Christmas Holiday Plans

[Mark H]

What is everyone's Christmas holiday plans?

Our plans are:

12/23 - My wife and I go out for dinner and a movie each year.

12/24 - My wife and I go to her Mother's house in the evening for a small family get-together with her Dad's side of the family (her dad is deceased).

12/25 - My wife and I open gifts at home, then go to my dad's house to exchange gifts. We will add visiting my brother and his wife this year (newly weds and their first house). We then go to her mother's house to open gifts. Later in the day, my mother comes to our house to visit.

Mark H; Darn those lights!

[scuzzy]

We rarely make special plans for Christmas, such as travel. And since the agency I work for is 24/7, without exception, we have to be flexible. Fortunately this year I will be off on that day. Unless I get called in.

This year will be the usual family reunion at our home. My wife makes a special breakfast for all, and then we hit the gifts around the Christmas tree. Then we spend the day enjoying our new toys.

Scuzzy; life is good

[Buffalo2102]

We are travelling south to Bristol to visit family for a few days before Xmas but then we have to come back for 23rd and 24th as my good woman is working those two days.  Then she and my daughter go back to Bristol for a few more days but I am left behind as I (like Scuzzy) am on call for that period.

Buff

[Ace]

I suppose we could join Mark and his wife for a dinner and movie... Although we really do not go out for movies.  I just hate theatre people, and greasy floors and the public in general.  We buy, or borrow, and watch film here. 

There's a chance we could go to church in Bristol, Christmas morning.  My father in law prefers that one to the one down the street.  My wife and I have had Christmas Eve by ourselves; that was always the time of celebration for my family (as a kid).  Not that there's any of my family left (or worth leaving); just the brother, who does his own thing typically.  He might join us, but not if I don't invite him.  We just do a rib roast or something like that, that night.  We're beyond gift giving, especially in this economy.

Christmas Day was my wife's/family's day of celebration/gift giving, so we'll go to her Dad's house. It's him, her one sister, her one brother/wife, three nieces and one niece's hanger-on boyfriend. Mostly trailer park tra I mean denizens.  Not a lot of excitement.  Her other other brother works for the city waterworks, so typically is "on" for holidays.  I guess it pays enough he doesn't care.  For a change, I should get off the next week, since I'm working again in a big catholic school and they take it off on the break.  I haven't had that, since I taught in a (little) catholic school back when...  I can deal with it.

Hopefully, I or someone will have purchased Call of Duty World At War for me, so I can blast everything in sight in the holiday spirit. 

If anyone wants to send my toys I can give you my address.  Scuzzy usually just sends me "payment due" notices.  I was thinking of moving, just to avoid those..  Maybe I could just change the house numbers over our garage, and throw him off the trail.

Ace; I gotta remember to put those back in the right order if we order a holiday pizza, though...

[pat]

It used to be so easy back when the girls lived here at home, we'd have the gifts in the morning and my family would come for dinner with another round of gifts and then over to my in-laws for desert and another round of gifts.

Things do change though, the girls are now married and live 6 hours in one direction and 8 in another. The in-laws are down in Florida and my parents are now gone.

So this year were going to go to Minneapolis to spend the holiday with my oldest daughter, my youngest is off to do something else.

[Ace]

I guess I can go with you to Minneapolis..  I've never been.  Not like I know anybody there. 
I'll have to check with Mark when dinner is, and when the movie's shown, to figure how to coordinate this.  Maybe Scuzzy can drive me over, on his way to or from work.

Ace; Geez, this is sounding like a busy holiday. I was just hoping to do nothing and relax.

[Bill]

I was thinking the same thing.  Pat's "it used to be so easy" just sounds like someone worked pretty hard to make it "easy." 

Bill

[pat]

I guess we all worked at making the day easy, my wife always took care of the presents. Heck, she didn't really care for my input there at all, which was fine. I took care of making the dinner and things usually went smooth.

Sure Ace, come on, we'll go to the Mall of America on the day after and get in on those big day after deals.

[Ace]

I liked being a kid; made it easy to just have to unwrap my gifts while everyone else shopped and cooked.  One year my brother and I had to make all the Christmas cookies because our mom had pneumonia; including kiflie and kulach.  Criminy, I never wanted to see another cookie after that year.

Is the sale the Black Friday after White Christmas...? 

