The holidays are drawing nearer and nearer....

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Pipp

Pipp

Majestic Llamacorn
#21
Sep 17, 2013
5,536
2,703
113
Georgia
#21
Every since I was old enough to take over Thanksgiving cooking I have. Its my day to let my mom sit back and relax... plus I'm greedy with the kitchen.. I want to do it all.. the turkey , cornbread dressing, green beans, pies, mac n cheese ..you name it. Now I'm trying to share the kitchen with my younger sister so that when she gets married hopefully next year she will be able to handle Thanksgiving on her own at her house.
My older brother and his family always join us. We just get together, say the blessing and eat.. then if everyones not in a food coma we build a fire outside and I make mochas for everyone and we just sit around and talk.

Christmas time is so fun for me.... I do a ton of baking. Besides the many cake orders I get from clients ... I make and giveaway a lot of edible treats as gifts. The people closest to me... I start now buying stuff and continue until Christmas.. I like making up baskets of a lot of stuff they like. On Christmas morning we gather in the living room and my little brother reads Luke 2 , then we pray and thank God for his many blessings all year round.

Instead of Halloween we usually have a Family Fall day at church for all the children where all the families participate and make games and goodies for the kids.. its a lot of fun :)
 
Liamson

Liamson

Senior Member
#22
Feb 3, 2010
3,078
69
48
#22
This thread is so SJ.

I'm boycotting all of it this year.

For Thanksgiving I'll probably order a Pizza. I'm house sitting for some peeps.

Christmas, New Years whatever, no tree, no lights, no gifts, no obligations and no relatives.

Its going to be AWESOME!!!

I'm going skiing this season, and that is my big plan.
 
lil_christian

lil_christian

Senior Member
#23
Mar 14, 2010
7,489
73
48
27
#23
Liamson said:
This thread is so SJ.

I'm boycotting all of it this year.

For Thanksgiving I'll probably order a Pizza. I'm house sitting for some peeps.

Christmas, New Years whatever, no tree, no lights, no gifts, no obligations and no relatives.

Its going to be AWESOME!!!

I'm going skiing this season, and that is my big plan.
Click to expand...
SJ? What could that mean? Hmmm...seasonal junk? No no no, couldn't be it...

Either way, I hope you have fun skiing. :D I've never done skiing before. Though it sounds like fun. :)
 
rachelsedge

rachelsedge

Senior Member
#24
Oct 15, 2012
3,659
79
48
33
#24
Ahhh I love the holiday season!! It brings back such warm, wonderful memories for me of family times. Playing hide and seek with the cousins, counting the coins my grandma had saved up all year for the grandchildren, all of us gathering around the piano to sing together. Just good times. :)

We do the normal food and family get together, but at Christmas time, my parents' have a "code" on the Christmas gifts that we have to try and figure it out. It all started when I was probably in 6th grade or so. All the presents labeled "Rachel" were actually for my sister, the ones labeled for my sister were actually for my brother, and the ones labeled for my brother were for me. So, those weeks we had spent examining the boxes trying to figure out what our presents were, we were actually not even picking up the right boxes and we didn't even know it! Now, it's tradition every year for them to have a new code. It could be based off ink color, animal types, etc. It's so fun. It's a bit harder to do now since I'm the only one who lives with my parents and can really examine the tags/labels before Christmas.

Another funny tradition we have is when we get together with my dad's side of the family for Christmas. We'll buy those Harry Potter jelly beans and play Jelly Bean roulette, taking turns passing around the box, picking out a bean, and eating it in front of everyone. There are regular flavors like strawberry, pineapple, etc., but then there are gross flavors like earthworm, vomit, and earwax. Some look the same too; popcorn and vomit both are yellowish with spots, so sometimes you think you got something good, but then...you find out you didn't. :p

On my dad's side, my uncle also makes up a Jeopardy game. We all get into teams and answer the questions. At the end of the game, we then use those points as "money" to bid on candy that my uncle gets from a local candy store in his town and other goodies. It's really a blast!

