Are you getting home for Christmas? When?

r3nu4l

I know some of you are to far away or have work committments but are any of you getting home for Christmas this year? If so when will you be landing? How long are you staying for?

I'm leaving from Stansted on the 24th and can't wait to arrive home Coming back on the 1st so only a week at home really.

I'll be travelling from Dublin to Tipp to see the gf's parents as well and arrange some wedding things so it won't be the most lazy Christmas either. Still I'm really looking forward to it and can't wait to get home

Lump

I also am flying out of stanstead on the 24th - Around 11am. Back in Ireland until the 4th Jan.

Faith

I'm heading back on the 15th, once my exams are finished.

I don't know how I feel about it, really. I'm looking forward to seeing my family. For me though, when I'm in Edinburgh, I'm in Edinburgh. I love it and I'm happy here and I don't think about home much. Then when I'm home, I'm home and love it and don't think about Edinburgh much. But I never really want to leave the place that I'm currently in.

I've been here for over 3 months solid, without seeing anyone from home, so it's just going to be disorientating when I get back.

daiixi

Nope not going home.. This is my fifth Christmas away from home!!

Ruu_Old

Not an option here, flights were crazy prices from Chicago as expected. 2nd Christmas away from home but moving into a new house tomorrow so it'll be another first this year. I was home in November, so I was happy. Enjoy yourselves everyone going home.

Ponster

Off home on the 22nd for my 2nd Irish Xmas in 8 years

r3nu4l

Lump, I think we may very well be on the same flight that day, I'm pretty sure I'm flying around that time as well

Faith, lucky you going home on the 15th...but then again you've got exams...they're the only thing I don't miss about University Best of luck!

Lump

Can't remember which flight it is, I know it's an Aer-Ryanair-lingus flight from stanstead.

The Sweeper

See the sig - going to a NEW home for Christmas!! Or at least making a taster visit. Looking forward to it hugely.

The older you get, and the less often you go 'home', the more you'll be struck by how small your parents are every time you see them after a long absence.

r3nu4l

Lump wrote:

Can't remember which flight it is, I know it's an Aer-Ryanair-lingus flight from stanstead.

Ah, I'll be on regular Ryanair

MAJD, yep, I'm not a tall guy but I'm always amazed at how much smaller my folks are, scary really, sometimes

Lump

Well, I'm on Ryanair too, but once they take over Aerlingus, both companies will be the same

John

Jimoslimos

Flying home on the 19th from Heathrow with aer fungus and back on the 2nd.

r3nu4l

Jimoslimos wrote:

Flying home on the 19th from Heathrow with aer fungus and back on the 2nd.

Will you be bringing your bowlilng ball with you? Ryanair must love bowlers I brought two with me from Ireland to the UK, both weighing 15 pounds! I swear I saw €€ signs flash in Michael O'Leary's eyes when he saw me lugging my bag through the airport

Jimoslimos

r3nu4l wrote:

Will you be bringing your bowlilng ball with you? Ryanair must love bowlers I brought two with me from Ireland to the UK, both weighing 15 pounds! I swear I saw €€ signs flash in Michael O'Leary's eyes when he saw me lugging my bag through the airport

Ha! No don't think I'll be doing that, probably cheaper to buy a ball over there than pay excess luggage on it

Skittlebrau

Not heading home myself either. It'll be my first non-Irish Christmas. Only been away 10 months so not really feeling the homesickness yet.

I can't get my head around the idea of a "hot" Christmas at all. It just doesn't feel Christmassy.

BossArky

Heading back to the mother land on the 17th, then to France 26th for a wedding and down to Spain or Andorra for the new year.

Hopefully some snow along the way.

Tuesday_Girl

Heading home on the 21st and coming back on the 31st to spend New Year in Amsterdam

kushy

i'm heading home for christmas, first irish christmas in 3 years so really looking forward to it. i arrive on 14th and am there till 30th. back to toronto for a snowy new years!

Rabies

Left Ireland on the 8th Nov to live in Auckland for a while. Mini detour by Hong Kong first.
Not going home for christmas. Flying to Perth on Dec 22nd (i think) and returning Jan 2nd.

tensecyclist

i would be! can't imagine Christmas without my family.:rolleyes:

Murtinho

Im going home on the 22nd which will be hectic be all accounts, landing at 12 or so, traffic from dublin will most likely be brutal.
Havnt been home for xmas since 98! Most recently 18 months ago although ive seen the folks 3 times here in between! This will be my last "visit" home, we're moving back next summer, even told the kids no so theres no going back:eek:

galwaydude

we are going back on the 16th from logan airport, staying for 10 days and we cant wait.

I havent seen my family in 9 months since i migrated to the states with my wife. Now that i have the GC i can come and go as i please now

DublinEvents

I dunno but for some odd reason I have a feeling I shall be spending this Christmas alone in my room staring at the ceiling. Or probably watching movies and playing some computer games. I’m such a loner

yossarin

22nd to the 2nd. stanstead to dublin and back again via a popular low cost airline.

my folks are going to NZ from the 26th onwards though to visit my sister. another sister is going to Nigeria from the 23rd. It'll be a quiet Christmas.

