BS: What are you doing at Christmas

Subject: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 07:12 AM

I thought i would write a thread on what everyone will be doing over the Christmas Period.
I am off to Rome for 8 days,i am seeing Pompai,Vatican City on Christmas day and hopfully the coliseum.
Happy Christmas Mudcatters.
From
Scooby

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 08:08 AM

I'll be pulling the blinds to keep the sun out, sitting under my fan, trying to keep cool in Sydney's humidity. I'll listen to some of my 500 or so CDs, do crafty things, read, eat prawns (shrimps in the US), maybe go out & look at the people doing the sales (how many bags can one person carry? how much money can a person spend???) maybe even clean up a bit more.

Some Oz Mudcatters will be going to festivals:
Woodford (SE Queensland & tropical heat/humidity & people wearing gumboots in the tropical downpours & so hot that tents are steaming by 6am)
Gulgong (NW New South Wales & dry heat like an oven)
Nariel Creek (NW Victoria near the Snowy Mountains - usually cooler)

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: sian, west wales
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 08:10 AM

Well, I'm off home, to the Niagara Penninsula, southern Ontario. Always a strange time, Christmas. I want to be with Mum, but I miss all the jolifications with my friends here in Wales. I guess it's just a part of growing old ... !

sian

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 09:02 AM

We two shall be at home in the highlands of Scotland with a nice rib of beef cooked rare, and lots of nice wines. Hope yours is as nice.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 09:25 AM

Giok,
I am hoping also to drink alot of the local fine wines and maybe a few hangovers i am sure.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: jacqui.c
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 09:27 AM

We're spending the holiday with my daughter, son-in-law and four year old grandson in Newark. hopefully, my son and his family may be able to come up for a visit as well over the holiday.

It's the first Christmas together for Kendall and I and he will be experiencing the English version for the first time, so I'm going to make it a good one.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 09:58 AM

As little as possible. Play with grandson I hope.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: MBSLynne
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 10:38 AM

At home with the family eating too much (venison, pheasant, Christmas pudding ice cream etc etc) drinking too much and probably playing silly games. Though the morning will be spent cooking all the nice things to eat!

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 11:00 AM

I'll be in DC, whooping it up with the in-laws.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 12:20 PM

Don't know yet. Christmas is very quiet here. Just my two teenagers and me, usually. I've been thinking of having an open house/caroling party in the afternoon, or I may do that on Boxing Day.

Given a choice, I'd go to Scotland to spend it with Giok- that sounds lovely, John!

Allison

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: SINSULL
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 12:23 PM

I will spend the day with Seamus who will be my house guest for December. In the morning I will open my gifts, have a lazy breakfast and then a nap. Hopefully, I can spend the day quietly at home. I much prefer Halloween to Christmas.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 12:29 PM

Well Allison you'd be welcome, not as cold as your neck of the woods, but damper.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Alice
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 12:51 PM

Except for putting my son on a plane to Oregon to spend the holidays with his girlfriend's family, I have no idea.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Dave Swan
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 01:21 PM

Working. This year my crew has drawn them all, Thanksgiving and the day after; Christmas and Boxing Day; New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

D

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 01:23 PM

My wife and I will be celebrating at home. For several days. There'll be a big family celebration... Ruth's side of our family, as my family is too far away to make it here. And then, there'll undoubtedly be other gatherings during the season (It is a Holiday Season, you know.) Depending on who we can gather together, there'll be music, too... maybe some area Catters, and of course, the Messengers.

There'll be fine times of worship, and the sweetness of waving everyone goodbye as they pull out of the driveway, and my wife and I are left to celebrate and rejoice alone.

Love it all..

