Ho-Ho-Hodgepodging

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. 

Merry Wednesday everyone! 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 632

Here are the questions to this week's Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (December 10th) to add your link to the party. See you there! 

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? 

2. What's one small thing you want to savor before the year ends? 

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? 

4. What's your least favorite holiday related task? What's your favorite? 

5. Let's do a little holiday this or that? 

• shopping or wrapping
• baking or decorating
• eggnog or wassail
• real tree or artificial
• turkey or ham
• white lights or colored lights 
• ugly sweaters or matching pjs
• peppermint or cinnamon 
• presents Christmas Eve or presents Christmas Day

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Monthly Musings-November

I'm participating today in the Monthly Musings link up, hosted by Holly (Pink Lady Blog) and Patty (Good, Better, Best) on the last Thursday of every month. We're sharing our musings one week earlier this time around because next week is THANKSGIVING. 

Does anyone else feel as though we're roaring like a freight train towards 2025? Thanksgiving is my favorite and I look forward to savoring Autumn's last hurrah. 

Any holiday parties on tap? 

Always. We do love a party, and although we're not hosting any in December we will be attending several.  I look forward to sparkly clothes, bubbly drinks, and twinkling lights. 

We have both a wine dinner and our neighborhood party the first week of December. We have a Santa Pub Crawl set up with a big group of friends the second week in December (always a blast!), and we have friends hosting a party in their home the third week in December. Par-tay! 

This was the pub crawl group photo from two years ago. We missed last year as hubs was under the weather, but we're looking forward to this year's fun. 

Best holiday prep advice? 

In the age of internet everything it's easy to get caught up thinking we have to do x or y when really there are no rules. We can also feel pressure (from others, but oftentimes from our very own selves) to keep things the same year after year, but if you find a tradition no longer brings you (or your family) joy it's okay to let it go.  Enjoy the people in your very own house. Leave space in your day, in your calendar for a cup of tea beside the tree. Don't let the reason for the season get lost in the busy-ness of making your home/tree/table look or feel perfect (psst-there's no such thing as perfect).  

Here's what I like to remember when December rolls around: 

The first Christmas was simple and mine can be too. 

3. Share a holiday recipe that's a crowd pleaser. 

This jalapeno cranberry dip is scrumptious, always a hit, and easy to put together. I thought I had a picture but have spent a ridiculous amount of time scrolling through old blog posts tagged Christmas with no luck. There is a photo in the recipe link. 

4. What holidays do you celebrate in November and December? 

Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and of course bidding adieu at the stroke of midnight to the year that was. 

5. Favorite beverage? Alcohol or alcohol free. 

Champagne of course. 

6. What part of holiday prep is a total struggle for you? 

I wouldn't call it a struggle necessarily, but wrapping is probably my least favorite holiday task. I do love to buy all the pretty paper, ribbons, tags, and embellishments, but actually doing the cut and tape part is just eh. 

7. Go-to holiday party outfit?

Well I mentioned in a recent Wednesday Hodgepodge that I love my sparkly pants. I'll post it again in case you're like me and too lazy busy to click over lol. 

I have a black velvet dress I might wear if there's a call for fancy-ish, the sleeves are sheer. This was taken at a holiday party last year-

I also have a black velvet top with a big black satin bow at the bottom where it sits on the hip that I really love. And a black velvet jumpsuit. Hmmm. I guess I like black velvet for holiday happenings.  

8. Do you send out holiday cards? 

Yes. Sending and receiving Christmas cards (or new year's or whenever people want to send them) is one of my favorite things. We've moved a lot and have friends scattered far and wide so I really enjoy touching base at the holidays. If there's a photo, even better. 

This was last year's card. Some years feature the grands, some years it's just me and the hubs. It depends mostly on what logistics are like in any given year, and I think you know this year they've been a little challenging. I'm already planning on a big family photo next year, once my oldest daughter and her family are living back stateside. 

