What are yours?
We buy a new ornament every year for the tree, with some meaning to what happened to us that year, so that every year when we're decorating, we can also talk about what happened during each of those years. We actually started that the year before we got engaged, and 2 years before our first married Christmas.
Food?
My wife makes an ass-kicking kahlua cake every year, and makes a bunch for other people, too.
I like baking/decorating sugar cookies with the kids, but time seems harder and harder to come by these days to squeeze that one in.
How 'bout y'all?
As for food, the only thing out of the ordinary would be Tortiere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourti%C3%A8re
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The kid(s) also gets one Christmas Eve present to open, as a distraction.
food at my parents:
russian salad with different rolled hams and fresh Kartoffelsalad!
food i will cook for my better halfs family:
fillet of beef in pastry with something and an Italian Amarone to drink with it! (red wine made out of dried grapes, very intense in taste)
apart from the eating i found the christmas time to be specially hard and tiresome the last two years. both myself and my wife are in the teaching business and the finish of semesters brings both of us on the brink of breakdown for the second year in a row. i quit my teaching and hope it will get better. because with the small kids it could be a great time, but not if you feel shaky all the time.
Kenny, I was a high school teacher for 3 years and gave it up. Now I'm a civil servant. I can't tell how good it felt not to come from work (school) everyday with a load of work to do into the evenings and through the weekends.
People used to tell me how lucky I was to have the summer off, but honestly it only felt like 2 weeks off, because I was in recovery mode (you know what I'm talking about) until the last week of July, then it was back-to-work (prepping for classes) in mid-August with staff meetings, etc. starting-up again the last week of August.
When we go down to MD for an Irish Christmas as we have for 25 years, food is scarce. So The Wife and I make some chili, baked ziti and spinach pies for the whole clan. As the MiniGusses get older they like to pitch in too and help make tomato sauce, shred cheese, etc.
I have to buy the current Star Trek and Sky's the Limit ornaments. I buy an extra Star Trek ornament for my brother which makes for a easy gift choice.
We have a nativity scene that has been with me since I was a child. The stable was build by my maternal grandfather.
My late mother collected snowmen (and snowwomen) which we display every year.
I'm an egg nog junkie. Thank God it's only available during the season. I don't spike it. It's bad enough for you without booze. (And I'm not a big drinker to start with.) The best is Goodrich Dairy (a regional dairy and a pain to find) and Land O'Lakes Traditional. Stay away from the "lite" stuff.
I like to buy a variety of nuts in the shell. Good snack food and I pride myself on my ability to get those stubborn Brazil Nuts out in one piece.
The meal varies. We rotate among the traditional favorites.
Kids are grown and I am single again.
Now I can appreciate Xmas.
Last few years it's been Christmas in the Keys, eggs Benedict and Mamosas fer Christmas breakfast, and as much fresh shellfish we can cram into us fer Christmas dinner.
New Years is champaign on the beach at sunset and more shellfish.
Really sucks to drive back to the frozen North in January.
Now there's a tradition that I can get behind!
I've taken on the task of doing all the holiday baking. I like cooking, I like baking, so it works for me. Crank up either some funk or hip hop (I have no idea why those are my 'baking genres', but they are), turn on the oven and bust out some cookies. Give some to my folks. Give some to my one sister who's still local. Give some to friends.
Aside from that, I HAVE to watch the Rudolph stop motion special on TV every year. I've done it every year I've been alive.
I've also gotten in the habit of going for a late night stroll really early Christmas morning. It's still, it's quiet, you can just walk around and think and reflect. Doesn't matter how cold it gets, that's what layers are for.
I'm with my parents and my sister over the Christmas days, the tree is in their house (I have a cat, that doesn't go well with a xmas tree ;) ) and Hiimori is driving to her family as well, so it's family time for both of us. Cooking is all done by my mother :)
What I usually do on Christmas Eve is watching TV into the late night or the early morning whatever you prefer to call it...usually they show the classics with Jimmy Stewart, Peter Ustinov and so on...and I like these movies. All this while the fireplace is lit and the wood is cracking and my glass gets filled and refilled with good whisk(e)y until I feel warm and well. I have to get up early then the next morning for handing out of presents after a good breakfast with my family. But this lonely night on Christmas Eve is actually a tradition of mine, it's a special night :)
Work. I love the double time.
