Christmas plans

[cromwell]

Cave. Anti-sleigh defences and Elf traps covering the entrance. Switch off phone. Hibernate. Crate of voddy and plenty of mixers. Portable DVD player and plenty of non-festive films. Mp3 player with loads of good music.

Emerge on Tues, 3 Jan, ready to take on 2017.

That sounds a brilliant plan but I doubt I'll be allowed to follow it!

Family Christmas dinner with father in law, sister in law and son, perhaps get the elbow pads out and go to the sales.

My brother goes to Lanzarote for 10 days from Dec 22nd. I'm not jealous.*


*Oh yes, I am, I really am!

[saundra]

Don't blame him

[meriad]

Plans this end have changed a bit. This year it'll only be Karl, Nadine, their two kids and myself and we were meant to be going out for dinner on Christmas Eve and then Christmas day at Karl and Nadine's. But the restaurant called on Thursday saying they were closing the kitchen earlier than planned; originally kitchen closing time was 7pm and we had our booking for 5pm but now they've bought it forward to close at 4pm and said we could either cancel or have our reservation moved to 3pm. So we cancelled and I'm now hosting Christmas Eve at mine; and dare I say


Christmas Day will still be at Karl and Nadine's as planned but a really lazy day.

Nothing planned for any of the other days

[Kaz]

Ria that's great

[tonicha]

As the weather looks like being good, we're going down to the bar on Christmas Eve afternoon, curry for dinner.

Christmas Day will be just the two of us and a bbq in the afternoon. I've got lamb cutlets and steak to decide from

Boxing Day is a normal working day here.

[saundra]

mine gets easier as well
J has just messaged they are coming for the day on the 22nd
And can I just do a buffet so it's roast a piece of ham and stuff all out the freezer plus cheese selection and a fudge cake

[Kaz]

Oh that will be lovely Saundra!

[Weka]

Boxing Day is a normal working day here.

It's interesting seeing how different countries do things.
Being (apparently) summer here, people go off work Friday before or Christmas Eve (depending when Christmas is) and go back to work on either the 2nd, 9th, or 16th of Jan. Some people work through, but the majority take their summer holidays then. Companies shutdown for 2 or 3 weeks even. It's a real sense of end of year leading up to Christmas