Season's Greetings to our Christians Members

[X-press]

http://209.207.190.146/xmas//xmas1dd.jpg

~~ Season's Greetings ~~

"With many warm wishes
For every good thing
This wonderful season
could possibly bring.
And then a whole year
That, right from the start,
Fulfills all the hopes
That are dear to your heart!"

Merry Christmas to you
and to your family.


Sincerely,

X-press

[raffee]

I, too, would like to extend my warmest wishes to the Christian members of the sabla for the Christmas holiday.
Season's greetings, and may you have a joyous Christmas, and a prosperous new year.:D

[SoMe1]

Enjoy your holidays :D

[NaBHaN]

Merry Christmas

http://images.animfactory.com/images/feature/santa_computer.gif

[4-ever-young]

Wishing you all a very Merry christmas filled with joy and laughter :D

[IceTea]

Have a nice weekend/leave.

[Dr N]

Merry christmas dear members....
And wishing you all a happy new year.:)

[Arabian Princess]

Happy Christmas.
Enjoy it and many happy returns

[X-press]

http://www.geocities.com/merrychristmasideas/lights.gif
Wandering if the members, who celebrate Christmas, do it in the evening of Christmas Eve with their family and close friends around a beautifully decorated dinner table...or only on Christmas day (25th)?

Are the grown-ups as anxious to open their presents as the little ones?

Tell us your stories...

[DeSerTDesTroYeR]

Greeeeeeeeeetingssssssssss :D.... how many members actually celebrate...:D... hmm..if your in Oman....do they sell xmas tress over here...:confused:

[Dark Project]

Yes ,Merry Christmas to our Brothers & Sisters

Hope this year is better than the last year and may the next year will be a good year for you all and Family .

[X-press]

Dede, of course they sell Christmas trees in Oman!...not real pine tree but several choices of good plastic one :rolleyes: ...I bought one and beautifully decorated it two years ago when my mother came to visit me in December... I wanted her to still feel the spirit of the holiday seasons (yes, she is christian! :eek: ;) ) and she was so happy :)


Originally posted by DeSerTDesTroYeR
.... how many members actually celebrate

Well, I suppose Mimosa, Grasshopper, MoonChild, Wandy, Dorellam and Pino...I pm them to show them this thread, but none of them replied :weep: :weep:

[Neena]

Hey there to all the christian members..... I do wish you a very mary christmas .... .. and i would love to hear all about what did you do .... !!!! am waiting!! :)

[MoonChild]

Thanks :)
Well we aren't Christian but we celebrate Christmas - it's just the common name for winter holiday anyway :).

What do we do? Well, in early December we buy an evergreen tree and decorate it with lights and ornaments. We also string greenery and lights up our staircase banister. Most everyone puts up exterior lights too but we didn't get to it this year!

We also have a train set that we only put up at Christmas-time. every year we take all the furniture out of one room and fill it with a big train set. Each year we buy a new car and some scenery piece- a mountain or building so there is a village full of people to enjoy the train :)

Our family gathering is small because most of our family members live on the West Coast (3,000) miles away. My parents come over in late morning and we exchange gifts then Wanderer cooks us a feast :)
Gift-opening is child-centered, but adults get a few things too :) This year I got Wanderer a new espresso-maker (bright red), and CD player for his office. He (with Faith's help) got me an MP3 player (so I can listen to music at the gym), a KitchenAid (mixer/bread mixer -also bright red), and best of all sapphire and diamond earrings to match the first ring he ever bought me :):):):):)

Maybe Wanderer can write more, as Braedon just woke from his nap!

[Wanderer]

Here's a glimpse into Christmas morning at our house.

Faith and Braedon in front of the tree.

[Wanderer]

Braedon gets a "Command Center" Station so that he can prepare to command his own starship some day.


Faith and I signed up for 2 introductory Tae Kwon Do lessons. If she likes it, cool, we'll sign up, if not, it's only a few dollars gone.

[raffee]

Beautiful pics wandy!;)

Seems like your Christmas went beautifully. Although we dont celebrate Christmas, I felt awefully lonely around that time.:sorry:

Im hoping to avoid those feelings on new years by organising a small get-together.

What are your plans for new yrs eve?

[Wanderer]

Originally posted by raffee
What are your plans for new yrs eve?

New Years Eve, hmmm.

I may make Chinese spring rolls for MoonChild.

Traditionally, each year we write down on strips of paper our dreams for the coming year - things we'd like to do, see, start, etc., and place them in a ceramic goblet we keep on the fireplace mantle. So this New Years we'll review last years wishes to see what we managed, remove those we've accomplished, then write down our wishes for this coming year.

We may try a recently recommended champagne at midnight.

[mimosa]

Ooooh! Mama Sabla....I never saw this before!:eek:

Thank you for your kind thoughts.....you are such a sweetie as always. Although I wouldn't call myself a Christian, I like any excuse for a party, and this is my favourite time of year! And my wife is Christian anyway.

We had a great day, but a long one. My youngest was ill and up a lot in the night, then they all woke up at 5:30am. We opened our presents and then took my wife to work. Then I stuffed the kids with chocolate and let them behave like little animals for a few hours until we picked up my wife again - one of them stayed in her pyjamas until mid-day!

I took the two bigger kids to my neighbour's house for a couple of beers (me, that is!) while they got more sweets and ran around like lunatics. Then a load of us went to the Hyatt for lunch (and saw Mr and Mrs Press I think!) which was great...except I ate too much, and the kids were too tired to appreciate it. But we all had a good time.

