Which old friends and family members will you be catching up with over the festive period – and who are those you won’t be seeing but wish you could….
The Ties That Bind
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We never see family on my side, not that I have much anyway. The wife’s mother, sister and 2 grown up ish daughters at ours on 25th. We’ve had 4 cards with notes from old friends suggesting we catch up so will try and do that before work and school restart. We’ll be at neighbours on New Year. TBH, the best Christmasses have always been spent with friends rather than family, it’s far more relaxed.
We are in the car right now driving up to Newcastle to spend Xmas with my in laws and various other family members.
Not something we’ve tried before, generally prefer to be home for the holidays and I’ve also made the horrifying discovery that my wife’s side of the family open their Christmas presents after lunch. Heresy.
The trade off is that I’ll get a chance to surf on Boxing Day, and right now the forecasts suggest there’ll be a swell in the North.
Madness. I had that one year when I was growing up and the adults wondered why we weren’t paying attention to lunch. What planet were they on !?
I know, right? How is Xmas lunch meant to be four hours long and boozy with a stack of unopened presents in the corner?
In my family the great struggle was generally Dad trying (and failing) to get the rest of us to wait until after breakfast, never mind lunch.
Hey! Don’t post and drive!
And they say men can’t multi-task.
Drinking, Smoking, Farting and Procrastinating.
I’d say I’m pretty adept at this multi-tasking stuff
Stockings in the morning. Tree presents in the afternoon/evening. That’s how we always did it (still do when we’re home with my folks) and it remains best. I’m all for a bit of delayed gratification – it makes the day last.
Although this year it’s Christmas at the in-laws who accidentally settled two hundred miles from Gloucester Cathedral and have therefore unwittingly been doing Christmas wrong for the last 40 years. Sad face.
You wear stockings! On Christmas morning! Then you give one another a tree!
How early does one have to start drinking to make this seem normal?
Well I cracked open the port half an hour ago. No point waiting I reckon.
You utter barbarian.
Sorry to disappoint Bingo, that “swell in the North” will actually be my gut by 2pm Christmas Day.
Nobody. This will be the first Christmas I will spend alone. Although I may get a visit here at The Cajun Brothel from The Piss Artist Formally Known As The Baron Harkonnen on Sunday.
I’ve hidden the Hob Nobs in anticipation.
Big sister and family come over on Xmas day, 3 grown up kids. Although the conversation can be better I miss the days when they were little, there was more excitement and they dressed up. While I still childishly enjoy Christmas, I also feel a sense of sadness as I never fail to hark back to 7 years ago when my mum just about hanged on to see in her last Christmas with her beloved grand-children.
Now off to the station to pick up baby bro, before a rowdy family get-together and present swap. Hurrah!
Just setting off for Vienna to spend Christmas and New Year with my wife’s old school friend (taking one of the brothers in law with us) Saw my son earlier in the month, he’ll be with his mother for Christmas.
Spending it at home with very close family; seeing extended family after Boxing Day. I made a decision when I had my son that we would stay put and it is just a lot more enjoyable.
I miss my friends at this time of year. Three very close friends have died in the last 5 years and we always saw each other at Christmas.
This time last year I was making plans to see one of them (I still have the texts on my phone); about two weeks later she died suddenly, age 40.
Very sad but it makes me all the more determined to try and see people when I can at this time of year.
Various people close to me have been ill this year so in 2016, no-one get ill or die, m’okay?
Apologies for the buzzkill. Wishing you safe travels and fun , wherever you are and whoever you are with.
Saw our closest friends last night. My partner’s birthday is the 25th, so we stay at home, and have a day as birthdayey as possible, rather than Christmas. Meet up with my sisters on the 27th. Their birthdays are on the 24th.
Spending at least part of Christmas Day with the wife’s parents, my father in law is sadly fading fast, we didn’t really expect him to still be around to be honest.
It’s odd how this time of year becomes such an emotional rollercoaster, and as I get older the more morose it seems to make me feel.
However, once the second glass of Highland Park has been quaffed (no ice, no water, as you ask) I will transform into an embarrassing party dinosaur.
Pre-Christmas tomorrow with the FIL and his wife, then Christmas Day with the MIL and her husband. Would normally visit my parents and siblings between Xmas & New Year but this year I’m absolutely Knackered after 3 months of emotional turmoil at work, so we’re going to stop at home and chill as a family.
Nobody. For the past few years I’ve joined in the shenanagins, either with family or friends, but never really enjoyed it. I hate the whole palavar. I hate the traditions, religious nonsense, insencere sentimentality and excessive consumerism. No, really. Christmas just doesn’t interest me. Luckily the weather here in Italy is the hottest December I’ve ever seen (after last year’s heaviest ever snowfall) so I’ll probably spend a couple of days just reading in the sun.
(I’m actually much less miserable than I sound. Honestly, I am.) (Although I do think Star Wars is childish nonsense aimed at the under-fourteens and that adults should look elsewhere for entertainment. So there.)
Christmas in the Ottawa area, where I will see my daughter and my ex, hopefully Christmas Day passes without too many fireworks. It will be a rare “green” Christmas here, forecast for Christmas Eve is a record breaking 16deg C !! Unbelievable.
