This Christmas I will be.......

Marianne_BCNA
Marianne_BCNA Member Posts: 245 ✭
edited January 2019 in General discussion
Hi everyone,
This time last year I asked you all to post some Xmas tips and we put some of these tips in an article and sent it to women newly diagnosed with a link to the online conversation
https://external2.createsend.com/campaigns/reports/viewCampaign.aspx?d=d&c=96F7DB74A54F2F70&ID=87D90CE98EBF5B33&temp=False&tx=0

We would like to do the same this year.  I was touched last year by some of the conversations around how Christmas now had a different meaning for some of you and the decisions you made about what is important now for you at Xmas time. I therefore thought we could do something around what you'll be doing this Xmas - what is now important to you, do you now do things differently, have certain traditions, activites become more important, are there things you ve decided not to do? 

Would love to hear your thoughts.



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Comments

  • kmakm
    kmakm Member Posts: 7,974 ✭
    This Christmas I will be... not striving to make everything perfect, and won't be castigating myself if it's not. I'm the only one who can 'do' Christmas in my family, so there's a bit of pressure. But they'll all just have to manage if things aren't the way they've been in the past.

    Last Christmas I was on tenterhooks waiting on the genomic test to see if I had to have chemo or not. This year will be a lot less tense!

    I'm very different from who I was a year ago, so I'm going into Christmas as a blank page. I don't know how it will be. More meaningful? Less meaningful? I feel a bit distant at these kind of events now, a little removed. So I'm going for no expectations and we'll see what happens.
  • Sister
    Sister Member Posts: 4,961 ✭
    Actually, I have no idea what Christmas will look like this year.  Last year, it came a few days after surgery and, while the kids cooked the meal, I tried to keep it as much the same as in the past as I could.  But to be fair, apart from the roast, we tend to keep a low-key Chrissy when we can.
  • Afraser
    Afraser Member Posts: 4,440 ✭
    My most ardent Christmas decorator at work has just taken a new job. Lovely person but tinselly! At least I won't have to do my grumpy bit about that this season. 
  • Artferret
    Artferret Member Posts: 259 ✭
    Land of the long lunch at my sister's home this year. Also popping up to Brisbane weekend before the day to have chrissie with my husband's family - we haven't done that for I don't know how long. This year is stress free. I'm actually looking forward to it all (last year i just wanted to see the back of 2017). We don't give each other pressies (except for our daughters and any nieces or nephews not finished school). We all figured everyone had enough of everything. It's just lovely spending the day together. Fresh Christmas tree next week and decorated by our daughters. 
  • Flaneuse
    Flaneuse Member Posts: 899 ✭
    I'm glad that nobody expects me to be the Kitchen Goddess any more; they've got the message that I'd rather spend any energy I have trying to play with the grandchildren - and then calling a halt when I've had enough. Also, I'm not putting up the tree because it always scratches me and I already have cellulitis. The kids already have their own tree up.

    It's been an expensive year under treatment - even in a public hospital: parking and fuel the biggest tally. So I'll be limiting the cost of gifts for grandchildren. I'm an atheist too but I follow the cultural festive traditions for the sake of the children. With adults, my new guideline will be, "We don't need more 'stuff'. Let's just spend time together over a meal." And that recognition is more of a year gone by, rather than Christmas.

    New Year's Eve is always much more important to me than Christmas. It was always the day when I wrote my journal and analysed the year gone by - my achievements, what I could have done better or differently, what I needed to focus on in the new year. It's important to me to always spend that evening with good friends and celebrate our friendship. This year more than ever, It will be vital to thank the friends who have sustained me this year. As for planning ahead, I'm still in too much of a fog to dare plan. I'm just taking one day at a time and hoping that 2019 will allow me to gradually regain some confidence and emotional equilibrium, as well as physical strength.
  • Mira
    Mira Member Posts: 678 ✭
    edited November 2018
    This Christmas will be my second since I have moved out of my parents and into my own house, and my first with a Christmas tree all of my own (it arrived today, yay!)   Last year Mum and Dad came a few days before Christmas and we went to a local park overlooking the beach and had chicken & mango salad in tortilla cups followed by fruit n chocolates.   Mum had a broken wrist so I cooked.   I traditionally make a Christmas icecream which is vanilla icecream mixed with smashed Xmas pudding, liquors, dried fruits and is served with chocolate sauce and fresh fruits, we had that later. :smiley: 

    We haven't decided what we will do yet this year.  Probably the same, although they plan on visiting on Christmas day this time.   I'm not sure what food I'll make for the picnic lunch, they're getting older so I'd like to make it special.  I'm torn between researching Christmas picnic dinners or putting up my very first tree tonight :smile: 






  • Mjheke
    Mjheke Member Posts: 78 ✭
    I will be on a plane to NZ on Christmas Day (here’s hoping for a festive flight) to be with my family. My 3 boys (men) will all be together. I love seeing them together, they are such great mates. Our family are very close, we laugh a lot when we are together.  I won’t have to do anything-except maybe buy some duty free alcohol-as we arrive just as the food is being put on the table...great forward planning! Ha ha 
    😉
  • TeePee
    TeePee Member Posts: 31 ✭
    I love Christmas! We go and stay at my aunts (I'm a single Mum with 3 kids and no parents of my own) the night before and between us we do all the cooking, we go all out but love it.

    This year will be quite different, I'll be having chemo on Christmas Eve! I start 12 weeks of weekly chemo on 10 December so I'm trying to get organised now! I also got diagnosed as gluten intolerant 4 days before my cancer diagnosis so that will make Christmas trickier too! I am the maker of the trifle so I'm making a gluten free trifle and making all the bits ahead and passing the baton to my 16 year old daughter to put it all together on Christmas Eve!

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