How was your Covid Christmas?

[Qube]

Me and the missus stayed home this year and I was tasked with cooking the Christmas dinner. I've never cooked a Christmas dinner before so I banned her from the kitchen, read all the cooking instructions and made a list of temperatures / times and ideal oven location ( I kid you not as I had to break this madness into coding blocks as everything was different times and temperatures ).

Luckily it turned out really well and I even surprised myself with how tasty and properly cooked it all was - Dinner was comprised of mashed potato, roast potatoes, turkey, ham, pigs in blankets, stuffing balls, Yorkshire puddings, parsnips, brussel sprouts, mixed veg and turkey gravy. The kitchen ended up like a complete disaster zone plus more cutlery in the sink basin than I knew we even had.

When the turkey came out of the oven our dogs were sitting at the kitchen door giving their best "I'm starving" puppy eyes. I even found a large carving knife in the dark depths of the cutlery draw to make lighter work of slicing the turkey and ham \o/

Present wise we didn't exchange gifts and just buy something we want. This year I grabbed a Mac mini M1 and an Evercade + 8 cartridge packs. Best think about the Evercade is that I can either use it handheld or plug it into my monitor. I've only had chance to play Burger Time and PacMan so far so I've still dozens of retro games to play.

We also wrapped up a present for each of the dogs as our Yorkie loves to tear things apart. She made short work of the wrapping paper and then proceeded to squeak the hell out of the toy. Our other dog just sniffed, wagged her tail and did a little front paw prance dance so I had to open the present for her and off she went all proud with a big lamb stick.

Later in the evening we just grabbed some drinks and watched cheesy stuff on the TV. Overall a nice relaxed Christmas, quiet, no fuss, awesome dinner and best of all, when ya tired you're already home


So you horrible lot, what did you get up to this year for Covid Christmas?

[Dabz]

Nothing major... Woke up, usual routine, coffee, tab rinse, repeat a few times. Spent probably a good two hours replying to peoples Merry Christmas messages, I got that sick I just ended up with "Merry Christmas hey, hope you have a great day and all the best!" in my phones clipboard, and pasted the bugger!

I went round Merkels (Me mams, I call her Merkel because she looks like Angela Merkel, lol) for my dinner, walked in... She said there was some "snacks" in the kitchen and to help meself, goes in, and, honestly, you'd think she was catering for a Christening, it was nigh on a full buffet, and there was only 4 of us there! Couple of glasses of wine, dinner was ready, the auld prawnie cocktail dropped in front of me... Honestly, there was loads and I was like "Have you been out on a trawler to catch all these prawns?", then a huge 3 meat dinner and finally a bowl of Christmas cake which I only managed to plough through half!

Me done!!!

So, sat for the afternoon, bit of a chinwag, then I headed home to have a nanna nap... I was like a busted couch still mind... Napped like a bairn!

Got woke up with a phone call off a mate asking if I was popping over there to do the secret santa thing his lass had organised, so, got ready again, went over, had a can of Carling, lasted for about 3 hours, lol, and finally, came home, hopped into the scratcher, pulled my headphones on and... Zzzzzzzz

Oh, and I'm still full too!

Dabz

[Matty]

My story is simpler:
Bought breakfast from petrol station
Ran 4km at gym.
Rested on couch alone until 7pm
Went to bed.

[MikeHart]

As we have basically 3 days of Christmas here in Germany, it isn't quite over yet. On the 24th we went to one of our daughters and her boyfriend's home to have a great dinner (Sauerbraten, red cabbage and potato balls) together, with nice talks and some laughter. Best part was that we could bring our dog too, which we would hate to let him stay home alone. My youngest son and his girlfriend are out to her moms for christmas and new years so my wife and myself are alone, just with our furbaby.
Yesterday my love and I had our traditionally potato salat with hotdogs (usually on the 24th) to keep up with the tradition and spent the evening watching 3 christmas movies. It was really nice.
Today we have someone coming over and we have dinner together. My wife has the slow cooker running since this morning, will be an Irish boiled dinner. Yummy.


Gift wise I try to convince her to give no gifts but so far no luck. So I got her some new tools, which she loves. Yes she is a tools girl, just almost finishing the renovation of her kitchen. Mostly by herself.
Repainting, adding wood frames, drilling, sawing. She does all that. The only thing I have to do in the house is the electrics, wall papering and painting the sealings.


I got some nice stuff. Treaded myself to an Arturia Minilab MK2, some software upgrades. Gift wise I got some Metal tee-shirts, a vinyl record player, some small stuff.
Overall a great time so far.

[Scaremonger]

We have been in lockdown for 10 days since my son got Tested positive for Covid-19 so all the last minute food shopping went out the window! Luckily my wife's father collected our turkey and veg on Christmas Eve and dropped it off at the house so we could still have the old bird for dinner.

We prepped all the veg on Christmas Eve this year, so that Christmas Day could be more relaxing and it worked out perfectly. Movies and presents in the morning, played some board and card games after dinner, raided the beer and gin cupboard several times and ate far too much chocolate.

All in all; a pretty relaxing one all 'round!

Merry Christmas!

[dawlane]

Went to my eldest nieces for a three course Christmas dinner. And with the amount of food that ended up on my plate having a bit of everything for the main course, all it would have take would be a wafer thin After eight dinner mint and I would have been doing an impression of the Mr Creosote character in Monty Pythons "The Meaning of Life".

