***The OFFICIAL Weekend Singles Thread*** December 14 -16

A lot of singles I know and who live on their own do not really do much for Christmas in the way of decorations or buying any special food etc for Christmas. A lot of them get an invite for the day to spend either with friends or family members and therefore their sole preparation is buying a few gifts for the people likely to be at this event and maybe contributing either monetarily to the host/hostess or taking a few food/drink items on the day.

So as a single you think you are prepared and will not be caught unawares but you maybe wrong so I thought this weekend I would offer a few suggestions in order that we may not be embarrassed this year

Many stores in Britain and I suspect in the US have tins or large boxes/cartons of sweets (candies) or biscuits (cookies) only available at Christmas and Easter and many have offers on such as 3 for the price of 2 or a special price for buying 2.

A large tin of chocolates or toffees are always acceptable and even if the recipient does not consume them at Christmas often the best before will be Easter or even beyond, having a couple of these in the house can often be useful for that unexpected gift you get, such as a long lost friend or relative ringing and saying I am in your area today/tomorrow can I pop in and almost certainly they will have a card and a small gift for you.

Also if you do not use these for gifts at Christmas they can be used at Easter or for a birthday present next year. In particular Scottish Shortbread is a good one to give as this is a traditional Christmas/New Year treat.

Another idea is that there are presentation boxes of nuts and dried fruit they make a nice gift and again can be stored for Easter or given as birthday presents if not used.

If you are a baker why not make an extra batch of cookies or candies such a rum truffles or home-made fudge or toffee or even mince pies, keep a few little fancy cardboard boxes and some ribbon and they can quickly be used to create up a present for the unexpected visitor.

A tip also if you have been invited out for the day and you think you have the gifts thing covered in case of an unexpected fellow visitor why not take an extra couple of bottle of wine and bottle bags with you so that you can make the person welcome and they have as least one gift to open if present opening is part of the day's celebrations.

My mom and her current boyfriend are moving into their new house and getting married this summer (although not in that order, don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea or anything). Even though the house is essentially new (only about a year old), that’s never good enough for Mom, so she thought she’d do some painting and remodeling.

Home decorating shows play on a loop in her house it seems.

Well done a couple of stocking fillers for dad and small gifts for people at work and I am set.

Have decided it will be drink for at least 2 of them what do you give people that are either so exact in what they like or are fairly well off that if they want something they will buy it.

Looking for inspiration for the guy that was my boss but due to changes in the office now just works in the same office but having known him over 26 years I will of course still buy a gift. Properly something in the cooking line as he is one that does the cooking especially the Christmas meal.

He has about 20 coming round including his 2 grown sons and grandchildren and small neices so trying to think of some fairly inexpensive that will go down well difficult one - any ideas?

Good for you getting more pay I have heard that in some instances depending how your contract is worded that people just get time in lieu and no extra pay for working Christmas. It is a scam that a lot of companies have adopted in Britain when shops etc moved from traditional opening hours to evening and Sunday opening. Employees did same hours so no extra pay even if working on days traditionally that before were considered exceptions and therefore extra pay.

They offered employees cash sums etc to sign new conditions of employment some did and bitterly regretted it afterwards especially those who had an agreement not to work on a Sunday due to religious convictions and used to before signing new agreement work it out with colleagues to ensure it did not happen so having signed they can be forced to work or be in breach of their contract of employment and not only work on Sunday but at flat rate.

Similar but not the same my nan said one her best adult Christmas was spent in hospital she really enjoyed how the staff that had to work got in the spirit, they had Father Christmas and stocking with toiletries in them as gifts. A Carol service and full Christmas dinner and she said is was obvious that those working though would probably have preferred to have been at home with family enjoyed themselves as well. What sort of work do you do that means you have to work on Christmas Day? Some sort of monitoring or something that for health and safety reasons cannot be shut down during the holidays? I think for this reason a lot of engineering companies in Britain close for about 10 days including weekends at Christmas so that everything can be shut down safely and no one apart from maybe senior management or directors need to pop in. Even this is becoming less needed nowadays with email assessable from home for the directors.

That is intriguing me journals of what ? Their daily lives and struggles etc or how they celebrate Christmas/New Year.