These are all traditions that I hope to carry on when I have my own family. :)
 
J

Jullianna

Guest
#25
#25
I did forget to mention something that always meant a lot to my son when he was little. We would set up the nativity together, but only the animals and shepherds would be at the stable. Mary and Joseph would be at the other end of the house, as if they were traveling to Bethlehem. We would move them a little closer each day. On Christmas Eve, we would put them at the stable. On Christmas morning, we would add Baby Jesus.
 
lil_christian

lil_christian

Senior Member
#26
Mar 14, 2010
7,489
73
48
27
#26
Jullianna said:
I did forget to mention something that always meant a lot to my son when he was little. We would set up the nativity together, but only the animals and shepherds would be at the stable. Mary and Joseph would be at the other end of the house, as if they were traveling to Bethlehem. We would move them a little closer each day. On Christmas Eve, we would put them at the stable. On Christmas morning, we would add Baby Jesus.
Click to expand...
Aw, that is SO neat. :) You must have such beautiful memories during the holidays, Jullianna. <3
 
S

Smudge

Guest
#27
#27
So, what do you all do for Thanksgiving?
Usually we go visit Mom's side of the family for lunch and visiting that basically lasts until dinner time- but no one ever eats dinner on Thanksgiving 'cause we had such a big lunch. (Well, we might sneak in a little snacky things but no one is ever hungry enough for a full meal.) Unfortunately, one of my aunts is now a grandmother and she's starting to do things with just her kids and her grandkids.... and my uncle usually is rather odd about planning things on the day when he knows he's suppose to be with us. So it's kind of breaking up. T^T

What are some traditions you have now or have had in the past around that time?
Well I suppose the most traditional thing is basically who cooks what. My mom is in charge of the desserts. <3
We also used to always watch the parade- but we haven't had TV in years.
I think the biggest tradition is really just the fact that we're going to be spending time with family, my brothers have always been able to come home.

Do you decorate your house in pumpkins and pilgrims?
We have fall decorations after summer officially ends, but as soon as Thanksgiving has past, it's officially okay to start putting up Christmas decorations.


For those who do, when do you start decorating? And do you decorate EVERYWHERE, or just a little bit here and there?
Sometime after Thanksgiving, we decorate for Christmas as the day comes closer. We always get real trees, so we get it set up usually the week of Christmas so the tree will be nice and fresh for the day. And it's pretty much everywhere- though mostly in the living room, kitchen, and dining room.

Do you budget money for gifts, or just spend as you go? If so, how much do you usually spend? When do you start buying gifts?
We have to budget- we have no credit cards anymore. xD But my parents have it set up that they can spent $600 dollars- but sometimes things get too tough that we have to have a small Christmas. I myself have extremely limited funds, so usually I'm able to buy small- super small things for each of my immediate family members and a few friends.
Shopping for me haass to be a few weeks after Thanksgiving.

What are some Christmas traditions you have now or have had in the past?
Christmas is my favorite holiday. We get 2 church services a week during the season of Advent. One on Sunday, then one on Wednesday night that is more focused on the meaning of Christmas. I always pray for snow- though sometimes I relent a little bit for the snow haters around here. Sometimes we get nearly no flakes but other times we get snowed in for a week. Like I said, we get a real tree, so we have to drive out to buy one. Where they sell trees, they also sell peanut brittle and we always get a bag to snack on while we decorate. Christmas Eve, we go to the evening service at church, then we go to my Mom's side of the family, visit and eat, then exchange gifts. Stay until the late hours of the night then go home. My parents still will put the wrapped presents under the tree for Christmas morning. There's just something special about being patient for a long time, then seeing it all there. We wait as long as we can stand- eating breakfast and so on, then we take turns opening presents. Then we spend the day goofing off and eating junk food until we finally have Christmas dinner.

After that- we goof off some more, then go see Dad's side of the family and get home before the "winter break" is over.


AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnd I'm extremely adamant about anticipating the holidays one at a time. I don't normally allow myself to see that Thanksgiving and Christmas even exists until after Halloween. To me, the stores run over "minor" holidays for Christmas. So I make sure that I'm enjoying each holiday while they're here.


Though I will leave with my own question- if you don't mind.

When do you normally find yourself "in the spirit" of Christmas, if at all? Does it come early- or late?
 
