Goose this year too, yum.

Only if you get the washing up done before hand

Haha, given a stay of execution, they're not coming back until at least before tomorrow, so I'll finish it off tonight.

err

1) no
2) yes but not going
3) Will be with SWMBO


It will be just us on xmas day - will do visiting etc on boxing day and will have family around for new year

I have done xmas by myself and enjoyed it -

I know plenty of people I'd like to spend time with. My family are on that list some of the time . However my friends are quite geographically spread - a peril of living in the age of a highly mobile workforce and all-pervasive communications I suppose - so getting a group together, particularly when quite a few of them are obliged/want to spend time with their families can be tricky. I will probably have a leisurely christmas morning with a nice breakfast, go see my family for Christmas lunch about 3pm, stay for a couple of hours, then come home and spend a while catching up with various other people by various electronic means. I can definitely subscribe to the whole 'peace on earth and goodwill to all men' thing but I've never really got the whole 'speciality' of it I suppose. It's like Valentine's Day - it's a day apparently proscribed to get you to show whichever most important person in your life that you love them. OK, what the hell are you doing the other 364 days of the year? Shouldn't you be doing that anyway? That's what it always struck me as - something we should do anyway, but on a day everyone seems to feel impelled to do it all at once.


I wasn't meaning to imply a sort of 'bah humbug' attitude, simply that I don't feel any personal upwelling of enthusiasm for the rituals of the thing. As an excuse to spend time with or at least reconnect with friends and family I think it has value, but I think we should do that at regular intervals anyway, for the good of the soul.

Jon

I know exactly what you mean, some of my best friends are either the other side of the country or on the other side of the world.



I think the word is touché. /joke

I get time off and an increasingly rare chance to see family and friends. There's not much more than that to it for me.

Flat broke, and it will be 3 months until the next job starts, so gift-free this time.

Mark

I used to love Christmas, but as others said then you grow up.
Then my kids came along and I enjoyed it through them again, then they grew up.
Then my grandkids came along and I enjoyed it through them, now they are in their teens it has lost its magic.

Not that it matters this year, the first time in nearly 45 years of working I have to work all over Christmas.

I told you, I hate my new job

1) No
2) Parents divorced, Mum is local and a widow so will probably see her Xmas day. Dad is in Norfolk so hope to see him sometime over Xmas break. In laws live in Cornwall so we won't be seeing them. Might see my step sister too but she's always last minute at arranging things
3) Only my Mum as she's on her own



We've had lamb last couple of years. Not sure what to do this year. Turkey is so boring!

Love Xmas but last couple of years I haven't been going as full out partly due to recession and money and partly because it just makes it more stressful.

I think I'd quite like a pizza for tea on the 25th of December this year.

Mark

Good call.Treat yourself. My mother this morning asked me if I wanted to, "come home for a spot of lunch". No Mum, I don't really.

Caz, get down here. Less traffic, less hassle, less snow, it's warmer and I have an indoor pool, sauna and jacuzzi

**waits for Mr. V to get jealous**

I looked up holidays to the Canaries yesterday. If you're in a couple, you can go all inc to Fuerta for about £350 from the 23rd for a week. If you're single, it's about 50% more. Bastards.

I doubt we could afford the petrol tbh but we'll see. Got to fork out for a new boiler and car in the next few months.

Ouch, I know the feeling. My tax and MOT are due January and I think this year my tax is £260. Happiness.

Xmas for me stopped being fun by the time I was 11/12. I'd already know Santa was fake still enjoyed the presents etc. Even now, when it's Xmas, I still get the tingly feeling that I did when I was young but it doesn't last long. Since then, it's been more of a ritual/chore. I think the increasingly modern lifestyle makes it such, rather than a special occasion it used to be.

Up until I starte working, every Xmas was spent with family. After that, I was either working, or off-shift. A bi of a pain to finish say 8pm Xmas Eve and then have to be in for work on Boxing Day. Means it was pointless travelling home to see family. Still used to get presents sorted for them via other members of the family!

This year will be the first time since I started working that I will be at home with family, so I guess it's more of an important occasion.

I think what really pees me off is the lack of good films on TV. As a child, there would be cartoons on every channel (back in the days when there were only four!), and some channels would continue them all day or at leat until lunchtime. Thereafter, it would be decent, family-friendly films. Nowadays, it's just so boring!

So...it'll be: spend time with family and playing both Black Ops and GT5.