2013 Day 26 - Boxing Day

We celebrate Boxing Day here in Canada - its like Black Friday - shops open early (5 am), people line up early for door buster deals and most everything that isn't a new arrival is 50% off.  The only thing missing is people being trampled (so far...I'm sure its coming though).

We've gone to the mall every Boxing day for as long as I can remember.  When I was small, however, all that was open was the department stores and card stores...this was because the only thing that was 50% off was Christmas cards, wrap, tags and decorations.  We would pile into the car, go to the mall, watch mom grab wrap and cards while Dad was already in the line-up.  Once we got everything paid for, we'd go back home, all done.

Somewhere in the 80's it changed to be a huge shopping day and Mom and I have been going to shop every boxing day since I've been able to drive (so a long time).  We'd be loaded with bags and take at least 1 trip ( but normally more) to the car to unload our booty!  I'd get at least 2 suits every year and often a new winter coat and lots of other clothing - fantastic!  The good deals we had in the past have diminished - lots of shops now have "50% on clearance" - which is pretty picked over already, so we don't get as many good deals as we used to...but we are LOOKING for them every year!  My friend Jocelynne started joining us about 5 years ago and its great fun to shop, chit chat, have a nice quiet lunch (shhhh....we know the 1 place in our mall that no one know is there) and then laugh at all the university students that are still standing in the line-ups for Abercrombie and Fitch (etc) whilst we head home with all our bags!

This year was particularly crazy at the mall.  We meet every year around 9:30 and I get there around 9 so I can have a leisurely coffee.  Last year I took a photo of the crowds at that time...and there weren't any - which is typical...the crowds usually arrive around 1 pm, when we are done most of our shopping and are having a leisurely lunch.  THIS year, it was hard to find parking at 9 am!  There were even people sitting on the floor around the food courts because there wasn't a place to sit where there were tables - I've never seen it that busy...and makes us even more thankful for our secret eating place!

2013 Day 25 - Merry Christmas

I got up at my regular time, made a final check that everything was good, turn on all the Christmas trees and went to wake up kiddo.

He wasn't sleepy at all and the 1st thing he said when he got out of bed was - Did Santa Come?  YIPPEE!!  First time EVER that he woke up knowing it was Christmas and that there was something special to do!  I told him I wasn't sure, we should go look.  Instead of his normal morning routine, he actually DID go down stairs to look to see if Santa came.  He got 1/2 way down the stairs and saw his big wish sitting on the coffee table - Hungry Hippo game.  He stopped on the stairs and giggled and peeked at it until I finally convinced him to go all the way to the stockings.

He went straight to the stockings, but I managed to get him to leave those and look at the unwrapped and ready to play with game....which we did.  Then I asked him if we should look to see if Santa left a note - which he did - and he ate the cookies and drank the milk.  I got him to read the note from Santa.  I noticed that it was the exact same writing we had on our Christmas morning Santa letters - he MUST be real!

At this point, GJA came down stairs with a camera and Lee came up from the basement and we all played some Hungry Hippos and got ready to open stocking gifts.  Kiddo was super excited with pretty much each item he opened - Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph books, etc.  At the toe of the stocking, like last year, was his favourite treat - red lollipops...which he kept in the stocking for safe keeping.

He wanted SO BADLY to go and unwrap the other gifts, but I told him that we wanted to eat breakfast and that we all had to be dressed before we open those gifts.  Before we were sitting down for our panettone & coffee, he had arrived down to show us that he was dressed and ready to unwrap!  LOL - the first time EVER that he had dressed himself!  HA HA - too bad the motivator is 1 day a year!

Finally everyone was fed and dressed and we went to open gifts.  He pulled out 2 gifts from under the tree and they were both to ME from HIM so he decided that since his name was on it, that he could open it...NOT!  He did a great job pulling out parcels, reading the names and giving to the appropriate person.  (YAY - one less job for me)  He was really excited about each of his presents - and you could tel because he'd open just 1 end and then go OOOOH and hid it behind him and asking us all to shut our eyes so he could open it all up and then show us the entire gift at once (lol).

It was SO GREAT that he was excited about the day - maybe he WILL have fond memories of Christmas, just like I did!

My parents came just as we were finishing our own gift opening - so then we re-loaded up the tree with their gifts and went at it again!  We ooh'd and aah'd at everyone's gifts and then went and made fuzzy navels and started getting ready for lunch.  After lunch was eaten, it was time for my parents to leave to get the turkey in the oven.  Before dinner, 2 of the people in our house went for a 2 hr nap & during this time I tried to assemble one of his gifts (and I didn't do a great job) while the kiddo kept asking if I was done.

