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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Blue Christmas
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Surfing Madness
Shipmate
# 11087
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Posted
I know it's nothing compared to what some people are dealing with, but would be happy to let Christmas just pass by without marking it. Never been a great fan of it. This year I will be working Christmas eve, Christmas day and boxing day.
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I now blog about all my crafting! http://inspiredbybroadway.blogspot.co.uk
Posts: 1542 | From: searching for the jam | Registered: Feb 2006
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Curious
Shipmate
# 93
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Posted
I'm another one who's had a pretty rubbish year. I've always loved Christmas but this season I can't even be bothered to put up the cards let alone the tree. All those decorations hold too many memories of what is past.
Thoughts and prayers for all who struggle this time of year.
Curious
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Erin - you are missed more than you could know. Rest in peace and rise in glory - to provide unrest in the heavenly realms.
Posts: 1372 | From: Betwixt and between | Registered: May 2001
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
Thoughts with all having a difficult Christmas this year.
The year we were in the hostel for the homeless I cancelled Christmas, decided it was all too difficult to celebrate anything. I really empathise with the students at work who come from challenging backgrounds and who find the whole thought of Christmas difficult. They are surrounded by this wall of "Christmas is coming" and "everyone is going to have a fantastic Christmas" and know they are not. And idiots who put up Christmas decorations when they are advised it's a bad idea deserve to have the place trashed around them. Except that member of staff won't get excluded and that on their records, the kids do. And everyone else gets to rebuild the rooms afterwards.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Nicodemia
WYSIWYG
# 4756
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Posted
![[Votive]](graemlins/votive.gif) For Ruth, Sophs, Boogie and all those who have sadnesses in their families this Christmas.
We will be "celebrating" on our own again this year. Family, which isn't very large anyway, has had traumatic year. We are now the elderly parents and most likely to die first. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
I'll remember not to do it over Christmas! ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
Posts: 4544 | From: not too far from Manchester, UK | Registered: Jul 2003
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Mrs Shrew
Ship's Mother
# 8635
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Posted
Have had a truly terrible day this year. Just counting down the hours until it is over and I can go back to work.
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"The goal of life is not to make other people in your own image, it is to understand that they, too, are in God's image" (Orfeo)
Was "mummyfrances".
Posts: 703 | From: York, England | Registered: Oct 2004
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
Christmas Day this year? Let's just say that if there's anything in reincarnation I'm coming back as an only child.
Huia
[ 25. December 2013, 18:00: Message edited by: Huia ]
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Amorya
Ship's tame galoot
# 2652
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Posted
My sister is still on a section. She was allowed out from 8am to 8pm today. My parents just left to drive her back. I'm now feeling guilty that I didn't go with them.
Posts: 2383 | From: Coventry | Registered: Apr 2002
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Nenya
Shipmate
# 16427
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Posted
for those who have had, and are having, a sad Christmas.
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They told me I was delusional. I nearly fell off my unicorn.
Posts: 1289 | Registered: May 2011
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JoannaP
Shipmate
# 4493
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
Christmas Day this year? Let's just say that if there's anything in reincarnation I'm coming back as an only child.
Huia
The problem with being an only child is that you have sole responsibility for elderly parents and there is nobody to share the burden with.
Joanna P - who is thinking of going away for Christmas next year.
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"Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow." R. H. Tawney (quoted by Isaiah Berlin)
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
Posts: 1877 | From: England | Registered: May 2003
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Another problem with being an only child is that while you don't have siblings to argue with, it doesn't necessarily mean that relationships with every other member of your family are sweetness and light. You may find yourself the sole focus of this, with nobody to turn to.
Christmas is always going to be difficult for anyone who has idealistic expectations of what the season should be like, or who gets stressed out by having to achieve this, that or the other, or who doesn't appreciate what (or who) they have, or who isn't prepared to be considerate. Loss is another factor; there are few things as awful as that first Christmas after someone has gone when you try to carry on and it just doesn't work.
My commiserations to anyone out there who is struggling with Christmas and hating it.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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geroff
Shipmate
# 3882
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Posted
Sole responsibility for elderly parent is not just if you are an only child. it is also nearest child. Brother in Australia (holiday) and sister in Las Vegas (recently moved there) I get mother and a sleeping clergy wife. There must be a better way of doing this.
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"The first principle in science is to invent something nice to look at and then decide what it can do." Rowland Emett 1906-1990
Posts: 1172 | From: Montgomeryshire, Wales | Registered: Jan 2003
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Banner Lady
Ship's Ensign
# 10505
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Posted
As my sister said: "Well, the good news is that Christmas is now as far away as it can possibly be. We've all got 364 days of respite!"
