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Stella
11-6-11, 4:21pm
We got some of our hotel reservations made today and firmed up plans with my grandma to stay with her along the way. Eeek! One month and two days to go!

We will be traveling for almost a month. The destination is San Diego to my mother's house for Christmas, but along the way there and back we'll be going through 13 states total. Along the way we will visit various aunts, uncles, cousins and old friends.

We're having Christmas with my mom, dad, sister, nephew, grandma, grandpa, aunt and cousin. It's the first time in forever this many people have been together. My sister and nephew have never even met my youngest two children! Only my family (me, DH and kids) will be staying at my mom's so we'll all have some space of our own.

I think it's going to be a great Christmas. Outside of my grandma, who bought each kid an outfit, there are no gifts. We're taking turns paying for fun things to do like the zoo, aquarium and whale watching. The food is going to be simple and the focus is going to be on the company. Instead of souveniers we're going to collect photos, letterbox stamps in our letterbox journal and, if Bella gets her way, rocks and shells.

We get a lot of posts about hating the holidays. Is anyone else excited for them?

Nella
11-6-11, 4:29pm
I also get excited about the holidays. I love the get togethers (I only go to the ones I really want to attend) and I love making gifts for my family and friends. Each year it's a fun challenge to find thrifty ways to put together each gift. And of course, my church does a lovely job of preparing for the Christmas holiday. Lots of music, special services, service projects, etc. to really help us to remember to put the 'Christ' in 'Christmas.' Can't wait!

Tradd
11-6-11, 4:36pm
Sounds great!

I enjoy the holidays! I have a small (18"-24") tree that goes on an end table, complete with small ball ornaments, lights, and a very sparkly sequined tree skirt (all from Target last year). I play lots of Christmas music, and every year try to get one new CD (or in digital form) of Christmas music. I just finished my Christmas/St. Nicholas Day shopping today. Things for my goddaughter, and I also took a name (teenager) for the Christmas gift drive for kids in foster care through church.

I'm going to be out of my apartment, due to the repairs for sinking foundation, for about a month beginning in mid-December, but I'm going to take my wee tree with me to the extended stay where I'll be and I have all my Christmas music loaded on my iPod, so I'll have that with me.

I have a little wooden tree (2-D) that I'll put up in my cube at work, and that's it. Maybe I'll get a little poinsettia plant.

I'll be spending time with friends, lots of good food, so that will make up for being out of my own place for so long.

Anne Lee
11-6-11, 8:37pm
I like the music, the lights, the Creche, Christmas dinner, the stockings, and some of the decorations.

Rosemary
11-7-11, 7:21am
I enjoy many things about the holidays: the celebrations, the lights, decorations,and music, getting together with family, seeing how excited DD and other kids are, making special gifts, decorating our tree with DD, watching her and DH assemble our outside lights.

And when the holidays are done, I always look forward to a focus on our individual home, a quiet time to get organized, stay warm and cozy, play board games, practice music, eat soups.

Stella
11-7-11, 8:48am
I love reading about your holiday celebrations! Rosemary, I like that shift too. It goes from being quite celebratory and communal to sort of quiet and calm.

Zach and I were talking last night about ideas for the trip. Last year was my Year of Hospitality and part three of my four part plan, which I knew would take more than one year, was Make the World Your Neighbor. In that spirit we are going to bring a sort of travel journal that we can have the people we meet on the road sign and write a little note.

The other thing we are going to do is make a couple of photo series. One might be of the people we meet. For sure we are planning a Churches of the West series. We are planning to attend daily mass in as many churches as possible from small town parish churches to big city Catherdrals and old missions. It's a good way to meet locals and we're going to use the opportunity to discuss architecture a bit. Another one I was thinking of was a family photo in front of various Welcome to... type state and city signs. Small town signs and iconic ones like the Welcome to Las Vegas sign and the Hollywood sign.

A friend suggested, and I think this could be funny, that we also do a Bathrooms of the West photo series, since people frequently joke about how often we're going to have to stop to go to the bathroom with four little kids on a month-long trip. :) I think these would be fun photos to put on the walls later on. The Bathrooms of the West series can go on the bathroom wall. We could do a Diners, Drive-ins and Dives photo series in the kitchen. :)

Anyway I'm rambling. Clearly I really am excited! :) I'd love to hear more about other people's plans!

domestic goddess
11-7-11, 8:55am
I like most everything about the holidays, and seem to be pretty good about ignoring the rest. I'm excited about Advent, picking up some new books and music for that time, and about holiday baking. Everyone here loves Christmas cookies, and I plan to make some in the next two weeks, when I go home to visit my mom. If I get them in the freezer, they will have plenty for Christmas. I hope to get some made for my niece, who just had a hysterectomy, and my cousin, who is coming for a visit. By the time I do cleaning, doctor's appointments, and taking my mother shopping, I will need a vacation from my vacation!
As much as I love the holidays, though, I really love that down time afterwards. Putting things away and shifting the focus to winter and the cold. Having warm, cozy treats in the evening. Sitting inside, all snug and warm, watching the snow fall. Listening to music while I work indoors.

