Question of the Day: Thurs. Sept. 29

Good morning.

In honor of the SS threads, here is my question for today:

What do you do for Christmas? If you don't celebrate Christmas, can you let me in on what you do do? (I am not familiar with the different cultures/Religions)

We dont really do anything special at home besides let the tree become a cat free for all where by the time we take it down half the branches are off on the floor and a bed for the cats and Gigi finds a special clump of branches to play or sleep in all the time. Other than that its a mess of having to drive everywhere and being miserable because DFs family is a bunch of selfish twits. The only thing I really look forward to at holiday time is SS and getting home Christmas night and not having to see anyone for a while afterwards.

Yes I am a grinch but its not my fault...its a product of rude inconsiderate jerkfaces who dont think about anyone but themselves.

We usually go to my sisters because thats where the kids are. My whole immediate family goes normally.

We might try and have Christmas at our new house this year though!

We spend most of it at my Mom's but also have to visit Dana's mom and other family members.

I usually go back to my parents' place for a week or two to celebrate with them, and my boyfriend visits his mom. I also bake a LOT!

I love Christmas!

Christmas Eve we attend the church service w/ my mom, dad, and sister's and brother's families. (We take up 2-3 pews ) After the service we go back to my parents house and have a big family dinner. It's also my brother's birthday, so we sing him Happy Birthday and have his favorite chocolate cake that my great grandmother used to make

Christmas morning we wake up (at my parents house), have breakfast while opening our stockings and present(s) from Santa (hehe), then move on to the presents under the tree (all while listening to Christmas music! ) Then we head over to my sister's house who lives right next door (lol) and have some snacks/mimosas while we socialize/open some more presents/watch the kids play. Then we head back over my parents house to start preparing the Christmas meal. .... However, since being married and having a child, my husband and I take this time to go visit w/ his family who live about 45 mins from my parents house. We stay for a few hours, eat some food, then head back to my parents house where we eat their leftovers (LOL).

This year might be different, however. My husband works overseas, and if he comes home for Christmas we will have a quiet Christmas here at our house w/ just us 3 and Merlin. If he doesn't come home, my son, Merlin and I will be at my parents house the entire Christmas.



Now i'm excited for Christmas!

I love Christmas.

I have off work for Veterans Day in November and I'll go into the basement and bring up our holiday dishes. I have Winterberry by Pfaltzgraff and people have been buying pieces for me for years. I'll get the dishes out on Veterans Day and then I don't pack them away again until late February, sometimes early March. It makes the kitchen festive even before Christmas gets here.

Christmas dinner is usually at our house....our kids come every other year for Christmas Day and dinner (when they're not with us; they're with our DIL's family). When they come for Christmas Eve dinner, everybody will go to church while I'm putting the finishing touches on our Eve dinner. This year, my sister and BIL (and their kids) and brother and SIL are coming, my mother is coming, and my in-laws are coming for dinner. It's the kids' time to be with us, too, so we'll have a full house.

I love doing our Christmas dinner. It's always a crown roast of pork with my apple, sausage, and cornbread stuffing piled into the center of the roast. And lots of side dishes. We splurge a bit on several bottles of a really good white wine. Dessert is usually some kind of cheesecake or sometimes a trifle. And sometimes both....nobody goes away hungry. (My sister said she'll do a small turkey to go along with the pork roast since there's going to be quite a few people this year.) My niece and niece-in-law will come early to help me with food prep.

Do you want to know about decorations? Rick will put multi-colored lights on our trees outside and sometimes, he'll outline the house in lights. He knows how much I love lights and he indulges me by decorating outside. It usually takes him several days to get it all done....on the Monday after Thanksgiving, he used to go deer hunting. Now he decorates the house. We don't do Santas and reindeer and such outside; it's just lights everywhere.

