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| Rosedale 2019-I'll likely not be in a mall this year. |
In an effort to give me daily routines that do not just consist of watching multiple episodes of television shows that I never saw on prime time TV but are now streaming on Netflix or Amazon, I'm going to throw myself into Blogmas. Basically Blogas is a countdown to December 25th, sometimes to January 1, with sprinkles of holiday content throughout. I know many of my readers do not celebrate Christmas, and even some that do, are not fans of over the top, Christmas oozing at every turn. My blogmas is more an organizing principle for December, and when I say sprinkles, that's what I hope to keep it at.
I wasn't as tally ho as I thought I would be this past weekend on the decorating. I guess I really needed a weekend to relax but little by little my house will come together to bring me and my family cheer. This year, with the exception of a couple delicious smelling candles I received for my birthday, I'm not buying or using any new decorations. I just do not understand the theme buying and updating and tossing decorations from year to year. My theme is Christmas, and 33 years, plus more, as both DH and I have a few things from our own childhood, of items and memories. With a November 25th birthday, I received a lot of Christmas items over the years as gifts so I certainly will never run out of items to fill any room I wish to decorate.
Then there is the food and recipes we love. I don't know if my MIL will or has made lefse this year, but I know of a few places to get it. If you do not know what lefse is, or krumkake for that matter, if you read my blog in December, you will learn. Both DH and I have a Norwegian heritage, so it comes out, again in sprinkles, through December. Then there are newer traditions of food-things I make that my family loves and over the years have evolved into part of our Christmas food story. Sweet and sour meatballs, lemon garlic salmon (that I don't eat but apparently I make very well), and puffy things. I'll say no more on them.
Will I get to any holiday crafts and gifts? I've never been a great crafter, but it seems like a good way to spend evenings with my daughters. If nothing else, my youngest said she is game to do embroidery as well and I have extra supplies. I have a huge amount of wine corks that seem like they need a project. Think Christmas tree trivets.
Then there is music and movies, and holiday plays and performances. We have our traditional viewing and the versions we love of A Christmas Carol, true holiday classics and more recent movies that are destined to be classics, if at least with my family. We'll watch live streaming concerts this year instead of seeing them live, and recorded versions for this year and years past. Maybe we'll even wander in the snow and sing ourselves.
Mostly, I want you all to join in. If something sparks a memory, or there is a story you want to tell, please use the comments or link to your blog if you wish. If there is a winter getaway that something prompts you to share, please do! Post holiday travel is likely to be on hiatus, but memories are full. I know it is cliche and I don't care, but I need the holiday spirit this year perhaps more than any other year. You, dear readers, have been a special part of my life in 2020 and I hope you will be part of my blogmas fun.
I have been contemplating doing something with Blogmas this year. Maybe this post is the nudge that I need. :) Sounds like a fun way to keep holiday cheer throughout the month.
ReplyDeleteThat's really why I am going to giv eit a try this year. I can't promise I'll make every day, but I can combine a couple if need be.
DeleteWhat a nice post! I'm procrastinating on finishing my November progress notes. I even wrote down what I have in my freezer- nothing real exciting but I need room for some goodies. I've been watching some Christmas shows too.
ReplyDeleteI started back in October with a couple of the Hallmark premiers, but then put a pause until this past weekend so I wouldn't get Christased out. My weekends will be filled with them now.
DeleteI did the front porch and a few odds and ends of Christmas decorations this year but didn't get the tree up. I think I will put it up when I get off work today and then decorate in the next day or two. 2020 Christmas is going to look a lot different this year.
ReplyDeleteThe girls are helping me tonight, and no doubt I'll have bits each night and truly finish on Saturday. I just ran out of steam this weekend, but by Sunday night I think it will look good.