Mrs. Hermit
11-7-11, 8:55am
"Bathrooms of the West" sounds hilarious.

AmeliaJane
11-7-11, 9:26am
Now that I live near a sibling whose spouse has a large extended family in the area, I understand a bit more why the holidays can be fraught for some. Luckily I am in a position to pick and choose what I like about the holiday. Decorations range from a bowl of Christmas ornaments to a full-on tree, depending on the year. I love Xmas music (not until the day after Thanksgiving, though) and holiday-themed coffee drinks. I mostly give books to under-18s and experience gifts to those over 18 (and it's immediate family only) so shopping is pretty straightforward. I just moved about a year ago, and did almost nothing for the holidays last year--just making it through the day was enough work. Now that I'm more settled in, I'd like to find some holiday things to do that are special to my new hometown.

Bastelmutti
11-7-11, 9:29am
I am looking forward to Thanksgiving when we will road trip to visit friends, and I hopefully will get to see my college roommate after a long gap. Also looking forward to Homemade Holidays - I try to make as many presents as I can and buy the rest from Etsy and Fair Trade shops.

madgeylou
11-7-11, 11:53am
i love reading about everyone's christmas traditions. and stella you guys are going to have an amazing time on the road! i'm excited to hear your stories when you get back.

last christmas we were in scotland with rich's folks, who really do christmas up right. we didn't have to do much of anything except show up and eat amazing meals every day. this christmas we'll be home again and i'm excited to integrate some of the traditions that i saw at R's folks' house that i really liked. for instance, they do silly little gifts next to everyone's plates at christmas dinner and boxing day dinner -- i'm thinking we should do that, too.

i'm also excited cause we just shuffled around a few rooms in our house to meet our needs better. our living room became my lair, our 2nd bedroom became R's lair, and our dining room became our living room. we always put our christmas tree in the bay window in the dining room so i'm glad that we will be hanging out in there to enjoy it this year.

R also started his christmas baking this weekend -- he made a christmas cake! it's full of brandy-soaked dried fruit and he'll be dousing it with further brandy every few weeks until christmas day. it smelled AMAZING when it was baking.

most every year for the last 15 years, i have had an eddie vedder's birthday party on the great man's special day -- december 23 -- so that tradition will return this year as well. it's always fun to have a party with friends around this time of year and make everyone listen to pearl jam the whole time too. :)

goldensmom
11-7-11, 12:14pm
Getting excited, getting excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas times 10. Like others have mentioned, however, I also look forward to the down time after the holidays. I love the cold, snuggle weather; doing indoor things; feeling hopeful and planning for the next summer. No post holiday depression for me.

peggy
11-7-11, 2:33pm
I love the holidays too. Ours start right after my daughters birthday in early Dec. (I always felt kids born near Christmas got screwed so we make it a tradition to let her birthday start the holiday season) Our son comes home and our daughter lives here so we are all together. That's my favorite part.
Over the years of traveling we refrained from buying souvenirs, but we always bought little Christmas ornaments so once every year we pull our 'souvenirs' out, talk about them and the memories they bring, enjoy them, then pack them away for another year. Really helps to keep clutter under control without sacrificing the memories that come with objects. And I can't think of a better time to enjoy those happy memories.
We always kept present giving to a comfortable minimum so there isn't the stress with THAT. It's just family and friends and food. Oh, and of course a fire in the fireplace. gotta have that. And a cup of hot chocolate, and some Christmas music....it's all good.

Zoebird
11-7-11, 10:05pm
Sounds awesome.

Here's what i love about the holidays: food and decorating.

here's what i dislike about holidays: gift giving/receiving.

but, it's ok. i'll live. i've managed it this long.

we are traveling this holiday too. i'm trying to figure out our route. i just need to spend some time doing it, and make our reservations. A few days at the beach, for sure, then a drive through some scenic country, and then back to wellington for a week here and doing all the fun stuff here with the family. my parents are coming over.

it's cool.