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 01:24 PM

Dave ,
I think you did get the short straw this year.
I have found its interesting to see in different parts of the world what we are all doing over the festive period.
Scooby

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Cats
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 02:06 PM

The weekend before Christmas we will go and fetch the real Christmas tree and decorate it. This takes an age as I collect Christmas decorations (hangers) from all over the world - last count 32 countries- and when friends go abroad they bring me abck something for my tree. It's like putting friends and memories together, some happy, some sad. (If there are any catters out there who would like to contribute to my tree witha decoration that is very representative of your country, pm me) Then we decorate the house - my new one this year so I'll try and decorate it as close to how it would have ben done in the 16th century as I can, but always with holly ivy and mistletoe. Then there's the sundays before christmas when we go to Padstow and sing their carols - very different from ones you find in books. When we've sung in Padstow it's Christmas!! On Chrissy day it's get up, cook the lunch, open pressies and toast friends and relatives who are no longer with us. Not morbid I can assure you. Tea is traditionally a hand made Raised Game Pie - ok skip the ludo and monopoly jokes - We always have friends around for either lunch or tea so it's a time of singing and storytelling and a few good jokes. And good food ( anyone want the secret recipe for my grans mince meat, it starts take half a pint of brandy and half a pint of rum..., home made clotted cream ice cream fine wines but most of all good friends.

Happy yule.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 02:18 PM

We don't actually decorate our house although we have mistletoe over front and back door.

This year we will be having Liz the Squeak, Manitas adn Limpit round for dinner and much alcohol I think, boxing day will be spent recovering from the hanagover I will probably have and the next day I will be travelling up north to visit my parents, then back on New Years Eve to London to a party we are all going to...

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Seaking
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 02:36 PM

I'll be working away from home this year so it'll be an alcohol free Christmas week in the North Sea for me. The children's birthdays are on the 23rd and 28th so miss those as well this year. We usually have our 'Christmas dinner' about a week before the real Christmas, open a few presents, pull crackers and put the Disney Christmas CD on !   Christmas Day will be spent partly on the phone listening to everyone at home opening the rest of their presents and the remainder getting gas out of the ground for you all to cook your turkeys.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Peace
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 03:00 PM

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: dianavan
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 03:19 PM

Since we are a family with a 'mixed bag' of religions and no little ones as yet, Santa doesn't visit us anymore. Rather than attempting to pull it all together for the family, this year I'm going to visit friends who live in Mazatlan.

I will miss the decorations and the turkey but heh ... we can have a family dinner, anytime. My kids have given me their blessing.

d

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 07:08 PM

I will only take Christmas Day off work as Christmas is not a holiday here in China.

However we will have a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day session at the Blarney. I will put up some decorations and I will spend an hour or two calling the family.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Once Famous
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 08:55 PM

Going to the local Chinese restaurant for dinner and running into other Jewish people from the neighborhood there.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: mack/misophist
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 11:50 PM

Nothing. Nothing at all. For dinner I expect to have hot dogs and lima beans.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: sledge
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 12:29 AM

Skiing in France unless work really screws me over again.

Sledge

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: chris nightbird childs
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 12:31 AM

I'm going home to see the family. Stay with the in-laws, have a big turkey dinner, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Rasener
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 12:40 AM

We are going to Butlins in Skegness. Whoooo I hear you say LOL

Our children love it and it avoids having to visit family and not be able to drink becuase of driving as well as not getting into arguments. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Little Brother
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 02:06 AM

Opening my Hanukah presents. -LB

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: muppitz
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 04:09 AM

Probably the same as most years.

Wake up, phone grandparents as we're not allowed to open any prezzies til they arrive, open afirmentioned prezzies, get dressed, loaf about with new prezzies while Mum and Grandma cook dinner (Me and sisters are a disaster in the kitchen so we are normally banned!) eat, then drink and get very merry while playing cards with Auntie and Uncle late into the night!

muppitz x

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: MBSLynne
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 05:43 AM

BTW, we don't actually celebrate Christmas...we celebrate Yule, which is actually three days before Christmas, but it seems easier to celebrate it on the same day as everyone else is doing their celebrating! We have a Yule dinner on the actual day too, so we get two big family dinners! The whole twelve days between the solstice itself and the beginning of January is actually Yuletide, so we try to do something special on a lot of it. On 26th we'll be going to the pub to watch the Morris and have a singaround afterwards. I'll be working part of the time as I can't afford to take the whole time off.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 06:23 AM

