What are you expecting this Christmas?

aliasojo

I'm expecting the reality of our 'shaved back' Xmas to hit home on Xmas morning and those previously supportive faces to appear crestfallen whilst trying to force a smile anyway.

I'm expecting us all to be bored stupid.

I'm expecting OH's face to trip him for most of the day cos he gets pretty stressed listening to son and daughter grumble at each other, as they invariably will.

I'm expecting to go on yet another downer about our debt (cos Xmas Day will have reminded me again why it's so quiet and it takes really very little to upset me these days ).

I'm expecting to sit on the couch with the remains of the bottle of fizzy plonk from dinner and to warn everyone to get out of my vicinity if they wish to moan or be moody.

I'm expecting to watch crap tv.

I'm expecting to have to push OH out of the way as he's hogging too much floor space whilst playing 'Just Dance 4' with daughter.

I'm expecting to get up on Boxing Day with a huge sense of relief that's it's all over and for once I haven't spent a fortune I couldn't afford to spend.

balletshoes

I'm expecting to have to wake up my DD on Christmas morning to tell her Santas been (she's 11 and she's never woken up before me on Christmas morning yet).
I'm expecting to be at my sister's house in the morning for the family pressie-opening, then bacon/sausage rolls and a cuppa while the kids sift through their loot .

Then we'll all retire to our corners until mid-afternoon, when we'll show up at Mums for Christmas dinner. I expect we'll have the yearly strategic placing of the chairs around the table in the living room to avoid bumping into the christmas tree/christmas statues etc. All us girls will form a chain from the living room to the kitchen with plates of food etc, and at some point each of us will be elbow-deep in washing up.

I'm expecting that my BIL will either be hungover already by Christmas afternoon, in which case he'll be playing poor me in the corner, or he'll spend the Christmas dinner getting progressively more drunk (and stupid). I'm expecting that at some point my sister, his wife, will tell him to stop swearing because there are young kids in the house, and then he will go in the huff with everyone and not say a word for about half an hour :rotfl:.

By around 8pm, with Mum's living room and kitchen tidied up, it will be time to go home and relax .

MoaningMyrtle

I am expecting the following:

My mother and sister will be drinking champagne all day. Makes them better tempered.
My OH will do a lot of the work in the kitchen.
I am imposing a 'no mobile phones' rule for a few hours for everyone so we may have some communication with the teenagers.
I will enjoy seeing the younger nieces/nephews with their new toys.
We will enjoy going for a walk about 5/6 pm and looking in windows at trees etc. (Those that want to come). This is a nice opportunity for those that feel the need to break wind.

angeltreats

I like this thread

I'm expecting:

As it is only DH and myself this year, we will have a nice lie in until about 9am

I will make either home made waffles or Danish pastries for breakfast, while listening to cheesy Christmas CDs

After breakfast we will open our presents and phone our families, maybe a it of Skype with DH's parents

Maybe we'll go for a walk, if it's not raining (but only a little one as it's cold and I'm lazy at this time of year)

We won't be having a turkey, and whatever we do end up having will be mostly prepared the day before so I only have to finish it off, and can relax with my feet up and watch whatever Christmas movies are on TV - hopefully Home Alone, Wizard of Oz and Scrooged

We will have dinner around 3pm and this is also when we will start having a wee tipple or five

As the day goes on we will get rather merry but as we only have to look after ourselves this year and have no parents or inlaws this isn't a problem

I will watch Downton while really quite tiddly, and DH will go off to play his Xbox for however long Downton is on for. I will end up having a good old cry at whatever happens on Downton and eating probably most of a tin of choccies

We will go to bed fairly early as we'll be really quite sozzled!

I expect we will have a lovely Christmas that won't be lonely even though we haven't got any other family members around this year, and I'm really looking forward to it.

ciderwithrosie_2

I expect to have nice morning baking on Christmas Eve, my parents will pop over with the turkey. I have to watch a version of 'A Christmas Carol' at some point during the day otherwise it's just not Christmas! The in-laws and other relatives will call round in the afternoon, they won't stop long! We then have an open house for ours and the boys friends to call in for drinks and nibbles. We might order a takeaway. The boys may go out on the town. OH will put the ham on to cook.

Christmas Day - OH gets up and makes us a cup of tea and we sit up in bed opening our pressies to each other (not this year as we haven't got any) and giggling.

Now the boys are older they probably won't surface til mid morning. OH and I get on with the lunch, he has a beer or two, I drink mulled wine.

My lovely parents arrive and the boys will eventually roll out of bed - we all sit down to lunch, squashed round our small table, then my parents help me clear up, we open presents and the OH will probably fall asleep. My parents go on about 6pm and then the boys will be looking for turkey sandwiches and whatever else they can find.

Happy days!

Any

I expect to have a lie in (that is if I can wait), then get up and open presents from my OH and my OH presents from me.
Have leisurely breakfast with fizz&orange juice (hopefully).
Then we will dress and set off to OH's parents, where we will have light lunch/brunch, open presies we exchange with them and then my MIL will start cooking real Christmas dinner, while I will try to help and be told off or given light tasks, chat with her while at it and my OH and FIL will start pouring lot of wine. OH will get instructions to set up the Kindle Fire my MIL is getting for Xmas and learn to work with it for a/tell her what to do and b/to be on call in emergency when MIL touches something she shouldn't.
My FIL will go into his shed under pretence of doing something there/picking up something from there, while I know he goes there to smoke his cigar and I will try to sneak out also for a ciggy, which is not easy as my job is to entertain MIL while she cooks.
Then we will have lovely dinner with special desert made for me because I don't particulary like fruit cake. I would eat it for the 1 night in year, but my MIL insists I don't have to and makes me or defrosts something else for me (she frozes some desserts).
We will then chat for a bit longer, and then we will make our way home where we will just watch TV if it is not too late, or we might go straight to bed.

