do you celebrate?

[t.s.k.]

So sorry for the loss, Ducky.

Btw, no holy days this month in my faith.
But happy holidays for those that do!

 

[back alley]

I buy a gift for the wife, she buys gifts for the kids & grandkids. We spend our holidays alone together. Kid's have their lives with their families. That's cool with me. I have my faith & it's a strong faith, but I don't attend any organized church. So we don't have any 'christian' friends. We're probably considered outcast anyhow...always wanted to be an outlaw! Jesus was an outlaw.🙂

Hey Joe, you like John Hiatt, I've been listening to this song alot. Kinda expresses the mood I've been in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=1ejWwsLTHnA

didn't realize that he had new music out...just loaded it on to my computer - just got to love technology -

btw...outlaws are my favourite!!

 

[FrankS]

Time to visit family.

My sincere condolences, Ducky.

 

[paulfish4570]

so sorry, Ducky, to hear of your loss. you are lifted in prayer.

 

[35mmdelux]

I celebrate every holiday whether it belongs to me or not. I accept most dinner gigs, unless they are strictly work related. I enjoy raiding the champagne bar and going for the jumbo shrimp.

 

[ChrisN]

All the extended family have just headed off home. Now I'm celebrating!

 

[randolph45]

Christmas dinner twice

Christmas dinner twice

Its quite here but we celebrate the holidays every year This year we are having Christmas twice with family.Last Sunday and this Sunday 🙂

Ducky tough time for you. We also lost two this month,Fathers family lost the last surviving brother and my wifes brother lost his wife to a stroke.🙁

 

[randolph45]

Since my daughter is grown and on her own we still get together but don't celebrate like when she was little.

I also observe Hanukkah since my Mother's side is Jewish and my Granddad said even Christians should at least observe some of the Jewish holiday's..

Nice Idea that🙂

 

[randolph45]

my bride and i will go to the oldest son's house in the morning for the secular gift-giving with him, his bride and toddler son, and our youngest son and his fiance (he proposed tonight and she said yes). next weekend we will be at my daughter's home in florida for another round with our grandaughters.
from our oldest son's home in the morning, we will attend a late morning worship service to honor the birth of our Savior. from there, we will go to the home of my bride's mother and father for a big meal. on monday, we'll go to my mom's home to visit and spend the night. so i reckon y'all could say we celebrate ... 😉

Another new beginning for you and yours,next year Christmas another family to celebrate with🙂

 

[Roger Hicks]

No celebrating here.

It's just another day, has been for years since I met the wife. She gets the heeby-geeby's from organised cozyness and volunteers for working shifts 😱 So, wife's working night shifts, daughter is visiting her boyfriend in Bangkok, Thailand (!) and son and me will be spending some quality time together: photo-related, watching a movie, playing some wii-games, walking the dog in the forest, etc.

And maybe emptying your full PM box!

Cheers,

R.

 

[shadowfox]

I've long since realized that whether you celebrate Christmas or not depends on your perspective all year long.
And that good ol' Charlie Brown got it right.

My wife and I raised our daughter to see Christmas not as a getting a gift event, but to be on a lookout for lonely and depressed souls around us. So we can tell them about He who came into this world to save those who rejected Him bitterly.

That's what Christmas means to us.

 

[nighstar]

i love celebrating holidays and birthdays, but to my boyfriend they're just another day. SIGH. it's around this time that i get a bit nostalgic and homesick for the holidays spent with family back home in America, but at least we go to the bf's parents' house and they have a ______ lunch/dinner. it's different, but it's better than nothing. i've gotten use to things being different having been an expat for 4+ years now...

 

[stonydeluxe]

I do not celebrate Christmas any longer, the last years I only did it for the family but it was just a waste of time pretending everything is fine. Furthermore I reject everything related to religion, so no "Christ"mas for me.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I do not celebrate Christmas any longer, the last years I only did it for the family but it was just a waste of time pretending everything is fine. Furthermore I reject everything related with religion, so no "Christ"mas for me.

