Holidays Coming Up -so what do u do for them?

Logicaly · 09-19-2010, 12:34 PM

I love the holidays! Although last year I came to the sad realization that the way they used to be, are forever changed, but that the amount of love that my family shares for each other has not. Plus, as I start a family of my own, and meet new people and invite them into the family, traditions are slowly changing.

Growing up my family literally did the exact same thing every year. I had a very large family, both on my moms side and my dads side. My dads side was always the most enjoyable for me, for reasons we won't get in to.

On Thanksgiving we would always drive down here to the Bay Area and stay with my aunt and uncle, we would have a huge feast at my aunt's house. The women would get up at 5am to start cooking every thing. At around 9am when the whole house was up, my aunt would make chocolate gravy and biscuits for everyone. The men would then sit around and watch football, and the kids and teenagers would be upstairs playing video games, watching movies, etc. It would be an all day event for us, snacks through out the day, and then a massive meal of turkey, ham, mashed taters, different kinds of gravy, waldorf salad, regular salad, fruit salad, corn, sweet taters, and the list goes on and this doesn't even include at least 5 different pies for dessert. Before dinner, we would always form a circle around the table and hold hands and my grandfather would lead us in saying grace.

Then for Christmas, we would have Christmas Eve at our own house, and we would always open just 1 present after dinner that night, just to tie us over till morning. Then we would go to bed, and wait for Santa to come. Around 4am my sister always wakes me up, and I send her to grab our stockings out of the livingroom and bring them to me in my bedroom. We would go through them, see what we got, and then repack them so that we wouldn't get caught, even though dad always knew what we where doing. Then her and I would go back to sleep in my room for an hour or two until it was okay to wake our parents up. I love opening presents, but what I love even more, is seeing everyone's reaction to what I got them. I love buying stuff for people, it brings me a lot of joy. Then we would pack up all that we want to bring with us, and make the drive up to the Bay Area to spend it with the rest of the family, and its a repeat of Thanksgiving, except with presents involved after dinner.

Now it is different. There is no gift exchange with the extended family. We have lost some family members of the years, and it has changed the dynamics of it all. We still get together and have a dinner for each holiday, however its on a much smaller scale now and while we all enjoy each others presence, it has a tone of sadness to it as well.

I however now have the pleasure of spending the holidays with my partner's family too. Her family has a big mexican dinner on Christmas Eve and that is something new for me, and I enjoy spending the time with her family. This year, I am hoping that since my dad and my sister and now my nephew will all be here, that perhaps we can mix everyone together Christmas morning at our home, but either way, this year I am getting to spend a lot of precious moments with family that I love.

skeeter_01 · 09-19-2010, 02:04 PM

i like the holidays...however....I work every thanksgiving because tgiving and the day after are both paid holidays.

i work every xmas cause i don't have kids and i think that people with kids should get to spend that day with their family...

my holiday is NYE...i LOVE to go out and dance and party...and then NY day sit all day and watch football....

skeet

Rockinonahigh · 09-19-2010, 03:35 PM

Like most of you I work on the hollidays cause my job is in food service(i'm a chef) but its all good for me,I feel the folks who have kids and family should spend the time with them if possable.One good thing about working the hollidays is the extra $$,more pto's,plus I get to pick what other days of and vacation time I want.For me christmas isnt about me geting a present cause I like to see the smiles on ppls faces when they open what they get,the good times they get to be with family or enjoying the partys or meals I fix.This year im bakeing things for the ppl on my list,grand kids included..last time they came by they are there way thrue 3 dozen of my special pecan,honey tosted almonds,darkand white chocolate chip cookies.One thiung that bugs me about the christmas holidays is the ppl who just look at it for what they can get..maybe one day they will get smart.

sweetbutch26 · 09-19-2010, 03:48 PM

halloween is my favorite time of year. i love being around friends and family and sharing a few laughs. same with thanksgiving and christmas. except for thanksgiving and christmas i eat until i can't move then eat some more LoL being around people that are most important is always a great thing

Rockinonahigh · 10-02-2012, 10:36 AM

Yep,its about to be that time of the year again,hollidays and more hollidays.First im going to let my son do the candy hand out this year while I go to an adult halloween party,I already bought some really cool and unuseal candy with a spooky theam..the little ones shoule like candy hands,eye balls,witches hats ect..ect so its should be fun all around.Come on folks what are your plands???

