Christmas 2021

I have present wrapping to do. Priority will go to the gifts for my mum, oldest sister, and a friend on the other end of town. Our gifts come after that, and since I don't actually enjoy wrapping most of the time, I'm glad there aren't many.

I also have cards I want to do for the neighbours, then hand deliver.

And I have started my favourite Christmas movie-watching as well, with White Christmas last night.

Wrapping?

I haven't even thought about starting.

Have you thought of buying a Tesla? 

Last night our government gave us all a gift...

Lockdown.

No... Im not being sarcastic.

Every year you hear the moaners... Its too crowded in the shops , everything is overpriced, the restaurants are packed and too expensive, the roads are murder, Christmas is too commercialized.

Well now everything is closed, there are no crowded shops bars or restaurants..No mass travel anywhere because theres nothing open except the supermarkets.

Now the moaners will complain 'I cant go to dinner/ a show/ a bar /I cant buy gifts etc etc they are never happy.

But hello... This is exactly what they asked for, the pressure, the rush, the over commercial Christmas isnt there.
Instead maybe they could view this as a gift. Time to sit back watch tv , play a game, go for a nice walk, enjoy real family time at home, and just enjoy the peace.

I know it wont be easy for everyone but really why do people always have to moan and see the bad side of things?

Definitely!

Every cloud has a silver lining. Even covid.

It sounds nice and peaceful Cassie.

People bang on about tradition, but traditions have to change as we do. Tradition shouldnt leave you feeling sad, trapped or pushed into things you dont like.
When my children were little I would send OH to the pub put up the tree by myself while the children slept, then the next morning Id have hot chocolate and current buns waiting for them and the tree fully decorated and lit as they came downstairs.. The look on their faces was a gift in itself.

Then as they grew older they took it upon themselves to decorate the tree and I then rearranged it while they were at school...

After they left home it was just expected that they would be home at Christmas but on boxing day we held an open house so they could bring friends or people they knew who had no family ( or who were not welcome at family) to our house, we often had 20+ people here, often people Id never met but we had a great time with soup , sandwiches, cake and booze! I remember one young man returned on New years eve with a bottle of champange to thank us, he said it was the nicest warmest Christmas he had ever had.. (That made me cry)

Now the children are gone, they have families of their own but instead of sitting back and feeling sad about the fact we wont see them or any other family (except my daughter) we take it upon ourselves to make new traditions.

This year we are off to the forest with our breakfast , last year we went to the lake and watched the sunrise huddled together with the dogs and a cup of tea , two years ago we celebrated by going to the beach, yes it was -2c and yes it was cold but it was fun.
Tradtion is what we want it to be. So whatever your Christmas is and whatever your tradtion just make it one that you want and enjoy.

I hope everyone has the Christmas they want and finds peace and joy in however they want to celebrate.

Makes you wonder what the difference between a tradition, and a habit is.

I'm spending Christmas with my sister and dad: that's it. BUT I don't like very large crowds, so this suits me down to the ground.

It'll be a nice, intimate affair. It is best to spend Christmas the way YOU want: as you guys have said. Why spend Christmas in misery?

I delivered local gifts yesterday. Got to have a little chat with my brother-in-law since my oldest sister was probably at work, then I saw my friend Val's boy (almost-teen!) for a minute. I left my parents' place for last since I knew they're be lots of chat and maybe computer support for Mum. (Got her signed up with ProtonMail! Yay!)

The boys are here Christmas Eve this year, so we're having our dinner then. We'll open gifts in the morning and then they'll likely go to their dad's. (He still hasn't confirmed that by email with me, so I sent a print copy of the message by regular mail last week. Gonna do that as a default now until he gets better at acknowledging emails. Pester, pester! LOL)

Unless the roads get bad (with snow expected half the week, they might be) I might pop in to see my parents on Christmas Day or maybe Boxing Day in the morning. (We used to visit my grandpa on Boxing Day, like a second Christmas. That allowed us to avoid travel on Christmas Day itself, and my parents had started that when I was a little one. Great way to split the holidays! When my grandpa died, most of us already had our own kids, so they were seeing their grandparents on the second Christmas...)

I'm always looking for ways to make the holidays less stressful and more relaxing. I also don't need large crowds, just a few people. So I don't have an issue with health restrictions this year either. I think people are so used to complaining that they don't stop to consider how important this is...

In some ways, traditions and habits are very similar - for both, we should choose which ones we like and ditch the ones we don't. No worry about doing what's always been done when you don't enjoy it. And for both, you can create new ones! I think habits are actually harder to ditch, but it depends how long you've stuck with that tradition and why, since you might have just made it a habit...

Today I've made 24-minute bite-size Christmas cakes. Each filled with delicious fruit and a good slug of real Irish whiskey.
To finish they had a white fondant disc or Star the stars were tinted with gold the discs had a little Christmas motif on them.


Best bit of all was very childish, running my finger around the mixing bowl when I finished and just enjoying a little taste of the cake mix

Only three more days. I hope everyone is ready.