Christmas 2020
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@Catogrande said in Christmas 2020:
I’ll have the Cato household in full plus BiL
I initially read that you were having the British and Irish Lions over for Christmas which leaves breakfast with a few All Blacks for dead (sorry @jegga ). That would be quite some Christmas party.
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@Snowy said in Christmas 2020:
@Catogrande said in Christmas 2020:
I’ll have the Cato household in full plus BiL
I initially read that you were having the British and Irish Lions over for Christmas which leaves breakfast with a few All Blacks for dead (sorry @jegga ). That would be quite some Christmas party.
SAME!!
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Out to the parents place in Paekakariki (surprise, surprise lol). My bro and his family are moving back to NZ from Melbs (on a plane in 2 days) and get out of Q on the 21st Dec. So fingers crossed that goes smoothly! So it'll be the biggest Xmas we've had for a few years, even if it's just immediate family.
Secret santa for the adults keeps is super easy, and the 3 grandkids will get spoilt rotten so that'll keep them busy. Good kai, hopefully some sunshine, and some beers by the pool sounds pretty bloody good to me. -
We will have an early Christmas with niece and nephew, good food and plenty of time spent with young ones. We will then have an adult Christmas children free to drink and eat ourselves merry. Sounds pretty good to me, I get to enjoy my MIL cooking twice.
All my family are in NZ and I miss the big family shindigs my mum put on. She was always very proud of her Asparagus rolls which sadly I will have to miss again. 🤮
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@chimoaus said in Christmas 2020:
We will have an early Christmas with niece and nephew, good food and plenty of time spent with young ones. We will then have an adult Christmas children free to drink and eat ourselves merry. Sounds pretty good to me, I get to enjoy my MIL cooking twice.
All my family are in NZ and I miss the big family shindigs my mum put on. She was always very proud of her Asparagus rolls which sadly I will have to miss again. 🤮
I love asparagus rolls!
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@Hooroo said in Christmas 2020:
@chimoaus said in Christmas 2020:
We will have an early Christmas with niece and nephew, good food and plenty of time spent with young ones. We will then have an adult Christmas children free to drink and eat ourselves merry. Sounds pretty good to me, I get to enjoy my MIL cooking twice.
All my family are in NZ and I miss the big family shindigs my mum put on. She was always very proud of her Asparagus rolls which sadly I will have to miss again. 🤮
I love asparagus rolls!
don't mind them, but goddamn Southland Sushi (aka cheese rolls) are the bomb
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@nzzp said in Christmas 2020:
@Hooroo said in Christmas 2020:
@chimoaus said in Christmas 2020:
We will have an early Christmas with niece and nephew, good food and plenty of time spent with young ones. We will then have an adult Christmas children free to drink and eat ourselves merry. Sounds pretty good to me, I get to enjoy my MIL cooking twice.
All my family are in NZ and I miss the big family shindigs my mum put on. She was always very proud of her Asparagus rolls which sadly I will have to miss again. 🤮
I love asparagus rolls!
don't mind them, but goddamn Southland Sushi (aka cheese rolls) are the bomb
I OD'd on them a couple of years back when making them myself. Made them too rich and it put me off them for a bit. I need to go back to Invercargill to recalibrate
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Christmas Eve is super important in poland, so as usual we will be at the in-laws Christmas Eve eating about 8 courses of food designed to be consumed in the depths of polish winter, not the middle of tropical summer. Still, i'll punch through a bunch of wine and some vodka.
Usually we host christmas day, I'll cook up a storm, make waaaaay too much food (as an illustration of this, last year the neighbours dog got in the fridge in teh garage and ate 2 prepped chickens and a pork fillet. we hosted around 20 people and i still had enough to send everyone home stuffed). Then i'll get quitely pissed, usually in teh pool
But, because we are leaving for 3 weeks pretty much the day after, that plan has been rissoled. 3 hour banquet lunch at a restaurant on the waterfront is booked in. No cooking, no cleaning, no leftovers, just good food and a drinks package. you beauty.
I am big on christmas, and i am kinda missing the usual trimmings (we haven't put our giant ass tree up) but sometimes it's good to be practical
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Don’t care so much about the food situation nowadays especially not traditional Xmas fare. All about the people you spend the time with.
We will be heading to our friends down south but as they are heading to the old family farm in the Waitaki for Xmas day will meet them there. Will detour through Mackenzie country and pick up some salmon on the way.