sierragirrl · 11-04-2012, 05:07 AM

Choices to be made for the holidays.i only feel obligated to do one thing ever single year.And sadly if i don't do this i beat myself up a little, ok alot.
every year i feel like i MUST make the almost 9 hours drive to So Cal to see and be with my 93yr old grandmother even though she does not like it when the kids are in her house.i mean at 93 would you want great grandkids playing around hootin and hollerin?my kids are pretty good when you ask them to tone it down. my brothers son who is 6 is a bit more crazy..after all he is a boy and 6 so its a givin.
my therapist looked at me and said "i mean how many more are you gonna have with her?"
my mother passed away 10 yrs ago and my grand mother worries about us.and this is the one time of yr my grandmother would make the trip up here to Paradise to spend it with us.it was my moms favorite time of yr.Christmas tree would be put up right before Thanksgiving.cookies would already of been made. Family time...
CRAP ok i guess im gonna see if its possible to make the trip. fingers crossed i can get a room and the super dive 8 in anaheim.

cinnamongrrl · 11-04-2012, 06:58 AM

This will be Teddy and my first Christmas together. He LOVES Christmas ( I love Halloween) and I know he wants to start decorating around Thanksgiving.... I typically start decorating around my and the girls' birthdays (we are on Dec 2, 6th and 17th!) I'm looking forward to making new traditions with Teddy.....and I'm hopeful that the holiday goes a lot better than Halloween did....

09-19-2010, 12:34 PM	#1
Logicaly Member How Do You Identify?: Transgender Male Preferred Pronoun?: Male Relationship Status: She is the gamer girl to my gamer boy Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: California, Bay Area Posts: 683 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 395 Thanked 1,742 Times in 513 Posts Rep Power: 8641138	I love the holidays! Although last year I came to the sad realization that the way they used to be, are forever changed, but that the amount of love that my family shares for each other has not. Plus, as I start a family of my own, and meet new people and invite them into the family, traditions are slowly changing. Growing up my family literally did the exact same thing every year. I had a very large family, both on my moms side and my dads side. My dads side was always the most enjoyable for me, for reasons we won't get in to. On Thanksgiving we would always drive down here to the Bay Area and stay with my aunt and uncle, we would have a huge feast at my aunt's house. The women would get up at 5am to start cooking every thing. At around 9am when the whole house was up, my aunt would make chocolate gravy and biscuits for everyone. The men would then sit around and watch football, and the kids and teenagers would be upstairs playing video games, watching movies, etc. It would be an all day event for us, snacks through out the day, and then a massive meal of turkey, ham, mashed taters, different kinds of gravy, waldorf salad, regular salad, fruit salad, corn, sweet taters, and the list goes on and this doesn't even include at least 5 different pies for dessert. Before dinner, we would always form a circle around the table and hold hands and my grandfather would lead us in saying grace. Then for Christmas, we would have Christmas Eve at our own house, and we would always open just 1 present after dinner that night, just to tie us over till morning. Then we would go to bed, and wait for Santa to come. Around 4am my sister always wakes me up, and I send her to grab our stockings out of the livingroom and bring them to me in my bedroom. We would go through them, see what we got, and then repack them so that we wouldn't get caught, even though dad always knew what we where doing. Then her and I would go back to sleep in my room for an hour or two until it was okay to wake our parents up. I love opening presents, but what I love even more, is seeing everyone's reaction to what I got them. I love buying stuff for people, it brings me a lot of joy. Then we would pack up all that we want to bring with us, and make the drive up to the Bay Area to spend it with the rest of the family, and its a repeat of Thanksgiving, except with presents involved after dinner. Now it is different. There is no gift exchange with the extended family. We have lost some family members of the years, and it has changed the dynamics of it all. We still get together and have a dinner for each holiday, however its on a much smaller scale now and while we all enjoy each others presence, it has a tone of sadness to it as well. I however now have the pleasure of spending the holidays with my partner's family too. Her family has a big mexican dinner on Christmas Eve and that is something new for me, and I enjoy spending the time with her family. This year, I am hoping that since my dad and my sister and now my nephew will all be here, that perhaps we can mix everyone together Christmas morning at our home, but either way, this year I am getting to spend a lot of precious moments with family that I love. __________________ ~Logicaly~ Geeky guy extraordinaire Always and Forever

09-19-2010, 02:04 PM	#2
skeeter_01 Member How Do You Identify?: stone butch Preferred Pronoun?: Hey you! Relationship Status: Sleeping single in a double bed.. Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: ann arbor, michigan Posts: 195 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 288 Thanked 477 Times in 130 Posts Rep Power: 3007277	i like the holidays...however....I work every thanksgiving because tgiving and the day after are both paid holidays. i work every xmas cause i don't have kids and i think that people with kids should get to spend that day with their family... my holiday is NYE...i LOVE to go out and dance and party...and then NY day sit all day and watch football.... skeet __________________ Texting while driving is a real KILLER!!! ‎"It takes hundreds of nuts to hold a car together...but it takes only one nut to scatter them all over the highway..." Jeff PARAMEDIC