I always find it strange that so many companies including mine feel that you have to send cards saying Seasons Greetings instead of Christmas and then I will an email from Egypt, Indonesia or even Iran from agents who are obviously Muslim wishing us a Merry Christmas. I suppose though is OK for them to wish us it but form dictates that unless we know they or some of their employees celebrate Christmas we should not.

One thing I found interesting over the years is to find out though not Christian countries but many countries nowadays celebrate a secular form of Christmas with Father Christmas, snow men etc purely of course for commercial reasons. China is one of them I am told that Shanghai at this time of year will be full of Christmas themes, DVDs, CDs etc and decorations everywhere. I am also told that the Chinese themselves that can afford are also celebrating it with giving gifts and having a special meal for friends and family and many companies with western connections give their employees time off work.

I know our joint venture company in China often expects to have the English religious holidays as well as their traditional Chinese ones.

That is great that you have such a long break, we finish work on 21st at about noon and go back on the 2nd January as 1st is a public holiday in Britain. There were so many no shows after the New Year celebrations that about 30 years ago the government declared New Year’s Day a public holiday. Scotland get an extra day to sober up :O).

We were also fortunate at work this year as the company decided to pay the balance of our profit related bonus this month they also pay us a week early so that there is still time to get some of our bits with the December pay check. We got paid yesterday so with my the profit related bonus and my Christmas bonus with employees who have been with the company 10 and over years get (3 days pay) I am about net 1200 dollars better off this month, certainly helps with the extra expense.

Made me cry when I saw how much the tax man took this month though 800.00 dollars.

Hello to all my Single Friends here at FR! Season's greetings to all & MERRY CHRISTMAS to my Christian friends who celebrate the joy of the manger!

Eleanor I thank you for your delightful threads. All the thread posters here do so well & are providing a good place for singles to hang when they are home.

Now, regarding your theme.. Due to my financial situation (can you spell poverty ???).. my gifts for the most part are home spun.. a cutsie term for home made. Will be a step or two above snowflakes cut out of paper but for now that is the situation.

Dave and all.. journaling is NOT, I SAY NOT, a trite junior high thing.. it is a recognized tool of archiving your events, a diary of sorts - and an excellent physiological tool of healing and of growth. It is much like letter writing and blogging in that some of one's soul is exposed (if one is honest). Men have a harder time of recognizing the value as the linear mind will often work with the intellectual approach & not the soulful response

I hope all here will be loving AND TOLERANT of those of different faith walks and observations of the meaning of Christianity.. Jesus did NOT convert by hitting on the head verbally or physically (yes I recall the temple cleansing.. that wasn't for conversion.. it was for sanctifying HIS HOUSE). He did NOT put down or insult.....He LOVED people into the kingdom and recognized legalism as the tool of the devil that it was. He gently pointed out errors as he healed, embraced & LOVED

TUBA CHRISTMAS.. do you all know abut it? It is a nation wide (maybe world wide now) annual musical presentation. The Tuba player pay to participate & the audience gets in free. Here in Akron we have about 500 tuba (or the family which I have learned is large) participants & audiences in the thousands with many turned away with first come first serve. Here is the link for you to check if you have an event in your area

TUBA CHRISTMAS

What you describe with the pies are very similar to my mum’s as well. She always cut up a bit of pastry in the shape of a leaf and marked it out as if the membrane of leaf and then painted with milk or egg. At Christmas normally egg rest of the year milk :o). Another tradition that is fast dying out making things more special at Christmas with most people having more free income these days the special things that you can only afford at Christmas is becoming a thing of the past and I for one am sorry about that.

At one time people only had drink or chocolates in the home at Christmas and Easter but now virtually every home in Britain has a full store cupboard year round with things in it that once for special occasions only. This makes Christmas, Easter and birthdays much less special IMHO.

I am sorry about the ending of a relationship that was obviously very special to you. Even when we KNOW in our mind it is for the best.. oh my ... the heart & soul do grieve the loss of the friendship (as imperfect as it might be), the hopeful thoughts of the future, and the wonderful memories of good times.

I dont know how old you are but I am about the oldest here that chimes in at the singles thread & I can guarantee you that things do NOT change as you age. The SAME issues -— the SAME emotions -—the SAME frustrations -— the SAME hurt is always present.. whether you are in your teens, 20s , 40s or 60s.

I am glad you have a tender heart that grieves..I feel very sorry for the calloused hardened folks I know.. they are to be pitied. Healing takes time & gives growth as I am pretty sure you know from reading your posts.

ok.. are your ready for this?