We decorate three Christmas trees and will start the weekend after Thanksgiving: the living room tree is our traditional tree and that is decorated with the ornaments that we've had for years and years. It has our bubble lights and bell lights and many ornaments that my great grandmother gave to me. We have some little ornaments that glow in the dark; I love them because we got them the same year our son was born and when I would get up at night to feed him, I would sit by the tree and watch the ornaments shine in the dark.

Our kitchen tree is my Tacky White Tree with nothing but blue and white lights and blue balls. That's it. Nothing else. It's called the Tacky White Tree because many years ago, when I was a child, my mother insisted on a white tree at Christmas and it had to be done in blue balls. My sister and I would throw a fit and tell her how tacky it was, but she didn't care. Several years ago, for some reason, I decided that I wanted a Tacky White Tree of my own. Everybody makes fun of my tree, but I don't care either....I love my TWT. (And so does my mom! )

And then our Santa tree is in our bedroom. It's a great big fat tree, decorated with Santas and deer ornaments and red mini-lights. We didn't put it up last year because we were worried about Mollipop getting into trouble. This year, we're not sure either, because of Tabby. Amber loves to get into the back of the tree and nap in the branches.....I've never been able to get a picture.

We hang our stockings along the steps coming into the living room. Rick and I each have our stockings and then each cat has his or her own stocking, too. We got Mollipop a pretty stocking last year with her name engraved...I have to order Tabby's stocking soon or she may not get it in time for Christmas. They always get food, treats, Sip, and we buy them toys and such, too. There's a place in town....the people make their own catnip pillows and sell them. Very pungent catnip and we always make sure each cat has their own pillow, although they'll still fight over them anyway....they love those pillows.

I love to bake for Christmas and I usually start my cookies the weekend after Thanksgiving. I'll make a ton of different kinds of cookies and then there's almond brittle, White Trash, sugared popcorn (which is an old recipe from my great-grandmother....she made it every year. When she passed away, it fell to me to make sugared popcorn, enough for everybody in my family...I make red and green popcorn and it looks so pretty on a tray with cookies and candy), and homemade marshmallows (which are absurdly easy to make. Once you've tried homemade marshmallows, you'll never go back to those store-bought things. They are just wonderful with hot cocoa!) I always like to try one or two new cookie recipes, but I also stick with the cookies that Rick and our son love, too. They'd be heartbroken without snickerdoodles, chocolate crinkles, sugar cookies, molasses crinkles, pecan sandies, etc. We have been mailing cookies to friends now for years and usually by Thanksgiving, people will email me and ask when they can expect their cookies.

And I guess that's really more than you wanted to know. It's my favorite holiday and I try to make it special for anybody who comes to our house. But when it's over? I'm glad it's over and we can get the house back to normal.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas. My boys make it so exciting for me

Christmas Eve they get to unwrap their new jammies, their gingerbread houses and a new movie. We usually eat take out.....get in our jammies, build the gingerbread houses, and watch a movie LOVE it with all the Christmas lights on and then we set out the milk and cookies for Santa and then the carrots and water for his Reindeer

In the morning, it is complete chaos and I love it!
Some years we stay home and Craig's parents come up for turkey dinner but usually we head to their place which is an hr away and stay for the day and celebrate, eat way too much food and then head home again.

I love the Christmas music, I love the shopping, I love the baking, the decorations, I just freakin LOVE it!!!!

I go to families house for part of the day. Then I go and see some of my friends on Christmas as well (many of us have no significant others or family). On Christmas Eve I stay with my "ex" (he is deceased) boyfriends family since they are kind enough to have me. Plus I am not doing real well around the holidays lately .

I am sorry, if I depressed the thread .

Originally Posted by Cat Person

I go to families house for part of the day. Then I go and see some of my friends on Christmas as well (many of us have no significant others or family). On Christmas Eve I stay with my "ex" (he is deceased) boyfriends family since they are kind enough to have me. Plus I am not doing real well around the holidays lately

.

