What ISN'T on your shit list at this point? Literally every food you post about has a subsequent follow-up about the effect is has on your toilet.
Immediately. I mean I hang out a LOT with my tits out these days so there was legitimate fear involved.
Man, I loved Christmas, everything about it. Every year of my life for almost 50 years I was in the same house with the same extended family. We had our traditions of places we would go leading up to Christmas, and my dad was a Christmas maniac. Then dad died 16 years ago. The inevitable was delayed by my daughters childhood, which gave the holiday new meaning for me. But then more relatives died, we stopped having Christmas at my grandparents/aunts house for a variety of reasons, my sister and some cousins are so dysfunctional now that I really don’t want to spend time with them, my daughter grew up, many of the places we would go have closed. Even things like company Christmas parties are long gone, and of course the VID rules out partying with friends. I’m not sure how I’m going to do it this year. It doesn’t help that on my wife’s side Christmas was maybe a two day affair and no big deal. Christmas tree went up on Christmas Eve, came down not too long after. It was more like checking a box to them, so our traditions and holiday activities were up to me to carry on or develop. I’m sorry to piss and moan like this, but damn I’m depressed as hell about this holiday season.
Yeah... I've been going out of my way to try and do things to help fight that. Mom's having a tough time this holiday season, so I've been making time to do more one-on-one things with her, like playing crib, etc. It really is helping her deal with things I think.
You're a good son for taking care of your momma so well. So, covid changes things a bit with who you can socialize with, but in a more general sense.... what do normal families do for the holiday season? I know there's decorating, and baking cookies, playing music. What made your season special or memorable? I want to start planning and formulating what the Christmas season looks like in our house for the kiddo. I tend to be disorganized and last minute so I want to think about it now so we can do stuff in December in a relaxed and enjoyable manner. I want it to be fun, cozy, and memorable and just don't have a lot of good memories to refer back to.
My mom had a lot of fun little traditions for us when we were growing up. We would have an advent calendar, make a big to-do about decorating the tree, donating a toy that we already had to needy kids, writing cards to kids in the hospital, cookies, and so on. A tradition that my wife and I have is that we go to this little art house theater in Harvard Square that does a showing of Its a Wonderful Life and then we go out for a nice dinner the weekend before Christmas. Might not happen this year, so we’ll just watch it at home with our daughter and make a nice dinner together. Last year sucked because, my mom had the flu on Thanksgiving, my dad has pneumonia on Christmas and my grandma died in between. So even with COVID, I’m really looking forward to this holiday season.
More than anything I've been working long, hard hours this year, and for the first time in a long time I actually get a few weeks off over the holidays. Totally looking forward to some solid "don't work" time.
Are people not catching on to the fact that when these kids show up to report on them they’re about to be made the fool? Bless them for the content, but if you’re their subject.... take a look in the mirror.
We had a lot of traditions. Some I still do - I listen to Dylan Thomas reading "A Child's Christmas in Wales" before going to bed on Christmas Eve. I watch Bing Crosby tap dance with Danny Fuckin' Kaye, every year. Other traditions are on hold, until we have kids in the picture. We used to go to my late grandfather's house, the extended family, and sing christmas carols while he played piano. I'm gonna revive that one.
@bewildered Some random Christmas traditions we have, in no particular order: Picking the Christmas tree was a family event. We lived in the northeast US, so we usually had a cold and/or snowy walk to cut our own tree, which was really a staple of my childhood memories. Kid input was taken seriously in the selection of the tree. My mom gives us a Christmas ornament every year. It's always a special, unique ornament, which gives us a nice tradition, and kids get a personal section of the tree that is really "theirs." Decorating the tree was a family event - participation was encouraged, perfection was not required. We have some foods that are tradition (a particular bread, a goose, and apple pie), and some that rotate. It's great to have staples, but not have the entire dinner be predictable. We have our dinner on Christmas Eve, and then on Christmas morning we get up and eat leftover apple pie, and have toast with the holiday bread while we open presents. I believe our tradition of Christmas Eve dinner breaks with a lot of people, but I think it's superior. I think, though, that the most important part is less that this or that specific tradition is great, and more about involving your kids and establishing your own traditions, but not getting too bent out of shape about change. I love my girlfriend's family, but they are Serious About Christmas, and their holiday is so regimented that it actually makes people really upset and takes away from the holiday when things change - and change is inevitable. We've had apple pie and the holiday bread every year as long as I can remember, but who we eat with, where we eat, even what day we celebrate has changed. And that's okay.
I fucking live the holidays, and am doing my absolute best not to let 2020 bring me down. With the news constantly harping about it, it’s a daily struggle. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the tree in our window when I come home. The smell of balsam and all the lights. Christmas was a big deal when we were kids and I’ve done my best to keep that going in our home. Both sets of our parents are still alive and in relatively good health. We’re not gonna see them for Thanksgiving and not sure what Christmas will look like. It kills me to think we won’t have that bug, chaotic family gathering, but it beats the risk of someone not being there next year.
I wish I could get my family to do this. I absolutely hate having to exchange gifts just for the sake of exchanging gifts. It just ends in unneeded stress where both sides are usually disappointed and at least one feels bad about not spending enough. It doesn't help that no one in my family really has anything that would qualify as a hobby or interest. Define "normal." My experience growing up was usually passive-aggressive interactions with family members who we only saw at holidays, bitter arguments on the car ride home, and occasionally one of the youngest adult generation vowing to write the whole family off altogether. I would imagine that that experience is probably closer to the average than the version on the Hallmark channel.