9. Black Friday shopper? Yes or heck no? 

Heck no. I mean I'm not opposed to popping inside a shop or two if we're out and about, but I don't get up early or make a special effort and I never have. I'm more of a Cyber Monday shopper these days. 

10. Do you listen to holiday music before or after Thanksgiving? 

Typically after, but I'm not opposed to people who want to get a jump start on their Christmas spirit. We haven't played Christmas music in our house yet and won't until we get past turkey day. 

Well this was fun. Feel free to play along. Merry Thanksgiving everyone! 

Still Glad Tidings

Joy to the world! 

How is everyone? Busy? Angry? Excited? Sad? A little bit all of the above? The noise of the world presses in at an ever increasing volume, but let's all whisper joy to the world and ponder that instead. 

So often lately I'll start writing a blog post and go off on a little (sometimes not so little) rant. Then I read it back to myself and delete delete delete. While it feels good to put it on 'paper' I know hitting publish would feel less so. 

Christmas reminds us that joy is possible in spite of the heaviness of this world. In spite of the ongoing war in Ukraine, people streaming across our border unchecked, bullies on the internet, the price of groceries, drag queens performing for children while so many of the people in charge shrug their shoulders as if to say, 'Oh well, what can we do?' 

Joy to the world. Joy to the world. Joy to the world. 

Our tree is up and decorated but I haven't taken any pictures yet. Unless you count these-

Hubs and I had a lovely day recently, driving over the mountain to a little tree farm in North Carolina-

A hay wagon takes you out to the trees and then you sip a cup of hot cocoa and visit with the donkeys while the guys wrap and load your selection onto your vehicle.  

Christmas cards and letters are arriving in our mailbox daily and I love it. One of my favorite things about the season is seeing friends and family names on envelopes in the post. 

We've watched our favorite movies, shopped some, wrapped some, and had many fun nights out with friends and neighbors including this past weekends Santa Pub Crawl for charity. Absolutely everyone dresses in some sort of Santa suit or related holiday costume-  

Here's me and the hubs...if ya know ya know. 

If you don't then you need to watch A Christmas Story. 

Hubs and I have a date this weekend to see a holiday musical performance in the nearby small big city and I'm looking forward to seeing the festive lights and decorations there too. 

And then comes Christmas. Time with wide-eyed little boys who can't be quiet because it's all too thrilling. Time with brand new babies who hold tight to your finger and give sugarplum smiles. Time with matching pajama clad daughters sleeping at home like it was yesteryear. 

Luke chapter 2 and o holy night. 

Let heaven and nature sing. 

Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy. 

'Twas the week before Christmas...

...and all through the house, not a creature was stirring...

Because it's 2020 and we're all home by our lonesomes spending too much time on the couch. 

That's okay though. To quote another favorite Christmas rhyme, '....it comes without ribbons, it comes without tags, it comes without packages, boxes, or your whole entire extended family in the house...'  

Something like that anyway. 

Time is so strange this year. What isn't I guess, but I can't believe we celebrate Christmas just one week from today. The month of May felt like it lasted 347 days but wasn't it just September yesterday? 

So are you ready? I'm mostly ready. Tracking package deliveries online like a mad woman, but kudos to the US mail, UPS, Fed Ex, Amazon, and anyone else managing the overload of boxes, bags, and envelopes happening currently. We're getting deliveries at six in the morning and nine o'clock at night too. 

My house is decorated, but my dining room table isn't quite set and I'm hoping to get to that this weekend. I've been wrapping presents in there, but whoohoo! I think all my gifts are finally wrapped with the exception of one or two still set to arrive. 

Do you still send Christmas cards? I love them, both the giving and receiving, and checking the mailbox every day in December makes me happy. I told hubs I know we're getting older because we've received a lot more traditional cards this year as opposed to photo cards. 

