Christmas 2020
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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.
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The wife and I try to make Christmas a special time for the boys and we have a few traditions going, some from her childhood some from mine.
Come the 1st December we have the house decorated, big fake Xmas tree complete with a village and train at the bottom. We then go and cut down a real tree to go next to it to give the place a "Christmas" smell.
Christmas eve we'll do a big seafood cook up (wife grew up on seafood in PNG) and I'll generally smoke a brisket or a shoulder to go with it as I'm not a big fan of seafood. We'll then head to our local Catholic church for mass; the wife is Catholic but not particularly religious so this is our yearly trip to church, but it means a lot to her as it's what she did with her (now passed) adoptive parents back in PNG.
We'll then head home and open our "Xmas eve present" - this must be a book, no toys allowed. For Santa we fill the boys stockings up with little presents and they get one big present under the tree. The 7 year old confided in me that he knows Santa isn't real and that it's just me, but said he would keep the secret for his little brothers, so we'll keep doing it for him as well (I mean he benefits massively from the whole deal so was smart enough to make sure it keeps going).
This year things have been thrown up in the air a bit as our 3rd son was born on 12th December, and it wasn't a birth without complications. We've been in and out of hospital since which means we don't have much sorted. My Mum is up from Welly helping out thankfully. For dinner we've decided to just order from 'Woop' (like My Food Bag) which gets delivered on 23rd so we'll see how that goes, but at least that sorts out food on the day. Otherwise we'll keep things pretty low key and try and relax as much as we can given we have a new born in the house again.
Anyway that's enough rambling. Merry Christmas to all on here, it's been some fucking year eh. This place has an awesome little online community going and it's been great coming here to talk shit and try to make sense of everything going on in the world. Hope you all get to relax a bit, flush the dunny on 2020, and look forward to a bit more normalcy in 2021.
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@voodoo said in Christmas 2020:
We will go to my wife's cousins this year for lunch. Should be 40-odd people there, they have a pool and its usually hot, so that's the kids amd their cousins sorted. Food is divided out, this year I have the pork duties again, so will be a 5kg rolled loin with gravy and stuffing, no pressure!
Kids get heaps of presents, not so much for the adults which I'm totally fine with.
Morning before lunch is spent at home - our actual fucking home! - which will be awesome. Small presents for the kids, brekkie, a swim etc.
Cant fucken wait
Oh, and if anyone has any present ideas for a wife of > 15yrs, please shout!
This would appear to have been a premature post. There has been a revolt from the Eastern Suburbs part of the whanau who are now hosting their own Xmas. Even those on the northside are looking like not being able to mingle with us Northern Beaches lepers.
We may be going from 40 extended family to just the 5 of us.
I'm ok with that given its not my extended family anyway, but the wife will be depressed as.
One benefit is that I will get to devour a 5kg rolled pork loin on my own over the break....
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@dogmeat said in Christmas 2020:
The choir then sing in the church till midnight. I've heard them as I have staggered home.
My ex used to sing with the Eton and Windsor Choral society and we went to their traditional Christmas concert at Eton College. Magical memories.
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Not a huge amount further to add aside from the fact I've actually made an effort with my folks pressy this Xmas. A mate of mine who is an artist has done a portrait of the boys and their little siblings at mates rates for me......so watching the folks open their pressy will be as rewarding as the little ones
Also driving back for an "orphans" xmas ( pissup ) with a mate who lives up the road. Head might be a bit sore when I wake up for cricket viewing the next morning.
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Christmas Eve to my MIL
Stay that night, Christmas Day, back home on Boxing Day
Just her, my missus, the dog and meSkiing on the 28th hopefully
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@MiketheSnow said in Christmas 2020:
Christmas Eve to my MIL
Stay that night, Christmas Day, back home on Boxing Day
Just her, my missus, the dog and meSkiing on the 28th hopefully
Whereabouts?
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@Catogrande France obviously.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Christmas 2020:
@dogmeat said in Christmas 2020:
The choir then sing in the church till midnight. I've heard them as I have staggered home.
My ex used to sing with the Eton and Windsor Choral society and we went to their traditional Christmas concert at Eton College. Magical memories.
That sounds really cool. My last choral experience was not successful. Ms Cato’s 6thform choir at the cathedral. I had already lunched very well and stood up/sat down/sang in all the wrong places. Add in that my voice is as flat as a shovel...
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@Catogrande said in Christmas 2020:
@MiketheSnow said in Christmas 2020:
Christmas Eve to my MIL
Stay that night, Christmas Day, back home on Boxing Day
Just her, my missus, the dog and meSkiing on the 28th hopefully
Whereabouts?
Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales
From 06 December 2020
Sean Manley letting rip
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Brilliant!
