Let me talk of Christmas plans

[selenay]

Note to self: when you are running well ahead of time in the morning, that doesn't mean you will be at work early. It means that the universe will work even harder to mess with your morning. My twenty minute commute took me forty minutes today. No, I really don't know why. I also lost five minutes looking for the source of the voices, convinced that the cats had turned on the TV or radio, only to realise that my neighbour across the street had his car door open while he scraped the ice and it was so loud that I could hear it in the kitchen. Argh.

As tomorrow is 1st December and we will be starting the annual count-down to Christmas, let me tell you about my plans.

My office is lovely and gives us Christmas Eve off as well as the Monday and Tuesday following as our lieu days for Christmas being on a weekend. This means that I will have five glorious days off work. Then I'm back at work for three days before getting a three day weekend. This alone is enough to get me thoroughly excited.

My parents and I decided that it would be much less stressful for everyone if we all stayed in our respective countries this year. Therefore I shall be here in Canada and they will be in England. Skype will come to our rescue (hopefully) for keeping in contact. Most importantly, nobody will be worrying about flying and the travel expenses and the risks of airports being closed due to snow etc. Also, nobody will have to fly through the USA to get affordable flights.

I am never, ever doing that again.

Over the years, I have read about people having these lovely Christmas staycations where they eat lots of food, watch DVDs and veg out with no need to run around to various family celebrations. As much as I love my family and enjoy a family Christmas, I have also sometimes felt slightly jealous of those people who get to sleep whenever they want, have DVD marathons of Lord of the Rings and eat themselves silly.

So this year, that will be my Christmas.

No, I won't be completely alone. I'm spending Christmas Day with my aunt (so I don't have to sort out the turkey, phew) and there is often a gathering of knitters at a coffee shop on Boxing Day. But other than that, my Christmas break will be filled with food, DVDs, cuddling of cats and generally doing whatever I want to my own timetable.

I am possibly disproportionately excited about this.

For this extravaganza of self-indulgence, there shall be planning. Menu planning, to ensure that I have the scrummiest food imaginable every day. Slowly buying nice treats for myself (a bag of Liebekuchen and a box of shortbread fell in my basket this week, oops). Buying in a few DVDs so that I have things just in case my Christmas presents all prove to be book-oriented rather than DVD-oriented.

There may also be a book day. I haven't decided yet. But a whole day of reading does have its appeal.

The only thing that may upset me will be if friends or family decide that they can't bear to think of me alone and 'volunteer' me into attending events every day. Christmas Day and the possible knitterly coffee date are going to be lovely and exactly what I need. Much more than that cuts into my completely selfish indulgence time and I shall have a tantrum.

I'm almost afraid to tell people my plans in case they try to kidnap me. That's a bit sad, isn't it?

Comments

[nosila]

There was an accident on the bridge that had traffic coming from Dartmouth waaaay backed up. I noticed the traffic as I sat in my chauffeur driven vehicle (Metro Transit!) and was thankful that I was heading to Dartmouth from Halifax, rather than the other way around!

[gmul.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an excellent plan. DVD-requirement duly noted, just make sure the list has plenty to choose from!

[selenay]

The list was updated yesterday with plenty of DVDs :-)

Can you believe that I didn't have Doctor Who on there? I assumed that I'd put it on and was horrified to realise that I hadn't and that might have been why it didn't appear for my birthday.

What was I thinking? What kind of Doctor Who fan am I?

[sugoll.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a thoroughly marvellous plan. Might I suggest that you plan ahead a lot, and also prepare a few things like, oh, spiced fruit, pre-done mulled plonk, etc. so that you can just enjoy them on your days of leisure?

Or not, as you prefer. :-)

[selenay]

I shall be making lists this week of what I need to buy and what can be pre-prepared :-) Minimal work is my keyword this year.

Spending half my days in the kitchen to achieve amazing food does not appeal!

Now, the mulled plonk is something that I've never made from scratch. Any suggestions for how that can be achieved?

[sugoll.livejournal.com]

Well now, as it happens, I was making some more last night, using the recipe from Nigella Christmas. Going from memory, it's like this:

Take:
1 75cl bottle of red plonk
75g sugar
5 cloves
4 cinnamon sticks
10cm orange peel
50ml cognac

Place in pan. Heat until almost but not quite boiling. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Serve in heat-proof beverage containers.

She also notes that you can make it in advance, strain out the gubbins, then reheat as required. And for a non-alcoholic version (no, I don't know either), replace (plonk+cognac) with a liter of cranberry+pomegranate, in equal parts.

The other thing I like from that book is the aforementioned spiced peaches, for which I bought some peaches yesterday morning. Nom.

[selenay]

And is the Box of Delights reference in your icon to the classic BBC adaptation of that novel?

I think watching Box of Delights is on my 'to do' list for next weekend. To get me in the mood and all.

[sugoll.livejournal.com]

Nah, just a miscellaneous reference to the joys of the tellybox. But BoD was quite entertaining, I thought. I was expecting a follow-on series set in Canada, but it didn't appear to happen.