IshbelRobertson
11-9-11, 10:19am
We do not have Thanksgiving as a holiday here in the UK, and I don't like to put up decorations until the First Sunday of Advent, when I put a Scandinavian Advent arch in each window of the house which I light when darkness falls. I'm an agnostic, but still keep lots of traditions from my religious family's upbringing!

I do all my Christmas baking on 'Stir Up' Sunday - traditional Christmas cakes, Christmas Puddings and Black Bun (a Scottish 'cake' - very richly fruited and wrapped in shortcrust pastry) - all of which I 'feed' with whisky and/or brandy up to a few days before Christmas when I ice the cakes, wrap the puddings in fancy wrappings and keep on feeding the black buns until Hogmanay when they are a centrepiece for our celebrations. A family tradition is to bake mincepies on Christmas Eve to eat with brandy butter. We also still have traditional carol singers coming around the streets, collecting for charity, and I always bake mincepies for them, plus mulled wine for the adults and mulled apple juice for the under 18s!

Hogmany is THE big event of the year in Scotland. When I was a girl, Christmas was really only for the children (although we always had a big tree, decorations and lots of presents for us kids) - I also remember that my Dad worked half of Christmas day, it was not a bank holiday in Scotland in those days. Edinburgh throws what it claims as the largest street party in the world every hogmanay. http://www.edinburghshogmanay.org/

Lots and lots of traditions abound regarding Hogmanay and Ne'er Day.

crunchycon
11-9-11, 6:14pm
This'll be our first Christmas without my dad, so we're going to make it as cheerful as possible for my mom.

goldensmom
11-9-11, 10:10pm
This'll be our first Christmas without my dad, so we're going to make it as cheerful as possible for my mom.

That's a tough one. My father passed away suddenly 2 days before Christmas several years ago and we made it through (mostly in shock) by reminiscing and talking about him a lot. Cheerful is good but also allow everyone some time to be sad. It gets easier with time.

Spartana
11-10-11, 4:20pm
Hey Stella (STEL- LA!!!) - you might want to look into getting the multi-attraction passes for entry into things like the San Diego Zoo, the Wild Animal Park, Sea World, Disneyland, etc... They can often be much less expensive then buying tickets to each thing seperately. I think there is something called a Sand Diego City Pass which allows entrance into those I just listed plus UUniversal Studios. Not sure how much it costs but probably around $250. You might also think about getting an annual pass even if you are only going to use it the one time. For example, an annual pass for the San Diego Zoo costs approx. $90 for a dual (2 person) membership (and there are single, family and kid memberships as well). This includes 2 free guest passes and several discount passes as well as a bunch of other discounts. This allows unlimited admission into both the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park. Parking is free at the zoo and around $6 at the WA Park. So buying a dual membership pass will allow you and dh into both places and 2 free guest passes for one place for 2 of your kids. The individual price for entrance to each place is around $35 for adults, so would cost you and dh alone approx. $140 vs. approx. $90 for the annual pass. You might want to check it out! They might only be for SoCal residents and the prices may be higher if you aren't already a member like I am (I just renewed and that was what I paid for a duel membership) but I'm not sure. This is what their website said:

Dual and single membership benefits include:
Unlimited admission to the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park for one full year
Two free guest passes (a $69 value)
Free Africa Tram at the Safari Park (save $10 each time)
Free Skyfari aerial tram at the Zoo (save $4 each time)
Four discount guest coupons (a $20 value)
Four 2-for-1 Zoo Bus Tour coupons (a $34 value)
ZOONOOZ® magazine subscription (a $25 value)
Monthly member specials
Please note that under IRS guidelines, the estimated value of membership benefits is not substantial, therefore, the full amount is a deductible contribution.

Koala Club benefits include:
Unlimited admission to the San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park for one full year
Free Africa Tram at the Safari Park (save $7 each time)
Free Skyfari aerial tram at the Zoo (save $4 each time)
One free pass for a Zoo Bus tour (a $5 value)
Diamond Member benefits include:
Unlimited admission to the San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park for one full year
Two Zoo guest passes and two Safari Park guest passes
Free Africa Tram at the Safari Park (save $10 each time)
Free Skyfari aerial tram at the Zoo (save $4 each time)
Four discount guest coupons (a $20 value)
Free parking at the Safari Park (save $7 each visit)
Four 2-for-1 Zoo Bus Tour coupons
ZOONOOZ® magazine subscription (a $25 value)
Monthly member specials

Membership rates:
Dual Membership — $106* (2 adults in the household)
Single Membership — $85* (1 adult in the household)
*Valid for ZIP codes 90000-93199 only

Koala Club
Koala Child — $35 (per child ages 3–11)
Koala Junior — $39 (per child ages 12–17)

Diamond Member — $145*
One adult with one accompanying guest OR two adults in the same household (benefits include free parking at the Safari Park). Become a Diamond Member!