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We were planning to go to Exeter Christmas market again this year and take in a carol service. Maybe next year
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Right, said the Meldrew whanau, let's think positive. So we have.
Christmas celebrations, except for the kids, has effectively been postponed 6 months to 25 June in Kent, with Boxing Day to 26 August in Cornwall.
We thinking we might go for an antipodean theme - fake snow on windows etc.
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@MiketheSnow Looks great. Not much in the way of ski lifts though I guess? Hardcore though mate, so well done - and good luck with the snow.
Looking more and more like my proposed trip to France at the end of January is going to be a non-starter
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@Catogrande said in Christmas 2020:
@MiketheSnow Looks great. Not much in the way of ski lifts though I guess? Hardcore though mate, so well done - and good luck with the snow.
Looking more and more like my proposed trip to France at the end of January is going to be a non-starter
Cheers
Yep all walking up. Worth it though.
Yours truly
Yeah the European winter season looks fucked
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@MiketheSnow said in Christmas 2020:
Yeah the European winter season looks fucked
Not sure if I flicked past this on a French news channel but there was a severe shortage of snow at some resorts ?
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@Victor-Meldrew Did they cover The Jam?
Would be brill if they did
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@NTA said in Christmas 2020:
@MiketheSnow said in Christmas 2020:
Yeah the European winter season looks fucked
Not sure if I flicked past this on a French news channel but there was a severe shortage of snow at some resorts ?
Down low yes
Up high more than enough -
The ex's choir did loads of modern stuff arranged for choirs - Ray Davies, Beach Boys etc. No Jam from memory...
The Eton College concert was very traditional but not stuffy at all. Atmosphere was out of this world. IIRC, I flew in from a snowy Basel and went straight to the concert.
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Not that big on Xmas and since 2004 it's been a day of driving and eventually getting shit-faced.
My wife and I live on Sydney's North Shore, wife's family live in Newcastle, my parents as well as my brother and his family in the Sutherland Shire and my son who lives with his Mum are in the North West.
So our Xmas has gone consistently like this for the past 16 years...
First, my favorite part, a tradition for the past decade or more with just my wife and me... a trip to Sydney's Fishmarkets at around 2 am on Xmas eve morning. We buy all the prawns, oysters and sashimi to take with us for Xmas dinner with the in-laws and then we sit down and have rather large snack of oysters, calamari and a lobster tail or two. It's usually pretty quiet at that time and it's just a nice time to take a moment and enjoy before the madness starts.
And the madness goes like this... We wake up early on Xmas morning to pack the car with gifts for all the nephews and nieces and then head off to pick up my son, 40+ minutes, then from there to the Shire and my brother's place for Xmas breakfast which always turns out to be more brunch, that's 1+ hour drive.
After Xmas brunch, it is take my son back home to his Mum's, 1:10+ minutes as the traffic gets worse, drive home from there, 45-50 minutes.
Unpack everything we've brought back from the Shire, then repack the car for two days in Newcastle.
Drive from Sydney's North Shore to Newcastle, can be 2 hours, can be 5 hours depending on traffic.
So it's usually about 4 to 6 hours of driving on Xmas day.
When we finally get to Newcastle it's unpack car and settle into our room as quickly as possible in order to crack my first beer. Drink 2nd beer and possibly 3rd beer and then take a nap.Get woken up by wife to say we're opening the Champagne now. And then the feasting begins. MiL is a great cook and since they are Hong Kong Chinese, it is usually a banquet meal with 8 courses and everyone tries to outdo each other with the bottles of wine we bring and consume. Usually, the 5 of us drink about 10 to 12 bottles. I'll sneak in the odd beer or two between courses. Post dinner it is usually a glass of port and then a whisky which my Father in law only drinks when he is pissed. Then I usually fall asleep on the couch with my father in law and brother in law whilst my wife and her Mum clean up a little before they give up and we all go to bed.
However, for the first time since 2004. Xmas 2020 was going to be different. As my son now drives, he was going to drive to the Shire meaning we can drive directly to the Shire and save ourselves a good 1 hour plus of driving. Then after brunch, my son would drive himself home and we would just go home and prepare as the Newcastle in-laws were coming down to our new apartment which we moved into here in Lane Cove less than 2 months ago. We had planned a big feast of salads, seafood and meat along with appropriate beverages.
Now with COVID running rampant across the Northern Beaches and greater Sydney, the in-laws are staying in Newcastle. My parents health is poor so they won't be going anywhere and as I have my own health issues, we've decided to just stay home and not go anywhere and just have the first Xmas with just the two of us... hmmm, maybe I might get lucky
However, all that said, it won't stop us from going to the Fishmarkets at 2 am on Thursday morning, but we will be all masked up