Maybe the stupid you know what has something to do with that. Travel, family vacations, and gatherings of any sort were at a minimum, hence not as many photo ops. I really hope people don't stop sending cards altogether. Yes they're pricey and a bit of work to put together, but they are such a day brightener for the receiver. 

In other Christmas-y news, I might need one of those 'workplace incident' signs for my kitchen...'it's been 12 hours since a Christmas cookie was eaten ...'  I'm not the only one am I? 

Hubs and I have watched most of our favorite Christmas movies and did you know Home Alone is 30 years old? 30! I think it holds up remarkably well in terms of humor and the sweetness of that last little scene with the neighbor still tugs at my heart.  

Speaking of neighbors, we have brand new neighbors next door who we've bonded with over the fallen tree. They spend a lot of time in Florida and somehow in the course of conversation hubs mentioned how much we love stone crabs. 

Fast forward to yesterday when we opened our front door to this-

An enormous box of fresh stone crab packed on ice straight from Joe's Stone Crab in Miami. Merry Christmas from the new neighbors...

Shouldn't we be the ones sending them something? Rest assured we picked every last one of these crab claws clean and they were delicious. 

Unexpected thoughtfulness is such an absolute treat and the world needs more of it. 

Christmas is coming and that's good news. The very best news in fact. It may be minus a few of the usual bells and whistles we all look forward to, but the baby in the manger never needed that anyway. 

Wishing you all a holly jolly hope-filled weekend! 

Tidings of Comfort and Joy

It seems like I should mention Christmas on my blog somewhere sometime so how about here and now? I like to write in the early morning and that's just not happening these days, so 10:30 on a Thursday night it is. 

Can we just talk about this? 

I mean I cannot even handle the sweetness captured here. This photograph is in a frame on my kitchen fireplace mantle and it's the screen saver on my phone and I look at it at least ten times a day. At least. It's perfection...the Santa, the darling tree, the face...y'all the face! Can you even??? 

I'm still getting the hang of decorating the spaces in this house for the holidays but Rome wasn't built in a day. We have three trees up in the house, four if you count the small one sitting on the pool room bar, and there's no real rhyme or reason to what hangs where. I see all the beautiful themed trees on Instagram and Facebook and while I'd like to be that girl it's just not me. I'm sentimental and want all my many and assorted memories in the form of Christmas ornaments hanging side by each every single year.

I don't buy boxes of ornaments. Ours are treasured keepsakes from our children's growing up years, places we've lived or traveled, or they hold some other special meaning like a favorite hobby or pastime. 

What that means is a London Taxi sits beside a popsicle stick star made long ago by little hands. It means the ballerina bunny belonging to my youngest daughter dances on a branch beside the Strasbourg cathedral. Pheasants dangling from a hunter's vest fly beside Anne of Green Gables because that's how we do Christmas here.

Also pretend I'm not standing on a ladder-ha! In case you're worried, hubs was close by. The amount of time it takes me to arrange those beads exactly so makes him twitch, but he wasn't about to leave me unattended.

We have a tree on the screened in porch and I may one day decide to decorate it in a more natural way. I know I'll likely still keep a few family ornaments there too because when I look at my Christmas tree I want it to say 'this is us'.

I did have a sign made this year for our family room mantle (Etsy Shop-Rustically Inspired) and I love it-

I'll probably have to invest in new stocking hangers next year because this mantle is a flat front and that heavy brass angel tried to take out the fireplace repairman when he was here last week. I think we've got them situated for now, and we take stockings down for filling. I mean Santa does.

My shopping is done (I think?), cards have been sent, packages mailed, there's a bit of wrapping that needs to happen still and of course more baking because I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as too many Christmas cookies. Just ask anyone. We have a dinner party this weekend and friends dropping by next week... my youngest daughter will be spending her break with us and there will be days enjoyed with extended family too.

Some years are harder than others and I feel like this has been one of those here. Yet in the middle of it all came this tiny baby boy who has brought so much light and joy into our hearts.

