Are you ready for Christmas?

[Unorthodox]

How ready are you?


So, after last night's party, I have:

Kyle's Bday
Christmas Eve breakfast (party)
Christmas morning breakfast (party)
Both breakfasts need to be shopped for and prepared.  Including some rearranging of furniture. 
hEt's working Christmas eve, so I gotta play Santa. 
Bake and take cookies to hEt's work.
Wrap all the presents...

I'm generally better when I'm busy and have things under my control, so overall a good thing for the season. 

edit:  Oh, there's a bonus poll hidden on the forum somewhere today...

[Valka]

It's just another day for me. My family used to do Christmas on Christmas Eve. My mom's side of the family did it on Christmas Day, so that meant a lot of travel to various relatives in different towns. Boxing Day was alternately a day for having company over or going shopping, depending on the year.

After I stopped doing Christmas with my mom's side of the family, we just kept things small - traditional Christmas Eve and my grandmother's friends would come over to visit on Christmas Day (they also had their Christmas on the 24th). Boxing Day was either shopping or staying home, depending on if we felt like battling the crowds.

Since it's just my dad and me and the cats now, I'm not doing anything. My dad's in a nursing home in another city, and the cats don't care. I'd thought about putting up a tree, but I'm just not really in much of a mood for it.

[Rusty Edge]

Mostly. I decided not to trim the roof in lights this year. Extended forecast was for above normal temps, which means wind and rain. I figured the wind might flog the icicle lights, and the rain might penetrate some of the connections... I decided it might be excessive wear and frustration, what with GFI trips and string failures. A lot of work and frustration, but not a lot of continuous light. Maybe next year. Now that the weather front and winds are  through, I still want to put up the inflatable Santa that plays some Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I do have the doors and windows trimmed and some other lit decorations outside.

We didn't send out cards last year, because my wife likes to do an annual Christmas letter, and she procrastinated on writing it. But I did my part with signing greetings on the cards last year, so they are still waiting if she gets around to a letter this year.

Cookies are baked. All of the presents I know of are wrapped or mailed.  We do host an extended family party on the 26th. Most of the stuff for that is bought, but there will be food to make and furniture to be re-arranged that day.

The interior of the house isn't very Christmasy. My wife got me a German-style advent calendar, something I've always wanted. The compartments are a little small, but it plays a Christmas Carol when a door is opened. That and the lit windows are the only clues it's Christmas. We have lots of decorations, but they aren't up, and I don't know if they will be put up.

A few years ago my wife had her knees replaced, and we had a hospital bed in our living room for Christmas instead of a tree. Then, we bought the best artificial tree with lights we could find in the after Christmas clearance. But the next year we rescued a feral kitten, and she didn't trust it with a tree, so we didn't put it up. Last year we returned home just before Christmas, and didn't manage cards and interior decorations. Some year we're going to get the tree out of the box and put it up. I offered to do it this year. She wasn't ready. She has a lot of stuff in her end of the living room, where the tree normally goes, kinda like an office. She doesn't want to move it.

So, I don't know. I may be essentially ready. Or I may have more to do in a hurry.
 

[Valka]

You can get very small Christmas trees. I've got one that's only a foot tall, and another that's about 18 inches.

Of course it's a challenge to find smaller ornaments and streamers to fit these trees, but I improvised. I had a bunch of colored paper clips, so I strung those together. Various odd earrings, other jewelry findings, and keychains made acceptable ornaments. I made a paper snowflake for the topper.

I used to have a normal size tree, with antique ornaments that belonged to my grandparents. But they weren't included when some people "helped" pack up my stuff to move from the house to my first apartment. So I expect they were either stolen or are in the landfill now.

[Lorizael]

I find gift-giving/receiving to be an incredibly nerve-racking and anxiety-inducing exercise. This year, after much consternation, I just decided to put some thought into books for all the people who are likely to be getting me gifts (mother, father, older brother, older brother's girlfriend, middle brother, middle brother's wife). I also had to get some cheap, funny gift for the gift exchange thingy my extended family does. Went with a silly Star Wars thing, which will either end up in the hands of one my brothers or one of the children present. Now I have to wrap all these presents, which I should honestly be doing right now.

Immediate family Christmas stuff usually happens Christmas morning, but we're doing it Christmas Eve this year because my oldest brother's girlfriend's parents want them around on Christmas Day.

[Valka]

Since my last post, I have acquired a refurbished XP laptop... and since I have SMAC, Civs II, II:ToT, and III, I might spend the next few days getting reacquainted with the game.

It's been a long time. So after I get my Christmas dinner delivered tomorrow from the Chinese restaurant, I guess I can say I'm "ready" for Christmas... several days of doing nothing but eat/sleep/feed the cats/game. Repeat cycle as needed, until Monday when the real-world will insist I come back.

[Rusty Edge]

Things are a little complicated. My MIL has mixed dementia and got lost, which terrified her. Anyway, this forced my wife to drop the Christmas letter concept and go with e-mail primarily to inform the in-laws about my MIL's decline this year, and if they want to see her again while she still recognizes and remembers them, they should attend this year's party.  So I have more groceries to get.

All of the sent gifts arrived safely. The inflatable was working wonderfully in the rain. Then, after I had all of the garbage and recycling curb-side, and I was on the phone with my favorite sister, the high winds came through. I saw the main anchor was pulled out of the ground and it was on it's side.
I ran out and turned it off, re-anchored it, recovered the loose recycling and re-oriented the bin so that the lid stayed closed in the wind.

It's been like that. Just when everything is all squared away, something unexpected happens.


Speaking of unexpected, my wife realized last night what our life would be like if we were trying to spend Christmas with my family in another time zone on alternate years, the travel/weather  challenges, and how that would cramp her style and affect her family's traditions. She expressed her gratitude. My wife is a very generous person. On the other hand, she doesn't like to share anything, and this was an Epiphany for her of sorts.


