How is everyone's holiday plans going?

[johnsoneliza52]

We seem to be right on track...although its been difficult. Husband has been unemployed since before Thanksgiving and as he is the major wage-earner-person, I have been forced to use creative energy, coupons, talent, scraps, and cyber Monday..dammit!
Have had a great time doing it!

[Andybev01]

Sorry to hear about your situation and I know how corny this sounds but it can be easier to go through hard times when you have each other.

Merry Chrismakwanzakkah.

[Murfreesboro]

Best wishes for your husband to find employment soon!

We have had a rather surprising December, from water heaters bursting and flooding the condo we were using for storage, to daughter's highly stressful mid-term exams (high school senior, lots riding on them). And there was one ER visit this week, when daughter fell asleep on her laptop and woke at 2:30 a.m. to discover she'd given herself a second-degree burn (wrist lying on top of a vent to the laptop). I have not been able to do much of what I'd planned to do. Almost no shopping at all yet. But, hey, we'll make it through. I hope we can even manage to enjoy it a little.

[johnsoneliza52]

We celebrated the first day of Hanukkah; although we are not Jewish..made Matzo ball soup and Latkes,and repeated a prayer found on the internet( probably pronounced all wrong)..intend to do Christmas, and Kawanzah and any other holidays I can find!!

[johnsoneliza52]

Wow Murf..that is a crazy few weeks!! I can't believe she burned herself so badly!! Hope the exams went well

[MauEvig]

I'm sorry to hear about your daughter Murf and the water heater bursting. I hope she gets better, and I hope that despite all the misfortunes, that it'll all work out for you in the end. I know what it's like to get exhausted before a big exam, especially since I myself got my finals done for college not too recently. I remember taking midterms when I was her age, and I certainly don't envy the kids these days, they seem to have to do a lot more now than I did back in the day. In fact, I think I was the last graduating class that had certain requirements, anyone graduating after my class had all new additional requirements...if memory serves me correctly anyway. Still those burns really have to hurt. I think some aloe might help with that.

Even if you don't do shopping, I think the really important thing is just getting together with loved ones. The presents aren't what's important, it's the genuine warm spirit of the holidays that is. I couldn't afford presents this year either, but I know once I get my teaching job that will change. Cyber Monday is better than Black Friday, at least you don't have to deal with all the crowds!

You've done more for Hannukah than I have johnsoneliza, and here I am actually of Jewish decent from my Great-Grandfather who was an Orthodox Jew. He married a Christian woman and converted to Christianity, so I'm only an 8th Jewish. What's a shame is how his family reacted, they held a funeral for him! I did find a cute little virtual menorah though: http://www.virtualmenorah.com/menorah.html I've been "lighting" that throughout hannukah and that's pretty much it for my hannukah celebrating. I want to try latkes one day though. Still I wanted to do something to pay homage to my ancestry. Maybe one day I'll get brave enough to try making matzo ball soup and latkes.

Also, there's another holiday that a few people may or may not have heard of. It's called Yule, which I have heard is celebrated on the winter solstice, and a lot of Christmas traditions came from it. It's a more pagan celebration, but I think it sounds like fun to celebrate anyway. ^^; I love how different cultures have different winter celebrations. I'd like to celebrate all of them and make December one month long celebration. ^^

[johnsoneliza52]

Yule..great idea!! Will look into it...my mother always called Latkes potato pancakes, so we actually have them a few times during the year and I crave them here and there...Have you every seen the religious show "Finding the Jewish Jesus" or words to that effect.. He is a Rabbi that is trying to show that the Jewish religion and Christianity are not that far apart..He is fascinating..
I will also celebrate National Doughnut Day..or whatever is coming up!

[Murfreesboro]

I tried to make latkes once, but it took me so long to grate the potatoes that they all turned black and looked disgusting. Maybe I could do it with some of those refrigerated shredded potatoes.

I think in Scandinavian countries they still say "Good Yule" for "Merry Christmas." And yes, of course many of our Christmas traditions come from the pagan winter solstice celebrations. I mean, Christmas trees, anyone?

[Kolchak]

Well this Christmas I'll be doing my best to keep racist crazy people from trying to kill me. Apart from that we've got all our presents bought and just picked up the Tur-Duc-Hen today and we're rocking and rolling. My Cuban in-laws are due in from Miami so this year in addition to turkey we'll be doing the suckling pig or as they call it in Miami, lechon. You ain't seen nothing until you've seen a Cracker-Cuban-Christmas!!

Sorry to hear about your daughter Murph. Hope she feels better and I'm sure she'll do well enough on them finals to get into the college she wants!

[Boogeyman]

Stay safe my friend. We certainly don't need to lose one of the ones.

And have a very merry Christmas.

[Murfreesboro]

Thanks for checking in with us, Kolchak. I'd been missing your voice. Yes, by all means, stay safe! How do your in-laws feel about the President's decision to change relations with Cuba?

[johnsoneliza52]

We had our annual Tree Trimming party on Sunday...two things to tell...
The first is that we had gone to about 4 tree lots on Thursday of last week..husband couldn't find that PERFECT tree..so he dropped me off at home and continued on. He found a lot by one of the larger nurseries here in Phoenix; found a tree, and when he went out to pay for it..out jumps the Phoenix Suns Gorilla, Steven Hunter from the Suns and a bunch of cameras..they paid for our tree! (read the unemployment part of my earlier post...that WAS the money we had left)

I was honored by the friends that showed up for the party; we ended up with about 40 people, young and old. What a great way to celebrate Christmas, and our annual tradition.
Nice heart warming feeling (or was that the shots of Yager?)

[Kolchak]

Stay safe my friend. We certainly don't need to lose one of the ones.

And have a very merry Christmas.

Thanks! My only problem today was a loud and stinky drunk go wee-wee on my desk!

[Kolchak]

Thanks for checking in with us, Kolchak. I'd been missing your voice. Yes, by all means, stay safe! How do your in-laws feel about the President's decision to change relations with Cuba?

My in-laws are getting up there in age and are some of the professional middle class that Castro took everything from in the early 1960's so they're not happy in the least. My father in law was a college educated accountant one day, and chopping sugar cane 14 hours a day the next. When they were allowed to leave, they could take two suitcases for a family of 6 and the clothes on their back. All jewelry and precious expensive things they'd had in their family for generations were taken by the state for the Glorious Revolution.

[Andybev01]

We had our annual Tree Trimming party on Sunday...two things to tell...
The first is that we had gone to about 4 tree lots on Thursday of last week..husband couldn't find that PERFECT tree..so he dropped me off at home and continued on. He found a lot by one of the larger nurseries here in Phoenix; found a tree, and when he went out to pay for it..out jumps the Phoenix Suns Gorilla, Steven Hunter from the Suns and a bunch of cameras..they paid for our tree! (read the unemployment part of my earlier post...that WAS the money we had left)

I was honored by the friends that showed up for the party; we ended up with about 40 people, young and old. What a great way to celebrate Christmas, and our annual tradition.
Nice heart warming feeling (or was that the shots of Yager?)

Way cool.