DeleteI’m so intrigued by the Norwegian Christmas foods and traditions. I follow a hockey family living in Sweden and Swedish Christmas looks so cozy and warm and delicious, I imagine it similar. My house looks like Santa sneezed in here, the tree up, decor all around, lights outside, I even got a cranberry scented air freshener for my car. But my favorite decoration is an old sled that was my dad’s. It was in decent shape but in need of some tlc. My friend’s son happens to be into refurbishing things like that and he did a STUNNING job of bringing it back to life. I wish I could post pics. It just makes my heart so full. He’s only 19 and does beautiful work. We went on a Christmas walk at a local petting zoo last night. It was not crowded at all, families kept their distances and we still wore masks. We had to sign a waiver and supply our names for contact tracing purposes but it was fun to look at the lights, take pics and feed the animals. Picked up pizza on the way home. Our contributions to small businesses this weekend. Things almost felt normal for a little while. JoAnn
ReplyDeleteFeel free to e-mail me at samandcoffee65@gmail.com and I'll post the picture if you would like. I think the sled sounds incredible! I love your expression-looks like Santa Sneezed! We have a couple farms that are doing a drive through light viewing with donations to help off set electricity and a food drive for the food shelf. Sounds like a double win for me.
DeleteWe put up our very basic (and beloved) decorations yesterday. They fit into one plastic tub. We have a mantle light set with cranberries & toy soldiers, and our tree. The tree has all of the decorations the kids made in school, plus a set we bought at Costco years ago. We have an artificial tree as well, and three wreaths. It took about an hour to decorate. Just my kind of time. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe can't do Christmas lights outside this year, as we are having our gutters put back on after a construction project. Right now, there is nothing to hang the lights from.
I plan to make cardamom bread, which is a family recipe.
Each year I remember your bread and that I want to try making it! Simple sounds gorgeous. Cranberries on the mantle-how creative! Homemade ornaments fill our tree as well.
DeleteI don't do or understand themes, either. Why? I have one ornament I have had since I was about 13. Yes, it is pink.
ReplyDeletePink must suit you so go for it.
DeleteOops, I meant to tell one Christmas memory. My youngest was 15 months old at Christmas. We went to my mother's house and I thought she might get into her tree. But, she did not. However, she did amuse herself with the tree. She felt each bulb lightly and said, "Hot." over and over again for hours. That was when bulbs were hot. I smile every time I think of this memory.
ReplyDeleteKids do take things literally don't they!
DeleteWhile I'm sure we could all do without covid, I very much like the idea of a scaled-down Christmas and a very hygge winter! Looking forward to it actually!
ReplyDeleteWe will be cozy here. As it is now the morning of December 1 and we have not one festivity on the calendar-well, other than the streaming concert for my daughter, but can watch any time and as often as we want starting 12/18,
Delete" just do not understand the theme buying and updating and tossing decorations from year to year." I don't get that either, frankly. It strikes me as wasteful. Heck, even my toilet-paper-roll-Advent Calendars have been around for half a dozen years. I try to limit the decorating, as much as I like it, because taking it all down is exhausting, but if the kids notice something missing from years past, they are prone to hunting for it to put it on display.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite nod to the coming of the season is baking the fruitcakes in October, and feeding them with rum until we cut in to the first one on Thanksgiving week. Come September, I start craving my fruitcake. I give some as gifts, but only to those people who like it.
I've seen the TP Advent calendars and they are adorable! I have many paper based ornaments and decorations the kids have made, and yes, they survive!
DeleteBlogmas! What a nice notion!
ReplyDeleteI will try to do something for it. My next post may count.
I am not going with nay official rules, so may combine a day or two if need be. I have such a busy schedule you know. Haha. I'd love to see a Spo blogmas and read all the festivity planning and doing.
DeleteHave fun with Blogmas, I'm looking forward to reading along :)
ReplyDeleteI hope it is an enjoyable month to read. It could get old, so that is why I say sprikles.
DeleteWe don't do Xmas but I enjoy reading about how my friends around the world celebrate theirs.
