Reasons to be CHEERFUL about Christmas

I have a very similar list merlotgran !

DD and 2 DGS arriving from Beijing and staying for 7 weeks
I will be doing the cooking
I've done the shopping
The cat is booked into the cattery
Mum is now in a nursing home where she is well looked after

My only anxiety is going to a wedding in Ireland on the 29th Dec which means a long drive to Holyhead across the M62 with 2 jet-lagged young children in the car. We will have to set off on Boxing day so at least the traffic should not be too bad but the M62 in winter is not to be recommended !

tiggypiro can sympathise with you! drove from Prestson area on the M62 on Friday up to Hull and back again Saturday (got stuck in the Rugby traffic and there's also few speed restrictions 40 mph and 60 mph. at least the weather was good!

We are on our own this year, but I love Christmas in France because it is so low-key. No rush, no crowds (except at the patisserie and the fish stall), no sales, no hype or stress. We enjoy good food and wine, log fires, watching the grandchildren opening their presents on Skype and a brisk walk.
Then on the 28th we are coming to the UK for DD's special birthday and New Year.

Good Food

Grandchildren and the magic of it all for them

Family popping in

Family going

A newish baby at the Christmas Dinner table

M&S spread on the table

My two cats searching for their annual Culpepper catnip toys

Choosing and chopping down the tree

Christmas TV (Love it)

My dear mother being shipped off the my sister this year (her turn) to Wales
(sounds cruel but...........................)

Seeing friends

Christmas decorations, old fashioned but it's us

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm - love Christmas

Watching my young grandchildren in their school nativity.
Seeing all the pretty decorations as we drive through the small villages around here at night.
Decorating the tree.
My husband and probably my son-in-law cooking Christmas dinner.
Watching the grandchildren opening presents.
Happy Christmas.

Not doing Christmas Dinner this year for the first time in around 40 years.

I started to list other stuff but it sort of went a bit down hill and the positivity vanished. Positivity should return once the cards are written with their annual epistles and presents bought (haven't started yet). My mum was always a fussy Noël Fly in the ointment and she died this summer. Very mixed emotions!

I love Christmas - hate the run up. Off later this week to a retreat for a couple of days of quiet contemplation before the madness starts!

Late Decenber was a festival long before the Christians took it over (not getting at them, it made sense) - a little bit of light, warmth, joy and good food at the darkest time of the year.

That, and the whole family together is the most important thing to me. Plus the fact that I don't do the cooking any more!

The shopping is mostly done.

The cards are written - except the one DH has to do

I enjoy the wrapping.

Mum is in a lovely home, well cared for and it would add to the confusion to take her out.

One of my brothers is going to see mum on Christmas Day.

A quiet Christmas Day with 3 or 5 of us(wish my other brother would say whether they are coming or not) - so M&S food.

I love Boxing Day (this year Saturday 28th!!) - the catering is easy and everyone comes here.

Looks like being a good one.

The positives :
Presents bought
Only a few cards to write now I'm retired
Friends coming for a pre Christmas get together on 14th
Putting up the tree
Choosing lots of yummy food to buy
Grandchildren coming Christmas morning with DD and SiL to open presents ( they're having lunch with other nanny and grandad this year)
Christmas TV
My son, who still lives at home doing washing up

Looking forward to New Years day, DD and family coming for big roast with crackers etc. Like Christmas but without the pressies.

Kitty you are a hard woman making your DH write a Christmas card. Everybody knows that when a man marries he need never choose or write another greetings card in his life. I can't tell you the number of times I have "found" in his study the few cards DH is supposed to write to former colleagues and church friends that I don't really know. And when have I found them? I'll leave you to guess but any number under 24 would not be right.

My DH writes all our cards (although the number is dwindling year by year). He enjoys it!

I have two Christmas card stories.

The first was many many years ago when my father amazed my mother by telling her that he had them all written, stamped and ready to post.

Which was fine until she realised that were all last year's cards which he had forgotten to post and had kept hidden.

