How will you be spending Christmas day?

Christmas will be at home in California with friends and family. A couple of days later we're off to Mexico City where sons, daughters, spouses & grandkids will gather for a reunion. #2 son is married to a lovely Mexican girl, and we & her family will celebrate new year's at the Mission San Angelin.

We're spending Christmas with our California kid and her husband this year and decided to drive instead of fly--20 hour drive from our house to theirs, but we're breaking it up along the way. We've never spent Christmas at her place and she's our more eclectic kid so I will be very surprised if there is anything traditional included. It will certainly be a good time however.

We will spend the entire holiday no farther than 25 miles from home. Everyone will gather at our house this year on Dec 26 and on Christmas EVe were hosting a small get together for our neighbors.
On Christmas Week we help out in food bank and help out cooking the Mission's traditional holiday meals. I am now the Stuffing NAzi. I have the recipe and am in charge of making about 200 pounds of stuffing and gravy. We had the familyrecipe converted toextra large amounts and this recipe has been tested. (It contains sausage and sagey potatoes and corn bread)
Food BAnk . Donations have suffered and they all need help.

I wish that food banks would have their supplies guaranteed all year round , we all seem to focus mostly on Holidays. People need meals every day. My employees have expressed a desire to forego a Christmas party and instead send the money to te Food BAnk. They are great people and I didnt know how low the Food BAnk plight has gotten this year. When people's finances suffer, so do the charities they donate to. I shall not make that oversight again. Stupid boring Christmas party, or help feed some folks who are down on their luck, This is a no-brainer.

On Dec 27, the kid, his GF, and Mrs F and I will take part in a Bald Eagle watch down on the lower Susquehanna. Theyve already toted about 250 eagles this winter. The population has surged in the last 5 years especially. I rented a big lens for my camera.

Wow farmer, you certainly love a challenge, don't you?!

But seriously, that's incredible. I am so impressed. You're kinda alright, ya know? Could you tell us (from other countries) a little more about how the food banks actually work, please? Run completely by volunteers & donations?



(btw, just want to say how much I enjoy your posts about what goes on in your community. Transports me to a completely different place & I learn about all sorts of new things & people (like your neighbours & the Amish). You should write about these things more often, you know.

(On the run again this morning. Got to meet my tax consultant in an hour & a bit. I'll be glad when that's done, I can tell you! Looking forward to reading these latest posts with a little more time up my sleeve.)



I have noticed, though, that a few posters are conspicuously missing!

we give a regular monthly package to the local food bank

and not just food but diapers, hats, gloves, the woman who runs our local food bank has even asked about back packs at the start of the school year

last night some truly evil scumbags broke into two trailer and stole an undetermined amount of donations that had been collected for "Toys For Tots"

Jeez, djjd, how low can some people go? Shame on them.

Oh Msolga - my friend... aaaaaaaaaaaaahghhh.. I am missing Truly, I cannot say what will happen in on Christmas Day here... it kinda depends on the BigBoy and whether or not he comes to the new home. It'll be hit and miss until, maybe 5 mins before he arrives.

If all goes to plan, which we are positively hoping it will - Big Boy (16) should come home on 23rd, 24th and 25th...maybe, maybenot - that might me be too much for him... maybe just 2 days, or one. He wants to be with his little brother who is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited and just can't wait for Christmas for the 3 of us to be in the same house. I think my "ole's" (parents) may come here for lunch - it all has to be just so on Christmas Day to ensure the BigBoy stays... calm - so.... we can't make snow for him, but hoping it will be frosty outside - that would suffice methinks. BigBoy's Christmas is "ritualistic". Times have changed tho - this year will be different.

We are working on a massive positivity drive. We did the tree today (on the yabber thread) - Little Fella so, so excited, so, so LOUD! We won't see the BigBoy 'til he decides to come. If he does - it will be wonderful.


(as yet have not done Crimbo shopping..... mmmmmm - not long to go but finish up at school on Friday!)

Will let you know details.... on Christmas Eve! HA! Who knows


Wishing everyone here a great Christmas in whichever way they do or don't celebrate. We believe in Christmas - the love side of Christmas as opposed to the presents. Little fella was in awe and wonder as he took the Victorian Village with train (porcelain) and made the festive village come to life tonite. The wonder in his eyes - that's what Christmas is about. Love, hope and a smile to melt your heart.

Well about time, too, Izzie!

Jeez, I thought you'd never make it!

But Unfortunately I can't read your post just now. So later it'll have to be ...

NowI must go. Or I'll be in all sorts of strife with the taxation folk!



Good on ya, Izz!

Most of the food banks Im familiar with are alll staffed by volunteers and are stationed in several church halls and some warehouse properties. In all cases they are inspected by the PA Dept of Health and any local agencies.

