Xmas

[berettabone]

I don't know about you guys/gals, but it's kind of difficult for me to get up for Christmas. After my first marriage, I was single with no family for 18 years, so I didn't do much celebrating. I had friends, but it's not quite the same. We don't have any children now. The wife's families have children, so they do their thing. My favorite part of Christmas was checking out everyone's outside lights. People do amazing things with their lights and properties. I love driving around and checking out what people have done. When we go up nort, we take the back country roads. It's almost exactly the same mileage as taking the expressway up, and a lot less stressful, and there is more to see. It only adds about a half hour of driving. On our way back from our last trip, it was just starting to get dark, and I saw some huge amazing displays set up, but it wasn't quite dark enough for the people to turn them on. So, we're going to head back up Thurs. and wait until dark, to check out the lights. I saw one place that had a decorated pine tree that had to be approaching 100 ft. tall. Lots of work and man hours put in to these displays. They must have to use buckets to get them up.There was another property I wanted to see at night. It's a damn mansion in the middle of nowhere that had stringers of lights that have to approach the thousands...............We have a spot in the city about 10 blocks away that they call Candycane Lane. It consumes about 15 blocks in all directions, and most of the owners have displays up. They take donations from the people who go through, and anything is appreciated. You can either view from the car, or get out and walk it. Takes a few hours to see it all from the car. My favorite part of Xmas.......................................

[TheYoungConnoisseur]

In an effort to try and avoid commercialization of Christmas My family is doing a new thing (proposed by myself) that everyone spends 50$ no more at TotalWine for each person. Makes it very simple yet difficult and entertaining. Theres nothing I drink for scotch under 50$ so they will have to get me stuff thats totally different etc.

[b4uqzme]

We have family in town but here at home it's just the two of us too. Smiley and I couldn't even raise the gumption to get the tree ornaments out of the attic. So she came up with the idea to make all the trimmings this year. Going to the attic would have been way easier but this has been more fun. Moral of the story: traditions are great but it's good to mix it up some too.

Thanks for the reminder. We live in an old farmhouse and usually put candles in the windows. I need to gather those up and install new batteries. I've already decorated the front porch. It's not extravagant but the house looks festive. Smiley likes it. That's what counts.

Here's to a great Christmas season. Cheers!

[Bawanna]

Christmas is for kids. Adults who have at least 2 of everything should focus on the get together and festivities AND KIDS.

When they start having Christmas specials at Halloween.....well it's just depressing to me.

I love giving, don't get me wrong, I just suck at figuring out something good to give. I mean not everybody is like us around here, give em something that goes bang and they are happy. And that's a might rich for my side of the tracks.

[berettabone]

My wife DID manage to get up to the attic, and brought down a 3 ft. tree prelit..............................she's a bit more festive than I. Two of my wife's favorite things, farmhouse's and barns. I'm glad you said batteries............for a minute, I was thinking old farmhouse? Candles? It is all for the wives and kids isn't it?????????????????

[berettabone]

In an effort to try and avoid commercialization of Christmas My family is doing a new thing (proposed by myself) that everyone spends 50$ no more at TotalWine for each person. Makes it very simple yet difficult and entertaining. Theres nothing I drink for scotch under 50$ so they will have to get me stuff thats totally different etc.
We just got one of those Totalwine's up here. Have yet to visit, but it looks like they have an awful lot of booze. I'm thinking about getting some type of moonshine. I've had the original in my younger days from the REAL makers, and will probably check out some commercial stuff. Otherwise, I stick to PBR and Stoli Elite.........pretty damn close to moonshine and smooooooooooth.

[yqtszhj]

Christmas is for kids. Adults who have at least 2 of everything should focus on the get together and festivities AND KIDS.

When they start having Christmas specials at Halloween.....well it's just depressing to me.

I love giving, don't get me wrong, I just suck at figuring out something good to give. I mean not everybody is like us around here, give em something that goes bang and they are happy. And that's a might rich for my side of the tracks.
I feel about like you do.

[Bobshouse]

I get bummed out around this time of year also. I look back at the Christmas's my parents gave us and there is just no way to do it as good as they did. We would ache with anticipation of Saint Nicks arrival. We lived in a house with wood floors and knew where every squeaky board was when we snuck out to see if santa had come. Couldn't open anything, but santa rarely wrapped anything since there were so many of us.

I wish I could have provided half as much as I received to my kids throughout the years.

Merry Christmas everyone.

