Whole hog, I guess!! DD has rented the Community Center again, but we have to be out of there by 8:00, as the AA has their regular meeting then. I was hoping they would cancel since it is Christmas Eve, but no...... Anyway, most of the family will be here, starting on the 23rd, and that's a lot of family! So it will be a late afternoon supper and get-all-this-done-before-we-have-to-get-out-of-here thing. My house is just too small for this bunch, although most of them will wander back here before the evening is over.

I always go all out...I don't think I'll be going quite as all out this year...somehow I got way way behind and just can't get caught up...

I'm sure it's because of my foot and not being able to get around much.

I usuall put up Christmas curtains in the kitchen dinning area...don't think I'll do that this year. Even thought they are so cheerful...

I've still got tons of shopping to do and it seems like they are all "hard to buy for" this year.

Then to top it all off...I now have a mountain building in my bedroom that needs to be wrapped....
It's always left for me to take care of all of it. I need help this year...I think I'm going to recuit Jeff's girlfriend to help me wrap.

I finally got my tree up Tues night...and it looks so pretty to me...kind of zap up the Christmas spirit a bit...

HO HO HO

patti

Very small, as far as gifts go. Older son is coming from Ky tomorrow, but going back on Monday./ We'll have our gifts and dinner on Sunday, then DH, other son and I will do our gifts on Christmas day. Very small family.

Lots different!

Our family is very small too and we aren't doing a whole lot for Christmas. I have just a small tree up and only a few of my decorations.

We are flying to Florida on Saturday. Will spend a couple of days with my cousin and then drive down to where my folks live. They have no idea we are coming. I haven't had Christmas with my folks in 20 years, my Dad will turn 88 in February so we decided this was the time to go. I know they will be so excited to see us. I have talked to them on the phone quite a bit this week and they always say they wish we could be there but understand why we can't. lol

Will stay there until New Years Day and then drive back to my cousins to visit another day and come on on Jan. 3.

We have a few decorations out, not much. Don't have a tree up yet. We buy real trees, and the tree lots are getting really hard to find these days. I told DH we may not have a choice soon, but to buy a fake tree, which I REALLY hate!

Anyways, as for gifts we rarely go all 'out' for Christmas for each other. If we want something during the year we buy it. We don't wait for someone to hopefully buy it for us. He's getting a tool kit from Canadian tire that was 2/3's off and a bottle of his cologne. That's it. I haven't asked for a thing. I don't need anything.

I don't do much for Christmas. Jody will be on the tow boat, most likely. Erin will be at her boyfriend's family...they go all out.

I am not particularly interested in all the hoop la....had planned to stay home, which would have been good, but a couple of friends decided to go to Moody Gardens in Galveston for the buffet on Christmas day, and invited me. I am looking forward to that. If Jody is home, he will go with us, but most likely he will be working.

Very quite as I am on my own, my SIL is out on his tug boat till Jan 8th. DD and I will exchange gifts then treat the day like any other.

DS arrived last night from CA. We will probably put the tree up today. He will be here 3 weeks. Yippee. Since it is just the 2 of us, we don't fix a big meal but we sure have fun just being together for the holiday. Christmas Eve we will go to 7 p.m. service.

With DD and her DH and 2 kids coming from California this Sunday, I just step back and let them do the planning. They'll stay with DD #1 in Elkhorn, because their older cousins are there and there are games/Nintendo ect there for them to play with. It also puts them in the middle between my other 2 daughters, and their kids, to get together. I'll be having Christmas Eve here for 2 of my daughters and their kids, my Mom and my SIL and his Mom. Also my 2 sisters, and their husbands, a niece and her baby.
Total head count so far is 16. Unless DSis brings her DGK's. I really hope not cause 16 is enough. We'll probably just have some wine and munchies, and play some games. Then Christmas day we'll be at my DD's in Elkhorn, for gift exchange and more food.
I didn't do the tree this year, but I'll be having other decorations out and around.
Leslie

Mine will be in between. My kids will come over Christmas Eve and we will have finger foods, tamales, etc and open gifts. Then Jammer will go to his family's ranch to stay up outside all night and cook something out there. I probably won't go as I don't want to be up all night!. On Christmas day we will go to DS and DIL's house for dinner and to open gifts. Then we will go to the ranch to have more food and enjoy Christmas with Jammer's family. So we will be busy!

