2015 Day 18 - Dinner is Served

Christmas Eve is at our house and this started in around 2002 and the normal meal was appetizers and then lasagne with salad for dinner.  I changed it up a couple of years ago and now we have chicken, baby potatoes, carrots and baking/cookies for dessert.


Christmas Dinner is the same as every year...and I still can't make any of it...AND my brother was there again this year (although he did have the flu and missed Christmas Eve, but managed to hang out with us on Christmas day).

Turkey
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy
Brussel Sprouts
Cauliflower
Peas
Bread Stuffing
Sausage Meat
Cranberry sauce
Assorted Pickles
Rolls
White Wine
Traditional Plum Pudding
Ice Cream with Creme de Menthe

2015 Day 17 - Still To Do

Still to do on Dec 17...YIKES!

On December 17, I spent most of the day at PJ's school helping with their 'amazing race' project...which was a total gong show.  It was a Thursday and the following day was THE LAST day to do stuff without PJ underfoot...so I had better things to do than do this event at school.

Anyway, by the end of that day, I had all Christmas cards written and ready to mail so officially what I had still to do by the end of that day is:

Mail Christmas cards
Wrap and mail gifts to locations in Canada
Wrap my mother's Birthday gifts
Finish wrapping gifts (which I would do in the evenings after PJ was in bed sleeping)
Purchase a few extra gifts
Clean house
Purchase food for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day
Final decorating
Pre-make Christmas day Lunch 
Purchase Panettone for Christmas morning breakfast
Setup pewter ornament tree
Find Santa's cookie plate & milk cup as well as stockings
Attend Christmas Symphony
Attend Jocelynne's cocktail party

Panettone ready to eat!

Setting up a few more decorations

2015 Day 16 - Culture & Entertainment

I guess I already talked about this in an earlier post...but what I did recall is that THIS year I was all about the Christmas movie...meaning...those horrible, wonderful, sappy 'made for tv' Christmas movies that are all the same but different...LOVE them.

This year I managed to watch a few on tv in November and then in December I found there were several I could watch on our local tv's website (woo hoo!) so I've been indulging every day in at least one.

Here are a few of the many that I saw this year

2015 Day 15 - Deck the Halls

Decking the Halls isn't complete without lights...and a couple of years ago I found these lovely lights at Restoration Hardware

I immediately put them in our pine garland that goes on our mantle...WHERE were these before?  I had found similar ones a few years earlier and they never worked...but these worked from day 1...which they better had..they are expensive.  The best part...they are on a timer...lovely lights popping up on their own and looking lovely for 6 full hours!

After loving them on the mantle, I bought another string on boxing day in 2014 (the last package they had).  SO excited to put them up this year and I wound them around our 'indoor' wreath...yippee!

I need to find another place to put these lights...they are great!  This is one of the new things that have to be setup before it feels like the Halls are Decked.

2015 Day 14 - Places We Go

When thinking about where we would go during Christmas, my 1st thought was that we never went anywhere...maybe once to my grandparent's place in Saskatoon, but I would have been pretty young at the time and I can't really recall it...I should ask my mother so I can reclaim those memories. 

One year we were in Hawaii...I'll have to talk about that another time because what DID come to mind was that we went to my aunt's parent's place a couple of times.  Uncle Arthur (dad's brother) and Aunt Helen and kids (Dave and Rob) lived in Calgary...every other year my Granny would do Christmas down there and she'd be with use between Christmas and the New Year.  Often, in the years that she was at our place for Christmas, they would come up to Edmonton to visit with Aunt Helen's family (if it wasn't a year they were also in Calgary).  On these rare occasions when everyone was in Edmonton, Aunt Helen's parents would invite us to go over for Christmas dinner (because there were only 5 of us). 

My brother and I didn't like going because we were (are) shy and their house was SO full of people (Aunt Helen had 3...or is it 4...sisters...so there were husbands and lots of other kids).  Anyway, everyone would mainly be sitting in the basement  with TV trays and we'd all be eating.  Now that I think of it...was it for dinner or for nibbles/coffee...I really don't remember. 

The house was decorated in a typical 70's decor (as was our house) and I always enjoyed looking at other people's Christmas trees and decorations.  It always ended up being a fun time, even if we didn't really want to go.