In the evening, we put the kids to bed early, and went to another friend's house. There were six of us, and we had all brought something to add to the meal, which centred around a pile of fresh lobsters which we barbecued, and a lot of champagne.

We had a great day....hope you did too!

[grasshopper]

Im very sorry i have not replied to this before. .I have barely been on the pc for the last few days over the christmas period as have been at my parents house for the holiday..

Thank you X-press and everyone else for wishing us a happy xmas.. Ive had a lovely time with my family thankyou.. A quiet but lovely xmas.

To other christians Happy Xmas. to the non christians thank you all for your greetings and warm wishes..

Happy new year to you all..

Hoppy. .

[Wanderer]

Lobsters.

Yum.

We had lamb, wine and bread for Christmas Eve dinner.

MoonChild later pointed out that that combination was probably wrong considering ...

[mimosa]

lol.....maybe it's entirely appropriate....but i think you're supposed to eat 'bitter herbs' with it....or am i getting confused?!

[DorellaM]

Thank you all so much for all your greetings. I have been away alot. I had a great Christmas, I had to make sure...(like every year) that my children understand what Christmas is really about...cause most all children think its about getting lots of presents, but they did get some gifts and its snowed here so we had a white christmas. Thanks again to everyone. :D

[MoonChild]

Originally posted by mimosa
lol.....maybe it's entirely appropriate....

We also ate fish that day :D

I so love being symbolic :p

[X-press]

MoonChild, I really have the feeling that you, Wandy and the kids are such a close and warm family... and I love the fact that you have all these little traditional habit, like putting a train in the sitting room for Christmas :) Where exactly does this idea come from, as it usually not seen in people's house for this occasion? I am sure the kids must love it!


Originally posted by Wanderer
New Years Eve, hmmm.
Traditionally, each year we write down on strips of paper our dreams for the coming year -

Wandy, I remember you mentioning this tradition last year and I found it so, so sweet! I would love to do such a thing...but I can't imagine my hubby going along with this! Do you usually stick to what you wrote and make them come true?

[X-press]

Originally posted by mimosa
...for lunch (and saw Mr and Mrs Press I think!) which was great...

mimo, if you think it was me, why didn't you come and introduce yourself? It would have been a great opportunity! :) Even if you are not a "real" Christian, do you still put a christmas tree in your house?

It seems cooking a turkey for Christmas is a tradition in some countries, but my mum used to bake a delicious one only for New Year...wandering if in America or in England there is a special dish for these two occasions?

[mimosa]

Mama S :),

I didn't have any idea it was you at the time...not 'til you said in this thread. Then I remembered noticing an Omani gentleman and a very lovely lady having lunch at a table on the terrace near the entrance to the buffet.....so I thought that might've been you and your husband.

The Christmas tree, as Moonie said in another thread, is a very old symbol of renewal with long connections to winter festivals in northern Europe. We certainly have one, and I think I would even if my wife wasn't Christian. I just enjoy this celebration and all the little traditions that go with it that I have grown up with.

Turkey comes from North America of course, and only really became the traditional Christmas meal this century - presumably because is was a big bird and cheap, so good for a family meal. Personally I think it's a bit bland. I like a big fat goose when I can get one. Most people have turkey these days, but the goose was the tradition for centuries before that, and tastes much better I think :)

I don't know of any traditional New Year meals.

[Wanderer]

Originally posted by X-press
... and I love the fact that you have all these little traditional habit, like putting a train in the sitting room for Christmas :) Where exactly does this idea come from, as it usually not seen in people's house for this occasion? I am sure the kids must love it!


We had a train set that we only set up around the tree on Christmas when I was young. It was something the "boys" did - my dad, brother, and I. Our family stopped having Christmas before my sisters were old enough to join in. I'm keeping the idea alive and passing it on to Faith and Braedon. I always enjoyed lying down on the floor and watching the train move - coming at me, passing, and then moving off - and using the controller to adjust the speed when necessary so it didn't wreck. You can put in some drops so that the train makes smoke too !!

Our tradition is to all go to the hobby store and buy a train car (and marking it with the year) and maybe some additional item - more track or a building, etc. each year just befor setting up the train. This year we bought a Boxcar, a snowy mountain, and a foot bridge for people crossing the tracks.


Wandy, I remember you mentioning this tradition last year and I found it so, so sweet! I would love to do such a thing...but I can't imagine my hubby going along with this! Do you usually stick to what you wrote and make them come true?

They are family goals and, of course, subject to our fortunes during the year. But they do allow us to have a plan and share with each other just what hopes we have for adventure - and some mushy stuff.

For example, the slip with "Buy a Volvo" has "2002 Ford Focus" written on it.
The slip with "Walk hand-in-hand in Mexico" has "Spring in Germany" appended to it; "Baltimore harbor - by water" was not practicle this year and will stay in for the next boating season.
"Laugh much, love much, live well", shall always be in there.
"Host a neighborhood party" has our, now infamous, "Hanover Ocktoberfest" written on it.

MoonChild and I will review them again in a few nights ... and add a few new ones.

[MoonChild]

Originally posted by mimosa
Turkey ...Personally I think it's a bit bland

Tha'ts because you've never tasted Wanderer's turkey... yummmmmmmmmmm

In the American South, black-eyed peas, stewed tomatoes, and smoked oysters are traditionally eaten new year's morning for good luck - I'm not sure why though.

Tradition in our family is to have Wanderer's famous spring rolls, for no better reason than they are my favorite :)

[Shakoosh Kabir]

Hi guys

Sorry for the delay in replying, but I´ve just finished opening my presents.