Christmas Plans

I was just wondering what everyones plans for Christmas were. I'm going to Texas to see my family. I'm excited because I haven't seen them since June. I fly in Christmas eve and then I'll go over to my aunts house to dinner. We celebrate on Christmas eve and we have a big dinner and exchange gifts. Then Christmas morning Santa visits me and I have all my fun gifts under the tree. I'll be staying in Texas until the 6th of January. Hopefully by then I'm not sick of being at home, I haven't been home that long in a while.

Have fun in Texas!! I love Christmas here, perfect weather (in my opinion). Most years the weather is so nice, we have picnics on Christmas day :)

I dont have big plans. My family will be in town. I do have to work Christmas day but not too long. I'm tired and wishing for a break but I don't think I'll get one.

Brian and I are going to my mother's. My uncle will be there, also my brother, his girlfriend and the baby!!! Brian's friend Gary will also be coming with us cause he has nowhere to go. I can't wait, especially to see my neice!!!!

Christmas has gotten so low-key since my husband's parents passed away. We have always had a really tiny family anyway, and now all that's left is my husband (an only child), our daughter, (an only child), and my mom. My one sister is in England and won't be coming to visit this year :( , and my dad lives in California. My husband's dad was an only child, and his mom had one sister, who we see occasionally along with her grown kids. I always have to work on Christmas Eve until at least 7 - 7:30 PM, and then when I come home we eat a simple supper. We open our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve, and then on Christmas Day my mom comes over and she opens her gifts. (She's on Social Security, so we don't want her to get any gifts for us.) I try to make a nice dinner on Christmas Day, when I actually have a day off. When YLL was little and still believed in Santa, we would spend Christmas Eve at my in-laws, and then "do the Santa thing" at home on Christmas morning. Now Christmas is just very quiet, and kind of boring..........:(

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Originally posted by All Creatures Great And Small
Now Christmas is just very quiet, and kind of boring..........:(

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Why not find a needy family to surprise for Christmas with presents?

Or visit a nursing home to bring cheer to the patients who don't get visitors, and the nurses who have to work that day?

Or bring surprise Christmas cookies to other who have to work that day ...

Or

you get the idea! It need not be boring - unless you WANT it to be!

My family will gather at my sister's house Christmas Day, so we go to Paul's family gathering Christmas Eve. My family's Christmas varies somewhat every year, but with kids ranging in age from 16 months to 17 years, it's always chaotic but fun!

i leave for wisconsin tomorrow morning. my family moved up to appleton a few years ago. naturally the dry warm spell is ending while i'm trying to fly, but a white christmas would be nice! on the down side clive is still in the hospital (see cat health post for details :( ... but i have a great house sitter for him and owen the scotty, so i feel ok... in theory clive will get out of hospital on saturday, and the house sitter is ready to pamper him back to health til i return on the 27th.


have a great holiday everyone!

Well I have to work during the day on Christmas eve but I'm hoping I can hide in the back and help the recievers crowds bother me at times. Then we head over to my cousins on the other side of the city and have a family get together with my cousins and their kids, where we have the best punch.

We do the gift thing on Christmas day, when I was younger we used to be able to open one gift on Christmas eve but we stopped doing that a while ago because the gift that we were opening was my auntie Doe's and she passed away a few years ago. Other then that it's just eating turkey and stuff like that.

With my new husband in tow, Helen and I will be headed to Mom and Dad's house on Christmas Eve, at her request. We'll spend one night, then she will join her dad and his family on Christmas afternoon.

I think Christmas will be rather marvelous this year!!!! :D

I have to work on Christmas Eve until around 6:00. Then we will go to my grandparents house and open presents to/from them. We'll head back home, open one present (the tradition is new pajamas) and go to sleep. Even though we are all too old to believe in Santa, we still do the "Santa" thing and my parents leave some of the gifts out...we have to all get up and go downstairs at the same time. My sister and her family are sleeping over too (means 4 dogs at my house lol). Then we all sit around together in our pajamas and hand out the presents from under the tree and open them. We have a nice big breakfast, then later on some family is coming over for a dinner. Somewhere in between I will have to visit my friend, Melissa's house to see what she has and she will visit mine. :)

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Originally posted by wolf_Q
(the tradition is new pajamas)

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I just love new pj's:D

Will will be going to Mark's mom's as usual. Nothing new, but fun none the less:D

Christmas eve is our big night. My husband is Italian and his family celebrates a 7 course fish meal on Christmas eve so we will be going over there for dinner. They just live next door so we won't have to travel very far. :rolleyes: After that we usually go to Christmas eve service but this year we are traveling about 1/2 hour to my dads house to surprise him. He has had a very hard year and I want to make his Christmas as nice as possible so I told everyone to meet at his house at 8:30 to surprise him. We will all go to a midnight service with him.