The other one was when I broke my wrist and couldn't write. He grumbled a lot and then bought a roll of stick on labels, printed them off with 'From x, x and so and so cats', and sent them off. It was quite a talking point.

That's reminded me of the year mum n dad had a huge row over the card he gave her (I was about 10 at the time) They always exchanged cards on Christmas morning. Usually the silky boxed type that were then popular. Mum opened her card and went into one over the fact that it said on the front 'sweetheart' rather than 'wife' The row went on most of the day, crazy

Like the toast in the officers' mess "Here's to our wives and sweethearts, and may they never meet"

And the saying that when a man marries his mistress, an immediate vacancy is created.

Which then brings in the definition of a mistress: she falls somewhere between a mister and a mattress.

Love the definition Elegran !

Cards are all written and some posted. Presents are nearly all wrapped. Flights booked ,dogs booked in kennels so looking forward to seeing all my gorgeous girls plus 1 extra due on Sunday!! Can't wait!!

I love buying presents . I love giving Boxing Day presents. I love choosing what I hope is an interesting appropriate and extravagant gift for my DDs DGSs and SILs. Except I've given up on DD 1 and her DH and sent amazon vouchers as last year was a disaster. I also love getting small interesting presents for DH's stocking and I love making a quilt or stockings for a hospital shop in London.i love buying beautiful food and seeing everyone fed and watered to my hearts content. I love making mincemeat and I love having the leftover mincemeat in a cake after The Cake has been eaten.and like all those dear souls who have sorrow in their lives on that day I know it may not last for me or DH or DDs. carpe Diem

I love it all! Haven't written cards yet but I know they will get done. Have bought some presents but not all so still more to enjoy buying. Have delegated stocking filler buying to DH for the first time so that should be fun. We'll buy the tree together and cut down holly together but not yet. We'll shop for the food together too. Making mince pies tomorrow for the freezer and pud already made.

I like to do it all in time but not too early as, for me, that takes some of the fun out of it. We go to all the Christmas Fayres and sometimes find something different to buy but enjoy the atmosphere and know that what we spend is going to a good cause.

It is just lovely choosing gifts for those we love and creating our own special family atmosphere. Love it.

Why haven't we any Christmas emoticons?

I've contributed to Cyber Monday by ordering some Body Shop goodies. I usually get a few things for emergencies - people I forget or who buy me a gift I wasn't expecting.

I buy things I like.....just in case they're not needed.

It was lovely driving home in the dark this evening, all the Christmas lights were on in our local town and houses all over the place have suddenly been lit-up

I was checking over the presents today - and have most of them. Just a few more stocking presents and then start on the cards.

Family, friends, Christmas concerts, twinkly lights, exchanging gifts. Turkey sandwiches, Gingerbread Latte and a thousand more thing. But, only from the middle of November 'till 6th Jan. Family and friends can stick around all year though !

I love Christmas and have a similar list to everyone else. I identify with Ginny's list of positives, but I start at the beginning of December, that is advent to 12th night.
This year, my youngest daughter is travelling, so won't be with us. Several years ago, we were 17 around my table (we had to add an extra table from mums) but this year will be only 8 due to bereavements and other stuff. Still - we're blessed to have each other, and we'll have 5 dogs, what's not to like.....
I do love cooking the big feast. This year I cooked the christmas cake in my new oven, following the instructions slavishly. It overcooked. I had a moment of energy the other morning, and set to making the old favourite Delia cake, which I've done so many times. I was convinced her 'don't open the door for 4 hours' approach would work, as my previous oven took 5 hours to cook this cake. I now have two rather charred home made fruit cakes, and a very jolly ready made from Sainsbury's (it came top of the Good Housekeeping test, so it must be ok). The other cakes can have their outer sides chipped off and be eaten as fruit cakes for several months I'm sure.
Ho Ho Ho x

Put in a tin and feed with liqueurs and no one will notice the charred bits