I celebrate my actual Christmas day on New Year's Day when i come back from my holiday and open all my presents pull the crackers and eat myself senseless.
Then i sit down and watch tv or phone the family and wish them a Happy New Year.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Banjo-Flower
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 08:25 AM

Flying to Hong Kong en route to Oz and New Zealand

Gerry

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: JennyO
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 08:53 AM

In the Christmas period for the last few years I have gone to a festival in one hot place or another (there are 3 to choose from, as Sandra described). Last year, we had a solstice party on the 22nd, then the next day we rushed off to Woodford, which is huge, hot and far away - it took 2 days of solid driving and frayed tempers to get there - and I sat under a hot tarp on Christmas day wondering what I was doing there.

So this year, I have decided that for about 3 weeks, I will do what I REALLY want to do, which is basically spending a lot of time at home, having friends and family around whenever they want to drop in, having BBQ's and cool drinks under the big tree, and spending the rest of the time pottering round the garden, or the shops, or visiting friends - and maybe a daytrip or two up the Central Coast to visit my son and his family (my grandson Max took his first steps yesterday), or to visit my friend Rhymin' Simon and have a dip in his pool. The only structured thing will be a BBQ and session I'm having on the 8th January, but that will be a pleasure. So no big elaborate plans, no hassles with packing, no dramas - just relaxation. Now THAT's what I call a holiday!

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 09:16 AM

Christmas Eve: Collect turkey, put champagne in fridge, play guitar.

Christmas Day: Breakfast, champagne at 11am with Judi and her mum, open presents, call parents and brothers (no sister anymore), turkey etc at 2-ish (more champagne), doze off watching Queen's speech, wake up, watch telly, few more drinks, play guitar watching telly with sound off till bedtime (or long after).

Exciting stuff, eh? BTW Dec 23rd is Children's Charity Singers night at Brewood F.C., so I'll be doing that for sure.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Crane Driver
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 04:45 PM

We're not having a $mas day this year - whoopee. We're flying to Oz via Canada, and as we are crossing the International Date Line "backwards", we jump straight from 24 to 26 December without the day in between. We do get 9 January twice, to make up for it.

Hoping to see some Sydney 'Catters.

All the best,
Andrew

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Blissfully Ignorant
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 04:53 PM

I'll be sitting by myself ignoring the whole occasion, because my family are annoyed with me and don't want me there. Which is absolutely brilliant, in my opinion...:0)

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 05:47 PM

Well BI you can always spend it in Scotland with a couple of old codgers ;~)
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 06:03 PM

Well, there goes my plan of sitting in bed with a pile of Hugh Jackman and Sean Connery movies and the 2kg tin of chocs....!

Do we want real Christmas puddeem this year? Tell me now, it has to be started by 27th Nov!

This year I will make sure all cats are in a non-combustible state, and remember to take the holly off it BEFORE I set light to it!

Got the sprouts on already!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 06:07 PM

Yep real Christmas Pudd would be great.....I'll make sure we have a fire extinguisher to hand...just incase!!

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: freda underhill
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 07:55 PM

with family, but there will be one important person missing that i would like to share it.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Banjo-Flower
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 08:08 PM

Hey Crane Driver will you be in Sydney on New Year's Eve ?


Gerry (a real crane driver)

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 08:25 PM

I will be awake before everyone else so that part will be the usual. Get up and make my way to the head for whizz and a couple of healthy farts. Next I'll thoroughly scratch my nuts followed by another fart or two. After checking for reindeer damage to the roof I'll start a fire in the fireplace. Karen will be up by this point and we'll share a few hugs, she'll get ger cinnamon ring in the oven and comment on how badly the house smells.