[JohnR]

Teaching kids materialism saddens me. I don't believe Christmas is about giving. Shocking, yes I know. But it was the three kings who brought gifts to Jesus, I guess as tokens or sacrifices in recognition of His authority over them.

Christmas should remind us that God loved us enough to send us someone to save our souls, not save our bank accounts. "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today in the City of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!" "And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." The angels didn't say, "Ok, now go buy a bunch of toys and crap and give them to each other."

I'm always torn between our cultural obsession with buying cheap Chinese crap at Christmas time, the stress of shopping and preparing for the holiday, and trying to find the spiritual meaning.

[b4uqzme]

My wife DID manage to get up to the attic, and brought down a 3 ft. tree prelit..............................she's a bit more festive than I. Two of my wife's favorite things, farmhouse's and barns. I'm glad you said batteries............for a minute, I was thinking old farmhouse? Candles? It is all for the wives and kids isn't it?????????????????

Yep. Batteries ;)... We call them the miracle of Walmart. You put batteries in and somehow those darned candles know to turn themselves on and off all by themselves...no timers or anything. I can't figure them out. It's magic. Magic for Christmas?

[AJBert]

After I turned 18 and went in the Navy, I've spent more Christmas' overseas than I have stateside. Now that I'm retired from that life, I've still spent most of my Christmas' alone as my wife has spent a LOT of time helping to take care of her mother. The kids left the house many years ago, and even when I have be "home", both of our families were many miles away.

My wife is with her mom as I type but I'll be going down for Christmas. So I do make a family Christmas now and then, probably one out of every four years.

[JohnR]

Speaking of batteries, if you're looking for a nifty battery organizer, get one of those plastic ammo boxes with the flip-up lid, with the dividers for each round. I have one caliber for AA and another for AAA and it keeps them neat and organized.

[Bawanna]

Great idea.

[kenemoore]

Christmas is looking pretty bleak at the our residence this year. I lost my part time job at the toy factory. The manager said that I was holding up production on the Tickle Me Elmo doll line. I thought it was my job to put two marbles in a cloth sack and sew them between Elmo's legs. The foreman told me that he hired me to give each doll two test tickles not two testicles. Oh well, live and learn.

[340pd]

I have one of those fancy battery organizers and for the last few weeks my supply of AA's were disappearing on a daily basis. I accused my wife of replacing my bedroom services with a rubberized more functional item that doesn't fall asleep immediately following...........

She laughed, then showed me the dozen LED battery powered strings of lights that she was going to use for Christmas decorations. I guess I should be relieved but I am sure I may have put ideas into her head.

[Armybrat]

Well, my favorite part of Christmas these days is giving my guns & ammo to the sons & grandsons. Makes more room in the safe. ;)

[DavidWJ]

Christmas is the celebration of Christ's birth on a once pagan holiday. nonChristians have reverted Christmas in the USA to the pagan holiday (the abbreviation XMAS) and just do the giving and receiving presents thing. That's a good thing for retailers and wonderful for children.

Is for my house, we'll keep the Christ in Christmas.

[Bills1873]

Amen, David!

[b4uqzme]

^^^ Yep. In our hearts and home there's room for Christ, presents and Old Glory too! Have a great Christmas everyone!

[Bawanna]

Is that your house? What a beauty. I love that. Very very cool architecture. Columns, dormers, sweet!

[dustnchips]

No presents given or received here. It really makes Christmas stress free and fun. We do a White Elephant on Christmas day with my girlfriends family and we have a ball with it. After everyone gets a present we set a timer for 20 minutes and roll dice. If you roll a seven you can trade with anyone. When the timer goes off you keep whatever you have. The last five minutes people are rolloing quick and trading fast. We use a cake pan to roll the dice in and just pass it around.

[b4uqzme]

Thanks Colonel. I'm flattered. It was built in 1870 and it's been a labor of our love since about 1999. The projects never end. :D

[Bawanna]

Even neater, 1870? Wow. Endless projects but super cool.

My grandparents house in Missouri was cool, not near as big or as nice as yours but I sure liked it. Sadly its gone in disrepair and my cousins who are carpenters didn't think it was even salvageable. I was trying to buy it. Sets on 94 acres of farm land surrounded by miles of farm land that is worked but nobody lives on.

Just my kind of place.

[AIRret]

Wow, 1870, double wow! It looks like the house has everything…including a white picket fence and great home owner!!

That's a home…definitely not just a house!

