I've been a Monday-Wednesday blogger all year lately, but thought today I'd join in the Friday Favorites link up (hosted by Erika and Andrea) with a few bits of holiday miscellany.
1. I spent all day yesterday baking. It was such a joy to be at home, no where to go, nothing to do but spend the whole day in my kitchen. I know that doesn't appeal to everyone, but it's definitely my jam. I also did five loads of laundry, and sorted out some Christmas gifts and decor that needed sorting. I made two kinds of cookies, two loaves of cranberry bread, and a chicken pot pie for our dinner.
2. My daughter called on her way home from school pick up and asked if we were around and if so they'd drop by and say hi. It's one of the happiest parts of life right now y'all. A daughter living close enough to drop by.
Also, I played at least 47 games of tic-tac-toe upon their arrival. My sister-in-law sent this fun set at Thanksgiving and the boys love it. So fun!
3. I bought two of these little spoon rests at Hobby Lobby back in November and it's a sweet addition to my coffee set up. The other is by my stove.
I bought these mugs the year hubs and I got married and while there are so many super cute Christmas mugs out there, these remain a sentimental favorite. There are four in the set illustrating the twelve days of Christmas.
4. I like to leave a box on my front porch for my friends aka the Amazon-UPS-Fed Ex drivers.
They're here often this time of year, and I know the days are long. I put bottled water and some snacks inside-chips, bars, clementines...that sort of thing. It gets taken so I think it's appreciated.
5. I took the dog out this morning and was greeted with this-
Welcome to this week's edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger before you. Hope your day is merry and bright! Now here we go...
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1. Do you struggle with the commercialization of the holiday season? What helps you keep your focus when the season’s busyness and commercialism start to take over?
It's disappointing but I don't know that I struggle with it. I stay in my circle this time of year. I concentrate on my family, and the people whose paths cross mine. Less news, more Jesus and the miracle of His birth.
I enjoy the message of advent~hope-peace-love and I love the traditional Christmas hymns whose lyrics are timeless. I like sitting beside the tree in the early morning quiet with my Bible. I stay out of the stores as much as possible.
2. What's one small thing you want to savor before the year ends?
The excitement my grandchildren feel about everything. We Facetimed with my youngest grandson the other day and when hubs asked him how he was he said 'Christmas isn't today.' : )
They love the lights and examining all the ornaments on the tree, spotting Santa, watching the Grinch, and sneaking a just baked cookie or three. It's all magical and their excitement is contagious.
3. December 9th is National Christmas Card Day. Do you still send Christmas cards? If so does yours include a photo or is it a more traditional card, or maybe homemade? How do you feel about the tradition of exchanging cards at the holidays? If Hanukkah is the holiday you celebrate in December do you send cards to mark the occasion?
I love Christmas cards, both the giving and the receiving. We have friends and family scattered here there and everywhere and I enjoy hearing from them at Christmas especially. A photo included or as part of the card is nice too.
4. What's your least favorite holiday related task? What's your favorite?
My least favorite holiday related task is the wrapping. Does anyone else get a backache when they wrap presents? I try hard not to save it all for the end, but I'm not always successful at wrapping ahead.
My favorite is probably baking because I enjoy making cookies and I enjoy giving them away. I love choosing our Christmas card each year too.
5. Let's do a little holiday this or that?
shopping or wrapping
shopping
baking or decorating
baking
eggnog or wassail
wassail
real tree or artificial
real, but we usually have artificial
turkey or ham
ham
white lights or colored lights
both!
ugly sweaters or matching pjs
matching pjs
peppermint or cinnamon
cinnamon
presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Day
Christmas Day
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Who watched the Kevin Costner special on the birth of Jesus (The First Christmas)? What did you think? There were about a million commercials but overall I thought it was very well done. I'm happy (and not gonna lie, a little surprised) to see the gospel story presented on ABC of all places. If you missed it I think you can still find it on streaming services and Hulu.
Recapping last week's Christmas fun today, and linking it all with Hello Monday hosted by Holly and Sarah.
We got to Daughter2's house Monday lunchtime and spent the afternoon playing with the grands. My daughter made this Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala for dinner that night and it was so good. I will definitely be making it myself someday soon.
I feel like this post might be heavy on the food mentions, but c'est la holidays.
On Christmas Eve we had a nice breakfast courtesy of my son-in-law who made us sausage and eggs on the Blackstone. He grilled the hot Benton's sausage we'd picked up on our way into town and it's delish. I'd never purchased their sausage before but my daughter wanted the hot so we grabbed some to bring home too. It's not overly hot, just super flavorful.
After breakfast we bundled everyone up for a walk, with a stop at the playground for sweet baby J to show us his tricks on the slide.
This one y'all...
