made for me by my boyfriend from the recipe in the Savoy Cocktail Book. I will not overeat as I don't like turkey. I will miss my family.

 

[Mr. Sable]

I was thinking I'd have a nice, quiet xmas sleeping in and doing nothing, then a few minutes ago, my Mom announced she'll be in town on the 25th... that means my brother and his GF will probalby drive down, so I guess there'll be some serious Irish coffee drinking now. [huh]

 

[Warden]

So with just over a week to go until Christmas day. Here are the scores so far for our traditional retro Christmas verses a modern day Christmas.

At the weekend, my daughter and I dressed the Christmas tree and put the Christmas lights around the house. I am not sure what Air Raid Warden Hodges would think as we even put Christmas lights on the Anderson air raid shelter but the typical 1940s Mr Churchill did not have to explain to a 3 year old why her house cannot look like a winter wonderland.

Retro Christmas 0, Modern Christmas 1

However on Monday we manage to get a point back by seeing a theatrical show called Holly at Christmas. A show, which is almost as traditional as, mince pies and mulled wine. Not only was Buddy Holly playing those tinsel tunes but also a surprise guest star, Elvis. Yes Elvis came, making our little part of England the world capital of rock and roll. OK I accept it is a little more Christmas 1950 than Christmas 1940, but hey can’t think of a better way to start a retro Christmas off.

Retro Christmas 1, Modern Christmas 1

Then back home, came the making of Christmas crackers and room decorations. I guess another point for this one. We have real holly used to decorate around the house and my wife and daughter made the Christmas crackers and the Christmas cards. It is true we no longer have the Christmas crackers. They lasted 3 days before little fingers managed to dissect them. As for making the paper chains, Mrs W and I made them; our daughter started to help but got bored after 10 minutes and went off to do something far more interesting. Maybe when she is 4 years old, the idea of using flour paste and newspaper strips to make Christmas decorations will hold more appeal. Anyway we have finished the chains, they are up, unique and traditional. Indeed who else in our street has readable decorations?

Retro Christmas 2, Modern Christmas 1.

Till next time

Harry

 

[GOK]

I'm still jealous of you and Mrs W getting to see Holly!! Have you booked your sitter for April's show yet? And you both really must come to dinner either before the show or after, depending on whether we get the matin?©e.

Your Christmas sounds lovely - even to my bah humbug ears! Did Maisie try to eat the paste? I have vivid memories of tasting it as a child; I'd seen my Nan cook it on the stove, so it must be food, right? lol

Are you wrapping the presents in newspaper too? And slightly off topic, I enjoyed reading your comments about Housewife 49 on the mailing list. Do we have thread here about it?

 

[Girl Friday]

Lots of booze.

 

[LadyStardust]

Off to Minneapolis on the 21st to experience PROPER winter weather, and have a family reunion. I'm looking forward to walking down historic Summit Avenue, and bundling up at night and going ice skating under the stars. And lots of cooking and chatting with my grandmother. Building snowpeople. Sledding. Making snow angels. Baking gingerbread. Bliss, really. All in just a week's time! I am so very happy!

 

[CharlieH.]

Thin, but merry!

It'll simply be mother, father, sister, one big turkey and I.

 

[GOK]

My 21 year old son arrives tomorrow afternoon and will be staying until Sunday. Although I am rather anti-cashmas, I'm really looking forward to seeing Josh. Once he leaves on Sunday, my partner and I will head off to spend a couple of days in the countryside. I still haven't bought any wellies...I ought to I suppose. Mud....ugh

 

[Warden]

It is Christmas Eve night; stockings hung on the wall, preparations made for the in-laws invasion. The house cleaned, even the rooms, which the in-laws would never see, (I must admit I have never understood this one). The dinning table laid and as the night went on either Mrs W or I were repeatedly called to our daughters bedroom, for her to ask if Father Christmas has been and can she get up yet? Something’s are the same whether you have a 1940's or modern day Christmas.

I am sure our daughter never realised just how many hours there are in a night, but at last the hour hand turned into Christmas morning. For a parent, there is a great joy in seeing a beaming child on Christmas morning and the expressions on their face as they are overwhelmed by the pleasures of the day.

After presents and dragging reluctant children upstairs to get dressed, the in-laws start to arrive for Christmas dinner.

We did plan for a wartime rations Christmas dinner, but our relatives rebelled, so we struck a compromise of a much smaller turkey than normal, Indeed Mrs W for the first time ever did not need to take out the oven shelves or cram the bird into the oven, hoping a stray turkey leg would not be sticking out of the oven door. No this bird fitted in easily. We did go to town on home produced British vegetables. Even I with my hatred of parsnips put a large helping on my plate, which I confess I later regretted for there is noting worse than a parsnip in the whole of Gods larder.

Lastly came the Christmas pudding, which was traditionally made. Rather worryingly we never did find the sixpence. I suspect it was last seen in the smallest room of the house and is now behind whoever had the sixpence in their pudding.

After our Christmas dinner, we bought out our prize 1930s ‘monopoly’ game. Mrs W and I are all set for the usual 2-½ hour long game. Fully expecting the game to degenerate into the usual pattern of bitter recriminations. After an hour I am usually rather grateful to go to jail to miss a few goes, but this did not happen. Our daughter who up to now had not let her new baby doll out of her hands found the concept of rolling dice as exciting as the latest digital play station thingy. There is a problem in letting a 3-year-old roll the dice. What happens is the dice tends to become airborne. Dice are not designed for their aerodynamic qualities and the result was we spent an hour looking for the dice, which was last seen flying towards the dog’s bed. Thus ended our game of monopoly.

Then as soon as the day starts it is all over. In laws gone, children asleep in bed, finally time to take off my collar and relax with a cup of tea next to the open fire.

I would like to say it is over for at least another 12 months, but unlike a true 1940s Christmas we have to go through the whole thing again on Boxing Day, this time with my family and Mrs W will have to endure the in-laws syndrome.