Holiday check in

[waverly]

Anyone celebrating Hanukkah? 

Are all your gifts bought and wrapped for Christmas? 

Hosting/ going somewhere else?

What kind of food?

Any plans for New Years?

[waverly]

All the gifts are done for Christmas for the most part. We are going on a tiny trip, but will be back for Christmas and have a quiet Christmas just the 4 of us. My MIL and FIL usually come, but she just had surgery.

No idea on food yet. I know I want shrimp cocktail, but no other ideas for Christmas eve, and I am the only one that eats shrimp. The plan is to send DH to the store on Christmas eve early before they close and have him get food fo the 2 days.

My mom is coming for New Years. I might stop by the Park District's NYE party. We have hosted a party in the past, but it seems people are out of town this year, so probably no hosting this year. My kids are still a little young for a lot of movies, but my family used to have the tradition of playing cards on NYE and going to the movies on New Years day, so maybe there is a kids movie they could go to. My son is uber sensitive so any movie with strong emotions is hard for him.

I am sure we could do board games. Someone used to alternate who had the NYE party, and there seems like there was always good food and sangria!
My grandparents used to live in Florida, so we were there for New Years for many years. In 1999/2000 NY, we went to Disney World. Those were the days and hard to believe but a lot less crowded back then.

[auntie]

Shrimp sounds amazing. One of my favorites, alas a have developed an intolerance/allergy.

House is clean.

Minimal decorating is done. Shrubs outside are done, 2 trees inside instead of 3, didn't bother to bring out houses, china, pine garland.

Did no baking. BFF makes 72 kinds of cookies and candy, so what the point?

No card or newsletter this year.

Gifts are bought and wrapped. DS wants 2 specific model train engines which I preordered. I got a couple gift cards and some tees for him to open.

Christmas Even dinner with be niece, her BF, DS, DH and Me. We'll do Roast Pork Grand-mare. Maybe a mushroom soup starter. Definitely a "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus" cake. Because we like cake. Brunch at my mother's with the same crowd. Probably homemade beer and cheese soup at home just the 3 of us Christmas night.

My rumtopf is ready to be bottled, so that will be for after dinner.

NYE is dinner out with some longtime friends then a party at their son-in-law's place. NYD recovering from it all.

[akafred]

MIL comes to visit tomorrow, leaving Tuesday, which is actually a day shorter on either end than originally planned, but her doctor thinks she shouldn't drive that far alone so she is being shuttled. This week was full of cooking freezer meals, cleaning the house, and starting to put together some of the Christmas gifts that need to be put together. Today I clean the hall bath, the sofas, kitchen, mop the floors (paw prints everywhere because it's been raining all week), grocery shopping, and maybe bake some pies and cookies. DH takes the dog to the kennel today before work so at least there is that. DD was in horse camp this week (social anxiety plus holiday anxiety in overdrive so it has been super rough this week) but it got canceled for today for flooding so I get to do all that with her, plus take her somewhere for exercise.

[funchicken]

My kids have been on winter break for a week already because the school is trying to kill me, I think. I took the girls to a trampoline place yesterday, and that mellowed them out considerably.

I'm done with my shopping, mailed my holiday cards, but I haven't done any wrapping yet. We're hosting Christmas Eve, so I have a lot of cleaning/cooking to do tomorrow. We're going to spend 5 days with the in-laws after Christmas, and I'm hoping we'll get some snow while we're there because the kids are dying to play in the snow.

[freezorburn]

DS and I just finished up a week with my parents, and we are currently en route to XILs where he will spend the remainder of the holiday with his dad.

I have a suitcase full of presents for XILs. XH agreed to take care of buying our joint gifts for DS so I wouldn’t have to travel with them or ship them. Nothing is wrapped, I will have to wrap when we get to XILs.

I’m struggling to figure out what to give XH. I know I don’t owe him anything, but I figure that giving him some kind of token is good behavior to model for DS. And it’s in our parenting plan to do some kind of joint celebration. The past couple of years I’ve hosted and done a combo of stocking stuffers and maybe a book or two. This year I haven’t had as much time to shop and nothing is coming to me. The only thing I have thought of is to buy him the Hamilton soundtrack, which he should at least find interesting because it touches on a number of his favorite subjects; but then it could also be triggering because Hamilton’s affair is a major plot point. And he could read something into it, depending on his mood when he hears it. Even though he already knows all of it, academically, as a history buff. So it’s probably not a good idea. I’ll probably just get him a gift card.

I head home on Sunday, my sister and her family are flying in, and I have nothing ready for them. Other than gifts for my nephew, which is just DS passing toys on. I’ll probably just buy stocking stuffers at the airport ... I think we are all just looking forward to spending some time together and none of us want more stuff in our houses.

I’m hoping to go skiing over New Years weekend before DS gets home. Will see if that works out.

[mightymaude]

Our dog died 2 weeks ago. DS (9.5) is still fairly upset about it. Unfortunately, DD(7) never really was super attached and some of her comments/questions are insensitive. The holidays are not going well for him.

DD is still scared of Santa and the idea that he may come in our house. We want to tell her, but her big brother still believes and she wouldn't understand why telling him would be mean. We plan to tell him before middle school, but this is not the year (see above).

We made it through visiting my parents with DS only crying twice, so we are counting that as a win.

[lemonberry]

This is the first year that DS actually "gets" Christmas and he's really enjoyed everything. Apparently, Youtube Kids and Christmas movies taught him some expectations. I bought pull-apart cookie dough to make cookies for Santa and he couldn't get over that we weren't mixing anything. He even had all the ingredients set out on the table. We ended up seeing four different Santas and he would run up to them, take a picture, and tell them what he wanted for Christmas which is a huge difference from last year when he pretty much would high-five Santa and run away. All of the gifts that he got were big hits.

Aside from DS and me, everyone else is sick today so we ate at the Chinese buffet by ourselves. Unfortunately, I'm working NYE. I don't know if DH is going to feel up to doing anything.

[miranda]

We had a nice holiday. I got to host, which I enjoy. DS got into baking this year; he has a knack for it because he's so damn precise with measurements (unlike me!). DS got a bunch of games and football cards. He's really into board games, which I love. He asked for Stratego, which I used to play in my grandparents basement when I was a kid. Good times. Finished an entire game of Monopoly for the first time. My dad pulled out a huge crossword puzzle, which he has never done. We were all obsessed. We cut our after-Christmas shopping short because "we have to finish the puzzle!" It wasn't all rosy- DS also got a new Ipad Mini. For us (and many ASD families I suspect) the ipad is like a toaster. It's just a tool of the house. The Ipad DS was using is a first generation and he can't play many of his games on it anymore. So an upgrade was just necessary. My parents audibly gasped and shook their heads in disbelief when he opened it. DS was more excited about his Grumpy Cat plushie.

We are all going on a Caribbean cruise in two weeks, and on this -8 day, it's about all I can think about!!