I dreamed about you last night.. yup.. true & more interesting the first time I can recall ever dreaming about ANY FReeper..

ah, the man of my dreams??

lol

It was one of those very involved things that makes perfect sense at the time but afterward one scratches their head & says.. HUH??

I was at a national church function.. major meeting rooms & lots of out of town people & motel rooms jam packed with people I know & don’t know..

and OH.. the entertainment was BIG TIME but dated entertainers from the British Explosion. Now of course we know they are the mainstream of music at church conventions

How you come in. -

In one of the motel suites where the Rolling Stones were staying (yup, aren’t dreams fun).. was humongous SNAKE...It was probably about 30 feet long & a foot in diameter. It was docile & just lounging in the room. No one was in the room but me & I knew if anyone else saw it they would immediately do the unthinkable but NORMAL PANIC THING..... kill it.

so I tried to contact you, via FReepmail.

and shortly thereafter there you were.. you & I corralled the snake & took it to safely & you decided you would take it home with you. You & I got out of the room with the safe reptile before anyone saw us etc.

As I know what you look like, It was crystal clear..

Here are my mince pies, yes I put a slit on top but because they are small no leaf design on them. Mum put leaf design on either the large mince pie or more often on her meat pies especially the steak and kidney or chicken ones and of course apple pie.

On the fruit pies and mincemeat she would also sprinkle fine granulated what we call caster sugar on top. She always had a vanilla pod in her caster sugar to flavour the sugar for using in cakes etc rather than adding vanilla to mix, she said this gave a more natural and less overpowering taste of vanilla. I found some vanilla pods in ASDA the other day and have started to do that again and yes I agree with mum - mothers know best LOL.

I also make a large mincemeat tart with no top crust but put slices on apple in a fan shape round it and serve whilst still warm with fresh double (heavy) cream or British custard.

My mince pies - 3 dozen I made on Thursday

A mincemeat and apple tart I made a few months ago, I tend to make this other times of the year and have the small bit size ones for Christmas. Goes back to the time when people might drop in for a cup of tea and I mince pie when my parents had a catering business I suppose. Also when I was young and school friends might come back in the evening at Christmas time and mum always made sure there were mince pies and sausage roll available - more about sausage rolls later tonight though. I use normal pastry for my mince pies/tarts not sweet short crust, half the weight of fat to flour and water to mix. The fat is half block (hard) marg and half vegetable shortening in Britain Trex or Cooken and I believe in the States your most popular make is crisco. Cooken in Britain now has no trans fats which because of the comments over that I had stopped using it but have now gone back to it and am pleased with the improvement of my pastry again.

My apple and mincemeat tart

I agree sweets are a good gift especially if they are either homemade or a very special one that you know the other person really likes. As well as the very large tins/cartons/boxes available this time of the year there are also some items that are only in the shops such as Turkish Delight with powdered sugar or maple brazils or specially packed this time of year with ribbon etc.

Again sadly some of these items are becoming available year round loosing that appeal to give as presents at Christmas as people with more available free income choose to spend this on what they really like if they have special sweet (candy) they enjoy then they will have it already.

I try to find items like you that people may not of heard of or thought of trying. I encouraged a friend at work to try some chocolate ginger a few days ago (I bought some through Ebay and although I do not think she would eat it again at least she tried it).

Ebay does help and you can find old things that are no longer readily available in the shops which is helpful when getting things for dad.

A lot of the stores have offers on chocolate orange this time of the year I think it is 4 for £5.00 ($10.00). They are great to have as an emergency gift and always go down well for Christmas or Easter gifts. Oh yes flakes, they do a chocolate selection now with chocolates with bits of flake in them or on top of them as well. They look lovely though I have never tried them myself. Also if you like flakes and also like wafers ask your SIL to bring you timeout bars next time. They are a thin wafer top and bottom with flake chocolate in the middle and then covered in chocolate. You can get them as full size bars or mini ones for lunch boxes etc.

Years ago there was a famous Chocolate Flake advert called the Flake girl I am not sure if this is the original or a modern day one but whatever it is still a great advert.

Cadbury's flake girl

I have goose this year for Christmas, though I do also have turkey in the freezer and will probably buy a leg of lamb as well.

Overseas Christmas cards/gifts done and posted but UK ones not started yet.

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