Xmas Only 3 Months Away. What do you do on 24th / 25th ?

Well @ElizabethB, we check in to our timeshare on Friday, 11-10. When we leave depends on how many stops along the way. Hubby has cousins in Williamsburg, VA, we have friends in Portsmouth, VA, our niece lives in Orlando, FL, and a high school friend and her hubby live between our niece and the timeshare. We usually take her out to eat and visit on Thursday, then meet our friends for lunch on the way to the resort on Friday. There is also another couple we are friends with that we'll try to see - we could visit with them on the way back.

At the moment (subject to change) I'm thinking a few stops along the coast on the way home, then Williamsburg for our anniversary. We have warm spots in our hearts for both Kings Arm Tavern and Christiana Campbell's.

I don't spend much time online when we travel, unless you count checking out places to go, menus to view, and directions to get. :wink: I will stop by, however, so you all don't forget me.
 
Lynne Guinne said:
Well @ElizabethB, we check in to our timeshare on Friday, 11-10. When we leave depends on how many stops along the way. Hubby has cousins in Williamsburg, VA, we have friends in Portsmouth, VA, our niece lives in Orlando, FL, and a high school friend and her hubby live between our niece and the timeshare. We usually take her out to eat and visit on Thursday, then meet our friends for lunch on the way to the resort on Friday. There is also another couple we are friends with that we'll try to see - we could visit with them on the way back.

At the moment (subject to change) I'm thinking a few stops along the coast on the way home, then Williamsburg for our anniversary. We have warm spots in our hearts for both Kings Arm Tavern and Christiana Campbell's.

I don't spend much time online when we travel, unless you count checking out places to go, menus to view, and directions to get. :wink: I will stop by, however, so you all don't forget me.
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Sounds like a great time :thumbsup:

When we go away we like to spend some time 'off grid', mobile phone and tablets are safely stowed away in a safe so we have time to ourselves without distraction.
 
I haven't a clue what I'll be doing over Christmas - it's really my daughter's decision what day I go up there. Presents aren't a problem as far as my granddaughters are concerned - they're both teenagers, and usually like cash! My daughter will tell me in plenty of time what she and her husband want, and I already have a few ideas as to what I want from them. We always buy a few little surprises as well.

As far as food is concerned, I already have a chicken, lamb, pork, and beef in the freezer. There is a duck too, but it is pre-frozen. I like to buy a fresh one, but since the year when I couldn't get a fresh duck for love or money, it doesn't hurt to have a frozen one just in case. I have only to buy a turkey joint and a bacon joint, plus cheeses. Veggies, eggs and milk are on order - no need for cream - the milk has 4 1.5% cream already! Stuffings, sauces etc are already bought (or the ingredients for them), and I have a Christmas pudding in the larder. Only gingerbread, mince pies, bread and yoghurt to make, and a Christmas cake and stollen to buy.

Christmas for us usually starts on Christmas Eve, when I phone my friends in Austria, and I decide then what to cook immediately and what to cook for the New Year. When my late cousin was alive we always used to celebrate the Ethiopian Christmas too, but most of the Greek side of my family no longer celebrate the orthodox Christmas and choose to celebrate on 25 December, so I may give that a miss this time. Some of the food will be taken to my daughter's; any not eaten will go in the freezer.
 
Christmas Eve

An early Catholic mass - 5 p.m.

We gather at Mother's house - our family home. Mom goes over board. Our tradition is chicken and sausage gumbo, potato salad, small sweet potatoes, baked and slathered with butter, cheesy garlic French bread, lots of savory nibbles and enough deserts to induce diabetes.

Gift giving.

Our family has grown so large that gifting everyone has become financially prohibitive. After Thanksgiving dinner my siblings and my adult nieces and nephews draw names. That is our "big" gift. There is a set $ maximum on gifts. A few rules - No telling whose name you drew. No asking what anyone wants. Put thought into the gift.

After dinner Christmas Eve we exchange gifts. This year we have 1 12 year old niece and 6 great nieces and nephews ranging in age from 9 months to 12 years old.

All of the adults gift the young ones. They go nuts just looking at the huge pile of gifts under the tree - and taking up lots of floor space in the living room.

Christmas day - youngest Sister's home.

All of our family, Sis's in laws and her two daughter's in laws. Assorted "orphans" - friends with no local family.

Our largest Christmas dinner was 45 people. Our smallest was 15.

The menu is mostly a repeat of our Thanks Giving dinner with what ever twist we decide to throw in.

We eat between 1 and 2 p.m. We eat and visit and laugh and tease each other and eat some more. By 4 the guys are done in. They do bring the dishes to the kitchen then retire to Brother-in-law's den for TV and naps.

That is when the fun begins! Us Girls are on a sugar high from an excessive amount of deserts lubricated by wine. We clean the kitchen, laugh, talk about our men, laugh, discuss politics, laugh loudly, share childhood memories, laugh some more. Play with babies. Laugh.

My favorite part of the day.

After the kitchen is clean Us Girls gather in the living room or, if the weather is nice, on the patio. More wine, more deserts and we solve all of the world's problems. Too bad the YXers don't listen to us. At some point the guys wake from their food induced naps and start to wander around. They are always confused and can never figure out why we laugh so much. It is an XX YX thing. When you take the leg off of the X to make a Y something gets lost.

Sorry Guys - Some of you may be an exception to the rule - when women gather men are clueless.

After a long, fun day we leave with plates of leftovers. We are usually good on food for 2 or 3 days.

When we get home my first priority is to get comfortable. Get rid of the bra, heels, makeup - put on my jammies - one of George's 4X t-shirts and fuzzy slippers. Light a fire in the fireplace if it is not to hot to do so. Pour a glass of wine for each of us. We exchange gifts. After that - oh well. Merry Christmas.
 
ElizabethB said:
Our family has grown so large that gifting everyone has become financially prohibitive.
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Same here. My Dad was one of 16 who survived birth and 12 who reached adulthood. My Mum was one of 7. The only one from that era who is still alive is one of my aunts (who is not a blood relative - she was married to one of my uncles), and she is in her 90s (she married very young). I've lost count of the number of cousins I have, but they all have children, grandchildren and in some cases greatgrandchildren. I have four nieces, all of whom have children, and one of them has grandchildren, as well as two nephews who are both single. I have only one sister who is still alive (in her 80s). I have one daughter and two granddaughters. If you bought everyone a present, you would quickly become bankrupt! In some respects it is lucky that most of them live all over the world, so we see other hardly at all. I only buy presents now for my daughter, her husband, and my granddaughters. Everyone else gets a card if I know where they are!
 
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