I'd like to hit delete and go right into 2009.

Just think it's a whole lot of work and not worth the stress, cost or what it does to my emotions/nerves.

Since my family decided to forgo exchanging gifts for Christmas (and also birthdays) except for kids under 18, I haven't had much shopping to do. I have missed that, but it is easier on the pocketbook for all of us.

They will all be here at my house on Christmas Eve for food, games and the two young ones will get gifts to open. We are going to do the Dirty Santa thing so that will give everybody something to open.

It also means I will be by myself on Christmas day, which I don't really like, but with their inlaws and other grandparents involved, we have to accept these things.

I've done all the decorating that I planned to do. I hope to make some Spritz cookies, and if my energy holds out I will do the Three Day Coconut Cake.

My only wish now is that it doesn't snow on Christmas Eve.

Sue

No family here, so it'll just be another day.
It's the only day of the year that I really miss snow.
(but please don't send me any...)

We are invited to join friends of ours, but will probably just remain at home and have Christmas via phone with our daughter and family.

Very simple and quiet here, just the way I like it.

BF will be down about mid day, and I'll bake 1/2 ham and make a nice dinner for us and probably bake some things. We both welcome then having the leftovers for a few days afterwards and no cooking.

Sue_va, if you wanna email me your number, I'll call ya and we can visit over coffee sometime in the AM. I think that would be fun.

(the other) Sue

Very different from what I grew up with. I grew up with the family-reunion size gathering for Dad's side on Christmas Eve, 50+ people in a rented facility, card games and a great aunt who hand-made gifts for all the children (amazing, I still have a couple dolls I received). Then Mom's mom, siblings & their families Christmas Day, 25-30 people seated around a table passing the food. 100s of gifts passed back and forth, mountains of wrapping paper. It was huge. But I know now it stressed my parents out to do all that driving in a couple days.

These days, we are 500 miles from all that stuff. We will have a small kid-centered Christmas, DH, me and our young uns. Breakfast and stockings, then gifts, then a pot roast for dinner. Then just playing with the stuff. Eventually we'll probably get outside and see the neighbors, too. I think everyone else has more fun than me, the Mom, who spends most of the day cooking and doing dishes to make it nice for everyone else. If someone would just get up and make my coffee for me it would be such a nice gesture! LOL.

Since we have a long school break, I might load up the kids around News Years Day and drive to Florida to see family there for a few days. As for the group in Ohio, I am torn between missing my family and the fun we have together, but NOT missing the chaos.

As for decor..I have always done a nice outside display-and our entire development of 250 manufactured homes-EACH have a white lit 4' tree in their yards and our bridge over the lake, our clubhouse area & entrances are all lined with the white trees. It looks like a little Bethlehem here at night.!
Inside...I have SIX trees-1 in each of my front living room windows..they are 2 sets of the 2',3' & 4' Alpine trees. I have 4 gold musical instruments, music notes & wide gold ribbob, swagged on my main wall with white lights accenting them. I have 4 golden drums that I have pine cones, berries & cinnamon sticks in each, sitting on my desk with white lights accenting them & I have evergreen boughs & red berries on each shelf of my Welsh Cupboard in the dining room.
As for family-my daughter is flying in tomorrow from NC to be with me until Monday-1st we've shared Xmastime together since her teens were babies! I'm taking her to see the lighted Boat Parade on the Intercoastal on Sat night,, then Sunday-we're doing the Duck tour. It's a bus-like vehicle that takes you on tour of the Xmas lights in the area, then it drops into the Intercoastal & becomes a boat and you tour the Intercoastal for an hour.!! I'm not telling her what it does..LOL! My older brother & SIL bought a place 2 blocks over from me 3 yrs ago & he is the ONLY family I have in FL They are snowbirds from NY. We are all going out for dinner on Christmas Day then I'll deliver my 20 food gift trays that afternoon. Plan on being in bed by 9pm & darn glad Dec is almost OVER!!!
It has been the month from-you know where!What with 2 cataract sugeries, 1 week apart, buying gifts & shipping to PA, company coming, baking & a $700 sewer backup (yesteday)..I am SO ready for 209!!

