Christmas...

Dar15, much like you my family celebrate Xmas with a BBQ, seafood (tho not for me - don't like the stuff!) fruit salad, pavlova etc I think it's nicer than the traditional hot Xmas dinner in our climate!

I'm working the day before Xmas and the day after, so I'll drive over to the beach on xmas eve where my family is staying for Xmas like last year...there are some wind-y spots, so here's hoping I don't have to practice any nursing skills on the way!

lisamaree, I hope you don't have to practice any nursing skills either! Working the day before and the day after? That's a pretty horrible roster!

I am working 12:30 - 9 on Christmas eve, 12:30-9 on Christmas day, 7-3:30 on Boxing day and 7-3:30 on the 27th, making it a 6-day week for me. I asked for Boxing day off, but noooooo. The ANUM hates me (others have commented that she seems to as well, I am not paranoid).

Mmm,

I changed from working in Theatre after 15 years to working as a Community nurse and I have been fortunate enough to have had every Christmas off as a result, I just wish I had done it years earlier so that I could have spent Christmas with my children instead of being in the OR or on call!

Since my career change we have been able to establish a family Christmas which consists of a BBQ either at our home or at my brother's home. Salads, Ham, Fruit Salad and Pavlova all make the list but we do have a small traditional pudding for the older generation who can't celebrate christmas without their christmas pudding & brandy sauce. :smiley_aa

Oh I should explain...I don't actually start my new-grad nursing job until Jan 29th '08, so I'm working in a retail job over summer. Boxing day is the busiest retail day of the year, and I need money to move to where my nursing job is, so...needs must

I usually work ND Christmas Eve, opposite a friend who works Christmas night - that way I get to bow out of most of the prep and most of the clean up!

The Christmas meal (lunch is entirely too limiting a description) is my father's domain - he makes the pudding in October and the meal stretches out from around midday to the early evening. Like most Aussies the menu includes seafood and a barbie of some kind.

This year my sister is over from the UK with her husband and two small fry (2 and a half and six months). They're heading up to the Gold Coast this weekend and my parents are following a week later. My other siblings also live overseas. I don't think I can handle a family holiday so I'm working my first Christmas PM in over a decade. I'm perversely looking forward to it!

Well we always go to the RSL for chrissy lunch :)

Dad comes up from Adelaide every christmas, and mum normally has to work on christmas lunch.

So it's Dad, my 3 kids and me going to the RSL, for a feast :)

Then its cold nibbles around the pool with mum, dad and the kids in the afternoon.

This will prob be my last christmas off for a few years, so I will enjoy it while I can :)

Working night shift Chrissie eve then three glorious days off!!Yay!! So barra on the barbie, kids in the pool, me drinking sangrias on the verandah. Sigh, I love christmas when I don't have to work and can catch up on my alchol intake.