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Merry Christmas
To those that celebrate, Merry Christmas! Whatever the timezone wherever y'all are, I hope you have a good one.
p.s. Pouring one out to those scheduled on shifts today.
To those that celebrate, Merry Christmas! Whatever the timezone wherever y'all are, I hope you have a good one.
p.s. Pouring one out to those scheduled on shifts today.
Visiting family in Australia, first time I've spent an Xmas at 35°C where there wasn't minus prefixing it. Not a fan tbh, would rather have it be cold and the dark lit up with colourful lights while having some hearty meals and warm drink.
I know the feeling (albeit at a lesser extreme.) I'm in the southern US and having Christmas Eve be a balmy 70F where pants are a bit much is almost enough to kill the holiday ambience. At least I can close my eyes and pretend it's properly winter at night.
I live in Southern California, and have never known a "cold" Christmas. The coldest it's gotten has been like, 55°F and I'm still wearing shorts and flip flops lmao
55°F is 13°C. That's quite balmy.
On the other hand, the first Christmases were (openly) celebrated in the Roman world (emperor Constantine?) so they're probably warm affairs too.
Where I live, this temperature would be considered the end of times. There would be people dying of cold on the streets.
And in Northern Michigan, at 45 °N, it is currently 55 °F on December 25. This actually seems like the End of Days. Nonetheless, I'm going hiking.
Have an excellent hike!
I went hiking today in Muskegon! Going to the beach in Michigan on Christmas Day felt pretty much like Christmas in Monterey CA
Moving from South Florida back to Michigan, I was really looking forward to white Christmases, going cross-country skiing, winter bonfires... weird climate-changey winter weather has been depressing.
But the hike today (with sunshine!) around the Grand Traverse Commons was delightful. I needed the reminder to be present with everything, good and bad.
Meanwhile, we would probably assume things catch fire at 35°C. Our summer here probably hit 31°C maybe for a day or two and we complain.
35°C is definitely unpleasant. You don't get used to that temperature. I know, I was born here.
Yeah, I think 20 is the sweet spot for most people: too hot for some, too cold for others but survivable for everyone.
What's the normal summer temp for where you're at?
It is usually 30C to 35C, sometimes 38C at noon. Extremely hot, even more so with the humidity, but there are definitely worse places. It can get as low as 18C on a few winter nights -- time to get the coats out of the closet!
38°C is unimaginable for me. Do people not go outside? Or straight from house to car to a third air conditioned space?
It's like negative 30 and beyond: humans don't stay outside.
At this temperature, you only go out if you need to. But it's not like it's 38C the whole day, just noon. The rest of the day is still very hot, but not quite as hot.
At that temp I'm layering t-shirt with a light hoodie. If it's sunny I might even wear shorts and flip-flops
Yeahhhh I grew up down there and was always depressed when Christmas was 70 and sunny. I've since moved to Canada where it's almost guaranteed to be a white and cold Christmas. Though we barely scraped by due to El Nino. Got just enough snow on Christmas Eve to qualify for a white Christmas. My southern ass was watching the weather like a hawk lol
:) tell me you're in non-Vancouer Canada without telling me
I'm glad you got your white Christmas afterall! :D
You're absolutely right haha, I mean I know Vancouver is rarely snowy (my family is all from Portland/Seattle and I spent lots of time in both so know the weather well) but looking at the numbers, only 61% of Calgary Christmases are white. We're quite lucky in Winnipeg to have 97% of our Christmases white
:) well well well, there really is a town for every type of person. I guess it's not dissimilar to how, over here on the Nova Scotia coast, we get big storms and huge waves on the beach and I love it.
Is Vancouver is similar to the UK with a drizzly grey and mild Christmas?
Quite. But less cold. Well sorry I don't know about London or southern areas of the UK. I spent a Christmas in Aberdeen and also visited Dublin, it's way colder in those places than Vancouver.
In fact, Richmond BC (immediately south of Vancouver city, still part of greater Vancouver) is so warm that the city itself does not own a single snow plow. It just (1) borrows from other municipalities or (2) wait for it to melt when they get the rare show.Hmmm their website says they "deploy up to 11" vehicles but I can't now find the source that says they're borrowed.
https://www.richmond.ca/services/transportation/maintenance/snow.htm
In 2022, greater Vancouver got record snow and here's an angry letter from a Richmond resident
That does sound rather similar to all the bits of the UK that aren't hilly or Scottish or Irish. We've only had 2 white Christmases in my memory.
"p.s. Pouring one out to those scheduled on shifts today."
You front or back of house?
Either way, merry Christmas!