Sometimes during the day I will get phone call from my mother, which I am hoping I will miss as I haven't got anything much to say to her. If I hear the phone guilt will make me pick it up. She will wish us merry christmas with tears in her eyes, trying to tell us how much she loves us even though it is not true much and I will have to say the same. And tell her what my nieces that she has no contact with and who don't know what she looks like really doing and promise her some pictures. I will quite possibly also get call from my father, whom I will call back if I miss him and will have a lot to say to him.

CH27

I expect to be frazzled this year.

meer53

Xmas morning - Son (25) Daughter (12) will both be in bed whilst i'll be up ! This is the first year my daughter has found out that i'm Santa, so i doubt she'll be up early !

Open pressies whilst having bucks fizz to wake us up. Then about 11ish, have a brunch of bacon sarnies (kids) smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel (me) with more bucks fizz.

Then all off to visit ex MIL at the nursing home for an hour.

Xmas lunch will be about 3pm, fillet steak or pork with usual Xmas veggies, pigs in blankets etc with a nice bottle of champagne. My ex is coming for Xmas lunch as his ex GF is picking their kids up Xmas lunchtime, my daughter didn't want him to be on his own, so he's coming here (same as last year !) He'll shove off about teatime. Son will probably go to his GF's in the evening, daughter and myself will watch rubbish TV as usual or play whatever new boardgame she has got from Santa (Loopz Shifter this year)

Bed at about 11pm, happy and contented. No arguments, no falling out, no-one getting drunk, no ungrateful relatives making snide comments about pressies. Just me and my kids, i love it.

Hezzawithkids

I expect:

To be woken early by DD (17) and DS (11).
I expect I will have a mild hangover after an evening spent eating/drinking/playing cards or board games with family the night before.
I expect I will also be feeling bloated and bilious from over-indulging in the salty, sugary snacks that I used to help the alcohol go down.
I expect I will need to wake FIL up to join us in the lounge for pressie opening shortly after the kids have woken me.
I expect to be making a cuppa for the grown-ups.
I expect to spend a pleasurable couple of hours watching everyone open their gifts and opening mine.
I expect to start writing a list of who-got-what for the thank you letters but then either lose it or forget about it halfway through the morning.
I expect to go through several black bin bags tidying up wrapping paper etc.
I also expect to make several trips to the recycling bin during the morning.
I expect OH to cook a light brekky for everyone, but will probably end up doing it myself.
I expect phone calls from various family members.
I expect a feeling of panic when I realise that there's something that I'd forgotten to get out of the freezer the night before.
I expect a pleasurable couple of hours fiddling around in the kitchen preparing dinner while sipping a glass (or two) of orange-flavoured fizz.
I expect Mum & Bro to be at least half an hour late.
I expect Bro to offload a few bottles of obscure ales on OH that will end up in the back of the cupboard and forgotten.
I expect to sit down for dinner with no appetite left for it.
I expect to be emptying/refilling the dishwasher several times over.
I expect to have to watch Dr Who.
I expect no-one to eat the pudding, cake or mince pies because they will be stuffed.
I expect another evening of cards and board games.
I expect to flop into bed around midnight, slightly sozzled, full up but content!

bluenoseam

I'm expecting my grandmother to thoroughly !!!! me off greatly with her own inimitable way of showing gratitude for whatever we get her - namely "ye shouldn't have bothered". Problem is that if I indeed didn't bother my backside she'd undoubtedly moan at either of my two sisters painting me out to be !!!!! of the century. However I suppose I should be grateful, last week she handed the parental unit back various pieces of presents over the course of the last 10 years - inclusive of all but one thing which she'd bought her last year!

I'm expecting same grandmother to be a pain in the backside at Christmas dinner as well, she doesn't have that filter whereby she realises that things annoy people. One such example was her insistence last year that the smoking ban was a sin for the smokers, after all they don't do any harm - yeah, because passive smoking never killed anyone! (this was incidentally said roughly 4 days before I had to go to a clinic so was especially volatile around the situation! Parental unit thankfully spotted I was about to go all Incredible Hulk and "sorted" as best she could the situation)

I expect her to comment that I'm not wearing the smellies she got me despite the fact being 28 years of age I have absolutely no desire to utilise any of the Old Spice products. What's even funnier is the fact we've repeatedly told her I do not wear aftershave! Still atleast this year she's taken the hint & hasn't bought me a toothbrush & toothpaste - another tetchy subject as my teeth are the most noticable part of my illness as they're slowly deteriorating due to treatment.

I expect the parental unit to get overly emotional at the most inane of stuff & be a general highly strung crazy over things which are really so very very simple it's funny!

I expect the younger sister to be one of the few people who actually manage to see that what I'm doing is removing most of the drama so therefore does whatever I ask her to do without questioning it a thousand times.

I expect older sister to get narky with her FIL, P off my BiL & oldest nephew to the point where the poor guys genuinely feel like they caused everything bad in the world.

I expect to count down the hours before the parental unit & the sprogs return to school & I get to enjoy some peace & quiet!!!!