Very simple like usual. It is just the 3, 4 with dog, of us. We call all of our relatives back East. Maybe rent a movie for after dinner. We follow DH's German tradition of sauerbraten, spaetzle, braised red cabbage and linzertorte for dinner that night. We have it only once a year so it is special. We buy just a few presents, nothing expensive but pratical like slippers. We open them in the morning then the rest of the day is like any other day with working on projects inside and out.
Clare

I love to decorate the house for the holidays and do a lot of greenery, candles and white lights. I keep it to a more natural woodsy look....since we live on 7 idyllic acres in the woods, it fits. As far as the day's celebrations, it's pretty simple for us. It's me, DH, DS and his GF. We'll have breakfast on Christmas morning and open our gifts. Most likely they'll join us for dinner, but may go to his dad's for dinner...we'll see ;o) It's usually a quiet day, nice and relaxing. DH has never been one for traveling or "going out" on Christmas. He likes to stay in his jammies by the fire with a good book. Works for me, too!

Every year we open presents in the late morning, go to a movie in the early afternoon and then join our next door neighbor's for dinner at their house. We've been doing that for at least 15 years. They are from the mid-west and really know how to celebrate the holidays with lots of food and baked goods (we do contribute to the meal, we're not completely inept :-)

Jodi-

Like nodakgal--lots different. Guess they always will be. We've always had DH's son for Christmas, ususally 4-5 days. October 2007 he died in his sleep. He was 45 and had just married his childhood sweetie 11 months earlier. He'd never married before and boy, was he the happiest groom in the world! Last Christmas was sort of a blur we got through, but this year I think it hit harder than last. I don't talk a lot about personal stuff because I still don't trust the internet much, but today I'm feeling sad.

This is the first time in 50 years that we will be doing absolutely nothing.I didn't even put up the tree.I have Chemo 2 days before xmas,so i guess you could say i cancelled xmas this year as i knew i wouldn't feel up to it.My boys and their families will stop over,but i'm not cooking or anything,and i told them i didn't want to go out or anything either,as my immune systen is already compromised and i don't want to take a chance on catching anything.

I'll make it up next year though.
kathi

The only decorations I have up is one tree, had one in the sunroom too last year but don't feel like messing with it. No outside decorations this year either, maybe next year.

It'll just be the three of us, depending on when Lauren goes to be with her father this year. They usually go down south on Christmas Eve. I have Christmas day off but have to work the day before and after. The only good thing is that we found out last week that they are giving us holiday pay for the 26th! So, I'll have holiday pay for Christmas eve and the day after.

Christmas gifts this year are about the same for the kids, maybe not as expensive ones but just as many. I was planning on doing less but they needed clothes and Lauren needed shoes so I bought a little more.

We're having ham (kids' choice not mine), sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce (for me), dinner rolls, some type of green veggie, and Marie Callendar's pecan pie.

Hopefully one that just flies right by.

I'm a flight attendant and will spend Christmas Eve on the airplane and arrive in Japan Christmas night. The hotel is having a buffet dinner for the crew. Let's hope we get there this time. The last two flights we diverted due to bad weather. We were on the airplane on Tuesday for 21 hours and finally cancelled in Detroit. We were supposed to be in Chicago.
Anyway, I wish all of you a happy and most of all healthy holiday,
Donna

I will join my son & DIL & 3 youngest grands at their home. Her parents and my ex-husband will be there. As it is summer here, we will have salads and either hot or cold meats - turkey, ham, lamb and pork plus prawns. Dessert will be trifle, christmas pudding and possibly a Kahlua chocolate tart. My DIL and I have been sampling the bottle while I have been teaching her to sew a tree skirt and table centre the last couple of weeks so not sure if there will be enough left by Thursday.
We don't go overboard on gifts but with three little ones and 2 new puppies, it will be lively and noisy I am sure. Beth