I don't have money after, since I don't have money before.  I'm going to the dentist again, so that's about another 42" LCD.  We did get a 32" Magnavox, on sale at Target about a month ago.  So far it's as good a deal as anything since.  Didn't have to wrap it, and unwrapping it was easy.  I like high def; we're just off the house antenna.  Our gift to us, this year.

Ace: I like people who work hard to make my life easy.  Especially people who understand computers.

[Mark H]

Dinner on the 23rd will have to be in the evening since we both work that day. Ace is more than invited and by that I mean we would love for him to join us and pay for the dinner. That would be a great Christmas gift. An Ace from another state with BIG pointy shoes buying us dinner while his shoes play jingle bells.

Mark H; Will it be a white Christmas this year? Probably not as usual.

[pat]

You know I got a pretty good handle on these computers, perhaps one day I'll figure out the keyboard.

The one thing I do want to do while in Minneapolis is to go to Psycho Suzi's. I saw a plug for it one day while watching Dinners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network. Looks like a fun place.

I'm still thinking on what to make for Christmas dinner, my daughter was letting me know how much she missed family cooking. Perhaps a turkey or a ham, but I do make a good apple and cornbread dressing so I'm leaning to the turkey.

[Ace]

If I'm buying dinner, then pizza it is.  I'll try to pick up a Digornio's on the way out.. they say they're as good as a real pizza.

I can't imagine fruit, in dressing.  I could see sausage and cornbread, or just cornbread, but apples would seem odd to me.  I'm sitting here with a Newcastle Brown, and considering roasting chipmunks on an open fire.  I know I'm losing money on buying peanuts for the multiple fatties pounding down the snow on the back porch.

Ace; soon I'll drag my big pointy shoes up and down the driveway behind the snowblower.

[Mark H]

That sounds good Ace. When you leave here, I will plow the driveway with my tractor ahead of you bell ridden shoes.

Mark H; Pizza taste good, so why is it not good for the body?

[Ace]

Geez Louise, it is good.  It's like a fullmeal deal.  It's got vegetables (I think they figured tomato sauce qualified, at least in schools), bread, cheese, protein.  And with beer, you're adding carboydrates, sugar, water, a perfect food.  Or wine, then it's good for your heart.  If not your head, so much.  And no dang apples mixed in; I have put cornmeal under a crust, since that adds a nice touch. 

If you're doing apples, go with the apple pancake at the Pancake House.  It's perfection, if you like that sort of thing.  And huge. 

Ace; "bell ridden."  I've never ridden a bell, that I know of.  I have had a whistle in my nose before, though.

[pat]

A whistle in your nose?

Gosh, that just sounds so wrong.

But hey, these says it seems like anything goes with the face decorations. Rings and other assorted jewelry just stuck all over, so I guess a whistle may just be fine.

Unless you just had a clod or something, then a whistler would be expected.

Don't knock the apple, cornbread thing until you try it. It's the one thing my mother-in-law agree on.

[Carol]

I am looking forward to the evening of the 23rd as my oldest son will be flying in for Christmas.  Not really looking forward to the hour drive to the airport though.  But I haven't seen him since May and I can't wait. We will probably eat out somewhere on the way home from the airport.  Then Christmas eve we will just hang around the house during the day then we will pick up my dad and go to church that evening.  Then home for a light dinner.  Gifts will be Christmas morning.  Always has been that way, can't see any reason to change it now.

Christmas morning doesn't come as early as it used to around my house.  But I will still be up early starting the food.  I'll cook a large dinner and it will be me and the boys and my dad.  My sister may stop by sometime during the day, hard to tell.  Then we will just relax and I'll enjoy having my oldest son home for a few days.  Then he will fly of to New England to visit his girlfriends family and go snowboarding before heading back to school.

Things are so different for me these days this time of year.

Not even a chance of a white Christmas here.  Just hoping I don't have to run the A/C that day.

Carol

[scuzzy]

I admire you, Carol, because I know that you will probably get the brunt of the work.

My wife will be the one who slaves to have everything ready, including an incredible meal. The rest of us will get to rejoice in the fruits of her labor, which is one born of love for her family.

To all the wives who put the "joy" into the Christmas holidays, I wish you the very best. We would be nothing without you.

[Mark H]

I agree with you scuzzy, because my wife does such a great job of making the holidays that much better. She makes the house look and smell wonderful and I can't claim to have much to do with it. My job is to keep the house warm by keeping the fire going.

Mark H; Time to get cozy with the wife for a DVD movie