What will you do differently next Christmas?

Loughc

kiteman wrote: »

It was, and the huge shock I got, when the alarm went off first day back to work.
I'm still not the better of it.

Last week was tough with the alarm going off so early for me but I'm back in the routine this week. Your bodyclock just needs to adjust it will in no time.

scream

Loughc wrote: »

It's essentially eggs, sugar, milk,cream & bourbon and nutmeg. Does not sound appealing :eek:

Is eggnog essentially the home-made version of Advocaat? Sorry for the de-rail.

Loughc

scream wrote: »

Is eggnog essentially the home-made version of Advocaat? Sorry for the de-rail.

It's VERY similar.

Miaireland

I am going to do pretty much the same as this year but am not going to buy a present for a toxic person.

BabysCoffee

I'm going to lay about more next Christmas. I plan on lighting my stove as soon as I get out of bed but stay in my pyjamas and watch Christmas films all day.

DrJ

Christmas has been a very busy time of year for me for the past few years for education reasons and I finished up my training right before Christmas this year which was the best Christmas present ever but didn't leave much time to do all of the shopping and soak up the atmosphere. It just flew by! I feel like it didn't really happen this year.
So in 2015 I am looking forward to picking up presents throughout the year and being very organised so that in the weeks coming up to Christmas I can just soak up the atmosphere more. I also had a wedding to attend this year around New Years which I felt stole the last few Christmassy days on me. I would prefer a little bit more time to lounge around with nowhere in particular to go, go for long walks and take Christmassy photos of the decorations around the town, go to see a carol service or join them! I really badly want to take night classes in baking cakes and hopefully learn to make a Christmas Cake, Yule Log, Stollen etc :-)
Edit: Oh and I am dying to try this eggnog stuff esp. the eggnog latte in Starbucks. I missed out on it this year and last year. Apparently they only make it until they run out of eggnog which tends to happen before the end of December.

scream

DrJ wrote: »

...Oh and I am dying to try this eggnog stuff esp. the eggnog latte in Starbucks. I missed out on it this year and last year. Apparently they only make it until they run out of eggnog which tends to happen before the end of December.

I must remember to try one of these myself now that I know where to get it next year.

DrJ

scream wrote: »

I must remember to try one of these myself now that I know where to get it next year.

I tried starbucks on o connell street on jan 2nd and in the whitewater sc on jan 3rd and they were both out of eggnog since end of Dec so get in quickly. They said they weren't even meant to be doing it this year but they had to be brought back by popular demand! i might try advocaat sometime soon too.

Into The Blue

I was recently informed that advocat tastes like eggnog, so will be trying that for the first time next Christmas

washiskin

Hey kids, to further stretch the eggnog/advocaat point. have any of you tried a Snowball? Equal parts Advocaat and White Lemonade. Kitsch but lovely!

WittyNameForMe

washiskin wrote: »

Hey kids, to further stretch the eggnog/advocaat point. have any of you tried a Snowball? Equal parts Advocaat and White Lemonade. Kitsch but lovely!

Snowballs at Christmas, I think this clip sums it up perfectly

DrJ

Yeah, I think Advocaat is basically the European eggnog (which seems to be an American thing). I have heard of Snowballs all down through the years but never had one so there's another addition to what I'll be doing this Christmas :-) Thanks guys!
PS: it's only 6 months til the end of October when all of the Christmas decorations will start going up promptly :-) Yay!

SMJSF

This xmas I think I'll have Xmas alone in Dublin, in the comforts of my apartment. I go to family every year 3 hours away, but I don't enjoy it.

BabysCoffee

SMJSF wrote: »

This xmas I think I'll have Xmas alone in Dublin, in the comforts of my apartment. I go to family every year 3 hours away, but I don't enjoy it.

Great plan!

Jude13

Careful though, I am very independent and live abroad. I thought I would do the same many moons ago. I was actually working Christmas day. It was morbid.

In Dublin though it should be grand, loads of good grub stocked up and good tv.

RentDayBlues

Enjoy it! Last Christmas I had a 2 1/2 yr old and a 10 month old, both of whom were sick on Christmas Day, it was a long sad day. This year we are going to sing and be merry for a whole month!

