I love all the candid pics of the Christmas Eve Feast... but where is the big baked ham in all its glory?! I'm missing the money shot! Where's the photo evidence of your ugly hat mate?
I like your idea about the holiday courses, my uncle who hosts Thanksgiving does the same thing with apps, buffet main, then dessert. Glad your new kitchen passed the stress test. 5x loads of dishes though, man you definitely put in a solid shift mate.
Christmas isn't really my holiday, and my partner is with her cousins in San Diego, so I've got no occasion to celebrate it with anyone. I'll be taking an early morning flight (6.30am) Christmas morning out to Denver and hopefully use the limited holiday public transport to get back to my sister's apartment where I'll be setting up home base until I leave Jan 4. My partner and my sister are both returning to town on the 27th, so I'll have a few days all to myself in her apartment.
For Boxing Day, I may try to make it out to the local soccer pub, but since my Chelsea doesn't play until the 27th, there's a pretty good chance I will be lazy and just stream everything from the comfort of her apartment. I wonder what kind of food options I'll have available in the area serving meals on Christmas day? I'm for sure bringing a big stash of power bars and protein powder to keep me full for a few days.
I have a picture or two, but it doesn't look so pretty in all its monstrosity. The ham either ;D
Are there any Jewish things through the new year? Really, as I have said, I have no idea! I had one Jewish friend at university, but his family were very loose with traditions. I actually don't know how big the community is in Australia.
At least you will have some time arguing with your sister. I miss that.
Quite a few games on to watch with a beer in hand I suspect ;)
Like any good lunar calendar religion, our holidays are based on lunar cycle and the major ones we celebrate are actually Fall with the Sukkot holiday and Spring with the Pesach/Passover holiday. Jewish New Year is mostly a solemn time and that's observed in mid-September typically, as lunar calendar varies from year to year.
Hanukkah, which happened during the 2nd week of December in 2023, is our festival for the "holiday season" but is not considered a "major holiday" on the Jewish calendar since it comes distinctly after the biblical era.
A tradition of the holiday is to eat fried foods since we are celebrating how the sacred oil found after liberating the great Jewish temple in Jerusalem for the first time was able to burn long enough to make a new batch! Potato pancakes and donuts are both staple treats for the holiday, as is "Gelt," the Yiddish word for those gold-wrapped chocolate coins that seem to have been around forever!
My tradition was to work on Christmas if I could, and I did that every year when I worked for the NBA. We used to have these crazy triple headers all day long and I didn't mind covering the time.
As a teacher, I'm always off for the holidays, so lately I've been trying to fly on Christmas since the flights were the cheapest. Lo and behold my flight was canceled this year and I'll end up rescheduled for the night I wanted to leave but didn't want to pay for when I booked 'em the first place. All's well that ends well. Boxing Day at Football Factory NYC. I can dig it!
Happy Christmas & Merry New year!
These I know!
Judaism seems like a relatively pragmatic religion from what I have seen of it. Relatively down to earth, but I am guessing that it varies widely in practice.
Hopefully, your end of year (my end of year calendar) is great!