*Valid for ZIP codes 90000-93199 only

Stella
11-10-11, 5:23pm
Wow! Thanks for the tips Spartana! That is great information!

Mighty Frugal
11-11-11, 2:10pm
Love reading all these plans! I love the Christmas holidays. Love the whole season-the day itself is nice but I love it all!

We begin our fun on December 1st. I make 6 different kinds of super-awesome cookies for neighbours, siblings, friends-kids 'help' me

We decorate the tree, dance to Christmas songs, and I listen to an all Christmas song station in my car! We watch Christmas movies 'Christmas Story' is our fave. I first saw this in the theatre back in the mid 1980s with my then boyfriend and boy did we ever love it!!!

I have get togethers with my sisters and female cousins. Another one with friends

Dh and I spend a day sans kids to walk around our downtown and look at the awesome window displays at the department store (The Bay downtown)

Goobers and I do loads of holiday crafts, invite friends over for play dates-just make the most of it!

Christmas is spent with my very large family-about 30 of us. Boxing Day my 2 sisters and I go shopping with our Christmas money!

Between Christmas and NY I buy a gingerbread house greatly reduced and kids decorate it.

I am getting almost 3 weeks off and cannot wait to spend it with family and friends and being all cozy at home with wine and snacks or tea and homemade cookies...mmmmm:~)

treehugger
11-11-11, 2:26pm
Between Christmas and NY I buy a gingerbread house greatly reduced and kids decorate it.

Where do you find gingerbread houses to buy?

For the last 6 or 7 years, I have made gingerbread house kits (I have a pan/mold for the walls, roof, chimney; I add in candy and icing ingredients) that I ship to my 2 nieces before Christmas. Then I get to see pictures of the finished results. Last year, my life was too stressful to manage this, so I warned my sister ahead of time and she did some other fun, messy activity with them.

This year, I was thinking about bringing the kits down with me when we visit over New Years, so I could do it with them. My other sister's son is now old enough to participate, so that means 3 kits. It takes a while to do the baking (for each house, I need to bake in the pan 2 times), and sadly, I am starting to think I could save money (not to mention time) by buying ready-made kits. I am certainly a proponent of homemade cookies and such, but since no one really eats the houses after they are decorated, then flavor and lack of preservatives aren't really a factor here.

So, any tips on where to find them (and I could defintely get them after xmas since I won't need them till the next week) inexpensively?

Thanks,
Kara

Mighty Frugal
11-11-11, 3:31pm
Where do you find gingerbread houses to buy?

For the last 6 or 7 years, I have made gingerbread house kits (I have a pan/mold for the walls, roof, chimney; I add in candy and icing ingredients) that I ship to my 2 nieces before Christmas. Then I get to see pictures of the finished results. Last year, my life was too stressful to manage this, so I warned my sister ahead of time and she did some other fun, messy activity with them.

This year, I was thinking about bringing the kits down with me when we visit over New Years, so I could do it with them. My other sister's son is now old enough to participate, so that means 3 kits. It takes a while to do the baking (for each house, I need to bake in the pan 2 times), and sadly, I am starting to think I could save money (not to mention time) by buying ready-made kits. I am certainly a proponent of homemade cookies and such, but since no one really eats the houses after they are decorated, then flavor and lack of preservatives aren't really a factor here.

So, any tips on where to find them (and I could defintely get them after xmas since I won't need them till the next week) inexpensively?

Thanks,
Kara


I buy them at our local grocery store-they are everywhere. Before Christmas they cost about 10 bucks per house (or you can buy a gingerbread train too) They come complete with walls, roof, pre-made icing and all the candy) You can even buy ones already made-you just need to add the candy.

After Christmas thy are reduced to about 5 bucks. One year my boys had one before Christmas BUT (being a frugal mama) it was a Halloween 'house' that I bought AFTER Halloween but before Christmas for 2 bucks-just used m own icing because the Halloween one was orange-haha

treehugger
11-11-11, 3:41pm
Thanks for the input. I have never seen them for sale, but probably just haven't noticed them. $5 x 3 is probably a lot cheaper than if I made 3 kits myself, especially including the candy.

Kara

Zoebird
11-14-11, 5:15am
those are cool re: houses.

