h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

'Tis the season to be jolly.

Yeah, right.

Pushing through crowds to buy s you can't really afford. Trying to when presented with useless s. Going out in packed pubs full of s in hats armed with plastic and breath. Overeating when the gym's closed for Christmas, so you'll have to even harder to lose all the weight again in the New Year. Most places you'd want to go closed down for the holidays, so you're stuck at home with people you have nothing in common with except a few genes. The usual dire repeats and Xmas specials on TV, and awful festive records on the radio. Personally, I'm ing glad that it's not Christmas every day.

Seriously, I miss my University friends, who've dispersed around the country for Christmas, and I'll be glad when it's all over. If it wasn't for the I think I'd be driven back to .

How do other portions of P.U.D.D.I.N.G. feel?

well, this year I am sort of looking forward to it , for the first time in 18 years I shall have xmas with my parents, I am going *home* to NZ for xmas, although it is apparently freezing cold, it has been snowing in the mid north island, an very windy, here where I am in Oz it is usually aroung the 40 degree mark, so we sit around sweltering an eat too much, so now I will sit around freezing and eat too much. At least this year I didn't have to post our s, an nor did my sister, instead she sent them to me to take

My family have never been much for xmas anyway, although my Mum makes a mean shortbread, which I am really looking forward to as she only makes it a xmas time

What I am not looking forward to, is the three weeks of backlog I shall come home to unsubscibing from things is unnatural

I'm dreading it

I'm going to be in the bosom of my family for EIGHT DAYS over Christmas. And it's not as if I can excape back home easily - that family lives on the other side of the Atlantic

"...the family..."

So are you going across the Atlantic, GD, or are they descending on you?

I'm crossing the Atlantic.

It means that Christmas is going to be an entirely football-free environment

So you probably won't even be able to get a decent either. That really is tough. Where exactly are you going? And why are you doing it if the prospect is so grim?

They live in a small town in rural Ontario, a couple of hours drive from Toronto.

The only reason that I'm going is because Mum had that car accident back in the autumn and is still not really fit enough to travel to England and drive etc. It's ultimately to assuage the sudden feelings of mortality on the part of aged relatives

Sorry to hear that. My Christmas Day with my folks, two miles up the road, is actually no hardship. The main thing that's really annoying me is that I've temporarily lost all the fun, social parts of being a student but still have some of the grim bits to deal with - mainly, three essays to get written by January 14.

I really do sincerely hate Christmas...
... Still hope everyone finds a reason to smile this Christams.

I dreaded Christmas shopping this year, so I made myself go out and do it all in one day. It was worth it, now I can sit back and relax. Except that John Lennon song keeps haunting me 'So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over. . . '
Well, once again I haven't accomplished what I'd like, so I turn my new Pearl Jam CD up to drown out the voice and try to forget about it.
Next year will be my year. . . I hope.

Hope everyone gets to have lots of actual pudding, and a nice time.

I know it's a bit late to reply to this thread, but here are my thoughts.

My father-in-law died this year and my mother-in-law didn't want to spend her first Christmas without him alone in their house. I can understand that - we had my mum at our house the year my dad died (never again!). So she took hubby and me away for Christmas - three nights in Wells, in a small hotel opposite the Cathedral. In some ways it was great - we had an old four-poster bed in a room up a steep spiral staircase in the old gatehouse. In other ways, it wasn't. My mother-in-law suffers from depression, but she won't admit it or have anything done about it because of the 'stigma' (her opinion) of being classed as mentally ill. This makes her hard to deal with at the best of times. We had to spend 4 days with her - not my idea of a good Christmas. Hubby and I have decided we will *not* be doing this again. If we do go away for Christmas in the future (unlikely), we will go alone. On the way home she said she wouldn't need to go shopping for a while as she had plenty of food in the house. A couple of days later she had a list of things she wanted hubby to get for her. He got them that night, and then she complained about him getting them as the list wasn't complete!

Then we had our usual New Year's Eve with my mum. As often happens when we go to see her, I almost got into a row with her. On this occasion it was because she didn't want to admit that I might just know more about MS than she does - I am the one suffering from it, after all. But she didn't like me telling her that.

We don't have much choice about how often we see hubby's mum as she only lives 4 miles away and we have to walk her dog. We see my mum as seldom as we can get away with, usually no more than once every couple of months. On a good visit, I won't get into a row with her. Good visits are few.

Sorry to hear about all that, Cheerful Dragon.

I thought I had a bad Christmas/New year with sick relatives.
At least we all got along with each other. (Mostly)

Kudos to you for trying.