She's a mover and a shaker and we laugh and say when it comes to the grands it's the two little girls who are gonna give us all a run for our money. I cannot wait to see them together soon.
My sister and her hubs sent my daughter a wonderful charcuterie gift from Gourmet Gift Baskets, which we enjoyed for lunch. The dried fruit and nut tray is amazing and there was a separate tray of cheese, sausage, and crackers. There's not a lot of dining out with littles this age but we didn't miss it.
The babies both nap in the afternoon which gives everyone else a little time to relax too.
For dinner my son--in-law cooked a prime rib that had first been slathered in garlic butter, and we had twice baked potatoes and broccoli to go with. Our family tradition used to be new pjs for everyone to open on Christmas Eve, but now that we have grandchildren I like to give the jammies earlier in the month so they can wear them all of December. I got all the grands and their parents the same set of the Christmas Cookie pattern from Caden Lane and they were so cute.
And appropriate. My daughter the baker-
We didn't get to church on Christmas Eve as their service was at 5 PM and that's just a tricky time of day for a two and a half year old and a ten-month old. The little people manger helps with the telling of the story in a way the 2-year old can understand and that's the important thing.
Christmas day dawned bright and early and it was so much fun to see the little man take it all in. You never know what they're going to remark on first, but he slayed us with his initial observation in a room full of gifts and an uwrapped t-ball set that, 'Some of these presents have bows. And some have no bow'
He is so extra y'all.
He was overjoyed with every single gift he was given and we leisurely opened presents, added batteries, worked new puzzles, tried to figure out how to turn off! the train when it needed a rest, enjoyed homemade cinnamon rolls and an egg casserole, and thoughtful stocking stuffers for all the adults too.
We have loved adding trucks and trains and cars and legos to our supply of toys in the house but it's fun to now have some little girls to buy for too.
We Facetimed with the UK contingent and we're all looking forward to being on the same land mass when Christmas comes round again next year.
Thursday we had a slow morning then went to a nearby park for a nice long walk. It felt good to move, and while I enjoy all the holiday-ing I also look forward to cleaner eating and less indulging. After December 31st I mean.
Thursday night hubs and I were left in charge of the littles while their mom and dad had an honest to goodness date night. They went to a nearby Italian restaurant where Momma was able to enjoy a whole entire complete meal uninterrupted. Happy new year to her!
It's the little things, right?
Christmas is still up at my house and will come down sometime after the first of the year. I hate the thought of putting it all away, but I do love the thought of a clean house. Hope your Christmas was merry and bright!
A quick p.s. for anyone new here...I host a weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge on my blog and you are most welcome to join the fun. It's a random Q & A with room for a thought of your own too. The questions will post on Sundays this year, and the link-up will still go live on Wedenesdays. Happy new year everyone!
Another weekend in the books and it was a good one. Lots of holiday-ing with friends and some much needed down time too. I feel like the last quarter of the year was a literal sprint to December, but December is proceeding at a manageable pace, or at least it is for me.
I've got to hit one more shop today to finish up my gift buying, and look forward to having that done. Almost everything is wrapped, except for the two or three packages expected to arrive this week, and the decorating is done too. I'm looking forward to lots of tea sipped by the tree from now until January.
I was going to include some of our holiday decorating in this post, but instead I think I'll make that a post all it's own here tomorrow. Today I'm linking with Holly and Sarah for their Monday morning weekend recap. This was ours-
Friday night hubs and I went into a nearby little town to see their Christmas market. The town square had a beautiful tree right in it's center, the restaurant on the square had a little tavern set up where you could buy mulled wine or spiced cider, and Mr. and Mrs. Claus were set up in the cutest little cottage on the opposite side of the square.
There were musicians adding to the festive atmosphere and it was chilly which is how I like my Christmas season to feel. The market was small, and I'm sure will likely expand going forward. We browsed the stalls, then grabbed dinner at one of the restaurants on the market street.
Saturday hubs and I made a trip to Hobby Lobby as he needed something for his evening's 'costume' and I of course always need something from Hobby Lobby. We shared a plate of nachos for lunch at a favorite Mexican spot before heading home.
Saturday night was our annual Santa Pub Crawl with ninety of our closest friends lol. Everyone dresses for the occasion and while it originally was almost all Santas we now have quite the mix of elves, reindeer, Grinches, snowmen and more.
It's so much fun and we raise money for a local charity at the same time. We missed it last year as hubs was under the weather, but the year before that I wore my leg lamp costume (from A Christmas Story) and it was a big hit.
I also froze and my feet ached by the time we got back to the hotel lobby where the band was playing so I opted for warmth this year. Hubs wears his leg lamp suit every year and it's extra. This year I had three layers on under my Mrs. Claus dress and wore my favorite furry boots. We had a great time with the whole gang.