Then, assemble all the sleepy people and head on over to my parent's place.  Everyone cooperated for photos with silly Christmas Cracker crowns on and the kiddo even stayed sitting for the entire meal!  Had a lovely turkey dinner with all the trimmings, sat and chatted for awhile, then off home to put them all to bed.

It was a fantastic day as far as I was concerned - because my boy FINALLY enjoyed and participated in the day!

Merry Christmas to ME!

2013 Day 24 - Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is now my busiest day - its normally the day I get up and be at the grocery store at 8 am to get all my food that should last from now until Dec 28!  I try to purchase most of it on Dec 23 so all I really need is fruit, veggies and baked goods.  Then its the MAD PANIC RUSH to clean the entire house (even though I've been working on it for several days, the main floor, where most people will be, is always a disaster - due to Mr. Hoarder).

Every year I say - you have to move the stuff off of the island BEFORE Dec 24 because if you wait until 3 pm...I'm in the middle of prepping for dinner...I don't THEN have time to stop and CLEAN the island because its finally been cleaned (only happens 1x a year-sigh)...but I digress.

After cleaning is done, then its prepping for dinner.  I think I posted already about this on Day 3 and today will be no different.  Once the guests arrive then its time to let the oven do its job & DH to mix some drinks!

I help kiddo write his note to Santa, put out the milk, cookies and carrot and off we go for the reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas.  After that its time to haul out all the presents and put them under the tree - DH isn't much help with this its like he doesn't understand how to put gifts under the tree or into a stocking.  This (and last) year, I actually had everything wrapped by now...and its fantastic, because I used to be still wrapping gifts while everyone went to bed on Christmas Eve.

Since most of this year's journaling has been about looking back, I'm going to try to remember Christmas Eve when I was a kid.  To be honest, all I can remember is putting our stockings out and being really REALLY excited & giggling in my bedroom with my Granny.  We also wrote a note for Santa and left out milk, cookies and a carrot.  I guess I also remember that my brother and I would talk through the heat vents...lol!

Well - I best get AT it...its 8:45 am and I need to get cleaning!

Merry Merry!

2013 Day 23 - By the Chimney

I still use the stocking I got when I was a wee girl.  My mother made it out of felt - there's a tree and presents and my name embroidered on the top.  She made an almost identical one for my brother.  She also made stockings for my father, Granny and herself.  They were plainer - just had their names on it - Dad, Mom & ME (LOL!)  The funny thing was my mother intended the ME one for her, since she made them, but because us kids figured Mom meant her...even though they called Granny MOM...so ME became Granny - which actually worked because her name was Marjorie Ellen (ME)!

We didn't have a fireplace in our house so we had the 5 stockings spread out in front of the Christmas tree.  If you look closely, you'll see stockings behind the boxes of turtles.

My Granny LOVED the stocking stuffers the best - probably because there were lots to open and most were perfumes, soaps, bath salts, bath beads...and candy...the stuff she liked best.  One year my dear cousin Brian came for Christmas and I made HIM a stocking!  Gee, I had forgotten about that, I miss him. 

I brought my stocking with me to our house and kind of "made" stockings for each for DH & MIL.  I had purchased the kiddo's (actually purchased TWO at the same time so if we were lucky enough to have another kid, they would be similar and there would be no complaining) and had his name embroidered on it.  I guess I didn't actually "make" the other ones - I purchased the stockings from Michael's and decorated them with pre-made felt Christmas shapes.  BUT...I did cut out their names on felt with my cricut.

Every year my mother says I should get myself a bigger stocking...because its so much smaller than the ones used for the others at our house for Christmas morning - but NO WAY - that's MY stocking that my mother made for me and its staying!

2013 Day 22 - Warming the Heart

This is the 1st Christmas where our son has actually asked for something for Christmas - totally warms my heart that maybe he's finally joining us in this celebration.  He's even SO good at it that he is like any other kiddo his age...he wants ALL the stuff he sees on TV.

What he really wants, and what we asked Santa for in his letter this year is Vanilla Powder and Hungry Hippo Game.  Seems easy enough...people use Vanilla Powder on their fancy drinks, people have fancy coffee makers in their home, this should be easy peasy to purchase.....NOT!

I put the call out on facebook about where to purchase the powder, since there aren't ANY available at all the coffee shops.  A few years ago, I remember them having them available to purchase for Christmas gifts...but not this year.  I was immediately bombarded with ideas on where to find it and what the packaging looked like!  COOL Bananas and off I went.  I found it in all the places suggested and it comes in tiny envelopes.  When I got home to post that I found it...my brother's girlfriend said she went out at lunch and bought some and popped it in the MAIL!  O.M.G!  What a wonderful, heart warming thing to do.