I work on the unit today for Eve and tomorrow for Christmas and Boxing day yay
My wife did this last year, hats off to you! It was hard on us both. Merry Christmas nevertheless!
I'm very happy to no longer be either and my lab has to shut for the whole week til January as the security are on holiday!
Merry Christmas all my tildes peeps! It's been an odd and interesting year. There's so many more of you and that's really cool. Hope everyone has a nice time celebrating, or not celebrating!
I just learned that there is a stage play of a Klingon version of a Christmas Carol. No idea how to find the full version, but here's a clip for you: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2w6b2rCwleA
You should add Spirited into the mix. I’d give a précis but it’s better to come to it without knowing anything. But I enjoyed it as another different spin on the story.
Happy Christmas!
It's fantastic if you like musicals (or even if you don't, as evidenced by my father in law). New instant classic, I'll be watching it every year.
I watched A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong with friends the other day. It was a blast. :-)
I also watched Muppet Christmas Carol for the first time in my life a couple of weeks back, if you can believe that. Good stuff.
I do love the Christmas Carol goes Wrong!
Hold the turkey, there's a Sir Patrick Stewart Christmas Carol????
Also.
This is my island in the sun~~
Merry Christmas Tardigrade! I'm spending the eve at the in-laws, and then I'm looking forward to spending tomorrow with just me, my partner, the cats and some good food :) I hope you have a wonderful holiday, whatever that looks like to you 🎄 if anyone wants to share their favourite holidayfood I'm happy to hear about it!
I'm planning to make a festive poutine tomorrow. It's basically a regular poutine, but with stuffing and cranberry sauce. Substituting fries for mashed potatoes and adding leftover turkey has also happened in the past.
Happy holidays!
That sounds so delicious and I am here for it. Creative AND festive 😁
I don't know if it's western traditional but my kid and I made cranberry Bundt cake yesterday, for today! And I'm going to make tong jyun (glutenous rice balls) because it's the Cantonese family get together dessert. For dinner tonight we also have Christmas goose (raised by us) and Ukrainian borscht recipe from our godparents.
Pretty international mix
Those balls sound fantastic, if you've got a recipe I'd love to try it.
Christine's website is my go to for Asian recipes.
Her recipes use easy methods and simple ingredients as much as possible, and is usually mindful of rare ingredients hard to find outside of Asia.
Unfortunately I can't seem to locate her English one for wet tong jyun, but here's the dry variant
The only difference is that the ginger sugar would be a more diluted broth for the balls to swim in. Oh and chunk sugar seems rare in places so use brown sugar is fine.
Fillings can be anything somewhat solid and sweet: chunky peanut butter slightly frozen works great; sesame sugar paste is the default; sweet red bean also a staple; we even tried wrapping chocolate chips because they're solid already and not messy and it turned out super tasty. Fancy restaurants sell durian ones. Only one kind of filling per ball.
Let me know if you do make it!!
That looks fab. Luckily I've got shops near me that I can't read any of the labels for but I can recognise chunk sugar and other stuff.
I'm having a very similar Christmas to you it seems. Looking forward to starting the Christmas cake with cheese this evening.
God jul!
Yesterday was the big day here in Norway, with Christmas dinner, and presents after dinner.
I'm spending the holiday with family. There are children in the house excited about all their new toys, currently assembling a giant Lego set. Presents in Norway aren't from Santa; they're clearly labelled with which family member or friend they're from.
I taught the adults to play Hanabi last night, and they enjoyed it so much we stayed up late playing two more games. It's a white Christmas this year, which isn't a given for anyone living along the coast.
UK We've had stockings from Santa with little bits in. It used to be from father Christmas and now everyone gets a few bits for everyone else so it's a lovely little jumble of things like chutney, chocolate, little decorations, and lovely similar stuff. Presents of larger things or special things are done the same way as you.
Lego is always the best gift! Which set did you go for?
My niece got a huge Lego Friends house, and my nephew got Hogwarts. Both were from their parents. As an uncle, I get away with somewhat cheaper gifts. :-D
Now you mention it, we do have the stockings filled with candy from Julenissen. They hang from the door knobs of bedrooms when the kids wake up.
Fantastic sets but alas there aren't ever cheap Lego sets.
Merry Christmas everyone. I watched the X-Files X-Mas episode to get me in the spirit.
The big thing for me is that transition from relaxing under the tree, to getting excited about the possibilities of a new year. Otherwise January can be brutal. I like to go through the calendar imagining things to do in each season.
Merry Christmas to all Tildeans!
Thankfully I don't have to work again until Boxing Day.