Fogbow

So what plans do you have for Christmas this year?

We didn't have Christmas in 2020 & 2021 other than phone calls. Now we are on the same island and less than a mile away , so we're making plans. I recently "lent" my son my Accord because I can't safely drive due to vision problems, so there's that. Does that count? I think so... I don't know if I can drive again. But I can go almost everywhere in my neighborhood on my scooter. And there's lyft.

I haven't any idea what they need or want, so I think I'll put cash in Christmas cards for each of them.

Son says he'll find a good restaurant for Christmas Eve or Christmas brunch. (Probably Chinese, Korean or Thai.) Also, we'll go to a movie, probably Avatar 2, but it's 3+ hours. And either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day evening we will walk around downtown Honolulu to enjoy the lights and music. It's very beautiful.

And we're together!

We don't celebrate Christmas, so my spouse will be working that day. I will take care of my horses, and I am also cow-sitting for an entire month.

I am betting everyone else will have a much more jolly Christmas than we do!

Happy Holidays!

Pretty much like us. It's really just about to tell people that we love them.

We’ll have Christmas at Maybelot this year with two sets of kids and grandkids. one son and his family will be with our DIL’s family; daughter and other son and their kids will all be here. So 11 of us altogether.

The last two years it’s just been us, so it’ll be fun.

We told all the grandkids we want actual suggestions for gifts this year. In years past we gave them money or gift cards, but this year we want to have presents under the tree. We told them if they didn’t make suggestions they were getting socks and underwear. We got suggestions from everyone, so it will be a lot of fun!

I’ll make some pies.

Christmas at home with the family, and on Boxing Day we will go to Bathysphere or wherever it is, to spend a few days with my dad.

Family meal with the kids and grand at Aidan's house on Christmas eve, then maybe, possibly wine and cheese with my brother and his wife on Christmas afternoon. And a nap.

Gonna just be the two of us. Probably a lazy day around the house, maybe some Zoom calls with family, maybe some board games..

We're ready.

We get to have Christmas twice! Once on Christmas Eve with my Mister’s daughters and families, then again on Christmas Day with my boys and their families. On Boxing Day we’ve (in the past) had 50 + people and countless dogs come over for the long winter walk through the woods and back to the house for cucumber sandwiches and hot-spiced whiskey. I think there’s going to be a pretty good turn out this year!

Oh that's awesome, MsDaisy. I'm gonna be driving right past you on Boxing Day, trundling up the 95 like we do!

We're going to my daughter's, so will be with most of the family on Christmas Day. So, a vegan Christmas dinner. But I will make a leg of lamb for just us on Christmas Eve, a much easier dinner than a turkey. The weather is supposed to be snowy and cold in the days leading up to Christmas, but while it's supposed to be freezing on Sunday, the roads should be good enough.

Happy Holidays!

I will be going to my eldest daughter's house Christmas Eve evening for certain. "Maybe" to my middle daughter's Christmas Eve morning-ish. The "maybe" is because her husband is pretty ill (been trying to find a cause for about 7 months now, but so far zip) so it'll be a call from my daughter that says either it's a good day for him, come on over (about a 45-minute drive) or no, not today. If not, I'll try to go Christmas day at some point.

And at some point on Christmas morning will FaceTime with my youngest and fambly (incuding my three-year-old great grandson ), who live in SC.

Then at some point on Christmas Day will talk and/or FaceTime or Zoom with my two sisters.

Azastan wrote: ↑Mon Dec 19, 2022 2:22 am We don't celebrate Christmas, so my spouse will be working that day. I will take care of my horses, and I am also cow-sitting for an entire month.

I am betting everyone else will have a much more jolly Christmas than we do!

Happy Holidays!

I will be working that day as well, along with the day before and the day before that... People ask where I am going for Christmas (or after the Christmas morning service). My answer is always the same. To bed.

Day drinking...

My parents live far away, my friend will be cooking dinner for his southern in-laws, so I'll be day drinking with myself...

Staying home. Our SIL's parents who didn't come for Thanksgiving since his mother was positive for Covid are coming down for several days and also his brother.

Our younger daughter was supposed to come here for an overnight visit last Tuesday which was delayed to Thursday due to a sick cat and then delayed to today but yesterday was delayed until some time after Christmas. This is a busy time for those who do real time closed captions for live broadcasts.

Our younger cat's first Christmas. He is into everything so no big tree in our part of the house. We tried a small 18 inch tree on a table but had to remove all the ornaments since he wouldn't leave them alone. Also had to take stockings down from the mantel for the same reason. He can not reach the decorations on top of the mantel. Daughter and SIL have a tree up (with the lights that came with it) in their living room but no ornaments.

Got the gas logs working in our fireplace yesterday. Only took us 2 years to get around to it. Plumbers fixed our slow drains today.

From now until Christmas day we and much of the rest of the country will be very cold. Forecast here is for a low of 6F overnight on Thursday.

Azastan wrote: ↑Mon Dec 19, 2022 2:22 am We don't celebrate Christmas, so my spouse will be working that day. I will take care of my horses, and I am also cow-sitting for an entire month.

I am betting everyone else will have a much more jolly Christmas than we do!

Happy Holidays!

Azastan wrote: ↑Mon Dec 19, 2022 2:22 am We don't celebrate Christmas, so my spouse will be working that day. I will take care of my horses, and I am also cow-sitting for an entire month.

I am betting everyone else will have a much more jolly Christmas than we do!

Happy Holidays!

I love the things you do - horse sitting, horse training, cow sitting… do you offer snake sitting services too? I’d want you for my neighbor.

