So What's Everybody Doing For Christmas?

[BiBottomBoy]

For I'll be alone with my kitties.

I picked up a bottle of good gin and will cook a small pork roast.

If Cyberpunk 2077 goes down in price this week I might pick that up and wrap it and then unwrap it Christmas morning.

You guys?

[TotallyOz]

I think I'll be relaxing at home not doing too much. I am not a Christmas person though. I wish I had some dogs to comfort me on Xmas. I will be going out with some friends during the holidays but in Bangkok and not much going other than to hang out with friends and most of them went away for the holiday as the hotels here are insanely cheap right now.

[BiBottomBoy]

You are lucky. I'd kill to have a cheap hotel room - maybe with a balcony!

[RockHardNYC]

I've always loved the Christmas holiday. LOVE gift giving. LOVE shopping for gifts. LOVE wrapping gifts. Very fond memories from childhood. The exterior of our home was always decorated in lights. My dad was creative that way.

This year will be a weird Christmas, for sure, since I won't be traveling. I'm not usually in NYC for Christmas. In honor of Paris memories, I'll be making carré d'agneau rôti, with gratin dauphinois and haricot vert sauté au beurre, for a very small group. We're having soufflé de poire à la crème d'orange anglais for dessert. The bartender (my son) will be serving Kir Royale plus three wines. Everyone will arrive tested and masked. Luckily, I have a large home. Social distancing won't be an issue. Everything has been well planned. I'm looking forward to toasting in a new year.

[Cany10011]

29 minutes ago, RockHardNYC said:

I've always loved the Christmas holiday. LOVE gift giving. LOVE shopping for gifts. LOVE wrapping gifts. Very fond memories from childhood. The exterior of our home was always decorated in lights. My dad was creative that way.

This year will be a weird Christmas, for sure, since I won't be traveling. I'm not usually in NYC for Christmas. In honor of Paris memories, I'll be making carré d'agneau rôti, with gratin dauphinois and haricot vert sauté au beurre, for a very small group. We're having soufflé de poire à la crème d'orange anglais for dessert. The bartender (my son) will be serving Kir Royale plus three wines. Everyone will arrive tested and masked. Luckily, I have a large home. Social distancing won't be an issue. Everything has been well planned. I'm looking forward to toasting in a new year.

Sounds lovely. Glad you can still gather socially. It's forbidden in Toronto where i am now.  We are all trying to be very careful as the rates are crazy here. 

[numerito]

I’ve never been a Christmas person myself, and neither is my partner, so it will be another ordinary day. Not much to do with the restrictions anyway...

[Latbear4blk]

I am not a holidays person either, but most people are. This is the only time in the year when I feel lonely, since I left Argentina, and I hate it. So I try to go with the flow. Argentina's time is two ours later than in DC. I will be having virtual dinners in WhatsApp and Zoom with family and friends from Buenos Aires and Corrientes. I will celebrate Nochebuena and Año Nuevo at my 10pm, and then I will go out to friends homes or will host a few friends in my place. We are still making plans.

[BiBottomBoy]

I'm a huge christmas person but my family and friends can't legally travel to be with me and I can't travel to be with them so it's going to be super lonely day for me.

I will have a small roast and I'll get tuna for my kitties and just try to enjoy whatever happens.

[RockHardNYC]

1 hour ago, Cany10011 said:

Glad you can still gather socially.

I wouldn't call it a "social gathering." It's more like family, as if we all lived in the same house. A few are sleeping over. I'll be making pumpkin pancakes on Christmas morning.

1 hour ago, Cany10011 said:

It's forbidden in Toronto where i am now.

According to official reports, my neighborhood ranks lowest in Covid infections in all of NYC. That speaks to the discipline and caring of this community, and I think it's impressive. I'm grateful, too. 

[Cany10011]

1 hour ago, RockHardNYC said:

I wouldn't call it a "social gathering." It's more like family, as if we all lived in the same house. A few are sleeping over. I'll be making pumpkin pancakes on Christmas morning.

According to official reports, my neighborhood ranks lowest in Covid infections in all of NYC. That speaks to the discipline and caring of this community, and I think it's impressive. I'm grateful, too. 