10-02-2012, 10:36 AM	#5
Rockinonahigh Senior Member How Do You Identify?: stone butch Preferred Pronoun?: makes no diffrence,I know who I am. Relationship Status: single,maybe looking if the right person comes along. Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: shreveport,Louisiana Posts: 4,907 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 4,682 Thanked 14,933 Times in 3,938 Posts Rep Power: 21474856	Steping up this as its almost that time of the year again. Yep,its about to be that time of the year again,hollidays and more hollidays.First im going to let my son do the candy hand out this year while I go to an adult halloween party,I already bought some really cool and unuseal candy with a spooky theam..the little ones shoule like candy hands,eye balls,witches hats ect..ect so its should be fun all around.Come on folks what are your plands???

09-19-2010, 03:35 PM	#3
Rockinonahigh Senior Member How Do You Identify?: stone butch Preferred Pronoun?: makes no diffrence,I know who I am. Relationship Status: single,maybe looking if the right person comes along. Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: shreveport,Louisiana Posts: 4,907 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 4,682 Thanked 14,933 Times in 3,938 Posts Rep Power: 21474856	Like most of you I work on the hollidays cause my job is in food service(i'm a chef) but its all good for me,I feel the folks who have kids and family should spend the time with them if possable.One good thing about working the hollidays is the extra $$,more pto's,plus I get to pick what other days of and vacation time I want.For me christmas isnt about me geting a present cause I like to see the smiles on ppls faces when they open what they get,the good times they get to be with family or enjoying the partys or meals I fix.This year im bakeing things for the ppl on my list,grand kids included..last time they came by they are there way thrue 3 dozen of my special pecan,honey tosted almonds,darkand white chocolate chip cookies.One thiung that bugs me about the christmas holidays is the ppl who just look at it for what they can get..maybe one day they will get smart.

09-19-2010, 03:48 PM	#4
sweetbutch26 Junior Member How Do You Identify?: Butch/stud/boi Preferred Pronoun?: mr/he :p Relationship Status: single Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Goldsboro NC Posts: 55 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 34 Thanked 66 Times in 27 Posts Rep Power: 1507	halloween is my favorite time of year. i love being around friends and family and sharing a few laughs. same with thanksgiving and christmas. except for thanksgiving and christmas i eat until i can't move then eat some more LoL being around people that are most important is always a great thing

11-04-2012, 05:07 AM	#6
sierragirrl Member How Do You Identify?: .... Relationship Status: <3 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: ..... Posts: 783 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 4,417 Thanked 2,870 Times in 667 Posts Rep Power: 21474852	Choices to be made for the holidays.i only feel obligated to do one thing ever single year.And sadly if i don't do this i beat myself up a little, ok alot. every year i feel like i MUST make the almost 9 hours drive to So Cal to see and be with my 93yr old grandmother even though she does not like it when the kids are in her house.i mean at 93 would you want great grandkids playing around hootin and hollerin?my kids are pretty good when you ask them to tone it down. my brothers son who is 6 is a bit more crazy..after all he is a boy and 6 so its a givin. my therapist looked at me and said "i mean how many more are you gonna have with her?" my mother passed away 10 yrs ago and my grand mother worries about us.and this is the one time of yr my grandmother would make the trip up here to Paradise to spend it with us.it was my moms favorite time of yr.Christmas tree would be put up right before Thanksgiving.cookies would already of been made. Family time... CRAP ok i guess im gonna see if its possible to make the trip. fingers crossed i can get a room and the super dive 8 in anaheim.

11-04-2012, 06:58 AM	#7
cinnamongrrl Infamous Member How Do You Identify?: cleverly disguised as a responsible adult* Preferred Pronoun?: wild woman Relationship Status: No, thank you. Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Home in NC..gonna dig in like a tick this time… Posts: 7,661 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 15,232 Thanked 27,597 Times in 6,955 Posts Rep Power: 21474859	This will be Teddy and my first Christmas together. He LOVES Christmas ( I love Halloween) and I know he wants to start decorating around Thanksgiving.... I typically start decorating around my and the girls' birthdays (we are on Dec 2, 6th and 17th!) I'm looking forward to making new traditions with Teddy.....and I'm hopeful that the holiday goes a lot better than Halloween did....