We’re having friends over for a buffet supper.
Tomato soup
Moroccan lentil soup
Tuna briks
Lox and bagels
Kielbasa
Salad

My family is for Thanksgiving. My friends for Christmas.

Phoenix520 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 19, 2022 5:41 pm

I love the things you do - horse sitting, horse training, cow sitting… do you offer snake sitting services too? I’d want you for my neighbor.

Snakes are pretty easy, you mostly need just to make sure that their habitat temperatures are good for their species, and make sure they have drinking/soaking water. Much of the time they don't even need to be fed.

I have taken care of dogs (just finished a stint of dogsitting, actually), cats, sheep, goats, cows, alpacas, llamas, chickens, pigs, most 'pocket' pets, and of course, horses.

It's easy to find dog and cat sitters, but the 'farm' animals are not something everyone wants to do. The big animals can be intimidating, so you need someone who has confidence with handling them, and you really want someone who has familiarity with the various species so that they can determine if an animal needs medical attention or not.

I only take on clients who are within six miles of me, and I stay just busy enough to enjoy what I do.

Foggy wrote: ↑Mon Dec 19, 2022 12:25 pm Oh that's awesome, MsDaisy. I'm gonna be driving right past you on Boxing Day, trundling up the 95 like we do!

You'd be welcome to stop by! Of course depending on the time you get here you may have to hang out in the kitchen until we get back from the walk. But you'd be welcome to help yourself to the cucumber sandwiches!

I would dearly love to stop and visit, but the honest truth is, our time with my dad is so precious that we kind of race up there when we finally get a chance to see him. My boys have fond memories of your great place, and ol' Wifehorn really does want to meet you and MrDaisy, but an hour side trip is an hour we could be with my dad, which sounds kind of shitty writing it, but there it is.

He'll be 95 in March, if he makes it. He's doing pretty well, but every day is a gift at his age.

And it sounds like you'll have plenty of guests on your hands, so you really won't miss us!

Finally, you know I'm a liberated guy. Woke. Liberal. All of that.

And yet, still a red-blooded American man of the male persuasion.

We don't eat no cucumber sammiches. I'd turn into a girly man in five seconds flat if I even took a bite.

British doctors get an exemption.

My brother is flying in from NYC on Thursday and we're making a quick round trip to bring my dad over from St. Louis on Friday, weather permitting. My daughter and her boyfriend were supposed to fly into St. Louis from Seattle and bring my dad with them from there. It turns out they both have MRSA infections and are putting off coming out until that's cleared up.

Dinner is going to be a mediterranean style fish dish with roasted Brussels sprouts and an oyster casserole my brother makes.

For the past two years, I have been by myself for Christmas. Not much fun even though my siblings zoomed and we talked on the phone.

This year Christmas will be at my brother's, an hour south of The Cities. My sister from Michigan was going to fly in this coming Thursday, but has changed her flight to tomorrow to avoid mid-week storms. I'll drive down to my brother's on Saturday and make my traditional Shrimp Creole for supper. Our family tradition is to read the gospel story, sing Christmas songs, then open presents on Christmas Eve evening. I think all four of my brother's daughters will be there. The two oldest girls got married this year, so they're trying to figure out how family get-togethers will work and who will sleep where.

Rather than drive home late, I'll stay at a hotel down there, then spend Christmas Day with them. And have birthday cake... I am turning 70 on Sunday. There's also a sibling zoom session scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

Our NPD ex-daughter has destroyed holidays for 30+ years but has gone out of its way to make this one especially horrid.

No X-mas for us this year, other than shipping tons of stuff to the other grandkids too far away to get to this season.

Kids will be home for Christmas, so we will do the usual things. Son will come down from Seattle. Daughter is still in the Bay Area, so she made sure to pick out a tree to her specifications as she has done since she was 8 or 9. Then she decorated it with her best friend as she has done for a long time. Open presents Christmas morning. We will have the usual Christmas dinner for family. Our daughter latched on to a beef brisket recipe served by a friend a couple of decades ago (made with cherries, prunes, and red wine), so that is now a standard for Christmas. Then we have a Christmas evening dessert get together for old friends. Kids usually play board games until fairly late. The 'kids' are now all in their 30s. Anyway, that is our usual Christmas.

We all congregate at my parent's house which is 42 minutes away for me. My father has PTSD and dementia. Travel is out of the question mostly because he has flare ups of a convoy attack in Vietnam. The grandkids are all grown up but he will keep wondering which one of them is me - I'm his 'brother' when he sees me, and he is perplexed that it take me 42 minutes to drive in from Philadelphia (6-7hrs from Eastern North Carolina)

I will be cooking also and my M-I-L will bring a dish or two because my son loves her fried pork chops, like her late brother, and it gives her joy to cook them for her grandson. As in Whoville, I will have the bird to cook which I grill. In addition, I will grill a pig and MsPrime will bake her coconut cake (which is one of the reasons why I married her). So, BBQ, Grilled turkey, fried pork chops, hot dogs and burgers. My Brother's wife makes her Glouchester, VA Gumbo. We will have Duplin non-alcoholic wine. My daughter will perfect her 12-14 layer chocolate cake (its her second attempt) and, about 25-30 people will float through my parent's house until all the feast and drink are gone. MsPrime will be somewhere cheering on the Lakers and either mad at her Raiders losing or glad at my Cowboys wining!

Food, family and fun! I'm back to work on Monday.

I've been quiet about this but I found out this month that I have stomach cancer, which is operable, but I am having my last solid food Wednesday before surgery on Monday, the 27th to remove part of the lining of my stomach.
It is possible this will be the only invasive procedure I need but I couldn't get them to say probably, just possibly.
So my Christmas will be spent starving and getting ready for that.