---

i thought i'd piggy back on this thread because it is holiday-family-travel related. :)

my parents are coming for christmas and new years -- which is awesome because they hate to travel -- and i just planned out our route today!

first, DH, DS, and I will have a two-day holiday.

we leave on friday morning and go to our friend's house for lunch (yes, arrangements already made) about 2 hrs away from us. then, after lunch, we drive another 2 hrs to a lake-side town and have a leisurely evening.

on saturday, we drive to matamata (where hobbiton in the lord of the rings and the hobbit are being filmed), and hopefully get to see the filming area. it may be closed until after the movie is wrapped, but at least we can hang in matamata. :) that's 2 hrs from the lake. And after spooking around matamata for a couple of hours, we drive up to auckland for a leisurely evening.

my parents arrive at 7 am on christmas day, but by the time they are through customs and everything, i figure we'll pick them up around 8.

then, we're going to have some breakfast, and then drive 3.5 hrs (a long, pretty route) to the coromandel, which has some amazing beaches. We'll be there for the afternoon and evening (hot springs!), and then the whole of the next day (cathedral cove and beach walking/playing). That's when we'll do "christmas." We'll spend a second night there.

next day, we drive from hahei (coromandel) to rotorua, but stopping at katikati along the way. katikati has a lot of public art, and a very cool "haiku walk" along the river. we thought this would be a great break in the 3.5 hr drive, allowing us to have lunch, stretch our legs, and enjoy some haiku.

then, we head to rotorua, which is like a little yellowstone. geysers going off in certain thermal areas (there's a thermal walk and such), and then also a large maori cultural experience. there's a church there that i think my mom will want to see, and some great gardens as well. we'll be there for two half days -- arriving in the afternoon from katikati and then the morning when we leave, and one full day in between. I think we'll be able to visit the church first, and then settle in for dinner, and decide if we want to do a full or half-day maori cultural thing, or enjoy the geysers and gardens. i'm thinking gardens in the morning, half day maori in the afternoon/evening, and then the next morning, doing the geysers.

after finishing rotorua, we head on to gisborne. as much as we want to do the NZ Pacific Coastal Highway, the truth is we also are on a time frame. Gisborne has a steam train that does rides on saturday. DS is big into trains, and does a song about the steam train with his kindy. So, he'd be psyched. And, the train takes you on a 3 hr ride along the "beach loop" which takes you up along part of the route that we would have seen driving it. So, we'll leave rotorua in the afternoon, arriving in gisborne in the evening (friday), and this leaves us saturday AM to learn about the train and have a look at the engine and how it all works, and then an afternoon ride to enjoy the scenery! We'll spend the night in gisborne again.

Then the trip goes a bit more quickly. leave gisborne in the Am and head to Napier. Napier was destroyed by a quake in the 1920s, so the whole town was rebuilt in art-deco style. There's a quick 45 minute self-guided walking tour to see the buildings, and a museum about the quake. It's supposedly a lovely little town, so we'll spend the night there.

Next day, we head from Napier to our friend's place again. She's in vet school and works on the local vet hospital/farm, and so she's going to give us a tour of that and talk about agricultural industry (in particular animal husbandry) in NZ. DS will love it because he's also into farms. On the way to their place (which is 2.5 hrs from napier), we'll stop in Dannevirke because DH is interested in it. I don't know of anything there, but hey, you never can tell. Might as well pit-stop for coffee anyway.

We'll spend the night at our friend's place, then after breakfast head into wellington. This will give a whole week in Wellington for my parents. In addition to just seeing how we live and spending time on the beach here at home, we'll also do a tour of wellington for them (there's a walking tour, but i'm not sure my dad could handle the walk because it is all day -- so we might divide it into four sections, and possibly skip two of those sections or drive those two sections), and then decide if we want to do more -- like a local weekend trip. I think we'll probably stay in wellington.

Anyway, i'm getting excited about it now. And my new private client made it not only possible to increase the gift prices as well as more than cover this trip (the train ride!), and then also put money into savings. :D

crunchycon
11-16-11, 7:27pm
Thanks, goldensmom. Much appreciated.

Wildflower
11-18-11, 4:00am
Having Christmas here as usual, but I am excited and energized this year. I have planned everything down to the last detail to keep it all pretty simple, from the decorating to the food and gifts. Actually, really looking forward to it this year!! :)

herbgeek
11-18-11, 6:09am
@Gingerbread houses: if you are just going for the effect (and don't care if you are using "real" gingerbread), graham crackers can do a nice fill in. You can use royal icing to glue 4 of them together to make the base house, cut one in half (into triangles) for the sides of the roof and another 2 for the roof. Then decorate away.