It's Christmas time

[wellinghall]

[Poll #1500923]

Comments

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I'm ready in the sense that all my presents are safely ordered, but they haven't all arrived yet. I'm waiting for the Royal Mail, Santa-like, to sweep up to my house and strew it like confetti with "sorry you were out" messages. If all my online retailers simultaneously fail me, I'll end up finding myself not ready at all.

Oh, and my cards are all written, but have yet to be posted - though I have now bought stamps, which is an improvement on yesterday. And I have 250 topic collections to put together for teachers before I can go away on Christmas Eve. Hmm... Maybe I shouldn't have answered "nearly", then.

[miss-t-ide.livejournal.com]

We've wrapped and posted all but one of the parcels. We've written and posted our Christmas cards. We're not having turkey, so that doesn't need to be ordered (we're having chicken). I'm not doing Christmas cake this year - we're having gingerbread instead, which I will need to make sometime next week (about Wednesday, I should think) and I'm not doing Christmas pudding. On the other hand, I haven't yet made any mince pies and we haven't done anything about getting a tree yet...

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

[x] Oh, is it that time of year again already? I thought it was still spring!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

:-)

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

I am waiting for ExMemSec to get home.

Then:
five gifts to be purchased (3 vouchers and 2 little things to unwrap -if- their parents tell us NOW what they want)
four (I think) boxes of books given to us by friends returning to Australia to be catalogued or shipped off to Oxfam
three lots of stuffing to be made
two parcels to be posted
one house to be decorated

Merry Jinglemass!

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

You didn't have an option for a non-smug yes

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I think a week before Christmas, anyone who is fully ready can reasonably feel smug about it!

[clarienne.livejournal.com]

Nearly. Have one more present to buy, and the cards to send out. Gave up on writing a round robin that would interest the disparate recipients!!

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

I decided that if someone needed a letter to update them, I didn't know them well enough to keep sending a card. Made a few exceptions for people like ex-tutors as it's useful to keep in touch, had terrible guilt at getting but not sending cards in the first year and haven't regretted it since.

There's ages yet!

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I don't appear to have done anything much, but then I don't intend to do anything much, anyway.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Good plan. Somehow my fairly minimalist approach still seems to take more time and brainpower than it ought :(

now you've done it - a bit of a ranty answer...

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

We WERE doing really well back in November, but after being poorly and a parcel snafu (and being away, which was planned, but the poorly bit afterwards wasn't), suddenly we are in the "oh noes!" bracket once again. Currently attempting to go out to the shops but clearing off the car is taking AGES through no fault of bek's who is doing it. Youngest is having to have her presents after Christmas, because the trip into Ikea en route to other places had to be aborted not once but twice due to forces outside our control. And it's far more sensible for her to have what she asked for than 'just anything'. And my MiL seems to think it's perfectly all right to offer to take people out to Christmas lunch but not to be bothered to consider their very well know long-standing dietary needs (and not just mine, either!), and insinuate that turkey and veg *without* any of the trimmings, or even gravy (nor a decent starter, nor anything remotely Christmassy for pud) should be just fine. Next year I'm going to the Bahamas. Or Barbados. Or anywhere warm beginning with B. And taking my own pud ;)

Re: now you've done it - a bit of a ranty answer...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Or anywhere warm beginning with B

Other options would include Bahrain (tho' it's Muslim, so no booze), Bangladesh (ditto), Belize (which almost seems like a possibility), Benin (v poor), Botswana (ditto), Brazil (again almost a possibility), Brunei (Muslim again), Burkina Faso (incredibly poor), Burundi (really incredibly poor) and Bermuda (another possibility).

I hope your Christmas dinner ends up being acceptable, at least!

Re: now you've done it - a bit of a ranty answer...

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions. (You're talking to Geography Woman - I used to scrutinise my Grandma's atlas rather frequently so I'd already thought of several, and then there's Bolivia too, and various others too no doubt). Some Muslim countries are more liberal about tourists having booze than others and I could probably do without anyway. Brazil sounds all right but I'd rather go when it's carnival.

We could also have places beginning with B though :) How about Barcelona? I reckon that would be good fun at this time of year.

Re: now you've done it - a bit of a ranty answer...

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Barbuda...

[firin.livejournal.com]

I blame the nearly 2 ft of snow that fell in 24 hours over the weekend, when we HAD planned to go and do the remaining shopping.

Now I've just found out that I am cooking for nine on Christmas Day, instead of going somewhere else to eat....

PANIC PANIC

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Eek! Have some *hugs*

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

You could adopt my modus operandi, adapted slightly to your circumstances: Pick shop. Pick time to go when it hopefully won't be crowded (or order online). Write shopping list with alternative(s) in advance for each option such as "Turkey (duck/pork/chicken/turkey crown...)", "Something Vegetarian", "Sprouts (cabbage/beans)" etc... avoids panic in the store and over or underbuying.

Motto (this is the important bit) "if they don't have it, we're not having it". Don't panic, and try to enjoy. Include treats and (if you like it, booze) on the list. Specifically for you :)

Good luck with it.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a very sensible approach.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

I thought you might be mildly diverted by my answer, seeing as it is now well gone Christmas...

I didn't post all the cards I wanted, and still haven't done any e-cards as intended, maybe we'll do some New Year ones instead - only I still don't have the time! And a couple of presents are still outstanding for people we'll see later. I don't think all the cards have been put up either.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I thought you might be mildly diverted by my answer

I am indeed! :-)