Holiday Glee

[Idun]

So the Holidays are finally coming around. I guess it could be signaled by stores having Santa blimps the day after Halloween. . .but I know a good majority of you are college students and this coming week is (should be?) a week off from educational studies with a week prior to the end of the semester. Then there's Christmas and New Years. What are you guys going to do on your time off: going to any big Thanksgiving family get-togethers? Decorating your house? Have Holiday Glee guys.

This year we're not cooking. We're just going out to eat. I find that a stupid short term investment with little returns, but I'm not paying so whatever. I just spic-and-spanned my house, washed all the clothes, did my unimportant classes work I easily nudge off to the side, only for my research paper (almost finished) and my art series (haven't started) to be the major homeworks I have besides studying French, American Art and Scientific Psych. . .  so I feel like this will be a relaxed Thanksgiving for once; at least I'm not bulking a lot of homework into a couple of days!!

And I want to decorate my house, but with electricity costs, I probably won't. It'll go so far as a wreath on the door and glowy-bug attractor things in the window. To put up a tree or not to put up a tree - [ my family saves major gifts for the after Christmas sale . . . so ]. . .

[Dunefar]

I'm not doing much for Thanksgiving, as I'm working Thanksgiving day anyway and I'm not a big fan of the holiday.

I have Christmas week off and I plan to enjoy that fully. Nothing too special, but having everything out and savoring the holiday spirit. I got stuck working two Christmases ago and last Christmas I had the flu/pneumonia, so I'm really looking forward to this one.

[Cotigo]

No Thanksgiving, another country.  Though I am reminded I need to shoot my parents an e-mail or something that day.  Would probably have forgotten until now.

Christmas break will probably be two or three days of sleeping and recovering from jetlag, then some frantic house/job hunting.  Mostly looking forward to seeing my family again more than anything else.  At least buying presents will be easy this year.  Souvenirs and alcohol that isn't readily available in the US are awesome that way.

[NotMiki]

Thanksgiving and Christmas are the big events I get to see my extended family.  11 people back home this year all told, and lots of turkey, pies, cranberry sauce.  Traditional stuff.  I'm really looking forward to it (not to mention that it's a good excuse to get out of the city for a bit).

[superaielman]

Off for both thanksgiving and christmas breaks due to the school being closed. Not doing much, visiting family on christmas eve and day. Probably going to ferry my grandmother around as well, which I don't mind doing.

I need a second job, it's weird having holidays off.

[AAA]

Thanksgiving will be the traditional turkey fest, Christmas I think we're going to be doing some sort of raffle thing with fairly cheap presents, I dunno. We don't really stand on ceremony with that.

I want to work during the holiday break, but things really hit a lull until after New Years, so I probably won't get as much as I would like.

[Idun]

Wow. I can't believe you guys would want to work on the Holiday. It just feels so empty. You need moar glee. . .

[Taishyr]

Gonna get a wisdom tooth pulled during the beginning of winter break, then likely to go visit an aunt for at least a weekend, probably five or so days.  Then I'm gonna be here, doing my best to avoid my sister and hang out with a friend.

Christmas will probably be me, dad, dad's girlfriend, sister, and my brother and, by extension, the entire Mexican family. After 2:00 or so I'm likely to hole up in my room, too many people.

Also: bah, humbug!

[AAA]

Wow. I can't believe you guys would want to work on the Holiday. It just feels so empty. You need moar glee. . .

I don't want too work, in the sense that I'm looking forward to it or marking the days off my calender until I can scrub shit off toilets full time. I want to work in the sense that school keeps my hours low and my paychecks lower, and it's a good way to recover from spending money on Christmas presents, and video games don't buy themselves, and I need a new PC badly that is only going to arrive before my current one shits itself if I have enough money to get one(I figure since I'm getting one I might as well go all-out)

[superaielman]

Wow. I can't believe you guys would want to work on the Holiday. It just feels so empty. You need moar glee. . .

I'll get like two weeks off for winter break, so I'll be broke because of it. Oh well.

[Ultradude]

Dinner with Dad, sisters, Dad's fiance's family. Visit other family, see if I can pull together money and then check if stores are still reserving P4. Probably hang out with friends at least one day of break. Fun fun fun.

[Idun]

Yeah, I'm with Tai. I like family visiting and stuff, but I feel like a lot of relatives in my family stay longer than necessary, anddddd take too many leftovers with them. But I'd rather sacrifice that than visiting family with no designated retreat room in case I was exhausted, or wondering why their turkey tastes funny.

[Lady Door]

Thanksgiving, I'm flying home to spend the weekend with family by popular demand. The last year or two I've skipped it because it's a pain in the ass to travel for 4 days (when everyone ELSE is ALSO traveling), but my mom felt like having me home this year. Possibly because it's been the longest she's gone without seeing me in, well, my life -- 6 whole months! 

Dad said something about prime rib instead of turkey this year. We do turkeys some years, but we've done lobster, peanut butter and jelly and weird variations on turkey (like deep fried -- mmm, gallons of boiling oil!).

Christmas... well, I know I'm going home because my mother is having hip replacement surgery on the 15th and I need to be home as soon as my finals have finished so I can take care of errands and things while she's recovering. We've skipped Christmas the past couple years due to a combination of my being away at school (thus only home for a week or two -- I have a younger brother who lives at home, but he's a Grinch unless it involves presents) and financial constraints, but we used to go all out, get a tree, decorate the house, spend a night hanging up all the sentimental ornaments, piles o' presents, et cetera. I might be able to talk them into a tree this year, at least. I hope.

I love the holiday season. I really, really, REALLY despise the commercialism -- you can ask Andrew; I rant constantly about the decorations and things going up in stores before Halloween -- and avoid Black Friday like the plague, but I really enjoy the spirit of community that arises during the season. I love spending time with family and friends, I love spending the time reminiscing over previous holidays, I love talking about the optimism for the next year and fond memories from the previous, I love the baking and candy making, I love wrapping presents, and I love the look on someone's face when they open a present from me and I can tell they love the thought I've put into it.

Warm and fuzzy feelings. Holiday Glee indeed. 

[Taishyr]

Meanwhile I get gift cards despite not being horribly picky at all. >_>

[Yakumo]

See, that's the problem.  If you were picky, people would know you have narrowly defined tastes and pick something that fit them.  Since you're not, almost anything is a viable choice and the sheer number of possibilities overwhelms.  At least that's what it seems like, since I have the same... well, I don't want to call it a problem, but it happens to me too.

[Mad Fnorder]

My family is coming up to stay with me, in my relatively small apartment, for four days. Right before finals. As my new job starts and crunch time kicks in for the second one.

Glee.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Eh, my little sister turns 21 today, so I have to make like Book and shepherd her through her rite of passage tonight when she gets in, which is... pretty much the highlight of this week, I think. Not so much that evening, but laughing at her being all hung over the next day. She can't drink like I can. I'll make her think she can, though.

Other than that? The family is having Thanksgiving half the country away this year, so nothing to report. We still don't know what we wanna do for Christmas, mostly because of the size of my extended family making coordination a bitch.

[Strago]

Tomorrow after work I'm hopping on a train to meet up with my girlfriend, from whence we'll drive up to Maine and I'll spend a few days at home. Then on my way back I'll stop midway and spend the night with two of my best friends from school, one of whom I haven't seen since graduation. It'll be good to get out of the city for a while.