It looked a lot like this...

2015 Day 13 - White Christmas

Well...Canada...there's snow...yup, we had another white Christmas. 

Out in eastern Canada, they didn't have any snow this year until about Dec 27...but we sure did...not a ton, but enough to make it white.

We saw on the news this year that the average temperature for us on Dec 25 is -3C (27F) which seems crazy...I can only remember a few times that it wasn't -10C or colder.

See...white (how do you like our new snowman?)

2015 Day 12 - Merry Mentors

I don't think the Graeme's family had stockings and stocking stuffers the way that our family did.  I can't remember if we had stockings our 1st few married years...but we SURE DID once PJ arrived.  The reason I think this way is because there would be things Graeme would wrap and put under the tree that were more 'stocking stuffer' material.

My Granny (aka, Merry Mentor) LOVED stocking stuffers the most.  I have no idea why...she just loved all the little soaps and creams and little things that Santa would bring.  Because she loved it so much, I wanted to have this tradition for PJ too.

I purchased a lovely stocking for PJ when he was born, as well as getting stockings for Graeme and his mother.  I think Patrick likes the stocking stuffers a lot too because he thinks its great that Santa tucks in his favourite treats in the toe...red lollipops and tokens for his favourite arcade shop.

Thanks for the tradition, Granny!  I get the best faces from him during stocking stuffer time.

2015 Day 11 - Holiday Papers

Just like last year, I don't do a physical journal so no where to slap some paper on...but I did take a photo of rolls of wrapping paper just before I started wrapping gifts on Dec 16

2015 Day 10 - Christmas Lists

PJ was excited to write a letter to Santa this year and we had it done in mid November.  He was pretty sure in what he wanted, which was helpful because last year he had no ideas about what he would like.  This year he wanted a VTech Go Go Raceway track...which is for younger kids...but because it has an elevator, he wanted it.

Did you know that if you send your Santa letter that he'll write back?  The address is:
Santa Claus
North Pole. Canada
H0H 0H0

2015 Day 9 - Special Treats

A treat that we used to ONLY get at Christmas was the Japanese Mandarin Orange...we'd be super lucky if we got ONE box of them in December.  Each succulent orange was individually wrapped in a green wrapper...they were sweet and SO GREAT!

I remember slowly opening up one orange and then taking a deep breath...smelled wonderful and it meant Christmas!  YUM.  I would take each piece of skin and bend it backwards to let the lovely smell be released from the rind and just sniff away in total heaven.  The taste was wonderful too...sweet and perfect.

As a teenager, we would always go to Mayfield Inn for their Christmas play (not Christmas-theme, just the play that was running during December/January).  It includes a buffet before the show and there was always mandarins everywhere to eat.  We would gorge ourselves on these yummy fruits because we were still only getting 1 box at home...so this was a special treat.

Now you can get a type of Mandarin orange all year round and they really don't have the consistency, smell and flavour as they did before....and we typically only see the Chinese ones and the skins are totally different and they are not individually wrapped....not the same at all.

Mandarins were a special treat in Canada at Christmas for everyone...because we had such limited access to fruit in the winter...here's some interested info about it (taken from here):

Japanese Mandarins: A Canadian Holiday Tradition

Reprinted with Permission from the Oppenheimer Group

Vancouver, BC - The holiday season is around the corner, and we'll spend the coming weeks hunting for the perfect presents for those we love.  Among the most important gifts a family shares are simply the traditions they use to celebrate special occasions.  These traditions are gifts given to us by our families, and we pass them on to our children.  Traditions don't have to be expensive, or glamorous, or even logical.  Instead, they are meaningful, enduring and solid.

One Canadian holiday custom that has been well loved for over 120 years is that of Japanese mandarin oranges.  The traditional greenery and red decorations that grace our homes each December are complemented by the bright orange of these favorite fruits.  And what stocking is complete without an easy to peel sweet mandarin orange weighing down its toe?

The idea of sharing the Japanese mandarin oranges during the holidays was introduced to Canadians in the 1880's.  Japanese immigrants received them in baskets from their families in Japan to celebrate the arrival of the New Year.  The immigrants shared the fruit with their new countrymen, who found the taste of the seedless oranges unlike any other.