I will grill an @$$ kicking prime rib for Christmas Eve.
We'll make our homemade cranberry & blueberry sauce and a turkey for Christmas.
Every Christmas Eve morning, I get out of the house around 7 and go to Walmart. I grab a buggy and walk up and down the aisles and whatever falls in my cart, that's what everyone gets for Christmas.
There is something I love about Christmas Eve and I'm frickin' Jewish. I always stay up really late that night for some reason. Maybe I should marry Arctic.
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^That'll do.
Quote from: Gusington on December 21, 2012, 08:05:18 PM
There is something I love about Christmas Eve and I'm frickin' Jewish. I always stay up really late that night for some reason. Maybe I should marry Arctic.
Oh, you scamp! I thought you were just up here looking for some fling and then toss me aside and go home to your wife. I had no idea! I'm coming to open the door now...
You'd best bring him some hot cocoa then. He's been out there quite some time...
Quote from: LongBlade on December 21, 2012, 06:09:48 PM
I will grill an @$$ kicking prime rib for Christmas Eve.
We'll make our homemade cranberry & blueberry sauce and a turkey for Christmas.
Grill prime rib??!! Tell me more!
oh, and watching this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etflv7R6NKA
Quote from: Staggerwing on December 22, 2012, 08:32:32 AM
You'd best bring him some hot cocoa then. He's been out there quite some time...
Sorry - we're right out of cocoa having been throwing it at U-Boat crew's............
don't forget the ceremonial Christmas-morning-grimacing-and-pretending-you-like-something-you-really-don't
As in "......Oooh, socks. And such pretty colours.....lime green is one of my favourites.."
I always pictured you as more of an Argyle sock with ankle garters man myself.
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Damn - who leaked that picture!
I told you I'd win Arctic. Hug me.
Don't forget the digital tradition of watching the Full Metal Elves (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YW0Z6WIgXI)!
I look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, if for no other reason that that's when I get to eat lefse by the ton. ;D
Quote from: Centurion40 on December 22, 2012, 11:19:04 AM
Quote from: LongBlade on December 21, 2012, 06:09:48 PM
I will grill an @$$ kicking prime rib for Christmas Eve.
We'll make our homemade cranberry & blueberry sauce and a turkey for Christmas.
Grill prime rib??!! Tell me more!
The weather may foil my plot. As of now chance of precipitation is 30% as of 1900, so I should be good. Will post some pix for you if we can get it rolling.
Our Xmas traditions are pretty tame - I keep it all bottled up for New Years! We take to the backstep of the house with the shotgun and other various firearms to welcome in the New Year!!!! I got some priceless video I need to find so you guys can witness the event ;)
Afghan Wedding New Year?
Quote from: bayonetbrant on December 22, 2012, 06:24:24 PM
Don't forget the digital tradition of watching the Full Metal Elves (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YW0Z6WIgXI)!
hey - this year we have YouTube embedding!
depending if the ex wife has a boyfriend or not, if she hasnt i sleep on her sofa so we can both be there for junior on Christmas morning, open prezzies with the little 'un - take ex and junior to her brothers for their Christmas.
Drive to 'girlfriends' and have Christmas with her, Christmas Day night has become the venue for proper, eye watering sex as she thinks its funny to do it on jesus' birthday (shes 16 years younger than me, i just lay there), recover on boxing day
Drive back to ex, pick up junior on the 27th and take her to my parents for 2 or 3 days
then back and drinking until i cant see
Quote from: undercovergeek on December 06, 2014, 08:05:37 PM
eye watering sex
Never heard that one before.
Gus will be jealous.
Just show him a WWI documentary. He'll start blubbering and the effect will be much the same.
We used to visit both sets of family on Christmas. Long drive. Long days. Exhausting.
After my parents died in 2006, we have spent about every other Christmas on a cruise. If not on a cruise, then it is at home for Mass.
