Just when you thought it was safe to relax

[Dormouse]

LOML loves Christmas! Period. So guess what I have been doing today?

No. Not listening to Christmas music.

getting warmer

no, not eating Christmas dinner

Wondering just how much we have spent in Webbs Garden Centre over the years!

[myglaren]

My Christmas tree is still in the forest, and there it will stay.
I do precisely nothing for Christmas, absolutely hate it, other than buying presents for kids, grandkids and this year great-great-granddaughter.
First one arrived yesterday, Mr Bezos in his electric van with a dashcam for granddaughter #2 who recently passed her test.
Was supposed to come today so rushed around yesterday achieving very little, to leave today free. Then had a message on my phone saying it would be delivered yesterday but lost the message due to terminal ineptitude. Then an email saying the same. Came about 9 p.m. yesterday evening.

[mickthemaverick]

I'm basically with you Steve, not quite hate but strong dislike for me. Too many of my life's tragedies occurred around Christmas to make it a day to celebrate. I abhor the commercialisation and the general bandwagon that most people jump on. I'll celebrate the new year!!

[Dormouse]

Would you both like a Black and White Bah Humbug hat. You can throw darts at it if you like. Or strain old oil through it if that helps.
LOML's aunt similarly had no truck with Christmas Frivolities. But, God bless her cotton socks, she always wore her black and white hat when she sat down to Christmas dinner here.
She equally hated boats - any kind. No way was she risking getting her feet wet ( or worse ). However, when I organised a canal boat for a day's pub crawl and lunch cruise, God bless her woolly socks, she hopped aboard in good part and even wore a Captain's cap with Titanic on it! Her hubby was at the tiller when another canal boat was approaching us and he quite literally ran away up to the fore cabin - throttle still open and tiller unmanned! By the time I got up the companion way the boat was starting to broach so panic stations ensued as I killed the throttle, selected reverse and gradually went to full reverse and avoided another Titanic moment!!!

[CitroJim]

Very festive Dormouse

I'm a bit like you too Steve, not a great fan, but I do make an effort for the kids and especially so this year now I'm a granddad...

I'll soon reveal my Christmas running top It'll get its first outing on Saturday when I run the Salcey Forest Christmas 10K...

And then again on the 18th when I run a 'Santa Dash' to raise funds for our local hospice...

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be parkrun days and then I'll be going down to Somerset for a few days... Back then for parkruns on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day...

That's my Christmas sorted and yes, like you Steve, my tree lives in the forest...

Mick, I fully understand about family tragedies... I lost my elder brother in a tragic accident on Christmas Day 1983 - I was serving in Cyprus at the time and had to fly home on Boxing Day - and then dad passed on Boxing Day in 2016... My big celebration is New Year...

I love seeing out the old year and welcoming in the new even though 2022 has, so far, for me, been one of the best ever

[CitroJim]

LOML's Aunt sounds a bit of a colourful character Dormouse More colourful than her hat for sure!

It took me three goes to post my contribution to this thread.... You and Mick kept on posting just ahead of me!

[Dormouse]

If it adds some understanding to her not liking Christmas time, she lost her son at a few days old just before Christmas and Christmas never felt the same about that time of year after that. We didn't badger her into joining in more encouraged her to share in a silent understanding.

[myglaren]

Would you both like a Black and White Bah Humbug hat. You can throw darts at it if you like. Or strain old oil through it if that helps.

No thanks, I don't like hats either
I usually hide at New Year's too, as bad as Christmas.

I hate enjoying myself.

[CitroJim]

If it adds some understanding to her not liking Christmas time, she lost her son at a few days old just before Christmas and Christmas never felt the same about that time of year after that. We didn't badger her into joining in more encouraged her to share in a silent understanding.

Oh gosh, that is the biggest of tragedies... I lost two of my siblings as adults and never quite understood how my parents ever managed to recover and go on after that... To loose a baby though... I can't even begin to imagine...

Your silent understanding - the perfect way... I appreciate greatly when that's done to me...

[Dormouse]

LOML and me try to be respectful when we are in situations like these. We don't try to impose or badger anyone. More try to lift their spirits by acknowledging what has gone before. Just as we still honour our son 10 years on.
One of the albums on my phones is for the graves of everyone we visit and tend. 20 years of it so far. I even explain, as subtly as I can, to my grandkids who everyone is and where they fit into their family.
My job tomorrow is to re-paint the wreath we put on my inlaw's grave every Christmas. It has cork leaves wound into a circle and the varnish and colours are fading, so time for an uplift.

[Dormouse]

PS only when my grandchildren find stuff on my phone and ask about it. I don't sit them down and scar them for life!

[Dormouse]

Anyway! Time to lift the mood. We are planning having Buffalo steaks for Christmas lunch. What is everyone else lining up to be attacked with eating implements this year.

[CitroJim]

PS only when my grandchildren find stuff on my phone and ask about it. I don't sit them down and scar them for life!

That's a good policy... I must remember that with my own

[mickthemaverick]

Merely a brief explanation. As an infant our family Christmas began on Xmas Eve when Dad took us to buy the tree, take it home and decorate it for the big day. That was our routine so when he was made redundant on Xmas Eve when I was 7 it ruined our Christmas and planted the seed in my mind. When I was 13 my favourite Aunt passed away in her mid 40s with cancer on Boxing Day.
My first daughter was born on December 30th and we were rushed to Great Ormond Street for open heart surgery. I spent the next 27 days there with her and we came home two weeks before my father died.
2 years later her 2nd Christmas saw us back in GOS for a further operation. Her 4th Christmas was marred by the passing of my Mother in Law on 19th December and she didn't make it to her 5th.
There were 4 more family events between 23rd and 28th of December over the ensuing years culminating in the death of my Mother in 1999 so Christmas is definitely not on my look forward to list!!
Nowadays SWMBO goes to her daughter's to be with her grandchildren and I stay at home after visiting my friends in Elstree in the morning. After the royal address I usually spend the day like any other, rambling on here or doing jobs that need my attention. It suits me now and I actually quite enjoy the complete freedom from worrying about SWMBO for a day!

[Dormouse]

I think the trick here is to let people have their own time to remember as they please while still being supportive, even if it is not in person at any given time. Just a little bit of understanding is all it takes from each other.
Anyway, who is going to massacre sprouts this year?