I think this is already a favorite Christmas, and whatever else happens  will be an anti-climax.

[Valka]

It's snowing here (not a blizzard, just normal snowfall). The tree branches all have snow on them, and are lovely to look at. I'll be ordering supper soon (the restaurant closes at 4 pm this afternoon) and then it's several days of relaxation.

I even took my garbage out last night, because there won't be room in the dumpsters and chutes later (120 suites in this building, and probably most of the people here celebrate Christmas either on the 24th or 25th).

The last book I ordered from Amazon came yesterday, so now I'm only missing one book in Lindsey Davis' Falco series.

[Lorizael]

2.5 hours with my middle brother this evening. Two fights I was almost unable to stop myself from having with him. Still have to do all day tomorrow and most of Sunday.

[Rusty Edge]

So my wife e-mails my brother-in-law today, explaining that my MIL is having a bad day, so please be extra nice tonight. After the fact we learn that he e-mailed my wife during Christmas Eve service and said he's taking MIL's car away tonight. What a Grinch! For that matter, what a coward! had he responded earlier, my wife would have sorted him out before the family event.

You should know that my MIL was tested and certified as a competent driver this year. Her problem is that she doesn't remember things like where she is going some days, or recognize where she is sometimes. My MIL is a very gregarious woman, active in two churches, has a busy lunch date schedule, weekly hair appointments, makes friends at the grocery store and doctor's waiting rooms.
She's no introvert. Take away her social life, and she has nothing to live for.

It turned into a shouting match. We thought he was going to hit somebody, and the police would get involved. HE once hit his wife on in the mouth. He once slammed his oldest daughter into the wall and injured her. HE feels he is being disrespected any time somebody disagrees and refuses to do as he says, and gets angry. In this case he was yelling/ cursing at his Mom in his Mom's house because she wasn't ready to give up driving, only scale back. It's not as if he has the Power of Attorney. My wife does.

I stayed out of it. I'm bad at backing down, stronger, heavier and I studied kung fu for years. It's not as if I figure I can beat anybody in a fight, but I know that if I do fight, the other guy will get hurt. One of the boyfriends was itching to bust him in the mouth. He's bigger stronger, and younger. My brother in law should have been hit long before. He might have learned that respect is a two-way street.

As it was he had his mother crying and when she said she wished she could shoot herself and be done with it, he said she should do it outside so as not to leave us with a mess to clean up. Foolish on his part, because while she lacks access to firearms any more, she does have prescription narcotics.

Luckily, it ended with him going home mad, uninviting us to Christmas dinner at his house tomorrow, and returning the turkey breast , etc. that we bought for the event. The great news is, I shouldn't be seeing him much for the remainder of the holidays.


So, looks like I'm going to learn to cook a big turkey breast tomorrow. As my uncle would say "You'll never learn to do it any younger."

Uno, Buncle, and the rest of you with equine posteriors at your extended family events, I feel your pain.

[Valka]

That sounds like a nightmarish kind of Christmas. 

I got a variety of stuff for takeout (mix of Chinese and western stuff, and it'll do me for a good 3 days' worth of meals), so my Christmas dinner was a helping of won ton soup while catching up on my soap opera and later I watched a couple of Roger Whittaker videos on YouTube.

No family invitations here, which is just as well. My mother's side of the family is a judgmental lot, and I never did find it very comfortable sharing a meal with them.

[Rusty Edge]

Well, the turkey breast returned to me wasn't  exactly thawed, because I had to break egg-sized chunks of ice out of the chest cavity. So I put it in some very warm water for a while, before starting to cook it. I guess that is a typical turkey cooking challenge.

My wife is picking up the slack, preparing to cook the mashed potatoes, corn, and stovetop stuffing.

The turkey looks to be doing okay, but not necessarily cooking evenly. I'll make a decision about re-positioning when I check it again in several minutes.

In the meanwhile, I need to ask the internet about turkey carving.

[Valka]

All I know about turkey is that it makes decent sandwiches when combined with lettuce, and if you want to try something different, make a chocolate sauce for it (we did that one year in the SCA, since it was an Aztec feast; the Aztecs ate turkey with chocolate sauce, and it's a surprisingly tasty combination).

[Rusty Edge]

More of the unexpected...

Turkey was ready 5 minutes before the originally scheduled time, and everybody was delighted with the flavor.  Even more amazing to me, was the approval of the roasted carrots. I needed something to elevated the turkey off of the roasting pan, and I had some extra carrots, so I put them in the pan first. They were cooked in butter, chicken broth, and turkey drippings. That and the seasoning from the turkey skin, which was mixture of salt, dried onion, garlic powder, citrus, red pepper. They were too salty for me, but I only average about 1200 mg/ day.

So, I guess I'm stuck with the job.

We're sending most of the leftover turkey home with my MIL. That makes it so she doesn't have to cook.

[Rusty Edge]

As it turned out, the turkey dinner was only for my wife and myself, the god-daughter who lives with us, and my MIL. Anybody else who dropped by had already eaten, and was only tasting one of the dishes or having dessert. We limited the amount of mashed potatoes, figuring we could make more if more people showed up, so we didn't have too much extra.

 Speaking of dishes, this is the first time in my life, or the life of this kitchen that the oven, microwave, and all 4 burners were in use at once. We have a large microwave/combination exhaust fan above the range- so everything is in the same place. Okay for my wife and I to work together, not so good for my MIL to show us how she makes gravy.

Also, there were only about 30 people and no kids at church, no coughs either. I think I got away safely.  Today we prepare for the in-law annual Christmas party. My brother-in-law will not attend this year.