Where are you?

[alecE]

I hope that's Fahrenheit you're using! 9.5 degrees this morning (Centigrade I hasten to add). Have lit the solid fuel stove on the boat so of course I'm WAY too warm now (26 Centigrade 30 feet from the stove).

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by LazyScot

Have you tried hibernating, together with electrifying the doorbell? You can dig the ash into the garden as a fertilizer in the spring.....

now *there* is a christmas plan i can feel enthusiastic about !

Baaa Humbug.

Memo to self: Beware of squirrels bearing gifts....

doesn't that apply all year long ?

Originally Posted by dreams

As to Christmas.... I now solve that problem by purchasing all 17 immediate family members (my side) gift cards!

holy cow !!! that's a lot of family.

(Adam's Rib is very high on my list of films to see SOON. i actually can't believe i haven't seen it yet, in fact. i really don't know how that happened.)

Originally Posted by alecE

My local Waitrose has already started selling Xmas stuff, I'm starting to get tawdry catalogues through the post, and now DG (bless her cotton socks) reminds me that it's only 10 weeks (or less) away. Damn! I'd hoped to keep the grumpy old killjoy persona under wraps for at least another couple of weeks.
Grumps off in huff, muttering "Humbug!"

aw, but you're such a charming grumpy old killjoy.

Originally Posted by alecE

I hope that's Fahrenheit you're using! 9.5 degrees this morning (Centigrade I hasten to add). Have lit the solid fuel stove on the boat so of course I'm WAY too warm now (26 Centigrade 30 feet from the stove).

26 is sounding pretty nice to me, right now. it's a brisk 17 in here. i think i'm going to be turning the heat on any day now.

[Laz116]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

now *there* is a christmas plan i can feel enthusiastic about !





doesn't that apply all year long ?


holy cow !!! that's a lot of family.

(Adam's Rib is very high on my list of films to see SOON. i actually can't believe i haven't seen it yet, in fact. i really don't know how that happened.)


aw, but you're such a charming grumpy old killjoy.


26 is sounding pretty nice to me, right now. it's a brisk 17 in here. i think i'm going to be turning the heat on any day now.

As to christmas... the only way to go is negation. That's the spirit of Jesus. For myself all my wishes concerns goats to the third world. And I still hope I can strike a deal with the rest of the familiy that doesn't involve giving the kids just another 30th christmas present. They get enough. And we don't need anymore. When I come home to my parents for christmas it's all about the food and maybe the family. The presents are irrelevant. And how we spoil the kids today (and I have one myself): enough is enough.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by LazyScot

Have you tried hibernating, together with electrifying the doorbell? You can dig the ash into the garden as a fertilizer in the spring.....

Not yet - but that might be this year's plan

[peajayar]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Realize, its only 10 weeks before Christmas.

Plans made? Gift Lists thought out? Menu planned?

Perhaps you've already bought, wrapped and tagged gifts?

Where are you in the great process of the Christmas season?

(this subject isn't my fault, you know. I am already being hit with Christmas commercials, displays in stores, and newspaper ads..........so I figured you should suffer also! )

Children grown, no grandchildren, one Jewish person, one atheist in the household, we ignore christmas. Besides, it's summer down here in antipodean New Zealand when the day comes around. This year we are travelling to Auckland to spend the time with similarly christmas-detached friends. Switching off from the media/retail hype gets easier with practice.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by peajayar

Children grown, no grandchildren, one Jewish person, one atheist in the household, we ignore christmas. Besides, it's summer down here in antipodean New Zealand when the day comes around. This year we are travelling to Auckland to spend the time with similarly christmas-detached friends. Switching off from the media/retail hype gets easier with practice.

Of course I realize with this being a world wide forum, not all members celebrate.

Its interesting to see what those who don't, do instead.

So.....when you go to Auckland, what are your plans? What does Auckland have, that makes it your destination?

True interest from someone who will most likely never get past the borders of the U. S.

[LazyScot]

How about Unwrapped (and its equivalents worldwide)?

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by kazbates

...My husband and older kids howl with laughter over "A Christmas Story" even though they've seen it a hundred times. I like watching "Scrooged" because I love Bill Murray!...

"It's a Wonderful Life" is my favorite holiday movie. "Way to go, Clarence!" always gets me teared up, despite my best efforts.

[WT Sharpe]

Here's an interesting aside that's completely outside the holiday theme.

My Foxfire browser was acting up today, so I opened this thread in Internet Explorer and discovered:



Yeah, I know -- it's off topic. So shoot me.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled thread...