I suspect the arrival of Paw, CLetus, Buford, and the Reg Boys to coincide with our kids arising. Then the hubbub of presents and the carnage of the wrappings will occupy the time for awhile. The lovely cinnamon smell which had covered my early flatulence so well will be long gone to the aroma of Cletus and company whose aromatic presence will require professional removal later in the week. Ah yes....the joy of Paw and Cletus and Buford..............

I know many of you have read this before but every year as Christmas approaches I can't help but remember the first time I met Cletus, Paw, and Buford......

I had noticed an area on Rt. 664 just outside of our little village being carefully prepared and roped off as I drove by and every now and then there were these three guys working there, building a little shed and driving stakes into the ground about 6 feet apart. It finally dawned on me that they were getting ready to sell Christmas trees. Now I have always gotten ours from the same place for years, but the prices were getting pretty steep so I kept an eye out for new sources. The day they put up the lights, I stopped to see when they'd be bringing the trees in.

As I got out of the van I couldn't help but notice that these three, from all appearances, were a bit "down on their luck" and it made me want to help them out a bit. One of them, an angular and lean character came up to me and introduced himself as "Cletus." I asked about the trees and he was glad to tell me all about them in that way which I've since learned to interpret. There is, I now know, a sort of "Cletus-speak" that requires a certain knowledge of him that I didn't have then. At that time however all I could seem to understand was that they were "working on them."

These many years later, that kind of phrase would set off alarms, but I didn't know Cletus then so I thought it was just an odd hilljack way of phrasing things. Paw came over and I liked the old guy a lot right away. He said he'd seen me before and I remembered him as well......something about the sewage plant and the day it exploded. I couldn't place what it was that this guy had to do with it but the correlation seemed quite vivid. I shook his hand and he farted in return.

I had never met anyone who was quite so casual with flatulence. Paw used it almost as punctuation......."How ya' doin'?" (rriippp) "Purty day ain't she?" (bbraawwmmpp)..........Let's just say it took some getting used to and made it easy to understand why this old coot could probably not find gainful employment. But for all that, he was a friendly cuss who told me they called him Paw because he was from Paw-Paw, West Virginia. He pointed out the other fellow named Buford who was involved in extricating himself from a string of Christmas lights that seemed to have attacked him. Even from a distance, the unmistakable smell of Iron City brew was pretty strong. I figured he spilled about the same amount on himself as he drank and I later found this to be not only true, but the amounts involved were prodigious.

All in all, I couldn't help but like them even if they were, well, let's just call them odd and drop it right there. They told me the trees would be in and they'd be open for business on Friday at 6 PM. I left shaking my head at the idea of bringing Karen and the kids here with these guys to "pick out the tree" as was so traditional with our family, but what the hell? We could at least check them out.

On Friday afternoon Karen and I were going into Lancaster and as we passed by I pointed out the place, not that it was really necessary to point. I'd never seen anything quite so garish in my life but it was one of those gray Ohio days, very cold and occasionally spitting snow so perhaps it was the contrast......perhaps not. Karen was making comments about the place, but as we drove past we could both see the trees that were now in place. Surprisingly enough, they looked magnificent! All were very full and perfectly shaped and a greener bunch of Christmas trees I'd never seen. Even at 65 mph, Karen saw one on the far end of the first row that she said was absolutely "the one!" Since she and our kids were going to spend the night with Connie and go shopping on Saturday, I promised her I'd stop back and get the tree and forget the tradition for one year.

So on my return trip I looked at my watch and saw that I'd arrive about the time Cletus told me they would open and sure enough, I was the first one there. Cletus, Paw, and Buford, greeted me as a long lost friend. They were really in the Christmas Spirit and offered me some of their "spirits." Friends, there is 'Shine and then there is 'Shine and whatever it was they had in the Mason jars was not. I found out later that this was a homebrew of their own and made not from corn, but soybeans instead, and distilled through an old radiator off a Mack. Luckily I only tasted it, but that single gulp went down like a 4-stage rocket, taking my breath away, and immediately starting to bore a hole in my stomach. After the coughing subsided I gave them the common courtesy line you use upon tasting any 'Shine..........."Smooth!"