The 7-day rate in my home zip code of 10011 is only 2.29%...that's because most of my neighbors have fled manhattan since March. I went back for a month in November just to check in on things but people are still not coming back. 

[BiBottomBoy]

rent it still high in new york though

[BigK]

I'll be flying to be with family in California.  My hair stylist will have to cut my hair in her carport since the state is basically shut down.

[BiBottomBoy]

I remember hair cuts...

[Suckrates]

 

I'll be WAITING for Santa to cum !

 

[BiBottomBoy]

I'd suck that!

[Suckrates]

 

In quarantine, been working on perfecting my cooking and baking.....  Already made this cake...It came out pretty good, but not as pretty as THIS....

So maybe if I'm really bored, I'll take another shot at it ?

 

Peanut Butter Flourless Chocolate Cake

Edited December 22, 2020 by Suckrates

[BiBottomBoy]

Damn that looks good.

[Pete1111]

On Xmas eve will be joining friends virtually.  We will stream The Guthrie Theater's Christmas Carol,

https://www.guthrietheater.org/shows-and-tickets/2020-2021-season/dickens-holiday-classic/

followed by Chanticleer's Christmas Concert.

https://www.chanticleer.org/a-chanticleer-christmas

[Axiom2020]

On 12/19/2020 at 8:06 AM, RockHardNYC said:

I've always loved the Christmas holiday. LOVE gift giving. LOVE shopping for gifts. LOVE wrapping gifts. Very fond memories from childhood. The exterior of our home was always decorated in lights. My dad was creative that way.

 

For many a year, excepting two, I would always spend Christmas with my first cousin and family who live in the San Diego, CA area.  This year will be quite different, for her adult immediate family and her grand kids and some twenty+ folks (friends) will not be joining her.  She normally has around 40 folks for dinner and for the mild party following.  Her 10,000 square foot house would be exquisitely decorated, and the buffet area dawned with all types of food and desserts and drinks. Unfortunately, this year will be quite for her and her husband.

Yesterday I ordered two special Christmas dinners from one of my favorite restaurants in Monterey, CA and, unfortunately, will dine alone.  I'm already psyched for this, and since the NBA will be having major basketball games on that special day, I plan to watch each of them.  Later I hope to view and listen to Ma Rainey's Black Bottom on Netflix. 

Last, but definitely far from least, I will make some phone calls to a few friends and to some of my relatives who live in various parts of this country.

Happy Holidays, ALL!  Stay safe and let us all attempt to be optimistic.

[BiBottomBoy]

eduardo this will be my first christmas alone. it sucks doesn't it

next year is going to have to be the blow out of all blow outs

[RockHardNYC]

Being alone for Christmas does not have to suck. Find something that pleases you, a gift to yourself, and do it. The Christmas holiday will be over in a flash, and we're right back to another January. I'm not a big fan of wallowing in sorrow.

[BiBottomBoy]

Yeah. Last week I got the local electronics store to wrap up a copy of Cypberpunk 2077 and sell it to me and I've left it under my mini tree and can open it up on Christmas Eve and be surprised and just play it and drink martinis all Christmas Day.

[RockHardNYC]

1 hour ago, BiBottomBoy said:

Last week I got the local electronics store to wrap up a copy of Cypberpunk 2077 and sell it to me and I've left it under my mini tree and can open it up on Christmas Eve and be surprised and just play it and drink martinis all Christmas Day.

There you go. That's one way to do it.

Between Christmas and New Year's, I'm having a bit of a bake-off. With help from the son and the housekeeper, I'm baking "twelve" different Christmas cookies, all personal favorites from recipes that I've accumulated since my teen years. (I'm a serious cookie fan.) My special cookies (some recipes from France and Italy) will be beautifully packaged in a unique holiday box, and the boxes will be hand delivered. Each box holds twenty-four cookies, two of each. If you're on my recipient list for these goodies, you know what you mean to me. It's a total labor of love, and not something I do very often. I just thought 2021 deserved a special start.

[BiBottomBoy]

That's hard core gift giving.

[RockHardNYC]

2 hours ago, BiBottomBoy said:

That's hard core gift giving.

Not really. If I had Oprah's money, I'd buy all my close friends a new car. I really enjoy surprising people with fun goodies.