Before long, the oranges were imported commercially from Japan.  They arrived in Vancouver each November, in nine-pound wooden crates that were hand tied in pairs to form a bundle.  They were secured with rush rope made of rice, straw or reeds.  The oranges were quickly unloaded and then shipped east by rail.  "Orange Trains" - trains with boxcars painted orange - alerted everyone along the way that the irresistible oranges from Japan were back again for the holidays.  For many, the arrival of Japanese mandarins signaled the real beginning of the holiday season.

Import of Japanese mandarins halted in 1942.  After the war, Douglas MacArthur's provisional government in Japan gradually allowed trade with the West to start again.  The oranges were among the first Japanese products to enter Canada.  Because people were still smarting from the war and did not readily embrace imports from Japan, marketers and retailers began calling the fruit "mandarin oranges" instead of  "Japanese oranges".

Until the 1960's, the oranges continued to arrive in wooden boxes, with each orange hand wrapped in green paper.  These boxes were a favorite gift to both give and receive.  After the oranges had all been eaten, the wooden crates were converted to sleds, tool boxes, shoe boxes, doll beds and houses, and a myriad of other useful items.

Eventually, the wooden boxes were replaced by more cost-efficient cardboard containers, though many people remember the well constructed and functional wooden crates almost as fondly as the oranges themselves.

2015 Day 8 - Christmas Tree

Here's a photo from a past Christmas (my brother and I setting out our stockings Christmas Eve)...I believe I would have been in Grade 1 or Kindergarten because I don't have glasses on.

The thing that blows my mind the most is the crazy amount of presents.  The other thing is the old, 1960's ornaments...garland, tinsel and silk-covered ornaments.  These ornaments were unbreakable and covered with very shiny threads...1/2 of them were red and the other 1/2 were 'gold'....and looked like this, but not green...green would have been an improvement.

I always loved tinsel...most of it was the original 'lead' kind and would get bends in it.  In later years, when I was more involved with decorating, we'd have tons and TONS of tinsel...miss that stuff!  Graeme bought me 'metal' tinsel, but its not the same.

It annoys me that when you google tinsel...what shows up is GARLAND...come on youngsters, get it right...anyway, here's a photo of our metal tinsel

2015 Day 7 - Sensory Overload

Getting in touch with the 5 senses during the holiday....

Seeing:  Lights are the best...can't get enough of them.  Even today, on Dec 29, I'm hoping to get PJ out to see more lights.  We did get to the Legislature grounds again this year!

Hearing:  I've been listening to Christmas music since mid November....love it!  Because PJ's school is overflowing with kids grade 3 & under, he didn't have a Christmas concert (because he's in grade 4).  I think that Grade 4 is WAY TOO YOUNG to not have a Christmas concert, but what can you do.  I did go to the school for their last day of school carol singing in the gym...it was hilarious.

This year we also went to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Christmas concert

Miriam and I attended our friend Barb's Christmas concert (she's the one conducting the choir with red antlers on her head & arms out in the air).

Smelling:  Turkey...nothing beats the smell of turkey cooking

Feeling:  It was -13C on Christmas day, but with windchill, it felt like -18C.  Apparently "normal" for Christmas day is -3C...which seems like crap to me considering the 3 years I've been doing JYC, its been -24C, -10C and -13C!

Tasting:  Normally I have a Candy Cane hot chocolate during the season, but this year they had Peppermint Bark hot chocolate...YUMMY...nice and minty but has proper chocolate instead of that crazy white chocolate stuff.

2015 Day 6 - Christmas Cozy

Things that NEED to happen to give me those warm/fuzzy feelings about this year's Christmas:

1.  Visiting with friends and family
2.  Finding THE Santa gift and watching kiddo's excitement when Santa brought what he wished for
3.  Lots of lights on the tree
4.  Pizza buns for Christmas lunch
5.  Gifts wrapped before Christmas Eve

That's all I really need to keep me happy during the bustle of Christmas day

__________

Today we went to the closing day of our Royal Alberta Museum (a new one is being built).