Ennis for the new year!

Nina_Angelica

kushy wrote:

i'm heading home for christmas, first irish christmas in 3 years so really looking forward to it. i arrive on 14th and am there till 30th. back to toronto for a snowy new years!

not heading home but heading for my first irish christmas

mightn't be snowing when we get back kush!

Gandhi

Will just miss Christmas at home. Going back from the 26th to the 1st. Flights are less than half the price, though. And all the siblings will still be around.

Haven't had Christmas at home in well over five years now.

Edit: Just remembered I got a little "taste of home" the other day. Junk mail from Brown Thomas came to us in Philly. Standard "Postas Iochta" sign got it all the way over.

eiretamicha

The husband and I don't have enough money to make it back for Christmas. It'll be his second Christmas here in the states. I can tell he's not too happy about it, but the other day while we were putting up the tree, he said, "We need to give all this Christmas stuff away after the holidays because it'll be our last Christmas in this place!" And he seemed happier after that.

Although, next year I'll probably be sad that I'm gonna be the one away from home at Christmas time...but oh well.

miss niamh

Hi all

I live in Queensland Australia and will be going home to ireland on the 19th dec and returning on 12th Jan.
Geez its going to be cold but am so looking forward to catching up with like minded people, good conversation and most importantly a laugh. Me thinks these aussies have had their sense of humour surgically removed...

r3nu4l

Hi Miss Niamh, welcome to boards.ie

Well, living in England means I have no excuse for not getting home I suppose, although I've just bought a house and am getting married next year so I'd love to have a Christmas with Mrs. r3nu4l, just the two of us.

The thing as always is that both sets of folks would love to have us over each Christmas and one set of parents aren't in a position to travel so will never be over and I guess we'll be the ones doing the travelling. That said if we ever have kids we will be spending Christmas in our house as a family

7aken

man i cant wait to be home!!

leaving on 19th december at 8am and arrive in ireland the next day at noon. have 17hours to go shopping in dubai though so wooohooo!!
couldnt picture spending christmas here at all, its 31degrees c here today. home for about a month then back out on 18th january...

Love2love

Heading home on the 17th and haven't booked my return yet. I have to wait to find out if the mister has to work on the 28th, if not I will stay until after the new year.

Faith

My flight's at 12.

TBH, I'm in a bad mood! I've barely slept all week due to exams and then I only got a few hours last night because I'd to get up so early today! And then I've agreed to work 9 - 5 tomorrow! It's a hard knock life.

My mum rang me yesterday and broke the news that my cat died 10 days ago. She didn't want to tell me before my exams, and now I've to go back to a petless house .

r3nu4l

Faith wrote:

My mum rang me yesterday and broke the news that my cat died 10 days ago. She didn't want to tell me before my exams, and now I've to go back to a petless house .

Hmm, maybe the fact that you have agreed to do some work at home will help you keep your mind off it for a little while. Time for a Scottish kitten maybe?

Looking forward to getting home, I keep checking the maps for Stanstead Airport parking. I'm fine doing the whole A11 and M11 thing, even the exit into Stanstead but think I'm going to have difficulty finding my assigned parking spot It's all an adventure

Movershaker

Flying out from JFK on Thursday night and will arrive in Dublin on Friday morning. Can't wait to go home, even though I've not even been here two months yet. Not cos I'm homesick, just looking forward to xmas! Coming back to New York for New Year's. I could have stayed in Dublin but it's totally **** on NYE so I decided against it.

Pepe LeFrits

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

See the sig - going to a NEW home for Christmas!! Or at least making a taster visit. Looking forward to it hugely.

The older you get, and the less often you go 'home', the more you'll be struck by how small your parents are every time you see them after a long absence.

Speak for yourself! I don't think I'll ever see my 6 foot 3 and a half inch father as small. My ma, perhaps, but then it's been that way for 5 years...

Home on the 20th for two weeks. Really looking forward to it; tis also a taster visit for me, moving back in Jan.

Lump

I'm looking more and more forward to going home, probably because I am working 7 days straight until Saturday night then fly early on Sunday! I'm looking forward to the rest

John

Guess_Who

First Christmas away from home.

I'm sure it will be a bit wierd having Christmas with friends instead of family but it's too sunny here to really feel like Christmas so I don't really get a sense that I'm missing out on anything. (except my Mammy's cooking and the tin of Chocolate Kimberleys )

Rabies

Guess_Who wrote:

First Christmas away from home.

I'm sure it will be a bit wierd having Christmas with friends instead of family but it's too sunny here to really feel like Christmas so I don't really get a sense that I'm missing out on anything. (except my Mammy's cooking and the tin of Chocolate Kimberleys )

Me too.
But I got a christmas package from my mother a few days ago. Few small gifts from the family.

She packed some Scotch Clan, Minitures chocolates and two packs of Tayto Chesse and Onion. She did the same when I was working in America

Guess_Who

I want your Mammy's christmas parcel. I got a load of knickers from Pennys cos someone told her underwear was expensive here.