ReplyDeleteYou ought to try and track down the BBC's Christmas Carol mini series from last year, adapted by Steven Knight (the creator of Peaky Blinders) it's wonderfully dark and atmospheric! xxx
I will take your advice. I have both Acorn and Brit Box for streaming British current and older shows. Maybe one will run the series. I could try You-Tube. While it ends in hope, it really is a dark story.
DeleteI won't be putting up my decs until Yule, but I do intend to enjoy the season as much as possible. Look forwards to reading about Blogmas! Arilx
ReplyDeleteI'm embarrassed; what is Yule? Is that December 6th? St Nicholas Day?
DeleteI have the tree up but still no decos on it, just the lights.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago when I was so sick at Christmas, I never did get beyond the lights and the easiest little things to get to. It was pretty in all it's simplicity.
DeleteI'm waiting for Dec. 1 to "make it Christmas" at my house. I don't add many new Xmas decorations each year, but for many years I would buy a new snow globe each season. It was a nice way to have a collection of something that didn't take up space all year long.
ReplyDeleteFor me, December is a nice time to reflect on the last year and plan for the next. I'm not doing blogmas this year, instead, I am posting a series on how I do my annual personal review, reflection and planning.
Your series for December sounds like a good read and I will look forward to it all month. Had I not had a November birthday, I probably would have bought more items myself. I love snow globes.
DeleteAs you've seen on my blog, I've dived headfirst into Christmas decorating this year. I have always treated my decorations as permanent, and just added a few here and there (aside from my anomalous situation of working in a year-round Christmas store for 11 years!). I've been taking it slowly, so as to really appreciate it and enjoy the experience.
ReplyDeleteUp until this year, Christmas has been about presents for my loved ones (husband, cat, mom, brother's family), and anything else like movies or decorating has been incidental to that. I do love "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Muppet Christmas Carol" (my personal vote for the best adaptation of "A Christmas Carol"), as well as "A Christmas Story."
I hope you enjoy the season - I look forward to seeing/reading about your special dishes.
Yes! Another fan of the Muppet Christmas Carol. It really is a well done version and the muppets add rather than distract from the story. Your ornament collection is a gem.
Deletehttps://moreparsimony.blogspot.com/2020/11/my-christmasy-bedspreadquilt.html
ReplyDeleteMy latest Christmas memory.
Sounds lovely! Looking forward to your Blogmas. I want to learn about lefse and krumkake.
ReplyDeleteI don't do themes or new decorations every year. My tree is decorated in memories...ornaments the kids made in elementary school that they laugh about as the put them on the tree. Ornaments from places we have been through the years. There is no new ornament for this year. Does Hallmark have a quarantine mask one?
I've seen the toilet paper roll ornaments but no masks, but likely may have had one for the professionals already?? I know wha tyou mean about the kids laughing at th eold ornaments. They are so fun to see and someday when grandchildren see them, it will add to the memories.
DeleteWe moved last year from the mountains back down to the front range to be closer to our 20something kids. We got rid of our big fake tree and gave a lot of decorations to my daughter and her husband. She loves decorating and from the time she was young always decorated our house to the max. This year I bought two little two foot lighted trees and put them on small side tables. I also put some other decorations out that really mean something to me but we’ve downsized quite a bit. A simple lighted wreath is on our door. I like it as I’m turning into a minimalist but I do miss the excitement of my daughter living at home and fussing over decorating but if we feel we’re all safe and well we’ll go to her house on Christmas Eve and spend the night. Starting new traditions. :) ColoradoGirl
ReplyDeleteDownsized done right it sounds like! I love that your daughter took on some of your family's items. My MIL downsized over the last five years and the grandkids have things from her collection. We already had things from my husband's childhood, so I declined more though there are a couple items if she decides to give away that my kids gave her, I'd like one o f them to have.
DeleteSounds like some nice Christmas activities. I'm looking forward to Blogmas,reading posts everyday.
ReplyDeleteI hope I have enough content for a whole month, but that is why I say sprinkles!
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