Our local administrators are the a group called "Neighborhood Services" which has 2 paid personnel (an administrator and a secretary).

People who need food are asked to register and then the BAnk dips into its reserves to fill the needs. This year has been rather tight and companies are asked to help out by making donations in kind.

MAny of the food prosucers donate their own goods to the bank).


The AMish take care of their own within their own community. They dont seek andy "charity" except that which is given by the Amish bretheren. However, they all donate to our food banks as the neighbors they are. You couldnt have a better neighbor than an Amish family. When I was sick last year, and when I busted myself up in a series of falls a few years ago, the AMish ganged up and took in my hay cropmand put it up in the barn. I tried to pay them and they flat refused. So, Ive set up a horse watering area on my field that is adjacent to a long open road. This road gets real hot in the summer and its a way into town. The water comes from a long buried plastic pipe and a freeze proof faucet that can be used to water a horses hooves so they dont founder , or its used for just drinking. That they will accept and expect as a correct thing to do. They are more into propriety than charity.

Course, their Christmas expweriences are totally different than the "English". They are relatively severe on their observance. They will, at best, have a family dinner on the day but presents are foreign to them.

Not any more, possum. Lovely to see you here!

[/quote]We are working on a massive positivity drive. We did the tree today (on the yabber thread) - Little Fella so, so excited, so, so LOUD! We won't see the BigBoy 'til he decides to come. If he does - it will be wonderful. [/quote]

Ah Izzie, I so hope it works out the way you hope! You certainly deserve it. Fingers firmly crossed for you!

Thanks for elaborating on the food banks, farmer. I really do find this incredibly interesting. I'm wondering if they first came about during the 1930s depression, when things were really tough for so many?

I love that story about how you & your neighbours supported each other. The water for the horses & the hay crop. Fascinating to me that the Amish & "the English" are so very different in their ways, but coexist so harmoniously.

I have booked my Opulent Mensan
Special Interest Group of NY Mensa
(the largest Mensa Group in the world)
into a fairly lavish, high-end buffa with unlimited Champagne
at the Ambassador Grill, on 44th St., near the UN.
My SIG is kinda into culinary hedonism.
We 've had this buffa there for several years on Christmas Day.
Its a special buffa that the restaurant only renders on holidays.


David

Just curious, David. How much will this actually cost per Mensa person?

Its a very good deal; modestly priced.

Based upon prior years' experience,
each attender shoud be able to get out for around $85,
unless other drinks are ordered
in addition to the unlimited Champaign.
I m trying to remember whether this is one of the
places that also offers other wines, within the price.
There 's a wide variety of seafood, lobster, oysters,
salmon, lasagna, Peking Duck, roast lamb, roast beef,
and extraordinarily appealling desserts in abundance.
Some of those cakes are deeply superchocolatey.
The cherries in the pie SING in your mouth.
Thay had a caramel custard that blows your mind.
Then there was a superhedonic pineapple upsidedown cake.
[HOW can thay cram so much goodness into so small a space?]
I have gone back to the dessert table quite a few times.
There has been some minor variation from one year
to another, but for the most part, its pretty reliable.
The paucity of my memory is a disservice to the place.
I only recall a small fraction of what thay offered us.

Thay combat addiction by only offering it on holidays:
Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year 's Day, Easter etc.

For that kind of money, u cant go rong.
I think that its priced so inexpensively because its served
in the daytime; for dinner, it 'd be a great deal more.
That 's where Santa goes to eat n relax after a cold night 's work.




David

oh, now I wish I were coming for the cherries that'd sing in my mouth and especially for the pineapple upside down cake - I haven't had that in so long- since my mother used to make it.

Have a nice meal and lovely Christmas David!

YES.
We 'll miss u; MERRY CHRISTMAS, Rebecca!

Thank you David.

I hope that your enterprize is PROSPERING, Rebecca!

yeah - it is doing well - put it this way- I'm making enough to pay all my bills and pay a helper and even pay myself a little something, making a return on my initial investment....and this is the slow season; it supposedly gets really, really busy after Easter.
It's been really, really fun...I'm making a lot of new friends and feel that I'm becoming a part of the community. I'm closing for two weeks at Christmas, as there's a big demand before Christmas when everyone's out and about shopping, but then after Christmas it goes kind of quiet because everyone's home with family - my landlady told me that everyone closes for those two weeks.
But anyway- I'm already feeling that I'm gonna miss some of the people I see everyday - some of these people come in twice a day. They're starting to feel like my family.
But I am looking forward to the rest - I've been working pretty much ten hour days every day for the past three months.
I'm also looking forward to taking some walks and some pictures.

How's your retirement going?