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Christmas planning and chat


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We got most of our Christmas food shopping done the weekend before Christmas (16th December), but went after work on Friday to get the rest. The decorations are all up an the few presents all wrapped and sent (we stopped buying them for each other years ago). It will be a quiet day at home tomorrow for both of us. Coran will be on her own for a few days after that though as I am going to Iceland to see Sigur Ros. All the tickets etc. are printed out. The forecast looks lovely - minus 2 degrees and sunny, so I couldn't wish for better. All I have to do now is pack the bag. 

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I might go to the Culture House if its open (last time I went it was closed for renovations) - and of course I will visit at least one of the pools. I can't swim, but it's the hot tubs I go for. If I have time I might wander up to the Seltjarness peninsula as well, as it's a nice walk along the sea front. The view from the Pearl is always good as well, and worth a visit.  

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Is it just me or does anyone else get restless and ready for the holidays to end? I took our decorations down 27 December. We moved the tree from the rental to our new home on the back of a pickup truck but old habits die hard. I left the tree up one day longer than I usually would. Things have been so busy that looking at that tree one more day would have sent me over the edge, lol!

Edited by Virginia
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No, I can't say that I feel that way, as it means I have to back to work. Although I already went in on Saturday to do some deep cleaning, I knew I still had a few days off after all so it isn't quite the same as going back to proper full time work. At least it will only be for four days this week. 

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I only get antsy about taking the decorations down because by the end of the month, the four sets of battery lights (which have already had their batteries replaced once mid-month) are on their last breath of life or dead altogether, and look miserable!

 

Everything's coming down today.  I'm afraid of all the dust that must be lurking beneath.  :lol:

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Nope, I definitely don't get restless either.  In fact, it's the most restful time of the year as we spend time at home together and don't have work and stop work on jobs around the house, and the end of that means going back to work and then the house going back into chaos as the next job on the decorating/renovating starts working.  The decorations stay up until at least I go back to work, if not to the traditional twelfth night.

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Yep, I'll be back on Wednesday too. I don't mind too much though as I quite like the routine of work/school/college. The decorations came down on Saturday, once Christmas is over I get fed up with them and just want to get back to the tidy clean house that is underneath them! :) 

 

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I would be more inclined to stretch out the holidays but here in the US, we aren't afforded long holidays. Most will work up to Christmas Eve, have Christmas Day off (hopefully) and back at it again til New Years Eve and repeat. Lots of start and stopping. Not much opportunity for the majority to really enjoy the holidays. Even if we're lucky enough to save up the holiday time, upper management has a notorious habit of denying that much time during the holidays (everyone else wants the same days off) and they make you jump through hoops to sign up. They might say that you can't request Christmas off if you request it say in May/June BUT if you wait til September, its too late, someone else has requested the time off. I envy Europeans and their treatment of their workers.

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You’re right Virginia, plus the day after Christmas Day is Boxing Day/St. Stephen’s Day, which is another public holiday in the UK so there are only three working days between Christmas Eve and New Year, and because there are two weeks of school holiday around the Christmas period, lots of people want/need time off, so offices plan for it being a quiet period and some places close between the two holidays to save money on heating and support staff.  Some manufacturers also close down as for the period too, as it doesn’t suit some manufacturing processes to stop machinery for a two days in the middle of the week and restart the machinery again for only one or two days before the next weekend, and then the same again the next week when New Year comes around.  Most places will require you to use some of your holiday allowances if they do this though, and for those that don’t enjoy or celebrate Christmas, they find it hard because they have to take holiday at a time of year that’s not convenient, and would prefer the holiday in the summer during the better weather.

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I don't think I could work in the US because of the lack of holidays that you get over there. We are so lucky in this country in that we get 28 days paid leave (something we have the EU to thank for). We have 8 Bank Holidays in total  - 2 at Easter, 2 in May, 1 at the end of August, Christmas and Boxing Day and New Years Day. Most companies will deduct those days from your 28 days leaving you with 20 days (4 weeks for a full time worker) to take as and when you choose. I am incredibly lucky in that the people I work for give us the 8 Bank Holidays on top of our annual leave allowance. This starts off at 23 days, but increases up to a maximum (which I will get next year) of 27 days with each years service. We also have 2 days that we get on top of that to be taken during our Christmas shut down. This means that next year I will get a total of 37 days. These extra days are usually the day before and after Christmas but it depends how Christmas falls. Because it was a Monday this year they were December 27th and 28th, next year when Christmas Day will be a Tuesday I expect it will 24th and 27th. Most people then choose to also take off the day after those 2 days as they don't want to bother coming in for just one day and be off again until New Year, but it is actually the best time for us to a lot of our deep cleaning when no one else is there. The skills and activities sessions for the clients all close down for almost 2 weeks as most of the clients go home to their families, so it is usually just a few of the support staff in for the few clients that do remain plus maintenance to cover any emergencies. 

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I think the Us might have more public holidays but we do have more holiday entitlement here, where I work it 's 25 days (on top of the public hooidays)  plus one extra day at Xmas, again depending on how the public holidays fall, last year it was the 27th.  There does seem to be a very long gap before the next public holiday though ie Easter!

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  • 6 months later...
  • 5 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...
On 17/08/2018 at 2:07 AM, muggle not said:

Since none of us will be on this forum at Christmas 2018, I would like to now wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. ;):)

 

I don't know why we didn't use this thread last year but, as we're still here for Christmas 2019, I thought it was time to revive it :lol:.

 

So, how are your Christmas preparations going?

 

I've bought presents for three people so far (my niece, one of my sisters and someone I'm doing 'secret Santa' for), which I don't think is too bad, considering we're not quite in December yet. 

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I'm all done and wrapped!  :lol:  I've bought all of the nibbles too.  Now I just need the willpower not to break into them until closer to Christmas.  I'll buy a case of mixed wine and a bottle of fizz a couple of weeks before the day.  I'm just waiting for Tesco's Christmas slots to open so I can book my food delivery.  It's a vegan celebration here, so I'll be making a nut roast with all the trimmings.  My decorations go up on 1st December (as always)!

 

I'm really looking forward to starting my Christmas reading, too.

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4 hours ago, Onion Budgie said:

I'm all done and wrapped!  :lol:  I've bought all of the nibbles too.  Now I just need the willpower not to break into them until closer to Christmas.  I'll buy a case of mixed wine and a bottle of fizz a couple of weeks before the day.  I'm just waiting for Tesco's Christmas slots to open so I can book my food delivery.  It's a vegan celebration here, so I'll be making a nut roast with all the trimmings.  My decorations go up on 1st December (as always)!

 

I'm really looking forward to starting my Christmas reading, too.

… I feel less organised now :giggle2:. I think eating Christmas nibbles before it's actually Christmas is a tradition in itself, so that makes it ok :lol:

 

I am excited for decorations now. My aunt came over from Ireland this weekend and bought us a lovely sleigh decoration for the tree. So now I want to put it up!

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