On the Twelfth (blog) Day of Christmas . . . I give you The Aftermath.
I love the AFTER-Christmas days. When you can put your feet up and relax a little. Just sort of . . . re-group and re-cover.
That's what I'm doing now. That . . . and taking care of my sick men.
I'm taking a little blog-break for the rest of the week, but I'll be back on Monday to ring in the new year. Enjoy your weekend.
On the Eleventh Day of Christmas . . . I give you food!
I think when it comes right down to it . . . my favorite thing about the holidays, really, is the food!
From cookie-baking to Christmas dinner, I love poring over cookbooks and food magazines, planning my menus, shopping for the just-right ingredients, and then doing the actual cooking and baking.
We now have way too many cookies . . .
but the Christmas Eve Swedish Smörgåsbord. . .
was completely obliterared!
The glögg went pretty fast, too.
Christmas dinner was most excellent . . .
finished with salted caramel cheesecakes (that most definitely did NOT look like their magazine photo counterpart. . . but tasted pretty darn heavenly).
So much YUM packed into just a couple of days! (And now . . . I'm headed for the gym!!!)
I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
-- Charles Dickens
A peaceful day and warm wishes of the season . . . to all of you!
On the Tenth (blog) Day of Christmas . . . I give you memories!
So many Christmases. . .
So many presents . . .
So many memories through the years.
On Christmas Eve, especially it seems, I remember all my Christmases past.
I remember the magic. . .
and the fun.
I think about how things change . . .
and how they don't.
May happy memories of Christmases past surround YOU today!
On the Ninth (blog) Day of Christmas . . . I give you light!
It is the Winter Solstice . . . and very dark. Here, it also snowing (just a little) and windy. Winter may be finally arriving.
Light some candles.
Turn on the twinkle lights.
And enjoy some Shakespeare.
Enjoy some quiet light this weekend . . .
Light!
On the Eighth Day of Christmas . . . I bring you . . . gift wrapping!
I don't know about you . . . but I consider wrapping gifts . . . my Most-Dreaded Holiday Chore! I'm not exactly sure why this is so, but I just don't enjoy gift-wrapping. Maybe it's the sheer volume of gift-wrapping that I must do. Maybe it's the senselessness of the exercise. Maybe it's the tape.
I don't really know.
But I just kind of dread the gift-wrapping thing.
On the other hand, it feels really good when it's done. And all the gifties look so pretty . . . all in a pile!
How about YOU? Do you enjoy wrapping gifts? (Or do you just stuff everything in gift bags and call it done?)
On the Seventh (blog) Day of Christmas . . . I bring you images of the season. (Which works well with Carole's Ten on Tuesday topic this week: Ten Favorite Things to Photograph at Christmas!)
1. Decorations that just shout out "Christmas!"
2. Sunlight when it makes a rare appearance and washes over my space.
3. Candlelight and twinkle-light . . . when there is no sunlight.
4. Trees . . . inside.
5. and out!
6. Snow . . . when it falls. (But this year? Not so much.)
7. Us . . . when we're all dressed up and ready for a night out. (Or, even when we're not.)
8. Food . . . like my sushi plate from a party last Friday.
9. My house . . . in all it's seasonal finery.
10. Traditions . . . treasured people and events.
How about YOU? What are your favorite things to photograph during the holiday season?
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Join the fun! Sign up for Ten on Tuesday here.
On the Sixth (blog) Day of Christmas . . . I give you . . . my Christmas tree!
Yeah, it's listing a bit to the left. But it's a real beauty of a tree!
Back in the early days of our together-Christmases, Tom and I always went to an in-town Christmas tree lot for our trees. We were poor grad students back then, and usually went for the Charlie-Brown-style trees that we could afford on our student-budget. When the kids were little, we used to pile them into the car and head for a local tree nursery, where the kids would squabble and go Christmas-crazy, and Tom and I would stress out as we tried to pick out the "perfect" tree. Happy times - and fun memories.
But, then. . . things changed. Brian started to play travel hockey -- and our lives got a whole lot busier. Especially on the weekends, and especially in December. We had no time for squabbling over the "perfect" tree. We had no time for trees . . . at all!
So we purchased an artificial tree.
An articial tree that saved our lives (from a time-in-December standpoint).
But, oh, how I hated that tree!
This year, I convinced Tom (with very little convincing necessary, actually) that it was time for the artificial tree to GO! The two of us headed to Mott's Tree Farm earlier this month . . .
where we had a great time searching for the "perfect" tree.
I'm happy to report . . . no squabbling! And no stress!
Just a couple of empty-nesters having a fun time at the tree farm.
They even shake, wrap, and tie your tree to the roof of your car at Mott's.
It took us over a week to actually get the tree lit and decorated! But it's just lovely.
After all these years . . . finally! The "perfect" tree!
How about YOU? What's your tree like this year?
On the Fifth Day of Christmas . . . I bring you my calendar.
Not that bad. (There were far worse years when my kids were busy high schoolers with concerts and parties and games thrown in.) But still.
It's a jam-packed few days.
Parties and a tea and working my once-a-month gig at the yarn shop and the frenzy of activity that only the holidays can bring. (And, of course, there're also some real-work-related deadlines on an entirely different calendar that I need to meet . . . so I can take a break between Christmas and New Year's Day.)
Most things on my calendar are things I really look forward to, though. So . . . even though I'm busy this weekend . . . and even though it almost surely means I won't finish my little Christmas knitting projects on time . . . I'm going to enjoy spending my weekend dressing up a little and celebrating the season with friends!
How about YOU? Busy weekend ahead?
On the Fourth Day of Christmas. . . I bring you my stockings!
When I was growing up, I used to wish-oh-wish-oh-wish that we had a fireplace at our house . . . so we could hang our stockings on Christmas Eve.
But we didn't.
Now I have TWO fireplaces in my house -- and I still get a kick out of hanging stockings.
In our family, we have a fun stocking tradition that started when the kids grew out of the whole Santa thing: We fill each other's stockings!
The tradition works like this: Our group of 10 family members (Tom and I, Brian, Erin and Keith, my parents, and my sister, her husband, and my niece) each buys and wraps ONE little stocking stuffer for each other member of the family. Then, everyone delivers (or ships) their stocking stuffers to me (the Stocking Clearinghouse), and I repackage and send them back out to each family member.
Then, no matter where we celebrate, we all share the fun of opening family stocking stuffers. . . essentially, together! For most of us, this is the best part of Christmas morning! Sometimes the little gifts are practical; sometimes tasty; and sometimes (the "cane butler" comes to mind here) . . . just plain hilarious.
We have a lot of fun with our stocking stuffers in my family.
How about YOU? Are stockings part of your family holiday celebration?