I am sorry, if I depressed the thread

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I'm not sure where you live, but if you're anywhere close to PA, you're more than welcome to stay with us for Christmas. Honest, we'd love to have you with us.

We usually wake up in our house and exchange gifts, then go to my moms and exchange gifts. Then in the evening, we either have Christmas with my moms side of the family (dads side doesn't pay attention to us much since my dad passed away) or with my husbands family. It varies depending on the year, my family switches it up between the 25th and 26th.

It's usually a pretty busy day.

It's way too soon to know what I'm doing for Christmas, I only know I will NOT be doing the cooking Russ and I will either go to my sisters or to his sisters for our holiday meal. Then we will visit others. Christmas Eve I usually spend at my sisters home for a special meal we always eat and reminisce about our mom who died on Christmas Eve years ago.

Christmas is my favorite time of year! On Christmas Eve we usually go to the Family Christmas Eve Service at Church though I would love to go to the Midnight Service but my sister doesn't want to. We usually open our presents at home, though there's a small chance we may be spending Christmas with my brother and Sister-in-law in Lexington,Ky.

Originally Posted by Cat Person

I go to families house for part of the day. Then I go and see some of my friends on Christmas as well (many of us have no significant others or family). On Christmas Eve I stay with my "ex" (he is deceased) boyfriends family since they are kind enough to have me. Plus I am not doing real well around the holidays lately

.

I am sorry, if I depressed the thread

.

Click to expand...

Originally Posted by Winchester

I'm not sure where you live, but if you're anywhere close to PA, you're more than welcome to stay with us for Christmas. Honest, we'd love to have you with us.

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I just want to say that is one of the sweetest offers I have had in a very long time. But I need to go see friends and family. I am sorry, but that is a very sweet offer. Plus I am sure your family would not want someone from a cat forum hanging around . I sure would not blame them, by the way .

I no longer do anything for Christmas. For me, it's just another day. Obvious reasons, there are no decorations due to the cats. But I have lost all interest in the holiday. By the time December rolls around, I am so sick of hearing all the commercials and what not. As it is, stores are ALREADY putting up christmas stuff. Nothing like seeing Halloween decorations set up along christmas trees and santa clause. And Thanksgiving?? What is that any more? It's like, lets forget all the other holidays and go directly to Christmas!!. I used to love Christmas, but I can do without it now. Yeah, I am the scrooge and love it LOL!! I love Halloween though

I usually just spend time with my family; we all cook , spend time together, and hang out.

Don't know what the plans are for Christmas this year

I'll be cooking Christmas Eve dinner (Italian breaded steak) and we'll be going to my MIL's for Christmas dinner which will probably be ham.

It's funny how traditions get ingrained in you. Breaded Steak is MY families traditional Christmas meal and it just isn't Christmas until I smell it. Since my family (parents and grandparents) have passed, we decided to start our own new tradition of hosting the dinner on Christmas Eve. I'm still getting comfortable with new traditions, but it gives me a sense of "home".

As for decorations, I decorate the inside of the house tastefully, I think. DH decorates the outside like National Lapoon's Christmas Vacation! Anything that does not move has lights attached to it. We have blow up things all over the yard, and he even has a music thing that plays and the lights flash to the music. You can probably see our house from the satellites. At least we live at the end of a dirt road and aren't keeping too many people awake! But he loves it, and I just keep bringing him out coffee while he's climbing on the roof tying the plastic santa to the chimney so he's happy.

Usually put up a tree, some decorations, and open presents on Christmas Day.

This year we're going up to New Jersey so I can spend Christmas with my grandmother, uncle, aunt, and cousin - haven't spent the holidays with them in 7 years. Plus its sort of a Christmas gift to me too since I get to be in NJ

I think in the future we'll just have Christmas at our house if we're not going to family in other states' houses. With my parents going through a divorce now, I'd rather just invite everyone to my place. Sad thing is, my mom will probably *never* visit me again anyway.