[Armybrat]

Most of our presents are wrapped and will be under the tree this afternoon. Grandma Brat has been preparing a number of items for our family Christmas brunch tomorrow morning. #1 son suggested we do a brunch this year instead of the usual late afternoon sitdown dinner. Family will be coming over about 11am. Granddaughter drove in from Lubbock yesterday afternoon. We really worry about her driving that 350 miles down from the plains solo on such a busy travel day.

Basically it's going to be the same smoked ham & turkey, dressing & gravy, rolls, a couple of veggies....PLUS Belgian waffles (regular & vegan), cinnamon rolls, applewood smoked bacon, sausage patties, breakfast casserole, fruit salad, Mimosas, Bloody Marys, pumpkin pie, cheesecake, vegan chocolate chip cookies, & pecan tarts. Son is smoking the ham & turkey overnight while DIL is making the fruit salad & green bean casserole (gawd I hate that stuff!).

So what was a big hassle to begin with is now a double workload. Grandma Brat just finished baking the 2 lbs of bacon and frying a pound & a half of sausage patties. I fried up the pound of sausage for the breakfast casserole which will be assembled this evening to be ready for baking in the morning. Right now she's mincing up all the veggies for the dressing (she baked the cornbread yesterday). Also I premixed the Bloody Marys in two carafes (had to sample a bit after watching Grandma Brat work).

Of course, I've been doing all the kitchen cleanup and vacuumed the house. The desserts were done yesterday and are in the fridge, which will be packed overnight. We are just going to use paper plates tomorrow.

Grandma Brat will be going to Mass at 4pm today, as there is only one scheduled tomorrow morning at 10. That will give me a chance to surf NSAA for a while.

Believe I will have to sample another Bloody Mary now.

Merry Christmas Eve all!

[yqtszhj]

Even neater, 1870? Wow. Endless projects but super cool.

My grandparents house in Missouri was cool, not near as big or as nice as yours but I sure liked it. Sadly its gone in disrepair and my cousins who are carpenters didn't think it was even salvageable. I was trying to buy it. Sets on 94 acres of farm land surrounded by miles of farm land that is worked but nobody lives on.

Just my kind of place.

Now that place would be awesome. I missed out on my grandmothers child hood home a few years ago (it was my great great grandfathers place, her grand fathers) had 85 acers and a house from 1900. Best of all it had 2 giant work buildings for whatever you wanted, all for $160,000. Real hillbilly area too which was nice. but it was out of state for me so it didnt work out. I should have quit my job and moved anyway. I regret it at times.

[Bawanna]

Most of our presents are wrapped and will be under the tree this afternoon. Grandma Brat has been preparing a number of items for our family Christmas brunch tomorrow morning. #1 son suggested we do a brunch this year instead of the usual late afternoon sitdown dinner. Family will be coming over about 11am. Granddaughter drove in from Lubbock yesterday afternoon. We really worry about her driving that 350 miles down from the plains solo on such a busy travel day.

Basically it's going to be the same smoked ham & turkey, dressing & gravy, rolls, a couple of veggies....PLUS Belgian waffles (regular & vegan), cinnamon rolls, applewood smoked bacon, sausage patties, breakfast casserole, fruit salad, Mimosas, Bloody Marys, pumpkin pie, cheesecake, vegan chocolate chip cookies, & pecan tarts. Son is smoking the ham & turkey overnight while DIL is making the fruit salad & green bean casserole (gawd I hate that stuff!).

So what was a big hassle to begin with is now a double workload. Grandma Brat just finished baking the 2 lbs of bacon and frying a pound & a half of sausage patties. I fried up the pound of sausage for the breakfast casserole which will be assembled this evening to be ready for baking in the morning. Right now she's mincing up all the veggies for the dressing (she baked the cornbread yesterday). Also I premixed the Bloody Marys in two carafes (had to sample a bit after watching Grandma Brat work).

Of course, I've been doing all the kitchen cleanup and vacuumed the house. The desserts were done yesterday and are in the fridge, which will be packed overnight. We are just going to use paper plates tomorrow.

Grandma Brat will be going to Mass at 4pm today, as there is only one scheduled tomorrow morning at 10. That will give me a chance to surf NSAA for a while.

Believe I will have to sample another Bloody Mary now.

Merry Christmas Eve all!

You don't like Green Bean Casserole. I love that stuff. Sounds like you got a fine day ahead of ya anyhow. Try the casserole, maybe it's an acquired taste like scotch or something. I believe I partake of a wee dram of the spirts myself. Cabin bound with too much snow for a derelict and don't want to go no place anyhow so all is good.
Looks like I've been assigned some gift wrapping. A few for the family and 827 for the two week old grandson and 2 year old granddaughter. Perfect!