The everyday stresses and pressures of life don't cease just because it's Christmas, but they do fade to the background and let hope take center stage. May the truth of the Christmas story touch your heart in a special way this holiday season. 

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Christmas

My daughter just wrote a Christmas recap on her blog and when I read it I realized I'd already forgotten some of the happenings. I figured I'd better put mine in writing too, before 2016 rolls around. 

That's the thing about blogging. Either you write about something as it happens or immediately after, or you have to wait years and write about it in hindsight. A Christmas recap two weeks from now would feel odd.

I didn't take many pictures this year. The apartment is not conducive to stellar photography. It's 'cozy' with just the hubs and I here, and then add another three adults plus two dogs into the mix (we were dog sitting my sister's pooch plus Daughter2 brought her pup over) and there's not a whole lot of room for photo staging. 

Which is why you see my ginormous bottle of 409 in this picture-

Perhaps you didn't notice because you were distracted by how precious my girlies look when they're together.

Picking up where I left off in Monday's post...we made the trip from Alabama back to SC Sunday afternoon and dropped the newlyweds off at my daughter's in-laws home. Hubs and I planned to just drop and go, but then my son-in-law's momma said something about shrimp and grits, and hubs has a rule about never turning down a plate of shrimp and grits, so we had to go inside and sample.

The 'kids' stayed at the in-laws the first three nights they were in town, then transitioned their belongings here and slept in our spare room the rest of the week. We only live about ten minutes from one another, which helped a lot with all the back and forth that needed back and forthing.

On Monday we all met up at our lake property to show the West Coasters the lot and dock and semi-constructed home. Very semi, but there's concrete and a lower level garage and that's something. We returned them to the in-laws after lunch and then hubs and I spent the evening wrapping gifts and tweaking the decorating here.

As an aside, this is my Christmas card wall. It makes me so happy I might just leave it up until we move into the house next summer.  Everything in the apartment is rented, including the 'art' which is essentially a piece of decorative iron.  I used my Christmas clothespins to attach the cards and it definitely added something to the original work.

Tuesday morning my son-in-law had plans with his dad, hubs was busy with an all day course, and the girls and I settled in for a full day of baking. It was bliss. Honestly when I opened the door to my daughter standing there and her sister standing beside me, I wanted to cry. I'd bought them cute mugs from Anthropologie with the sweetest, tiniest little gingerbread toppers that fit on the rim.

We all got back together Tuesday evening for dinner at a local steak house, one of my son-in-law's favorites, and that was a lot of fun.

Wednesday was filled with a bit more baking and then an afternoon showing of Star Wars.  I loved it. I'm not one of those crazy Star Wars people, but I do love the original films and this one hearkened back to that.

My daughter's in-laws included us in their Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals, both of which were wonderful.  We ate early afternoon on Christmas Eve which was perfect because we had plans to attend a 5:30 church service. Plenty dark for candlelight at 6:30 PM! My Daughter2 sang with the band which made it feel extra special for me.

The girls (and I) opened our traditional Christmas Eve pj's and Christmas morning looked much like Christmas morning has always looked. Except for the 70 degree temps. What in the world? I was spoiled per usual by my hubs who always says, 'We're not buying each other anything this year, right?' but then buys anyway.

We had another delicious meal at the in-laws, then came back here and later played a really fun board game called Ticket to Ride that involves train trips, geography, and strategy.

Saturday was ridiculously fabulous in terms of the weather, and we decided to get out and work off some of those cookie calories we'd all accumulated. My son-in-law went early morning hunting with his dad, so it was just the four of us for a good chunk of the day. We headed over to the university campus for a walk around the lake-

A little jumping...

...and of course a selfie.

Saturday evening we all trekked downtown for dinner, adding one friend/groomsman to the party.  Hubs and I went home after dinner and left the 'kids' playing darts, enjoying a gorgeous Southern summer evening at the end of December.

Sunday faces looked like this.

What can I say?

