Hey everyone.

First off; sorry I was a bit quiet last week. With it being the first week of December and all, it was the start of the rush to try and get everything sorted ready for Christmas, so I was understandably busy.

Nevertheless, I think that it gives me a good springboard to start the first thread in our general discussion area What are everyone's plans for xmas? I would assume that even if you don't follow the tradition yourself, the general situation around the holiday period with most people being off work would give you some scope to do something for yourself anyway, so I'm interested to see what people are going to be up to this year.

As for myself, I'll be experiencing my first Christmas after having my girlfriend move in with me, so in exchange for the rather simple tradition of staying at my mums on Christmas eve through to Boxing day, with a short visit to her parents on the day itself to exchange gifts, it's turning out to be a rather more complicated affair with trying to balance time for a Christmas of our own in our own home, with equal visits to both families

How about you lot?

I always kind of look forward to Christmas but in the first instance it's stressful as all hell. I usually go down to my Mum's for the day but with the cat, we can't be away too long. Luckily work-wise we're kind of covered this year but the few days around Christmas will be going from my girlfriend's Mum's on one side of the country to my Mum's on the other and then my Dad's for as little time as possible, all while not having a car.

It's always much easier when it actually happens, but it seems like it's going to be hellish.

Oh, I suspect my experience of Christmas will be a little different from most of yours ...

This will be our first Christmas with our son (William), so it's got that nice element to it. We'll be packing up the car and heading off to my parents' place in Ipswich (west of Brisbane) in time for the traditional Christmas lunch with our extended family and assorted friends of the family. We only need to visit one family each Christmas because they're so spread out. My wife's dad is way up in North Queensland, while her brother and his family is in New South Wales. So we usually alternate which family we visit for Christmas.

With lunch, I'm sure that our Christmas is very much like a Northern Hemispherian affair in that there is a shit-ton of food on offer. One difference may be that most of our food is cold. With heat usually in excess of forty degrees (celsius), the last thing you want is a hot lunch.

My Mum makes an exquisite chicken salad that I can pretty much just eat all on its own and forsake the sliced ham, potato salad, coleslaw, green salad, roasted chicken (that one's at room temperature, not cold), sliced beetroot, pineapple, plums, apricots, varieties of nuts, three kinds of sausage and, of course, prawns served on ice. That's in addition to the plethora of other sweet foodstuff we stuff into our mouths. Rum balls, fruit cake, chocolates, someone will usually bring a chocolate slice, caramel slice, Christmas cake that's been sitting in rum or brandy for three months, trifle and, my favourite, pavlova.

All of that is washed down with a seemingly endless supply of beer, wine or soft drinks (for those who have to drive) while we sit around on the deck or under some shade in the back yard, telling stories of the year and waiting for the inevitable food coma.

We have a LOT of leftovers, so dinner (and any major meal for the next week or so) is usually a case of grabbing a plate of leftovers and a beer.

My girlfriend spent six months in NZ a few years back and they had Christmas over there - and she said it was one of the strangest things - mostly for having to water the Christmas tree to keep it green, and having Christmas dinner on the beach

Personally I like the cold, Northern-hemisphere Christmases, though I do wish it would snow more often than it does nothing beats a good Turkey dinner (with the obligatory pigs in blankets, or small sausages wrapped in bacon for the uninitiated) - which likewise ends up lasting long enough to make Turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce sandwiches for at least a week

We'll be shutting down for Christmas starting Christmas Eve and coming back to the office on January 5. But since coming in for those two days before Christmas Eve is silly, I'm taking them off for a full two weeks. I won't know what to do with myself. Christmas Eve will be spent at my grandparents' house where my dad's side of the family will gather for food, exchanging gifts, and probably some games of some sort. That half of the family has been steadily growing, so some portions of the evening will still be quite chaotic. Christmas morning I'll spend at my parents' house, along with my brother, possibly his girlfriend, and my maternal grandmother. Mom will slave over a hot crock pot for some sort of dinner for us, and then we'll spend an obscenely large amount of time opening presents in a clear and orderly fashion. We all take turns so that everyone can see what everyone else got. It's rather fun, and takes us hours. We'll probably end up watching some movies, though this year my dad, brother, and I hope to watch the Doctor Who special.

Beyond that, I don't have any definite plans. I'll probably try to spend a day visiting some friends I used to work with, and at least one day visiting with my best friend and his wife and son. No plans for New Years Eve so far, so it may just be a quiet evening at home. But I'll still have several days off after that, so maybe I'll get a little more adventurous.

I don't know if I could get used to it being that hot over Christmas. The idea of being able to sit on the porch outside in shorts in December sounds nice though, but I'd be pretty excited if it's above freezing here.

I'll be alone for Christmas. Stationed up here in Alaska, far from family. Let's please sim some....



thepatagonian@gmail.com

There there, Anziano.

The Army is a cruel mistress. Let's post already!

And since I'm in Alaska, and we're the last to ring in New Year, I guess I get the last word.

Hey Anziano - there's a JP I started up for the pair of us over in the Joint Posts forum a while back - just waiting on you to get it rolling If you're looking for some posts to get up, that would be a good place to start. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=64