My journey to a debt free life

foxgloves

Actually, OBL, I do think there will be quite a lot of people who would rather just have a quieter, safer Christmas this year. I feel no inclination to be mixing households at the moment, despite not having seen my sister since last Christmas. We will arrange a Christmas Day skype where we all open a present, share a glass of something & drink a toast to the UK managing to get a grip on Covid until the vaccination roll-out. Frankly, it's one year. I'd rather have a big improvement ready for next Christmas than make the infection situation worse this year. This might not be a popular opinion but I'm sticking by it.
F x

badmemory

I think a lot of us will be being "sensible" this Christmas.  I know I will be.  DS & I will celebrate as much as we can but won't be seeing people.  I'd just be worried all the time anyway so it would be totally pointless.  The great thing about it is I won't have to worry about what I am going to wear, when did I wear it last, is it suitable & top of the list will I be warm enough?

I do worry though about those that don't "get it".  I had to bite my tongue on Monday when I was in a shop & for the umpteenth time saw someone with their mask below their nose.  What do they not understand?

Cherryfudge

I'm with you there @foxgloves. We will probably have Auntie to stay over actual Christmas but had already arranged that the immediate family's Christmas will be a few days later as our older children have plans with other people and our youngest is working. However that was scheduled for 28th so I can see us having to rethink that, too.

Given that three of the four households of our immediate family have someone working in health or care, I think it's sensible to keep apart, but there are 12 days to Christmas (and the rest of December and January on either side) so there are opportunities to go for distanced walks, have video calls, drop off or post surprises and main presents and probably watch some of the same stuff on telly or attend virtual events.

It's evident when we do video calls that everyone is just enjoying each other's company and one of the benefits of this year has been simplifying that. I would never normally have thought of asking a friend on a simple walk (we would have included a coffee shop and scenic route!) but now it's a way I can get fresh air and see people who mean a lot to me and that's more important than cake and touristy spots.

Next year could be a lot like recent Christmases so in a way I feel let's treasure the things we can do, and put thought into them because in the future they may once again get overshadowed by commercialism. For those who are able, it's also an opportunity to reach out to others who are lonely or less well off, too. It will be a hard year for many.

milann

I think we will be visiting my dd at Christmas. Her in laws are staying at home and not visiting this year. So my ds - Who is  in our bubble will also be with us. We have all said we will isolate as much as possible the couple of weeks beforehand and we won’t be doing much else whilst there other than walks away from crowds along the sea front near her.....and playing inside with my gks. That of course is as long as none of us have been contacted by track and trace.....we will have emergency turkey on hand just in case 👍
Your decorations make me smile every time I see them 👍

Sun_Addict

I’ve only got one family to mix with namely DS and the GKs. There’ll be no going mad for me at Christmas, no change from any other year for me 😆

Onebrokelady

foxgloves said:

Actually, OBL, I do think there will be quite a lot of people who would rather just have a quieter, safer Christmas this year. I feel no inclination to be mixing households at the moment, despite not having seen my sister since last Christmas. We will arrange a Christmas Day skype where we all open a present, share a glass of something & drink a toast to the UK managing to get a grip on Covid until the vaccination roll-out. Frankly, it's one year. I'd rather have a big improvement ready for next Christmas than make the infection situation worse this year. This might not be a popular opinion but I'm sticking by it.
F x

I've just been reading a post about it on FB and I would say from looking at that it's half and half,for every person who says they are not mixing there is another who says they don't care and carrying on regardless, one person moaned about how covid is stopping people from getting treatment for other things so we should not be concentrating on it so much but they don't seem to make the connection that if the infection rate goes up that will mean more hospital admissions which will mean more impact on other services, they are moaning that their grandma can't get her hip replacement but don't want to have to give anything up for that to happen 😟

Onebrokelady

badmemory said:

I think a lot of us will be being "sensible" this Christmas.  I know I will be.  DS & I will celebrate as much as we can but won't be seeing people.  I'd just be worried all the time anyway so it would be totally pointless.  The great thing about it is I won't have to worry about what I am going to wear, when did I wear it last, is it suitable & top of the list will I be warm enough?

I do worry though about those that don't "get it".  I had to bite my tongue on Monday when I was in a shop & for the umpteenth time saw someone with their mask below their nose.  What do they not understand?

Your right there's no point in doing it if you are going to worry about it, I've given up with people who don't wear their masks properly, I never realised there were so many stupid people around 

Onebrokelady

Cherryfudge said:

I'm with you there @foxgloves. We will probably have Auntie to stay over actual Christmas but had already arranged that the immediate family's Christmas will be a few days later as our older children have plans with other people and our youngest is working. However that was scheduled for 28th so I can see us having to rethink that, too.

Given that three of the four households of our immediate family have someone working in health or care, I think it's sensible to keep apart, but there are 12 days to Christmas (and the rest of December and January on either side) so there are opportunities to go for distanced walks, have video calls, drop off or post surprises and main presents and probably watch some of the same stuff on telly or attend virtual events.

It's evident when we do video calls that everyone is just enjoying each other's company and one of the benefits of this year has been simplifying that. I would never normally have thought of asking a friend on a simple walk (we would have included a coffee shop and scenic route!) but now it's a way I can get fresh air and see people who mean a lot to me and that's more important than cake and touristy spots.

Next year could be a lot like recent Christmases so in a way I feel let's treasure the things we can do, and put thought into them because in the future they may once again get overshadowed by commercialism. For those who are able, it's also an opportunity to reach out to others who are lonely or less well off, too. It will be a hard year for many.

I agree Cherry ,I think this year we need to enjoy the simple things we can still do 😊

Onebrokelady

milann said:

I think we will be visiting my dd at Christmas. Her in laws are staying at home and not visiting this year. So my ds - Who is  in our bubble will also be with us. We have all said we will isolate as much as possible the couple of weeks beforehand and we won’t be doing much else whilst there other than walks away from crowds along the sea front near her.....and playing inside with my gks. That of course is as long as none of us have been contacted by track and trace.....we will have emergency turkey on hand just in case 👍
Your decorations make me smile every time I see them 👍

Your plans sound very sensible and if you can isolate before going that would be even better, I'm liking the sound Of an emergency turkey 😀
My decorations are making me smile too 😀 

Onebrokelady

Sun_Addict said:

I’ve only got one family to mix with namely DS and the GKs. There’ll be no going mad for me at Christmas, no change from any other year for me 😆

No difficult decisions to made then 😀