2015 Day 5 - Written Communication

I had drafted our Christmas letter before I went on my trip.  As it turned out, it was pretty much identical to last year...except we went to Calgary for a week in the summer and Graeme went to Vegas for a week...otherwise, same old, same old.

In reality, its been pretty much the same letter for 5 years...other than changing the date, photos, age/grade of PJ...its pretty much the same letter...BORING!

I printed out the letter, which included photos, plus developed a family photo and bought a box of cards and wrote in each of them....didn't take forever.  What I thought about after the fact, while looking at the cards we received, we only got maybe 2 letters from families like ours...and no 'card' or individual photo...just the photo-card from Walmart...

SO...I'm thinking...why am I spending $ on a letter being copied, a developed photo, a physical card PLUS stamp plus physically writing the recipient's name on each card....when maybe TWO other people are doing the same thing.

Is anyone reading the letter...is just a photo card enough....since that's all they are caring to send...why do I need to send them more?  Maybe only give letter to those we don't see at all during the year (like those that don't have facebook) and then just do a photo-card like everyone else.

hmmmmm...inquiring minds want to know what I should do next year.

________________
This year, Day 5 was our last day in paradise...boo hoo.  This is a photo of me posing with my water aerobics and zumba instructor.

2015 Day 4 - Planning Happiness

I had to plan more closely again this year because of my trip - tree was up the 3rd weekend of December and I had several gifts purchased plus my baking.

Once I got home from the trip...I completed all of the other shopping the 1st week back (2nd week of December) and then the Christmas letter and cards.  It was a busy couple of weeks, but it was all done in time...phew.

__________________
This year we went to beach level for sunset photos...something we didn't do last year - it was a great vantage point for sunsets.

2015 Day 3 - Greatest gift

I remember that as a young girl, I wanted a Lite Bright...I never, ever got one and I'm not sure why...maybe my parents thought I was too old for it, who knows.

Anyway, when Graeme and I were still dating and he still lived in Saskatoon, he had sent a few gifts and one of them ended up being a lite bright...ti was so fun and surprising that I now had a lite bright.  He had remembered me talking about me wanting one...what a sweet guy, huh?!

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This year, we had another rough day at the pool...but did spend some time down at the beach

2015 Day 2 - Countdown Memories

I remember picking up my Grandmother at the train station a few days before Christmas.  Even though my mother had been decorating, baking, wrapping gifts and writing Christmas cards for a month and we were already on break from school....Christmas actually ARRIVED when she did!

We'd get to the train station early and wander around the place, so excited for the train to arrive.  You could feel/hear the roar of the train arriving above us before they announced the arrival of this train that had come from Saskatoon.  We'd run to the tunnel where the travellers would walk through to get from the train to the terminal and there was a very cold gush of wind that came down it that indicated that the 1st people off the train were coming down the escalator...AND she was ALWAYS one of the first few coming down the tunnel!

With a big smile on her face she'd be frantically waving with her free hand as she caught a glimpse of all our smiling faces.  She'd come through the door and we'd rush her...my father grabbing her carry on...and his arm drop to the ground from the shear weight of the bag.  She would make Christmas cake...a light one and a dark one...one of each for her sons...they weighed as much as a ton of bricks and Dad would comment about it every year.

Lots of hugs and smiles as we waited for her bags to come down the carousel then we...giggles and smiles and great stories continued continually throughout her visit with us.  The house always felt empty when she would go back home...and at Christmas, it still does seem empty without her.

_______________
This year we relaxed by the pool...did water aerobics and zumba and ate and drank

2015 Day 1 - Manifesto

SO...I'm even LATER this year...is Dec 27...last year I started on Dec 22...opps!

Anyway, I was in Mexico again the 1st week of December and when I returned...busy with courses, school volunteering, present purchasing etc!

I love Christmas so even though I'm really behind on this, I'm going to do it anyway...may take forever, but I want to do it!

Here I am on Dec 1 this year.

 This is our tree on Christmas Eve

2014 Final Christmas day photos

Here are family photos we took with my camera's timer and a tripod

And some silly ones:

2014 - Christmas photo shoot

Here are photos from our Christmas card photo shoot

Photos by J Jackman Photography - see here