Glitzgirl

I'm gonna say mine would be to not give up so easily when it comes to dragging my OH into the christmas spirit! Unfortunately he's a bit of a grinch and every year I say "this is the year I'm going to convert you !" Hasn't happened quiet yet so I need to be a bit more persistent I think

emmagination

I'm going to try and take the days between Christmas and New Year's off. I didn't last year, as I knew we wouldn't be busy, but just having to get up and go into work made me lose the Christmassy feeling a bit!

Cherrycola

RentDayBlues wrote: »

Enjoy it! Last Christmas I had a 2 1/2 yr old and a 10 month old, both of whom were sick on Christmas Day, it was a long sad day. This year we are going to sing and be merry for a whole month!

I hear ya! We had a 2 1/2yr old and 4mth old, they weren't sick, only me on St Stephens day with some sort of vomiting bug! But the baby was not (still isn't really) a good sleeper so Christmas just passed us by last year. I want to enjoy it this year, get to actually watch some movies without having a feeding/sleeping/pooing schedule to deal with every 4hrs!
I'm so excited for this year!!!! The baby at 10mths has just started sleeping through the night, at last!! It's been the longest 10mths of my life!

RentDayBlues

Cherrycola wrote: »

I hear ya! We had a 2 1/2yr old and 4mth old, they weren't sick, only me on St Stephens day with some sort of vomiting bug! But the baby was not (still isn't really) a good sleeper so Christmas just passed us by last year. I want to enjoy it this year, get to actually watch some movies without having a feeding/sleeping/pooing schedule to deal with every 4hrs!
I'm so excited for this year!!!! The baby at 10mths has just started sleeping through the night, at last!! It's been the longest 10mths of my life!

Yes and yes!

Misty Chaos

Christmas 2015 will the my first Christmas at home in 3 years ( having spent the previous 2 in Australia. ) The main thing I'll be doing differently this year is NOT getting very drunk on Christmas Eve! I was at a boat party in Melbourne on Christmas Eve last year and I was pretty much a broken man for 2 days afterwards! Having done that I really don't understand why people insist in getting so drunk on Christmas Eve but whatever.

I'll also pick up a few presents for family, particularly my sister whose Birthday also falls on Christmas Day.

I'm probably going to be working for much of the festive season which I don't particularly mind ( hooray hospitality! ) I'll still get into the Christmas spirit and hopefully the bosses won't mind me wearing a Santa hat at work.

CocoBaby

What would I do different.... Not buy 13 tins of sweets, and then have half of them eaten before Christmas week, and blame the kids for it.
I wouldn't make so many desserts.
I think I'd relax more.
I wouldn't drink so much wine in the run up to Christmas, and tell everyone that I'm 'only testing them, for Christmas'. Ya, Christmas for me starts the first week in October, that's when I start pressie shopping, its a slow but steady decline from then on. Bought a lovely silver jumper in Dunnes last year, in November. I was too fat for it come Christmas!

juandrake

probably take some good rest because it's holiday and build a gaming pc

DrJ

Well, I just wanted to bump this to give an update on the eggnog/Advocaat discussion. I bought a bottle of Advocaat a while back and it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I didn't like it at all. Even tried making snowballs etc but nope didn't like it. I'll still try the eggnog latte though if Starbucks are doing them. So moral of the story: proceed with caution if you're putting that bottle of Advocaat in your trolley this Christmas!

kitten_k

The eggnog latte is lovely!

lycan238

So glad to see this thread open. I have already started using my Christmas cups and am busy planning on putting up my decorations first week in November. I only ever buy two presents one for my mother and one for my father and contribute to the other presents. Not looking forward to the day when I have to buy them all on my own.

r3nu4l

We moved into our house in January and for the first time ever we have room to put up more than two Christmas trees.

We will have one in the living room, one in the dining room, and a very small one in my daughters room.

Really looking forward to it but must book the time of now!!

Jude13

People putting up stuff in early November and others with three Christmas trees.....so jealous.

Loughc

Bumping this as now Christmas is over, did we follow through on the changes we hoped last year to make?

And what would you do differently for Christmas 2016?

Ol' Donie

Yep. Stuffed my face more than ever.

However, being busy in work meant I didn't put the tree up till too late. Next year (this year) I'm going to target the wind-down to start a week earlier. Gonna make sure to do shopping & that in November, and take a few days off work before Christmas Eve. Just for the chillin'.

Can't wait.