[zelda_pinwheel]

when i was a child, my grandfather and i would begin making paper stars to decorate the christmas trees several weeks in advance. he would measure and cut the paper strips and we would both fold them. they looked like this :



we would make dozens of them and when my grandparents bought their tree my grandmother would take a needle and thread and make a loop on each star so we could hang them up. although i'm not a fan of christmas today, that is a childhood memory i cherish and from time to time i make a star out of scrap paper just to keep my hand in, so i don't forget, and i put them up around the house. sometimes the cat steals one, but it's okay, i can make more.

today i got the ikea christmas catalogue in my mailbox. this year, they are selling paper stars like i used to make with my grandfather (but green, instead of white, as they are meant to be (although i make them now in whatever colour i have)), 6 for 2.99€. something about that seems very wrong to me. *everything* about that, in fact. stars are to be made, not bought !

[kazbates]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

when i was a child, my grandfather and i would begin making paper stars to decorate the christmas trees several weeks in advance. he would measure and cut the paper strips and we would both fold them. they looked like this :



we would make dozens of them and when my grandparents bought their tree my grandmother would take a needle and thread and make a loop on each star so we could hang them up. although i'm not a fan of christmas today, that is a childhood memory i cherish and from time to time i make a star out of scrap paper just to keep my hand in, so i don't forget, and i put them up around the house. sometimes the cat steals one, but it's okay, i can make more.

today i got the ikea christmas catalogue in my mailbox. this year, they are selling paper stars like i used to make with my grandfather (but green, instead of white, as they are meant to be (although i make them now in whatever colour i have)), 6 for 2.99€. something about that seems very wrong to me. *everything* about that, in fact. stars are to be made, not bought !

Those are fabulous (please share the directions) and you are absolutly correct. We are trying to make everything way too easy. Instead of making something with our own hands, we have to buy it. Of course, I'm a huge crafter and love to make things myself. Having said all that, I just bought Ryleigh a Halloween costume when every other year I've made her one.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by kazbates

Those are fabulous (please share the directions)

well... okay, since it's you... i kid. i love making these stars, and i love the idea that the art of folding them is still alive and well from generation to generation ; the more people folding them, the better, so they're not forgetten. and you're lucky, i could never have explained it to you, but when i was searching for a photo, i found some instructions (the site claims they are german. pay no attention, they are polish. ). that site actually proposes to sell you pre-cut paper strips, but down that road lies ikea with their 6 stars for 2.99€ !!! just cut them yourself ! it's not hard.

http://highhopes.com/3dstar.html

and you are absolutly correct. We are trying to make everything way too easy. Instead of making something with our own hands, we have to buy it. Of course, I'm a huge crafter and love to make things myself. Having said all that, I just bought Ryleigh a Halloween costume when every other year I've made her one.

my grandparents made everything themselves (and i mean EVERYTHING, including wine and honey, and my grandfather had a box with scraps of leather for resoling his shoes...). partly because at the time they were growing up, that's how things were done, and partly i suspect because during the war you had to be very resourceful and self-reliant. so i learned the value of knowing various skills from them. i always feel a lot of respect for people who know how to make or do things themselves. i admit that i am somewhat lazy, so sometimes i buy frozen meals or pre-cooked soupe instead of doing all my cooking myself, and i take my shoes to the cobbler if i need new soles, but still, most things, if i *need* to do them, i can. and i get a lot of pleasure from wearing clothes that i made myself, for instance, knowing they are completely unique.

[desertgrandma]

Karma to you for posting those instruction. They look a little involved, but then I have a left handed brain.

I will study over and over until I've made one. When I've mastered the skill......it will be my turn to teach my granddaughter.

Thank you, Madame Z.

[LazyScot]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

well... okay, since it's you... i kid. i love making these stars, and i love the idea that the art of folding them is still alive and well from generation to generation ; the more people folding them, the better, so they're not forgetten. and you're lucky, i could never have explained it to you, but when i was searching for a photo, i found some instructions (the site claims they are german. pay no attention, they are polish. ). that site actually proposes to sell you pre-cut paper strips, but down that road lies ikea with their 6 stars for 2.99€ !!! just cut them yourself ! it's not hard.

http://highhopes.com/3dstar.html

I can remember making vaguely similar folded paper chains to decorate the house with. At the simplest they were like a mini-accordian, but there were variants (I've now forgotten about) that you could introduce more star-like arrangments by changing the weave partway along. Partly dating myself, I remember making them (as a child!) out of punched tape.

I'm now going to be up all night trying to remember how to fold them..... Now where did I put that Talisker bottle.

[paul1403]

I've already got my holidays from work approved, the shopping has begun, all systems are currently go.

With any luck Christmas here will be nice and warm... as far as I'm concerned, the best part of Christmas is a blazing hot Boxing Day, cold drink in one hand (maybe a cold drink in both hands... one should always have a balanced diet, y'know), settling down in front of the TV with the Boxing Day Test Match on (one of the great Australian cricket institutions - C'mon Aussie, C'mon), and let the world drift along without me for a few days.

Paul
Canberra, Australia