You can still welcome the turning of the year, which is what this festival is really about. It wasn't hijacked by the Christians until almost 400 years after His death. No-one knows when Christ was born (or even if He was born, though I think He was), and choosing the last day of the Roman Saturnalia was a blatant attempt to hijack a pagan festival. Basically, a midwinter solstice festival was based on:

1 The days are getting longer, and summer is on the way back

2 There's not much you can do in the fields at this time of year

3 We've had to slaughter quite a lot of animals that won't make it through the year, so we should eat good fresh meat while we can.

Cheers,

R.

 

[russelljtdyer]

Not Much, But Okay

Not Much, But Okay

This year I'm doing nothing. For the past two months I have been withdrawing from social activities. I was overly active earlier in the year, but now I'm keeping to myself much more. This Christmas and general holiday season, I'm doing nothing much and did not spend time shopping for presents.

Last year I had a girlfriend and my oldest son was visiting me from the U.S. So, I spent plenty on Christmas presents for them--not many, just a good bit of money. This year without a girlfriend, I've bought none. I'll just send my kids (they're in the U.S.) Amazon gift cards for a couple hundred dollars each so that they can buy what they want. Not very personal, but it seems to be alright with them now that they're older. So under my Charlie Brown Christmas tree, I only have fake presents for decoration (see me and tree in the photo).

Oh, I did get one present, though. I opened it a little while ago. A friend of mine bought me a ceramic kitchen knife because I said I was curious about them. I didn't see how they could work well. I thought they couldn't be sharp. I was wrong. I slashed the palm of my hand trying lightly to see how sharp it was. That was a merry surprise present indeed. Actually, now that I think about it, I fared better on presents this year than I did last year. Last year I gave the girlfriend diamond-stud earrings and she gave me nothing. At least this year I didn't buy her anything and a friend gave me a kitchen knife. See, there's a positive side when you tally things.

It's certainly not a happy feeling, being alone and doing nothing, but it's not a sad one. It's just neutral. Several friends tried to get me to visit them today, but I dodged and refused invitations. I could also have hosted a lunch at my house. I cook moderately well. I thought of roasting a turkey and making pumpkin pie and all and inviting a bunch of friends. But I just didn't feel like being upbeat. Since the girlfriend ran off on New Year's Eve night last year--when she was supposed to be on her way to my place--I'm more conscious of the fact that I'm finishing a year without a girlfriend. No big deal, but I feel the pain. I don't like to ignore or suppress my feelings. Instead, I prefer to let them play out in my way.

So, I would say that I have chosen to do nothing special for Christmas, but would prefer to have been with someone special to me. I would like to have bought gifts for such a someone and have had them give me a gift that shows they know me well. But it didn't happen and that's alright. Plenty of other good things happen for me often and have happened all year. This day and New Year's Eve are not report card days. They are not the days in which my life is judged and my happiness is assessed. It's not like any other day because others are doing what they do. Instead, for me it's a day alone for reflection and relaxation. It's kind of nice.

 

[nighstar]

eh, i'm an atheist who doesnt give a damn about religion, but i still like traditions and customs. for me Christmas isn't a religious holiday at all.

also, as Roger pointed out, it's not even like Christmas, Hanukkah etc are the only things to be celebrated this time of year. there's also the peak of winter (or summer), ie. the winter/summer solstice. ENJOY YOUR SNOW/HEAT WHILE YOU CAN!!

*whispers* may winter never come...!!

 

[taskoni]

I celebrate everything in opposite of so many depressed members posting in this tread 😀

Christmas or not, lets rock..

 

[oftheherd]

My wife passed away just before Christmas (we are both too old anyway), my kids insisted on coming down to keep me company and friends have brought casseroles. I will shoo them all away ASAP and next year I will go out and take pictures.
It's just the way I will handle it..

the friends that i used to celebrate with got divorced years ago and half of them moved out of town and the other half re-married.


sounds like "good time charlie's got the blues."

So sorry to hear that.

 

[Michael Markey]

Of course I do and I listen to the Queens speech at three o`clock. 🙂

 

[sig]

I celebrate everything in opposite of so many depressed members posting in this tread 😀

Christmas or not, lets rock..

Same with me. At least this tread reminds me not to take the people around me for granted.

So enjoy!