Sunday was gray and rainy all day long so I made a big pot of vegetable beef soup Sunday afternoon and we sat by the fire and the light of the Christmas tree. So nice!
What did your middle of December weekend look like? I hope it was merry!
Last week I saw Marsha post the topic for this month's ten on the tenth and I jotted a few thoughts into a post to save in my draft folder with every intention of joining. I was actually feeling pretty proud of myself for being ahead of the game. Ha!
Here was the intro I had written..'playing along with 10 on the 10th this month because a) I remembered it was the 10th and b) I only have about 150 other things I should be doing so blogging seems reasonable.'
On Tuesday I saw a bunch of people posting their 10 on the 10th posts and I was scratching my head thinking why are they posting on Tuesday when the 10th isn't until Thursday???
Bother.
December has been a whirlwind, and I'm going to participate anyway because why not? There are zero rules when it comes to your own blog.
This month's prompt is-
Hmmm...which way do I go? Is there anything I truly dislike about the month of December? Doesn't each month brings its own mixture of sorrow and joy? I'm a bit like Pollyanna in that I prefer to focus on the joy, so here's what I really enjoy during the month of December.
anticipation...
December, 2021
reflection...
December, 2019
family...
December, 2023
memory...
December, 1995
pretty food...
December, 2022
lights...
December, 2019
cookies -both the baking and the eating ...
December 2017
holiday parties...
December, 2021
little children...
December, 2018
And above all, the gospel story that never grows old or cold or irrelevant or is ever anything less than miraculous...
Welcome to this week's edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger before you. 'Tis the season...
1. Oxford's Word of the Year for 2023 is 'rizz'. Hmmm...before today had you ever heard the word? Do you know what it means? (Apparently it's short for charisma) Have you ever used the word? If you were in charge of the world, what word would you declare word of the year for 2023?
Before I saw the article announcing the word of the year, I'd never heard it or used it. I can't imagine its a word I'll be using in the future either. If I were in charge of the world, what word would I choose? Nana of course. That's one of the most used words in our house anyway.
2. What's one word you tend to abbreviate in your writing or speech? (as in rizz for charisma)
I think I use fave for favorite on a pretty regular basis.
3. Are you a Hallmark movie watcher this time of year? What's your favorite character from a holiday- themed movie, book, or TV special?
I've seen one or two, but I'm not really into the Hallmark movies. My favorite character from a holiday themed movie, book or TV special? I always liked Cindy Lou Who from the animated version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. And I love the book (and the family featured in the story) The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson.
4. Something you look forward to eating this month?
Homemade Christmas cookies. They're a big deal in my house thanks mostly to my momma, the original Star Baker. I won't have daughter2 home to bake for the holidays this year, but I'll still do a few of our favorites to share.
I made peppermint snowballs today and they definitely say Christmas to me.
5. What's the most stressful part of the holiday season for you?
I try not to let stress play a starring role. I don't enjoy the wrapping, but hubs has been a big help this year so that task is mostly knocked out. Probably the most stressful part of the holidays always is getting everyone where they need to be-traffic, flights, etc. Travel at the holidays is not for the faint of heart.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
My book club met today (Tuesday) and we had a fun little ornament exchange. Everyone brought an ornament that in some way relates to a favorite book, or a book they really enjoyed. Then I read a story filled with the words left/right and whenever I said left or right you passed your gift to the person on that side of you. It was fun. I brought a painted oyster shell representative of one of my favorite books-The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. I received a beautiful stained glass bird ornament representing The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. We all enjoyed this and will definitely do it again next year.
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Welcome to December and this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for your neighbor there. Here we go-
1. What's one fun thing on your December calendar?
We won't be with our girls this Christmas as this is an 'in-law' year, but we are going to see sweet baby J in a couple of weeks and that's always fun.
2. Sherwin William's Color of the Year for 2024 is Upward, described as 'a hint of silver lining', 'a breezy blissful blue' (see sample here). Benjamin Moore's Color of the Year for 2024 is Blue Nova, where 'violet and blue come together in a sumptuous hue'. (see sample here) Valspar's Color of the Year for 2024 is Renew Blue, a balanced blue with a touch of grayed sea -green' (see sample here).
Seems like the design world is keen on the color blue for the new year. Do you have a lot of blue in your home decor currently? What shade? Of the three colors listed which one's your favorite? Do you need to paint? How likely is it you'd select one of these shades for your home? Which one?
I do not have a lot of blue in my home decor, and what I do have is more navy. We live on a lake so lots of blues and greens outside my window. Because we have a lot of windows the landscape is almost like art, so the interior needs to complement that. Generally I prefer dark woods and warmer tones.