They were all adorned themselves with some of the seediest Santa hats I had ever seen and were ready for business. They said I was the first customer and I nodded appreciatively while glancing about at the trees. Even up at a closer viewing they seemed almost perfectly formed and beautifully green and I thought the light snow must be the reason they glistened so under the glaring bulbs. It was dark now and the temperature had dropped to about 25 with a nasty northwesterly blowing in a chill from Alberta. My eyes were no longer crossed from the 'Shine and I slowly became aware that something was odd about the trees. They weren't moving at all. Not a branch, not a needle, absolutely nothing was moving although the breeze was pretty stiff. Paw commented on the weather and let fly an air biscuit as I walked over to the tree Karen had seen earlier. I reached out to touch it and it was positively stiff!

I felt several branches and the whole thing down to the smallest needle was like glass. I put a little extra pressure on a needle and it shattered in my gloved hand. What the hell was this anyway? Cletus came up and asked how I liked them as Paw and Buford tossed scrap wood in a barrel to start a warming fire. I said I thought these were real trees, but they seemed to be artificial. Cletus protested they were real.......and recycled. Once in awhile you hear sommething that is so completely ridiculous that it takes some time before you can absorb the fact that the speaker is also completely serious. Recycled Christmas trees. My mind was slowly opening to the sound of Cletus' voice proudly telling the tale of how they collected them last year and then formed them up, glued in branches with rubber cement, gave them several coats of shellac, painted them with spray cans of "Yew Be Green" epoxy, and topped the job off with several coats of lacquer.

I stared at the tree. I stared at Cletus. I stared at the tree. I stared at Cletus. I stared at the tree. I stared at Cletus. Cletus noticed I was a bit pale and pulled me by the arm over to the shed where Paw and Buford had finished filling the barrel with wood and were dumping gasoline onto the contents. Cletus said that I should have another drink and then Paw asked if I was cold. I nodded vacantly, my mind still unable to absorb the insanity which surrounded me. Then I heard Cletus say, "Hey Paw, show him how we light a fire."

With that, Paw bent over pointing his butt at the barrel, Buford held a Zippo to his ass, and Paw ripped a monster of a fart, something akin to a Cherry Bomb in it's magnitude. An enormous flame shot out of his ass and ignited the barrel which flared high in the air. But it was a truly huge blaster and the flames not only ignited the barrel, but the nearest recycled Christmas trees. Coated as they were with such a combustible mixture, they didn't catch fire, they friggin' exploded! Bits of flaming plastic-like shards went flying away on the wind to explode the next tree, and the next, and the next. Within 30 seconds every tree was flaming brightly and in less than a minute the flames were gone and 50 smoldering sticks were all that remained. None of us had moved and Paw was still bent over and looking over his shoulder at the charred remains of their business.

The next day when I picked Karen up, we stopped at our usual place and picked out a lovely Frazier Fir. I had told her the story and that I figured that here was a case where a single fart may not have saved the world, but at least did save 50 home fires. We stopped at their place and the boys were cleaning up the mess and told us it probably meant a Christmas that would be a little bleak for them. Karen is a kind soul and right then and there invited them to our place for Christmas Day. She said they should come early and maybe Santa will have left something for them and that they would be welcome for Christmas dinner too. As we drove home I tried to explain that this probably wasn't a great idea but Karen felt pretty bad for them and they had cheerfully accepted her invitation.

On Christmas morning they arrived at 6 AM and the day went downhill from there. But that's another story.