Doing a secret Santa type thing and will likely get trashed. Will get an Emerson’s delivery sent ahead of time -
USUALLY my wife would spend the preceding 24 hours prepping for a massive Christmas Day feast that lasts for about a week once you take leftovers into account. Her family are Italian on her Mum's side, bogan on her Dad's, so this finds roots in history; first Christmas I spent with her family (we were going out ~6 months) there was about 15-20 people there. While her Mum was newly split from the alco, it was a massive feast with all the in-laws and, being 130kg, I was happy to ingratiate myself with the Italian side by eating my body weight in meat.
Fast forward to now, and this year it will be at a local pub for $115 a head. A price which I'm happy to pay.
In between her Mum's dementia and her brother's impending divorce, as well as the oldies passing on the last few years, Mrs TA finally decided she wasn't going to put herself through the stress. I don't have to help prep anything or clean up afterwards, and there is no marital stress about my frustration over the cost of the catering bill at home when we just chuck out a solid percentage of it anyway.
Boxing Day we go see friends at their place (or they come to ours), but the story is the same: sensible lunch, bitching about our families, swimming in either of our pools, and then pass out on the lounge in front of the cricket.
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Oh yeah: my side of the family don't do much for Christmas. My Dad loved it but my Mum doesn't care much for it. My brother was usually deployed or posted somewhere away so while we caught up every few years, it wasn't a big deal about the day itself.
Probably forms my views. Boxing Day is the key for me tho maybe this year without hosting it'll be different.
Next Ashes Boxing Day I plan to attend. Whenever that is.
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Very improvised this year. Down in Kent with Mrs Meldrew, her 2 sisters and her Mum and Dad. Likely to be her Mum and Dad's last Christmas so will be an emotional time, but a really happy one as well.
Traditions have grown over the years, but it normally kicks off on December 1 when I buy a bottle of decent whisky and we start making sausage rolls, Christmas cake, & mince pies.
Decorations are done on a chosen afternoon with carols playing and, for some reason, drinking Tia Maria. We also have a number of Christmas films we watch as well. Like to visit markets and soak up the atmosphere and buy little gifts for people.
Christmas Eve to Boxing Day is normally a big family occasion with 12 or more people all in one house. Christmas Eve meal is very special and everyone contributes a dish or something to the meal. Turkey dinner and games until late at night. Vintage Port is decanted before the meal and consumed after it.
Boxing day is always a walk - normally around Leeds Castle if we are in Kent.
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@Victor-Meldrew All sounds pretty good though I’m surprised you can ever remember any of it after all the wine, whiskey, port and Tia Maria.
We usually have a walk on Christmas Day morning, probably on the beach. The kids tried to start a tradition of having a dip in the sea ( a couple of hundred or so people do this on Exmouth beach). Done it once, too bastard cold. So just a walk with the mutts will do. Christmas Eve there will be talk of midnight mass but we won’t go. Not religious in the slightest so why? Boxing Day probably a walk on Dartmoor somewhere and a pub lunch.
Actually I’m quite looking forward to it all this year.
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@Catogrande said in Christmas 2020:
All sounds pretty good though I’m surprised you can ever remember any of it after all the wine, whiskey, port and Tia Maria.
With the exception of Christmas Eve, we don't actually drink all that much in reality over Christmas. I like to push the boat out a little and have 3-4 types of wine with Christmas meal though.
Christmas Eve there will be talk of midnight mass but we won’t go.
When the kids were younger we'd head off to Christingle on Christmas Eve. Aiming to do a Christmas Eve whanau carol service by Zoom this year
Actually I’m quite looking forward to it all this year
I feel weird about this one. Not looking forward to it, but knowing it will all be OK in the end.
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@Catogrande said in Christmas 2020:
Christmas Eve there will be talk of midnight mass but we won’t go.
There's a Tongan Methodist Church Mo'unga Heamoni not far from the Northcote Tavern near where I live. Every Xmas Eve at 6.00 pm the road from the boozer to the church is closed and a flat deck truck with a (very dark) Santa on the back slowly proceeds down to the church followed by the curch choir and oom pah band. Santa throughs out lollies to the kids.
Good fun to watch (from the pub) and the closest I've ever got to midnight mass. The choir then sing in the church till midnight. I've heard them as I have staggered home.
Unfortunately the last few years I have been stuck in the office and missed this. Which is the only bit of Xmas I have actually enjoyed.