You'd think that was the end of it...but Oh No!  My plan was to get a salt or pepper shaker to put a wee bit of the powder in, so I could limit the amount of sugar he was scarfing down and wrap it with a lovely big bow.  He's always wanting to have vanilla sugar when I stop for a coffee and expects me to bring some home to him if I go to get the coffee during an errand.  Well, one day I decided I WOULD bring him some home - well, instead of being happy he was extremely upset - he wanted it in the exact CONTAINER like at the coffee shop...which means NOT in a wee shaker...great...now off to find these containers.

I looked at all the shops that had cooking supplies and found one with a handle...which I bought, just in case, because the one he's used to does NOT have a handle, I thought I better keep looking so as to avoid a meltdown Christmas morning when Santa brought the wrong container.  I went to my normal Second Cup and asked where they got there's...hoping they'd just sell me one...but they were all over-used BUT they did whip out their computer and hunt down what the container was called (its a dredger, by the way) and looked like amazon was the way to go - COOL!  They went out of their way to help me track down a container.

BUT...its still not the end - they offered to sell me a HUGE bag of the vanilla powder sugar they use so that its the "correct" sugar!  YAY - totally warms my heart that more people would help me out with this Santa gift.

Surprise, Surprise...the story isn't done!  I googled and looked and with shipping, the $7 item was going to be $30 (I have no idea whey they wanted to charge so much for shipping...C.R.A.Z.Y.)  I did eventually find a place in Ontario that had them for $4...so I bought 2 (just in case) and picked the 2-4 day shipping and did the dance of joy!  A week later, nothing had arrived, so I e-mailed to see if it had been sent...and NOPE, not sent...so they promised to send it out that day...which they did since they sent me the shipping tracking number - sweet - expected arrival Dec 16!

Dec 16 came and went...so I looked at the tracking and it said it would arrive Dec 19...huh?  I looked later in that same day and it said they had mis-routed the package and they were going to try again and the NEW arrival date was Dec 23 - EEK...getting a little CLOSE!  Now I'm looking DAILY at the tracking.  The parcel was bounced to pretty much every larger city in Ontario...hello people....Alberta is WEST of Ontario...there are MORE places in Canada than Ontario!

Then it says that it's new delivery date is Dec 30!  O.M.G.!  What is going on with this $4 item that I purchased back on Dec 4....that isn't getting here until after Christmas...I can ship a small parcel to Australia in less time!  I go onto facebook to bemoan that this one gift, the one that he really REALLY wants, isn't going to happen.  I consider using the one with the handle - but my friends come up with a local place that might have them (why that shop didn't show up during my googling, I'll never know)...another mentioned I should take the one with the handle and offer a trade for the used one at Second Cup...all these suggestions to help my kiddo get his Christmas wish!

I was able to find exactly what I wanted at this place in town (PHEW) and I will most definitely ship back these other 2 the minute they arrive.  As of today, the tracking stopped on Dec 19 - so I have no idea where it is...on some slow boat to Alberta!

My heart was totally warmed, on several occasions this season, by several different people!  WOW - I'm a very blessed girl!

2013 Day 21 - Snapshots of Reality

Today is the shortest day of the year - and also my mother's 71st birthday.

Our house is in a state of disaster - DH is a pack-rat/hoarder and there are piles of his crap all over the place.  I have taken over the kitchen table with wrapping paper.  The kiddo keeps dumping out ALL of his toys, in front of the tree each.and.every.day.

SIGH

Gifts that are already wrapped and stacked in the closet

Gift Wrapping Central

Did minimal errands & a good thing it was minimal because the traffic was crazy with shoppers!

Line up of cars everywhere

Fun pizza lunch stop

Tree just before I went to bed

2013 Day 20 - Gift for Someone Special

Instead of looking back to my childhood, I'm going back to last year.

Our son was never into Christmas or Santa or gifts - unwrapping was fun, but the items inside the wrapping paper - meh.  In 2012, he was a little more into it because I think he remembered the prior year there were gifts from Santa that he was really happy with.

Buying gifts for him is difficult because he doesn't really play with anything, so hitting that "perfect" gift is tough - he doesn't ask for anything, and isn't interested in anything so its pretty much a crap shoot.  Scouring what looks popular and trying to figure out if he'll be interested in it at all.