So friends, no matter how bad it is and how you feel, there is always a friend out there for you. Even if you're obnoxious, nasty, and haven't bathed in a month, there is always the chance that if you can light a good fart, miracles will occur. Or how did it go in "It's a Wonderful Life?" "Every time a laquered tree farm burns down, an Angel gets a Zippo?" Well, something like that..........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 03:43 AM

That was wonderful Catspaw,now i am not sure what to believe but it was a lovely story

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 04:10 AM

Can't you just see the flames licking round Spaw's fireplace?
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: RangerSteve
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 06:12 AM

I'm in NewJersey, with no family here. THey're all in South Carolina or Massachusetts. I hate long distance travel in the winter, so I take Thanksgiving off for family and work CHristmas, so my coworkers with families here can celebrate. I'll be involved with my church's Christmas eve service, doing a song or two with my banjo (Northwest Jersey is basically northern Appalachia, so the banjo isn't out of place in church here), Then I'll go to work on Xmas, sit around all morning, then go off to direct traffic during the annual reenactment of Washington's troops crossing the Delaware. It was canceled two years in a row, and I'm hoping it gets cancelled again, but that's too much to expect. Then I'll come home and call my Mom and brothers to see if they had a better day than I did (they will), and then sit down to my dinner, which will be food that I ordered from the Fiji's catalog, which is mostly sausages and smoked meats and cheese and other stuff that isn't exactly good for you, but it's only once a year. And somewhere during the day I'll open my presents.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 12:26 PM

There's a lot of singing: service Christmas Eve at 7, service at midnight, service Christmas Day at 10 am. In between the services on Christmas Eve is a big dinner for the choir (25 - 30 people) at our house. We do the main dishes, guests bring the side dishes. No plastic is allowed.

On Christmas Day we do nothing in particular. Maybe call some family members, but to tell you the truth, after years of no calls, no letters, no visits from them - who cares? I wish I could tell them that everybody has to have a mother and a father, but nothing says you're entitled to a sister.

NB - to the person who predicted having a hangover on Boxing Day. Drink more water. Dehydration is a factor in hangovers.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: SINSULL
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 12:43 PM

Ahhhh My Christmas is complete -the recitation of the first Christmas With Cletus story. Thank you Spaw.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Dave Swan
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 12:43 PM

'spaw, that was an early Christmas present, thanks. It's good to read some original Catspaw again on the 'cat.

Say Hi to the boys for me.

Cheers,

ES

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 01:08 PM

Camping in the Sahara.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: ToulouseCruise
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 01:24 PM

I managed to get the week between Christmas and New Years off, so I will be able to spend a few days home with my parents over in Prince Edward Island (Canada). I'll just be arriving there on the 24th, so I'll be joining the family in going to Midnight Mass. Most of my siblings will be home (13 of us all told), and we will gather at my sister's after mass for some traditional Acadian meatpie, lots of drinks, and opening some gifts... probably hit the hay around 4 or 5am.

Christmas Day will be a day of visiting, either going out to the homes of my family or staying at my folks place and having people in to see us. Lots of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, booze... then onto Boxing Day (not sure if this is a common term around the world, it is the 26th) where there are always parties and live music and such...

This is going to be quite a celebratory holiday for us. My mother was diagnosed with cancer last year, and we were all kind of worried that last year would be her last Christmas with us. Happily, it is now in remission -- other health problems to balance it out, but not as serious as The Big C.

Plus, if things go well, I will also be a little less lonely for Christmas. I have just started seeing a lovely lady originally from Newfoundland, so as we get closer to the holiday season I may bring up the possibility of accompanying me, since she cannot be with her family this year... If not, I doubt I will spend the whole week over there and will be hurrying back here to New Brunswick!

Brian.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Padre
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 12:32 AM

Celebrating 3 Masses at my Parishes

Padre

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: dianavan
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 01:29 AM

Toulouse - Sounds like a traditional, Canadian Christmas, to me. I think you are lucky to have found one of those big-hearted, Newfie gals. Where are you living now?

d

P.S. As a newcomer to Canada, it took me a long time to figure out the 'Boxing Day' thing. I'm from the U.S. originally and thought it had something to do with the sport of boxing (like a special, winter match or something). Wasn't it originally meant to be the day you boxed up your old stuff and gave it to charity?

