Be Excellent To Each Other

Have a quite one for the main days this year, just my wife’s parents over. Have pretty much done everything now, last thing is to finalize the Tesco delivery on the 21st December, have until the 20th to do that though.

Presents are all done, got my wife some Pearl Jam tickets for 2018, so she is delighted, just have one Lego model to take back for my son as he keeps changing his bloody mind ( I go through his letter to Santa so I can check what he wants)

My wife is going back to Dublin 27th-3rd with our baby, she can have her family look after him a bit and get a well-deserved Spa day, so I will be home alone with my older son.

So I’m busy planning activities for that period, otherwise he will watch TV all day if I let him, I was pleasantly surprised to see that all the National Trust places around open from Boxing Day, so weather permitting can get him out for a good walk every day. Also have a few other trips to friends planned and some play dates to break the week up.

So not quite the restful break I remember from my pre children days but looking forward to it all the same!

I am not sure.. I have my boy till 9am boxing day. That will be a bit magical,

Heading west on the Thursday before to be with the family. Probably usual mix of chilling, meeting old friends, and seeing the coast. As a modern family, we plan our Christmas day around Doctor Who, rather than Mrs Windsor.

Spending new year with my outdoor group in Ironbridge. Hopefully getting some good hiking in, weather permitting.

Where are you stopping in Ironbridge?

Not sure if we're about for new year, but feel free to drop us a line if you fancy it and we can nip down for a coffee with you or something

Pretty centrally. I've only been to Ironbridge once before, and really liked it. With the historic architecture along the riverfront I did find myself picturing several American Civil War scenes when I was lazing in an outdoor cafe on that warm Autumn day a few years back.

Thanks! Will let you know how things work out.

Just to manage expectations, it isn't Donner and Blitzen visiting over Christmas from the North, but Donna and Blitzkreig.

Anything's better than those ghosts I usually get.

Count me in.. will wander down

Bear in mind that the Iron Bridge itself is currently undergoing some pretty hefty repairs and renovations so isn't actually visible.

But if you have plastic wrapping fetish, you are in for a treat.

Dinner at home with Mum and Dad popping over.

Then round to MarkGs to drink all his booze and enter a virtual realm.

This Christmas is slightly ruined as Kev Pupil isn't popping back home.

Have to get the Boy's 5th Birthday over with first, then Xmas morning with the wife and kids. Over to the Brother in Law's house for dinner and drinks then staying with the Mother In Law til Boxing Day.

I'm expecting socks.

Going out for £90 a head Christmas dinner in the Shire (not my idea and thankfully I'm not paying). Then down to my parents after Boxing Day I expect.

Will try to make the whole thing go as quickly as possible.

The usual routine has been my parents taking me over to my brother's flat in Sale for a bit of a get-together and present exchanging on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas Day, me wandering over to my parents' house for dinner and a few hours of bad telly. I imagine that'll be the plan this year too if Dad is up to it, but I'm rather hoping my brother will suggest coming to us instead, so that Dad doesn't have to exert himself too much.

I quite like the idea of going to my brother's place on my own beforehand and skipping any large social gathering as it's easier on my anxiety that way, but one of the presents I've bought is an mini X-Rocker chair, which I'm rather wishing I'd had delivered straight to there instead of here.

I appreciate this sounds most ungrateful, but our perfect Christmas would be staying at home and not seeing anyone.

And seeing my family for more than one day at a time is incredibly wearing.

Yeah, for them

My dad is like me but worse.

I literally can't imagine this.

Standard Christmas is down to my parents house mid afternoon to spend the day with them p!us sister, niece and one set of aunt/uncle/cousin then back home that night; however this year we're going to my aunt and uncles place instead for some reason. Which doesn't make much difference to me and I'm just as genuinely happy to see them there, with the upside that it's closer to me as they're in Glasgow rather than Ayrshire so less time my sister has to spend ferrying me around. A mate of mine has come with me the last couple of years and that'll likely be off the table with these altered arrangements but I imagine he'll be spending the day with his new daughter and the baby mama (and her family that he hates).

That aside, I *should* only be at work tomorrow and Wednesday then off until January as is usual but this time there's a chance fucking fucking fucking MIFID will screw that up for me. Fucking MIFID.

With the job change and contracting rather than being an employee, I've not had a full week off this year, so all I want for Christmas is a nice chunk of time to myself, partly to recharge and partly to tidy up all the stuff that's been accumulating of late that I've not had time to test yet.

I should say that I finish work on Friday and I'm not back in until the 2nd of Jan.

Which is nice.

I’m having a quiet Christmas with Russell and Darwin. We’d planned it that way anyway, but I can’t see anyone at the moment so I’m glad not to have plans to cancel. My mother and stepdad were supposed to be coming over on Sunday for my birthday a few days later, and to see Darwin (well, and Russell!) but it’s increasingly unlikely whilst I’m ill, so Im finding that quite an upset at the moment. I don’t know if we’ll manage a roast dinner. I said jacket potatoes as a joke a week or two ago, but it’s actially looking more likely each day as we haven’t bought a thing.

Ok I'm booking you in for Xmas 2018.

I'm flying home to be with the family, I guess we'll have dinner and whatnot, nothing big planned. Star Wars on Christmas Eve, Panto a few days earlier too.

Doing lunch for kids & sister + her boyfriend. Beyond that, not a clue.

Poor GazChap.

I'm sure I'll have no problem explaining that to my mum.

I'm sure she'll be invited.

They should probably meet before the wedding anyway

I'd rather elope, but Mr Dave would never forgive us.

Oh yeah. Forgot about him.

"Like" "+1" "up vote"

I'm going to be on the island (I've spent about half my time there this year), dunno if I'll be able to get a proper Christmas dinner, and I'll be working (here), but should be good fun anyway. Gonna watch the Alan Partridge Christmas special (the one from the 90s, not a new one) I think.

Can confirm.
I live in constant fear that he’ll get more like his dad. We recently over came the struggle of stopping him saying burp while burping (something his dad does) - which was replaced by “I didn’t say burp!”.
It gets weird when they’re together, his dad is definitely more annoying but he has had more years to practice.

Hi Sal!

In 1.5 hours I finish for 20 days of holiday.

Hello, lovely. I’ve been lurking since the cottage, got to avoid that one extra drink during the Beex drinking game for not having an account!

Is his sister weird as well, or is this affliction common only to the male line?

Seems to only be the males, his uncle is actually kind of cool so the annoying-ness must come directly from his dad. Either that or it only occurs in one sibling.

Same old same old in the Warhead Household. Birthday Buffet on Christmas Eve for my daughter with a few of her friends around, and we'll no doubt end up playing 'Who's In The Bag' at some point, along with as-yet-unspecified other games. Mrs. W has probably bought a new game for us to play, so we'll spend a considerable amount of time working out how to play it, as I'm not allowed to open it in advance to study The Rulez.

Christmas Day will involve our granddaughter being here at some stage , possibly for Christmas Dinner, along with Mrs W's sister for dinner and supper.

I'll be the designated driver, so no drinking for me on the Eve or the Day and, as always, that suits me just fine.

?

Hey! What the fuck happened there?

That's the single player version. We don't play that.

This just makes me want to meet his dad.

Yeah.

No.

You've already met him.