Christmas Day in Maui watching the whales from the balcony while drinking beers in shorts and a t-shirt was a different Christmas experience.
SNL picks on our neighbors - The Holderness family that made all those funny videos (Christmas Jammies, All About That Baste, etc) live around the corner from us.
They were actually pretty stoked that SNL was making fun of them :)
I start crying today and don't stop until January 2.
It's not you they are making of fun of, Gus. That was MadTV:
I know. I am crying because I love this time of year and it's one of my traditions. I'm also reading a book on the start of World War I. Those two things = GusTears.
Quote from: undercovergeek on December 06, 2014, 08:05:37 PM
depending if the ex wife has a boyfriend or not, if she hasnt i sleep on her sofa so we can both be there for junior on Christmas morning, open prezzies with the little 'un - take ex and junior to her brothers for their Christmas.
Drive to 'girlfriends' and have Christmas with her, Christmas Day night has become the venue for proper, eye watering sex as she thinks its funny to do it on jesus' birthday (shes 16 years younger than me, i just lay there), recover on boxing day
Drive back to ex, pick up junior on the 27th and take her to my parents for 2 or 3 days
then back and drinking until i cant see
Well, I was going to post my tradition...but whatever I got aint gonna top that...so am oot!
lol, shes broken her ankle (nothing to do with sex) so it may be a little tamer this year
eat...drink.....play games....sleep.........wash, rinse, repeat.
you wash? woulda never thunk it.
No one celebrates Festivus?
Quote from: GDS_Starfury on December 22, 2014, 04:37:29 PM
you wash? woulda never thunk it.
I make a special effort at this time of year.
Quote from: endfire79 on December 22, 2014, 04:49:26 PM
No one celebrates Festivus?
I have a few times. There's a company in the Midwest that manufactures metal stair rails that started selling Festivus poles. I got one years ago as a gift for my cousin. He started having Festivus parties. They were a blast - feats of strength, airing of grievances, people brought marble rye and mulligatawny. It was awesome.
Quote from: mirth on December 22, 2014, 05:41:28 PM
Quote from: endfire79 on December 22, 2014, 04:49:26 PM
No one celebrates Festivus?
I have a few times. There's a company in the Midwest that manufactures metal stair rails that started selling Festivus poles. I got one years ago as a gift for my cousin. He started having Festivus parties. They were a blast - feats of strength, airing of grievances, people brought marble rye and mulligatawny. It was awesome.
Now that's cool!
The best part was that he set the Festivus pole up in his living room and had a couple of small spotlights on the floor that he shined up on the bare aluminum. It was pretty hilarious to see it from the street all lit up in the bay window.
Quote from: mirth on December 22, 2014, 06:06:43 PM
The best part was that he set the Festivus pole up in his living room and had a couple of small spotlights on the floor that he shined up on the bare aluminum. It was pretty hilarious to see it from the street all lit up in the bay window.
It would probably be better if you upgraded that pole to a full-length brass one and added a stripper.
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Quote from: LongBlade on December 22, 2014, 08:13:58 PM
Quote from: mirth on December 22, 2014, 06:06:43 PM
The best part was that he set the Festivus pole up in his living room and had a couple of small spotlights on the floor that he shined up on the bare aluminum. It was pretty hilarious to see it from the street all lit up in the bay window.
It would probably be better if you upgraded that pole to a full-length brass one and added a stripper.
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That's Christmas Eve at Casa de Mirth.
what? you sitting alone watching cartoon gifs?
It's like he's Jewish or something.
You two. LOL
WTF is Festivus? :-\
And also, for some backstory;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus
A festivus for the rest of us ! [emoji4]
I improvised, it'll have to do
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Quote from: endfire79 on December 23, 2014, 09:52:43 AM
I improvised, it'll have to do
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do't let Star see that... you have no idea where his mind will go with it
Its all part of the feats of strength ;)
ok ::)
Quote from: bayonetbrant on December 23, 2014, 10:00:49 AM
Quote from: endfire79 on December 23, 2014, 09:52:43 AM
I improvised, it'll have to do
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do't let Star see that... you have no idea where his mind will go with it
I assumed he already owned one. ???