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: fat B****rd
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 06:10 AM

Dunno, but I'll be in the "Iron Horse" in Newton Aycliffe at midday no matter what.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: MBSLynne
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 06:38 AM

No Dianavan...originally it was the day on which the gentry gave their tennants and workers their 'Christmas boxes' often consisting of clothing. I know quite a few people in the English Midlands who still refer to Christmas presents as Christmas boxes.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: ToulouseCruise
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 08:55 AM

Dianavan,
Currently living in Moncton New Brunswick (not far from PEI at all!). And yes, hoping that things work out well with the lass from The Rock, she is also a lover of music and has partied with a few of the bands from Newfoundland and area, such as The Irish Descendants and Great Big Sea...

Lynne,
Thanks for the Boxing Day update as well.. I couldn't quite remember the origins of it, but I figured that by even mentioning it in passing that someone here would either ask or would offer up the info -- and I was correct on both counts for a change!

Brian.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 08:57 AM

Fox hunting mostly, shooting on Boxing day of course, fag in hand at all times.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: GUEST,Janey
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 01:30 PM

Flying from the rain and cold of Manchester on the 23rd for two weeks in the sun of Goa. Now that is a result!

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 01:41 PM

To hot for me Janey thats why i am off to Rome.
Super ted,hope you can keep your fag in your hand over the jumps!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Joybell
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 04:31 PM

We'll go into the little town near us, on Christmas Eve, to see the effect of electricity and cheap fairy-lights on 150-year-old buildings. It's not just the rich squatters who can afford to do Christmas now.
Last year we had the thrill of experiencing a KNITTED Nativity scene in a home-window. Knitted manger, knitted Baby Jesus wearing knitted baby clothes, Mary, Joseph, wise men with knitted gifts, knitted cows and angels. Knitted shepherds bearing knitted woolly sheep - well you'd expect wool sheep. A knitted star on top with knitted rays of light.

Now that's not something you see every day!
                                                   Joy

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 06:44 PM

That sounds absolutely lovely,where is it?.I would love to have the chance to see photos.
Happy Christmas Joybell
Yas

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Cluin
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 07:07 PM

Same old traditions... cleaning up after the kids, then filling my face with turkey while knocking back a bottle of Reisling or Chardonnay, followed by loosening off the belt and leaning back on the couch and farting up a storm of turkey farts as I fall asleep in front of the tube watching Denis Leary in "The Ref" or Albert Finney in "Scrooge".

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Grab
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 08:02 PM

First Xmas on our own. All previous Xmasses have been spent with my folks, but they've upped sticks (or masts actually) to sail round the Med for the next N years (where N is limited by age, boat damage, boredom or how long it takes to burn through me and my sister's inheritance ;-). So we'll be making our own entertainment, if you see what I mean. The LotR extended version is out late Dec, so that's one thing that'll occupy us.

After Xmas will be more interesting. New Years bash with the local folk club ppl, then out to Portugal in Jan to see my folks.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 10:01 PM

We used to go hunting on Thanksgiving and Christmas, Ted. That is, my two brothers, me, and about a half dozen friends would drive out to Dennis's farm, all armed with 12 gauge shotguns and/or .22 caliber rifles. Hunting knives in our belts, we'd be warmly dressed for often the weather would be, in a word, cold and often there would be an icy, sleet-laden rain driven by a wind fresh from the Arctic just to make things brisk.

We'd usually form a line abreast, hike through the stubble of the corn field, turn around, walk back to the house, and have warm drinks and cake. I shot the only thing we ever shot when one year we were attacked by a freshly arrived, dangerous, rabid, cowpie.

You might not think cowpies are dangerous, but I doubt that you've ever been face-to-face with one in the wild, it's foot-long fangs still wet with the blood of its last victim, the foam still fresh around its mouth.

I have been, and I shot it. Hit it dead on with a load of number 7 shot from a 2 1/4 inch chamber 12 gauge shotgun, too.

Jim and Steve, who were to the right and left of me, were for some reason that still escapes me unhappy about me saving their worthless hides. Might have been because when you blast a cowpie it doesn't splatter straight back, but in a V-shape. If you're the blaster, the blastee doesn't splatter on you, but on the guys to your right and left.