Then to Blighty for New Year where I will see my brother, some friends and maybe the odd cousin.
And I wish I could see my mam and dad. Sadly not possible.
Tell us about the “odd cousin”. He/she sounds intruiging!
@gary ha ha. I have about 20, but only see 2 or 3 of them with semi regularity.
Christmas Day in our house this year. Just the three of us. Our own telly. Our own sofas. Our own kitchen to drift in and out of. Our own toilet.
A blissful indulgence awaits.
Present etiquette? Open bloody everything as soon as possible. Get in!
Mr DG is working. Which means I’m overseeing the kids’ present opening, then picking up my Mum & Dad, then picking up Mum-in-law from the old folks’ home (all are infirm and can no longer drive), cooking Christmas dinner for us all for tea-time (only way I can fit in the unwrapping, taxiing and cooking), and finally waiting for the sound of tyres on gravel heralding the return of my other half, at which point I will have opened a large bottle of something strong and necked at least a double by the time he gets in the front door.
Repeat, only with cold meats, on Boxing Day.
It will be fun – but I will admit there is a part of me that wants to steal Mr DG’s car keys, don his hi-vis, and go and maintain the motorways in his place, leaving a note behind for him saying: “Let me do your shift for you, sweetheart, and you can have a lovely Christmas with the family. PS, the oven will ding when the turkey’s done.”
So @drakeygirl, is that avatar picture you in between the unwrapping and the taxiing, or in between the taxiing and the cooking?
Seems like a lot of running about, anyway.
Cheers, m’dear!
Nope, that’s me running for the bottle when I hear Mr DG’s car.
Have a good ‘un, Mike.
My mum died a week before Christmas last year. She always loved Christmas, making this time of year doubly hard. The kids didn’t have a “proper” Christmas last year, so we’re trying to make it more normal this year. It’ll be the four of us on Christmas day, and we’ll no doubt be invaded by neighbours and kids in the evening.
I’m heading back to Scotland for a few days between Christmas and New Year, to see all the family and friends I haven’t seen since, well, the funeral. Including my sister, who has MS and lives in supported accommodation. It’s particularly difficult for her.
That was depressing, wasn’t it? Have some Bob to cheer things up:
@ratbiter I hope you and your family enjoy a peaceful Christmas full of light and joy. X
Without wishing to overlook the sorrow of those who will be missing loved ones this year, I like to quote Harry Hill. ‘ At this time of year its traditional to spare a thought for those who will be spending Christmas alone. I don’t. I spare a thought for those who aren’t spending Christmas alone, but who wish they were.’
http://youtu.be/QuisenFO96o
Oooh, @gatz, I’m nicking that! Nice one.
Just me and Mrs Bungliemutt on Christmas Day. Shutters drawn, lights off – closed to visitors. Turkey, mulled wine and general over-indulgence. Mrs B never met the senior Bungliemutts, who passed away in 2000 and 2004. That would have been very nice.
Mrs D, Youngest Daughter, and 2 Step Daughters for Christmas Day.
Christmas Dinner will be my creation – I have the Gantt Chart prepared. All planned to the minute to ensure serving by 1:30.
I’m informed that we will be descended upon by various extended family members throughout Boxing Day (so thats the peace ruined – Bah Humbug!).
New Years Eve has in recent years become a quiet affair – usually just me & Mrs D (with added Jools Holland, John Smiths and Jack Daniels).
This year however is Stepdaughter #1’s 21st, so we will be playing to host to about 250 people (or that’s what it currently sounds like – quite where they are going to sleep is anyones guess, as long as it ain’t my bed)
On Christmas Eve it’s just me and my mum, everyone else is spending the day with their families or in-laws.
On Christmas Day I get to wear my flannel pyjama all day long, eat leftovers and enjoy my presents (well, I hope they will be enjoyable at least…)
Then on Boxing Day we have the big family bash at my younger (half-) sister’s house, all of the siblings with their families (except for my brother who’s in Finland this year), mum, dad (they’ve been divorced for forty years), and my sister’s ex husband (of at least fifteen years).
Then we basically just eat for hours, and talk, and laugh, and eat some more.
It’s lovely, but it’s also lovely to get home afterwards and enjoy the silence…
My in-laws are arriving shortly.
Gawd ‘elp me…
Where’s the wine?
Over to see my folks tomorrow. Will see my nieces and my sister for the first time since last Xmas! Other than that will be at home. We have a friend up from Worcester arriving on Sunday and my wife’s sister and boyfriend are calling in sometime on their way back from North Yorkshire. I’m looking forward to some downtime in between. It’s been an exhausting year.
Brother, niece and nephew arrived Wednesday. Last Christmas we were all battening down the hatches after losing my sister-in-law a few days earlier. This Christmas must surely be my mother’s last (she wasn’t supposed to survive the spring.) Last night I lay in my usual flat out in my usual hearth rug position, hoping this would aid the digestion of the exquisite honey roast gammon I’d just served up. I earwigged on my father sharing tender thoughts with his wife of 64 years, lying in the hospital bed that occupies the space where a tree might have been. The stuff of which family Christmasses are made.