[Xerra]

As I'm in London we're barred from basically going anywhere or meeting anyone this Xmas so the missus and I followed the rules. Our neighbours on both sides both went out early Xmas morning and haven't returned since - which I suspect a lot of other people are also doing because they consider Bore-is to be the grinch of Xmas and refused to change their plans. I can see their point but I'm quite happy with peace and quiet a lot of the time, so I don't think me and the missus toeing the line is going to affect our mental health for just one Xmas.

Traded presents with both my sisters a couple of days before Xmas by them dropping off outside the house and having a few minutes of conversation where I felt extremely uncomfortable not being able to invite them into the house because of the rules. Luckily we're not an in-your-face kind of family anyway, and because both me and the missus still have very elderly relatives, we probably wouldn't have risked it anyway because I'd been in the office a couple of days during the week for work so had mixed with people there.

Anyway I drove the missus round to her mothers on xmas morning so she could pick up dinner which her mother had kindly cooked for us. The missus is strictly vegan but her parents aren't, so this is probably the only way I'd have ended up with my turkey and gammon, so it was well worth the trip. Especially as, despite me being more on the curvaceous side than skinny, she always wants to fatten me up anyway, so the portions were enough for the inevitable sandwiches later in the evening.

Spent afternoon on the sofa with the missus watching The Christmas chronicles part 1 and 2 just for obligation really, as I'm not really a fan of xmas movies. After she went to kip I just tinkered around on the ps4 and playing world of warcraft - like any other evening really

The missus decided she wanted a nice hoover for xmas and I decided that we needed a more modern telly so we both just coughed up to buy those and that was our presents to each other at the start of December. This saves the usual routine of buying loads of crap for each other that just clutters up the house. My mother bought me the Vic 20 to complete my set as well. At least until they - hopefully - do the Amiga as a remake as well. Here's hoping....

True to form the missus has already dragged me out of kip early this morning so I could put the tree and decorations back up in the loft, after she'd taken it all down. Her and my younger sister are both like this. I spent Xmas day evening one year helping my sister take hers down as she'd had enough of them by then. And it doesn't help in my house that we have a six month old kitten who likes nothing better than to hang off the branches and pull down ornaments from it. Little rascal that he is.

[3DzForMe]

Christmas was ace - boxing day also - Decks aren't down until the new year - defo!!!!

I'm a scotsman in Lincolnshire.... So..... not much change for us really. Kinda different for my Bro's up near mum and dad, but its interesting how my 2 brothers interpret the 'don't spread covid' to your elderly relatives differently. My youngest brother is keen not to communicate with them rather than via a gap in the window.  The older one, who has been dependent on childcare with them is different - I imagine their support bubble esque.

And WestisBest has a Bazooka button invoked - its possible to kill P2 with somewhat more reliable gun 1 and 2 and grenades.

BAZOOKA mode is going to be awesome.

[RemiD]

don't care about the covid propaganda


réveillon dinner was in a calm happy ambiance ( no debates ) with my brother and parents, noel day was also calm, spent taking a look at the gifts, and playing with 2d image making, 3d model making, blitz3d coding, and preparing some woods for the fire to keep the house warm.


i hope that in 2021 the governements will be less authoritarian than in 2020, but a lot of people seem to like it, so why not continue...

[Qube]

True to form the missus has already dragged me out of kip early this morning so I could put the tree and decorations back up in the loft, after she'd taken it all down.

That's brutal - Twelve days of Christmas and the decorations are torn down on day 2 - I'm the man of our house and let me tell you, our decorations are staying up until I decide they are coming down. Which strangely enough coincides with the old ball and chain wanting them down too

My mother bought me the Vic 20 to complete my set as well. At least until they - hopefully - do the Amiga as a remake as well. Here's hoping....

Welcome to the club - It's amazingly nostalgic playing the good old games on these machines. Having that chunk of gorgeous commodore heaven in front of you to whack the keys or violently attack the game with a competition pro joystick.

Really looking forward to the Amiga version. Wonder if it'll come with that ball based mouse which was the best dust and crap attractant known to man?

[RemiD]

I'm the man of our house and let me tell you, our decorations are staying up until I decide they are coming down.

luminous lights stay up until mid-end of february here, always nice to see these lights when the night comes at 5-6pm during winter...

[Dabz]

Not looking forward to taking mine down... I'll be on minutes, and just wondering if I should hire a chipper as I'll have no room in the yard for the tree!

Dabz

[3DzForMe]

I'm getting rid of the rolls of wrapping paper from the bedroom, in 5 mins, baby steps! I like the additional illumination from the christmas decs, makes it nice and cosy of an evening 

[c0d3r9]

I celebrated with my two golden children.
On the 24th there was the gift giving and noodle salad with Wiener.
And since then we have let Christmas end very relaxed.

@Mikehart: i have the MK2 too...and since a few month the Arturia Keylab Essential 49 (a great piece of hardware)

[MikeHart]

@Mikehart: i have the MK2 too...and since a few month the Arturia Keylab Essential 49 (a great piece of hardware)

NICE. I went specifically on a 25 keys version as there isn't much space left on my desk. It definitely is enough for my ideas. Was looking at the Akai Mini MK3 but that joystick thingy pushed me away. For the Arturia I had to fiddle with the settings of the pads a little so they respond nicely. For that price, I won't complain at all.