J

Jullianna

Guest
#28
#28
arwen83 said:
perhaps the American turkey's...
Click to expand...
Picturing turkeys with green cards waddling over the border to the US during October and back to Canada in November....
 
J

Jullianna

Guest
#31
#31
I don't wanna live like a refukey! Tom Petty needs to do a new song :D

[video=youtube;3u9O5N5dGzo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u9O5N5dGzo[/video]
 
Nautilus

Nautilus

Senior Member
#32
Jun 29, 2012
6,488
53
48
#32
INstead thinking about what you want to do during the holidays, I wonder what Jesus would do...



JUKED!
 
Oncefallen

Oncefallen

Idiot in Chief
Staff member
#33
Jan 15, 2011
6,032
3,285
113
#33
**needs to remember to dig the Scrooge costume out of the back of the closet :p
 
K

kenthomas27

Guest
#34
#34
rachelsedge said:
Ahhh I love the holiday season!! It brings back such warm, wonderful memories for me of family times. Playing hide and seek with the cousins, counting the coins my grandma had saved up all year for the grandchildren, all of us gathering around the piano to sing together. Just good times. :)

We do the normal food and family get together, but at Christmas time, my parents' have a "code" on the Christmas gifts that we have to try and figure it out. It all started when I was probably in 6th grade or so. All the presents labeled "Rachel" were actually for my sister, the ones labeled for my sister were actually for my brother, and the ones labeled for my brother were for me. So, those weeks we had spent examining the boxes trying to figure out what our presents were, we were actually not even picking up the right boxes and we didn't even know it! Now, it's tradition every year for them to have a new code. It could be based off ink color, animal types, etc. It's so fun. It's a bit harder to do now since I'm the only one who lives with my parents and can really examine the tags/labels before Christmas.

Another funny tradition we have is when we get together with my dad's side of the family for Christmas. We'll buy those Harry Potter jelly beans and play Jelly Bean roulette, taking turns passing around the box, picking out a bean, and eating it in front of everyone. There are regular flavors like strawberry, pineapple, etc., but then there are gross flavors like earthworm, vomit, and earwax. Some look the same too; popcorn and vomit both are yellowish with spots, so sometimes you think you got something good, but then...you find out you didn't. :p

On my dad's side, my uncle also makes up a Jeopardy game. We all get into teams and answer the questions. At the end of the game, we then use those points as "money" to bid on candy that my uncle gets from a local candy store in his town and other goodies. It's really a blast!

These are all traditions that I hope to carry on when I have my own family. :)
Click to expand...
This has to be the most awesome, amazing Christmastime story I've heard. It sounds like a story book - it's an amazing testimony to your family, faith, and loved ones. You're really quite lucky to be a part.........you know, no - luck doesn't have much to do with this. Really, you are a part and parcel of the whole and so much so that this story would not be the same without you - without each of the others in your family. The family whole is what made this story so fascinating and wholesome and good in such a Godly way. Frankly, I feel a little like the kid with his face pressed against the glass looking at a wonderland toy shop but could afford nothing inside. I am amazed by this. Thanks for sharing!
 
lil_christian

lil_christian

Senior Member
#35
Mar 14, 2010
7,489
73
48
27
#35
Nautilus said:
INstead thinking about what you want to do during the holidays, I wonder what Jesus would do...



JUKED!
Click to expand...
Dag nabbet, did I forget to uninvite the Jesus Jukers, too? Silly me... :rolleyes:
 
Nautilus

Nautilus

Senior Member
#36
Jun 29, 2012
6,488
53
48
#36
In all honesty though I love this season. Long story short my family and I for the majority of my life did not get along. Though nowadays this season is a time to get together and love each other and make up for lost time. The olderI get the more I've realixed the importance of family. I think a lot of that is the older my parents get the more I realize Im running out of time to spend with them but the result is the same, us all geting together and having those good family times. So either my brithday or thanksgiving(they are like 5 days apart this year) and christmas I will be spending time with my loved ones celebrating the season and our family together.
 
chosenone

chosenone

Member
#37
Sep 17, 2013
60
0
6
#37
Hello Dotann. The one thing you do is make a wonderful holiday dinner. I really enjoyed it last year. Once again, thank-you
 
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