Yes we need to paint, but the task feels daunting. It's hard to paint just one room isn't it? I mean one room leads to another then another and you know what I mean I'm sure. I feel like none of those blues would work very well in my house currently. Upward is too 'baby blue' with my furnishings, Blue Nova a little too purple, and Renew blue a little too aqua. I do have a small stripe of a very soft blue in my bedroom and master bathroom window treatments that works with my color scheme.
3. Do you struggle with 'the seasonal blues'? What are some things you do to try to beat the blues?
Not particularly. Not saying I never get the blues, but I don't think they're related specifically to fall or winter. I love the changing seasons and am not sure I'd want to live in a one season climate.
If I feel the blues coming on the best thing for me to do is get outside, literally out of doors, but also outside of myself. Doing something for someone else helps. Every once in a while I might give in, play all the sad songs, have a little cry, then dust myself off and carry on.
4. Blue jeans...love 'em r no? How many pair do you own? Are you married to a particular brand?
Love em. My favorite item of clothing and I'd wear them every day if I could. I own 'a few' pair, but am not married to a particular brand.
5. In terms of holiday preparation (baking, shopping, wrapping, mailing, meal planning, etc) how far along are you? 1=haven't given it a second thought, 10=nothing left to do but wait.
I have a little bit of shopping, but a lot of baking and wrapping still do do, so will give myself a 5. Eeek.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Our Japanese maple wearing holiday red in December...
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Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thanks for making time in this busy season to play along here. If you've answered this week's questions add your link at the end of my post. Then leave some holiday cheer in the form of a comment for the blogger linking before you. Here we go-
1. What do you think it means to have the holiday spirit?
If you've been reading here a while you might remember answering this question in a long-ago edition of the Hodgepodge. December 15, 2010 to be exact. Ten years ago. What???
Let's not get sidetracked by time travel. Here's what I wrote back then-
"I think holiday spirit is that little kernel of excitement on top of that little kernel of anticipation all mixed together with a sense of contentment deep in your heart. I have to say I haven't quite captured it yet this year and I think that's due to a number of things including, but not limited to,
a. I am not hosting Christmas in my own house this year
b.my oldest is working now so naturally there are complicated logistics to be sorted and accepted
c. because we're spread out we haven't done any fun holiday things all together as a family yet and I'm not sure if/when we will because see #b.
Figuring it all out is just another step towards the new normal known as the empty nest. And here is what I do know... I do know that the real spirit of Christmas doesn't ebb and flow with our circumstances, our schedules, our pocketbooks, the weather, or any of life's big and little disappointments. The real spirit of Christmas is eternal."
One thing I love about blogging is looking back and seeing how events and feelings have held up or changed over time. The first paragraph of my original answer still holds true, as does the last.
We may have to work harder this year to find our holiday spirit, but I have managed to drill my focus down to the baby in the manger. Everything else is tinsel on the tree. Which is nice, but not essential.
2. What's one thing you've baked this month? Have you eaten the finished product? How much baking do you do around the holidays? What baked sweet something does your family insist is on the menu during this season of the year?
I do quite a bit of baking this time of year, although I'm trying to rein it in a little in 2020. Hypothetically speaking I don't need to eat two or three Christmas cookies every day between now and Jan 1. I most recently baked a non-Christmas treat, chocolate chip banana bread, because I had overly ripe bananas and didn't want to waste them. I put that loaf in the freezer to have when my grandsons are here since this is a treat both they and their momma love.
My family expects cookies on the menu, and lots of them. I try to oblige.
3. Your most recent 'half-baked' idea?
I'm trying to remember something I've done recently that didn't go the way I'd planned and the only thing that springs to mind is a dinner I cooked recently that was delicious. Also super messy (most of my cooking is) and labor intensive and I forgot about the labor intensive part until I started prepping things at the rather late hour of 6:30 PM.
4. Where were you the last time you 'baked' in the sun? The top ten sunniest destinations in the world (most sun from January-December according to this site) are Dubai, Bali Indonesia, Los Angeles CA, Miami FL, Barbados, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Mauritius, Antiqua, and the Canary Islands Spain. Have you been to any of the cities listed? Which one on the list appeals to you the most? If the world were not upside down crazy and you could lie on a beach anywhere right now where would you go?
We spent a long weekend visiting friends in Florida waaaaay back in March. We drove home just as lockdowns were beginning.
I've been to several sunny spots listed including Dubai, Miami, St Lucia, and Antiqua. I would not say no to a trip to Bali but if I could lie on a beach anywhere right now I'd probably pick something closer to home. Maybe the Keys.
5. Today I wish I had more _____________________.
Blank space in my to-do list? Hours in the day? Is that cliche? Maybe so, but also true for me today.