I'm holding out more hope for the present from my sister but it's all wrapped up til Christmas morning.

Rabies

There is some clothes in the parcel as well. Won't open anything until the weekend. Fly to Perth then, woohoo
For now, the chocolate is keeping me happy.

Lump

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IRISH-Tayto-Cheese-Onion-6-pack_W0QQitemZ260057932295QQihZ016QQcategoryZ38249QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

vorbis

going home this Friday! Looking forward to it. Flying out at 7pm, landing at 6AM. At least I'll get away from all the talk about how Tom Brady's breakup will affect the season.

eiretamicha

Sorry about your kitty, Faith. It's so hard losing a pet.

Ruu_Old

Guess_Who wrote:

First Christmas away from home.

I'm sure it will be a bit wierd having Christmas with friends instead of family but it's too sunny here to really feel like Christmas so I don't really get a sense that I'm missing out on anything. (except my Mammy's cooking and the tin of Chocolate Kimberleys )

It aint easy, this is my second one away from home. I will probably make an attempt to fly home next year. Am waiting for the mothers parcel as well and some money for my birfday in January *rubs hands*. Enjoy it anyway and safe travelling those making the trip back to the auld country.

Hagar

It's well for you guys, I won't be going back to Ireland this year either but to add insult to injury my mother-in-law arrives today for a two weeks stay. Bah humbug.

iguana

r3nu4l wrote:

Well, living in England means I have no excuse for not getting home I suppose, although I've just bought a house and am getting married next year so I'd love to have a Christmas with Mrs. r3nu4l, just the two of us.

I'm getting that this year and tbh, I'm dreading it. I've spent the last 4 Christmas days with my boyfriend's family in Dublin and then it's down to Limerick on Stephen's day to be with mine.

But this year we've chosen our puppies over our families and will be staying in London, just the two of us. As the costs of buying our house, getting married and taking on the dogs (one puppy got sick on the day his puppy insurance ran out and cost us £600 to make him better) have made it unrealistic to buy a car this month and drive home and we didn't want to kennel them.

Then again I've found that most of the things I miss about Christmas aren't re-capturable when your just home on a visit. We used to throw a party on the 23rd when we lived in Dublin, which I really missed, but we can hardly do that in the in-laws house. We used to spend the night of Christmas eve alone together and exchange a small gift at mid-night, which isn't so intimate and fun when your m-i-l refuses to let you out of her sight for 10 minutes.

We used to have champagne (actually cheap cava;) ) and fresh croissants from the muslim staffed Spar in Ranelagh for breakfast and exchange the rest of our gifts together, before his family would call over after they'd been to mass for a glass of mulled wine and take us to their house for dinner. But last year we all had to get up together and exchange our gifts in front of all his family and try and go un-noticed in the who's going to mass debate. Then we had a fried breakfast which we never normally have as we're saving room for xmas dinner.

On Christmas night we would head back home for an hour before calling to a friends house and having a few chilled out hours of winding down from the family Christmas. But last year getting from Stillorgan to to Rathmines while slightly drunk was out of the question so we had to sit with the rest of the family while everyone got more and more bored and went to bed by 11.

And my OH got pretty frustrated with our visit to my parents as three chilled days of walking the family dog by the river was frustrating to him when it was time he could have been going out with all his friends in Dublin that he doesn't get to see when we're in London.

I guess our first 3 years together were the perfect mix of family, friends and privacy whereas last year had a bit too much family and not enough friends or privacy. And this year will be all about privacy (and dog walking) and no family or friends, as the majority of our friends here are heading home or having family over so we won't even see them. But at least I can take comfort in the fact that we will get to watch the Doctor Who Christmas special uninterrupted this year.

r3nu4l

Yep, the Christmas break for me is only one week this year, so I spend three days with my fols, three days with soon-to-be Mrs. r3nu4ls folks then a quick drive from Tipp to Dublin, stop at my folks again for lunch before going to the airport for our flight.

Not all relaxation either as we have a ton of wedding plans to make and people and locations to visit. All getting very stressful right now...

Anyway, I'm going to love seeing a few people again, even if I don't get to see many of my friends. I'm going to enjoy a pack of Tayto Cheese and Onion too

EDIT: Just noticed that a lot of flights from Heathrow are eing cancelled due to fog...hope they don't start cancelling Stanstead flights...the fog is expected to continue until the end of the week....I'm going home on Saturday :eek:

Lump

It's looking hit and miss on getting flights this weekend. Bloody fog. Thank god ryanair don't do safety

r3nu4l

Lump wrote:

It's looking hit and miss on getting flights this weekend. Bloody fog. Thank god ryanair don't do safety

Hee hee, that really did make me laugh out loud, too true sir, too true

EDIT: ah sh*t, now Ryanair are gonna sue boards.ie too!

Lump

Pfff, the wink makes it all legal

iguana

I'm actually impressed by Ryanair's approach to the cancelled flights. They're allowing people who had flights booked between the 22nd and 24th to switch to earlier flights free of charge if they are concerned about the weather. It seems a bit better than some of the airlines are offering. Quite a few people with BA flights to other parts of the UK are stranded in London.