Anyway, when they'd cooled off enough that I felt it safe to come down out of the tree, we all headed back for coffee and cake. As we passed the carcass, my two friends pointed it out to me and said, "You know the rules of the hunt -- if you shoot it, you eat it."

What happened after that is another story all together.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 10:23 PM

If gigs don't pick up around here in the near future, I'll be moving into your house for X-mas!

heh

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Ron Davies
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 10:30 PM

Family activities 24th and 25th. I hope sometime in the season to be able to tape some Christmas blues (Back Door Santa etc.) and doo-wop off the radio.

Before Christmas, lots of music--3 concerts with my choral group, going to other concerts, plus the 13th annual SATB door to door caroling---Choral Arts members, neighbors, Folklore Society people etc.----in my area.

We try to have songs neighbors would like, starting with 24 pages of mostly familiar songs, but we take all requests, and aside from printed music, just make up harmonies etc. Institutional memory carries us. Still trying to think of a Hannukah song which lends itself to harmony and can be learned in one run-through--we just get together for 20 minutes before hitting the street.

Then we come back and sing parodies, any other seasonal music anybody wants and generally sing around the piano or unaccompanied til all hours. Unless we've been asked to sing at somebody else's party after our own caroling.

Hope to find an excuse to sing Mrs. Fogarty's Christmas Cake, the Chipmunk Christmas song, Sound,Sound Your Instruments of Joy, Feliz Navidad, and Rolling Downward sometime that night.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: annamill
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 10:48 PM

This is the first Christmas for Honey and I in California. We're having Honey's brother and sister-in-law come for Christmas dinner. Maybe we'll go down to Ocean Beach for a little surfing. Hang out in our hot tub.

We do plan on having a live tree and all the decorations are coming out. We have a fireplace and we will, of course, light that.

If we feel a need for snow, maybe we'll drive up into the mountains nearby to a ski lodge for a hot cup of Rum Nog.

I love it!

Have a wonderful holiday! Indulge!
Love, Annamill & Honey

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 11:27 PM

Come ta think of it, this will be the first Christmas in our house!

For the first time in three or four years I can put up ALL of the decorations -- and folks, we got THREE trees (artificial -- I couldn't and can't bring myself to kill a tree for Christmas).

Hot Damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This place is gonna ROCK!!!

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: dianavan
Date: 18 Nov 04 - 12:06 AM

Boo-hoo - The price of the ticket to Mazatlan is out of the question! I didn't get it soon enough and now - holy cow! Might still go but its uncertain. It also means a stop-over in L.A. I feel a little shaky about the L.A. airport at Christmas. I'd rather fly direct from Van. to Mazatlan. Maybe in the Spring...

d

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 18 Nov 04 - 01:49 PM

I am reminded of the bloke, who when beseeched by a young lady who was buried in the desert up to her neck, to "please dig me out" asked her; "what's in it for me if I do?" Her reply was [of course] "sand"!
I hope you enjoy your christmas Katey Phibes.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 18 Nov 04 - 02:37 PM

Har har indeed Giok! That must chafe.

Got my kit list - mosquito net, no alcohol, warm clothes, cool clothes, 30,000 quid worth of computer equipment, suntan lotion and a woolly hat. Should be interesting. We've got permission to be there, now it just hinges on getting the visas.

I shall think of you all with your turkey, chocolate, good movies and wine (sniffle) as I tuck into yet another plate of cous cous and admire the sand sea.

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 18 Nov 04 - 03:46 PM

Nothing wrong with Cous-cous, especially when combined with Merguez [Sp?] Keep yourself and the computer cool.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: What are you doing at Christmas
From: Joybell
Date: 18 Nov 04 - 04:49 PM

I'll get pictures, SCOOBY DOO. Of course maybe the lady has moved on from the knitted Nativity scene this year. Maybe it will be Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs made from tooth-picks, or chewing gum or something. Cheery-bye Joy