It went too fast, as we knew it would, but I like to think we made the most of the minutes and the hours and the days we were given. The precious gift of time we shared celebrating family, friendship, and the birth of God's only Son.

Five Things Friday. Maybe.

Do I have five things to mention here? It's January (that doesn't count) and it seems like life quiets down in January. It's winter (that doesn't count either) so we tend to have more white space in the calendar which if I'm honest, and I always am, we need. December was full. In a good way but full nonetheless, so a little bit of breathing space is welcome.

Okay, five things.

1. Are you watching the new season of American Idol? I didn't watch last year, or much the year before that, because judging had reached the point of absurd. It's a new combination this year, and I think it just might work. I love that they're not showing a lot of the really terrible auditions, those poor people you feel embarrassed for, who insist they can sing because everyone has told them so, or at least that's how they interpreted it.  Keith Urban is back this year, and I have no complaints about Keith Urban. Plus they've added Harry Connick Jr and he's got wit and style and actual musical knowledge, so it could be good.

2. Wednesday I went on a little outing with friends to a nearby glass studio. We got our craft on. Well some of us did, and some of us tried. The projects were fused glass, so a little bit like mosaic or a stained glass piece. You laid out bits of glass into whatever design you wanted, then cut and glued before handing over to the studio for firing in their kiln.

I am not talented when it comes to stuff like this. I'm good at copying something, but not as good at envisioning something myself. Also, I'm a little bit messy, ahem, and the glue on my fingers took me back to my days as a kindergarten teacher...."Just a little dot boys and girls."

I decided to make coasters, and to keep it simple went with Christmas colors.  A lot of the glass choices were pinks and light blues which don't go with my decor, but Christmas colors work. In keeping with a familiar motto here, my design was a bit of a hodgepodge. In other words, abstract art-ha!

Shhh! Don't tell my hubs, but I had to actually cut glass. With a tool! Rest assured no one was injured in the making of these coasters. We won't get them back for another week, so I'll post an after picture then. Supposedly this all melts down into something beautiful. We shall see.

3. My women's Bible Study group started back up this past week and I'm always glad to get back into the routine there.

So. Remember my word for 2014? Yeah. Guess what Bible Study we're doing?

Walking By Faith. 

I'm not even kidding. It's a study by Jennifer Rothschild, and I'm really looking forward to it. Unafraid. Walking by Faith. Pretty sure those two things go hand in hand.

4.  One of the last things I un-do after Christmas is my Christmas card display. I have a holder in my kitchen for regular cards, and then I hang all the photo cards on our back stairs. I absolutely love walking by there several times a day during the month of December, seeing all the familiar faces from around the globe looking back at me....makes me so sad to take it down in January.

So what do you do with your Christmas cards at the end of the season? I know they can be sent to St. Jude's, or I could put them into an album of some sort, but let's not kid ourselves with that one. I'm still trying to catch up on scrapbooks from the 1990's!

This year I'm stealing an idea from a blogger I follow, Stephanie at The Honey Pot. She's adorable and wise, and you should hop over and visit, because she also has a pretty amazing story. Anyway, she posted this idea on Instagram and I knew I wanted to do the same. Here's the deal...each week in 2014 you select someone's card and pray for that person/family every day of that one week.

We received about 100 cards, so I've added two names per week, but you can do whatever works for you. It's not a challenge or a link up, it's just an idea, but it's one I'm excited about. Our friends and family really are scattered far and wide. Praying for them by name is a way of keeping them close in heart.

5.  In other happy news, Daughter1 is coming home for the weekend. She has the day off work on Monday, which makes it all just a little bit sweeter. No real plans, but I'm sure we'll get into something.

Okay, that's five. I don't know why I spend any time wondering if I can meet a particular number. If someone wanted to do a 500 on Friday link up, I could probably manage that too. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Linking up with 5 on Friday-

And Friday Fragments too, because that's a nice place to be on a Friday in blogland.