Mine went okay after some serious misgivings. I went into "management" mode. Everyone made an effort to behave themselves (having a stranger along to share the Christmas Eve dinner helped). We kept the focus on the youngest members of the family and had everyone out the door by 9pm.
The nursing home service was poignant, because for everyone there, Christmas is not an easy time.
Lighting a candle for us all:
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Women in the church are not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be enjoyed.
Posts: 7080 | From: Canberra Australia | Registered: Oct 2005
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
My father (age 93) felt ill at breakfast and was taken to the hospital. He has suffered a second heart attack and is experiencing kidney failure. He's bounced back before but at his age this may well be the end. And on Christmas day!
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
Miss Amanda's Father
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
What Huia said.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
Survived also. My father, 86 years, well we got him to play the trumpet. Probably the best part of the season. He fairly glowed. We also had 2 internet video phone calls from daughter and partner who're in London. I can't but have tears for missing them and those we've lost and will never see.
For the sick and possibly dying, and the recently dead -- thinking about our shared sorrows and joys of memories - is there a word to describe joy & sorrow at once? Take care all of you and everyone hug and talk to those you have while you have them.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet:
...is there a word to describe joy & sorrow at once? Take care all of you and everyone hug and talk to those you have while you have them.
A sort of melancholy really, it can be a nice feeling.
We went to an event at the temple last night and I got two spontaneous hugs, one from a boy I tutored in English for a while and one from a local Muslim lad and they certainly made me feel better.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Barnabas Aus
Shipmate
# 15869
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Posted
3 of our 4 parents have died in Advent over the last decade, including mother-in-law just a fortnight ago. This Christmas saw some tears, but also the joy of our two very young grandchildren. So, bittersweet was the feeling.
Posts: 375 | From: Hunter Valley NSW | Registered: Sep 2010
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Nenya
Shipmate
# 16427
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet:
We also had 2 internet video phone calls from daughter and partner who're in London. I can't but have tears for missing them and those we've lost and will never see.
I have never not seen my children on Christmas Day and I don't want to think about a year when it might happen.
We are travelling today for an overnight stay to visit friends and family: my eldest brother who lives alone and takes great pleasure in not celebrating Christmas at all, and the partner of my other brother. This post-Christmas visiting.was always part of our Christmas routine, but this year is happening without the Nenlets who have their own agenda. I feel very shaky about it and can't wait to get home again - partly because of the weather (it's blowing another hooley out there) and partly because it will be bittersweet, with memories of the people we used to see on these visits: my brother who died unexpectedly two years ago and my mum who died last year, 92 and oh so ready to go but whom I'll never stop missing.
Nen - taking tissues.
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They told me I was delusional. I nearly fell off my unicorn.
Posts: 1289 | Registered: May 2011
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
Mum made it through, her chest is clearing up.
This happens at round about six monthly intervals. She can't cough, so any cold just rattles and rattles and fills up with fluid.
I dread her dying, but I also dread her living any more years of this non-life in her shell of a body.
We did our best. She went to my brother's on Christmas day and snoozed in the corner in her wheelchair. We went to visit her yesterday and fed her her meal. The home where she now lives is small, homely, well run with friendly easy going staff. I take Tatze, my labrador, who is a great hit with the residents. I keep being asked if she's a PAT dog.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
[ 27. December 2013, 09:09: Message edited by: Boogie ]
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Thyme
Shipmate
# 12360
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Posted
Glad she made it through Boogie. What got me through many Christmases past was thinking that 'I have done my best'. All any of us can do in these sort of circumstances.
Now it is over and I can enjoy Christmas again.
Miss Amanda - for you and your family.
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The Church in its own bubble has become, at best the guardian of the value system of the nation’s grandparents, and at worst a den of religious anoraks defined by defensiveness, esoteric logic and discrimination. Bishop of Buckingham's blog
Posts: 600 | From: Cloud Cuckoo Land | Registered: Feb 2007
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Patdys
Iron Wannabe
RooK-Annoyer
# 9397
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Posted
I have the privilege working in palliative care.
If you are wondering,
Do the staff really care for our deceased friend or relative, for us, or is it an act, a part of the job?
My answer is yes, we care.
We share your stories, tears and laughter. We recognise the honour of being invited into your lives at this time, being part of your story and journey.
We don't always get it as right as we would wish. And I am sorry.
Your stories shape us.
We care.
And we remember.
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Marathon run. Next Dream. Australian this time.
Posts: 3511 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
Quotes file.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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