Merry Christmas!
I’m kind of nostalgic for the younger years with my kids and all the anticipation, both faith-based and festive. The reading of nativity picture books, church pageants and a good dose of The Grinch. The fun of decorating the house together, baking, working on hand-made present after hand-made present and the annual gingerbread house decorating at their Granny’s.
A few things haven’t changed completely. G sent a photo of a gingerbread house that he and girlfriend, C, had decorated and that spurred us into action. We decided to decorate a little gingerbread village. We also kicked the festive season into gear by going to the annual night-time Parade of Lights. As always, we walked down to the bottom of our street, where it passes by and then walked back up home and had hot chocolate. G texted a few nights ago to check about the availability of his favourite triple layer chocolate peanut butter squares before coming home for the holidays.
And some things are just newer, deeper variations of the old. Gone are the days of reading various nativity picture books but welcome to the days of S reading gospel accounts from the bible each day to himself. Gone are the days of church Christmas pageants but hello to later candlelight communion services. Gone are the days of reading the full, original “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” book but welcome to them having their own kind of nostalgia and asking if we might watch the original Grinch special on Christmas Eve afternoon (along with A Charlie Brown Christmas – that’s the favourite!)
It’s good. They have memories and ingrained traditions from all times of the year, not just Christmas, and so they hang onto the ones that are still a fit, modify the ones that aren’t quite and reminisce about the ones that are a thing of the past.
Something that struck me this year was how slow, simple and meaningful the season has actually become. There’s been a wee bit of the regular kind of rushing but nothing out of the ordinary. It has been a really nice atmosphere.
Amidst the great articles and online ideas for creating a meaningful festive season, it seems that we’ve just enjoyed the things that naturally have come our way this year. There’s been no need to look for extra.
Yesterday I looked at our calendar and thought of all the things, big and small, that we’ve been blessed with this season.
For us, music just creates an atmosphere and between the car and the house, we’ve had a lot of Christmas music playing. It’s been playing while we bake, while we clean, while we chat, while we are online. It’s been nice to have such a variety of music in the background – the many styles of Christmas music.
Oscar Peterson
Michael Buble
Barenaked Ladies
Pentatonix
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Johnny Mathis
Sounds of The Season Celtic Christmas
Vince Guaraldi
James Last
Transiberian Orchestra
Also, L and I enjoyed something new this year … the Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar. I had never considered that this would be something I’d really like, but I do. We chose the Edinburgh, Scotland theme. We’ve looked forward to seeing what new games or activities are in our virtual living room each time, watching the cats and dog, decorating our tree and cookies, designing the snowflakes and choosing Christmas music. We haven’t managed to get to it everyday but if we miss one (or two), we enjoy getting caught up.
It’s also been fun to choose and send Jacquie Lawson Christmas e-cards. They are vibrant, with beautiful music. Some of the people we’ve sent them to are also on our Christmas card list and some aren’t but most seem to enjoy receiving them.
I’m not affiliated with Jacquie Lawson in any way – just a happy customer and have really enjoyed her website, along with my daughter. A lovely woman began sending the e-cards for various occasions to me a couple of years ago and I decided to try them myself.
There have been delicious new recipes to try. My friend, B, made these – so pretty and yet when I look at them, I’m reminded of the Grinch. Anyone else?
Rabbit tracks in the snow. We’ve been following the day to day antics of an eastern cottontail rabbit family in our backyard for a couple of years. I got to see the mating dance one night, followed by the mother building a nest right below our kitchen window last spring and all sorts of happenings over the summer and fall. It’s been weeks since we’ve seen any sign of them but there were MANY circles of rabbit tracks leading to and from the den the other day.
Two nighttime Parade of Lights, complete with bagpipes, steel pan, percussion bands and brass bands and so much more. Both evenings were relatively mild with freshly fallen snow.
Choir Cantata that was absolutely beautiful.
Handbell concert … again, wonderful.
Historical Christmas Tour
Youth group Christmas semi-formal and family evening
Christmas carolling through town
We had a few days between snowfalls when our weather went from very snowy and chilly to melted snow and mild. It ended up being the perfect day for a spontaneous walk on the bird-feeding trail with grandparents😊! The first birds there to greet us were not the ones we were there to feed, lol. We had a wonderful afternoon and although I didn’t get pictures of it, the Canada geese and mallard ducks were not the only ones following us. There were multiple nuthatches and chickadees along for the walk, landing on our hand to feed.
*As I finish writing this, I have mixed feelings. A few minutes ago, I saw a detailed online piece about the terrible fires that many people in Australia are dealing with and so many have lost their homes. I’m also reminded of the “Blue Christmas” service my husband helped with a couple of weeks ago and the loss that many people are experiencing this time of year.
Praying deeply for those who don’t have the luxury of thinking about Christmas atmosphere and nostalgia and just need to figure things out moment by moment right now️. Praying a blessed Christmas for all!
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Merry Christmas Erin! Hope the holiday season is treating you and your family well. Does there happen to be a row of peanut butter cookies missing in that one photo? 😉
Thank you, Liz! Yes, it appears there’s a row of peanut butter cookies missing;).
Merry Christmas!!! Sounds like a lovely festive season. We enjoyed so many local Christmas events this year too, especially a live Nativity which was something new for us.
Thanks Mara! A live nativity sounds great. I’ve been to a couple of those but not for quite a while. One time, they had quite a time getting the sheep where they needed them to be,lol. Merry Christmas to you too!
Merry Christmas to you too! Those fruit kebabs do look like the Grinch!
Yes, the more I look at them, the more I notice it:). Thanks Lori!