Christmas day will be layed back with opening presents and eating Christmas dinner and laying around and playing with the pups! We usually take them to the dog park for a nice long walk in the late morning!

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Originally posted by Karen
It need not be boring - unless you WANT it to be!

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Hmmm, let me rephrase that then - Christmas is kind of quiet and....restful. I haven't baked a Christmas cookie since I was 17 years old - :o - since I started working in retail. (It has always been my plan/dream to make them ahead of time, like in October, but I never feel very Christmasy then! :p) I am so "Christmased-out" by the time December 25th rolls around that a nice long day of doing nothing feels pretty good. I work long shifts from Thanksgiving on; 1st, 2nd, and 3rd shifts until my body clock is totally confused, and the last 2 weeks before Christmas, work 7 days a week, sometimes 12-16 hours a day, to get all the seasonal merchandise on the salesfloor; and during all this put up with a lot of verbal abuse from customers who aren't exactly in a forgiving, loving mood. I've been doing this for 24 straight years. :eek: It's a good-paying, secure, steady job though, so I shouldn't complain (even though I do), and it's OK the other 11 months out of the year. I also have to take care of all the festivity around the house, too, with decorating and wrapping gifts, and still keep up with the chores that don't go away for the holidays. As far as bringing treats to work, the company lays on a very nice lunch for us on Christmas Eve (to make us complacent about being there so late, LOL), and as far as the needy family to surprise, the company also sponsors several local families each year and we all donate money to buy them gifts, and donate decorated tree displays to them. I'd be too embarrassed to give gifts face-to-face; I like to just be anonymous. (I'm a stealth-gifter ;)) I just meant it would be boring in the sense that there's no family to be with like in the good old days.

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Originally posted by Crikit
Well I have to work during the day on Christmas eve but I'm hoping I can hide in the back and help the recievers crowds bother me at times.

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I can totally relate.....;) :p

On X-mas Eve , we will be just with the 4 of us . We will have a yummie meal (gourmet) and open our presents !! Of course , the pets get their own presents !!!! cannot tell yet , My cats read this too ;) ;) :D

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It need not be boring - unless you WANT it to be!

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I know you enjoy the quiet....but you can also invite someone over that you know wont be going anywhere. Even if you aren't "good friends" its really nice to have lots of people around...it makes it special for everyone.

My mom is having Christmas and is only inviting my hubby and I. Not exactly my idea of Christmas....I love being with people and just having four for Christmas will be like any other night we eat dinner over there. :(

Oh well....its CHRISTmas in my heart. NOT the time to start anything I suppose. :)

Christmas Eve is at my inlaws house....that will be nice. We'll have a bunch of people there! Yay! :D

I work Christmas Eve prolly (I can't find next weeks schedual) but hopefully I'll stay on the 9-2 shift.

We are doing the usual gift exchange down at Grandma's Christmas Eve night. We usually spend Christmas with our individual families so we give everyone else their gift there. It's always interesting to say the least with everyone together though I don't think anyone will complain about travelling (we are all within a 5 mile radius of one another and even better my aunt lives behind Grandma's)
After Grandma's we usually come home and go to bed so Santa can come.

This year Dustin is staying with us since he has to work til 6 on Christmas Eve and his family is going to TN for the holidays. So that is the thing that is different this year.


P.S. My lil brother and I always track Santa around the world here: http://www.noradsanta.org on Christmas Eve.

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Originally posted by Dixieland Dancer
My husband is Italian and his family celebrates a 7 course fish meal on Christmas eve so we will be going over there for dinner. They just live next door so we won't have to travel very far. :rolleyes:

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Oh Candy this put a smile on my face. Sounds like your family is a real life "Everybody Loves Raymond" (Italian guy's folks live across the street) LOL! If you have never seen the show you probably won't see the humor.....:rolleyes:

Christmas Eve will be spend at my daughter's, with us attending church later in the evening. This will be a quieter Christmas Day than previously as we will not be traveling to my in-laws' as we usually do. I am hoping to have a small early traditional meal in the afternoon and then go visit with my mom later on at the convalescent center.

Chritsmas Day is the only time I have off, so we will see my parents at my Grandparents (they live about 1 hr away in Tiffin) for lunch and then come back to Toledo for celebrate and have dinner with Ralph's family.

We have to go to my sister's house, but will escape as soon as possible. We're doing a $15 gift exchange thing, that I don't understand, but will go with the flow. We'll eat and then come home and enjoy the rest of the day with the dogs (I'd prefer just to do that ALL day! lol) and relax. I'm liking this low key stuff. I've never been a real Christmas person anyway...I happen to be one of the weirdos that gets kind of depressed.

Sunday we're going to go down to Indianapolis and deliver gifts to Southside Animal Shelter from the kids at school, my parents, and the feed store where we get our dog food. That will be the best part of the season for me.

Christmas will be at my sisters. We draw names and just buy for one person.

I will not be working until Jan. 2. I hope to post some pictures.