I went with a heavy emphasis to Toy Story and vehicles because he kind of gravitates to those things - so Santa brought him books and puzzles and cars with Toy Story theme.  As I was about to fill his stockings I thought - I know what he'd really like....NIBS and Red Lollipops!  Those are the only candy he'll eat and its the only "treat" that we can use as motivators, so he doesn't get them unless he achieves a task.

I got a little baggie and filled it with NIBS and put it, and a bunch of red lollipops at the toe of his stocking.

The next morning, he was actually a little curious about whether Santa brought anything and sure enough, there were full stockings and a Buzz & Woody race car set waiting for him.  He ran to the gifts, but I got him to stop long enough to wait for Dad to come and while we were waiting I got him to read his letter from Santa (which had the same handwriting as the letters I received when I was a kid...he must be real).

He was opening up stocking stuffers and there was paper and stuff everywhere.  He thought he was all done and was marching over to the tree to start with THOSE gifts when I said...are you sure you got everything out of your stocking?  He went back and stuck his hand in and pulled out a baggie and looked at it and screamed....NIBS!  Then he stuck his hand in again and he could tell by the feel that it was lollipops and he started giggling and smiling and saying....oohhh.  I asked what it was and he pulled them out and yelled LOLLIPOPS with a big grin on his face.

When my parents arrived later in the morning they asked what Santa brought him and he said NIBS and Lollipops!

The Perfect Gift for my someone special.

Here's the face when he realized there were lollipops....

2013 Day 19 - Man in Red

I don't remember what I thought about Santa when I 1st went to see him, but even without a picture, I know that I screamed my head off.  I was (and still am) extremely shy even with people I know.  Apparently once my brother arrived on the scene, HE started crying and I was ok (LOL).

We'd always make sure that what we wrote in our Christmas letter was the same as what we told Santa - the Santa ask was always the crucial gift...especially after Hobo the cat arrived that morning when I was in Grade 2, we KNEW that if there was a gift we really wanted and our parents were not interested in...the only way to get it was through the Man in Red!

I remember one year when we were reading the note left by Santa for Christmas morning, that I thought the printing looked like my fathers.  The next year, we saw a new tv show - "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" - WELL - it was loaded with facts that only SANTA would know, so I set to write a big list of questions for Santa to answer while he was munching on cookies and milk.  LOL!  Of course, Santa being Santa, he KNEW all the answers about his life, so I was still on the fence, because that definitely was Dad's handwriting! 

I can't remember if I figured it out then or a bit later or if we just continued believing or maybe Mom just said one day....I really hate buying stocking stuffers.

I DO know that the Polar Express gets me crying every time I watch it, as does watching the kids see Santa arrive for his 1st photo shoot of the season and I find myself waving to him myself!

2013 Day 18 - Dinner is Served

Christmas dinner has been exactly the same for as long as I can remember and has always been at my parent's house.

The menu consists of :

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

I haven't a clue how to make any of it, so I'm so grateful that I am still spoiled and we get this fantastic feast at my mother's house every year.

2013 Day 17 - Still To Do

I woke up this morning with many things to do - get stuff ready for the school Christmas concert morning rehearsal (cameras, nice clothes, tickets, etc); grocery shopping; mailing last Christmas gift (yay); purchasing last Christmas gift (yay); tidying up house before parents come over tomorrow; wrap gifts; have quick supper ready for concert; go to evening concert...and go to car dealership to get a new windshield wiper blade.  PHEW!

As I was wrapping that last gift to mail I thought, gee, I've got so much on my plate today that I might not be able to do my JYC today and after all that work to get caught up, I'll be behind again.  I sure LAUGHED when I saw today's topic!  Perfect timing!

Still To Do by Friday:
Mail last gift
Tidy up before parents come to babysit kid all day tomorrow!
Go to accounting class all day Wednesday
Buy last gift
Wrap gifts
Mail last few Christmas cards
Clean house
Volunteer at kiddo's Christmas party Thursday afternoon

Can be done on weekend, but would prefer to be done earlier:
Bake cookies
Purchase food for Christmas Eve dinner
Purchase Panettone for Christmas morning breakfast
Setup pewter ornament tree
Find Santa's cookie plate & milk cup
Pre-make Christmas day Lunch 

To do on weekend:
Go to Hockey game
Go to Symphony & celebrate Mom's birthday


I think that's it....and putting it like that it looks like a small list...except for I need most of it done by the end of the day Friday (once kiddo is at home, all activity grind to a hault...other than picking up after him) AND the house is a pig stye...so that one task alone is a biggie!

The only thing on this list that is negotiable (aka...don't have to do) is baking cookies.  I've made the 2 kinds of stuff I normally make, but thought it might be nice to have something that DOESN'T have chocolate as the main feature...lol!

2013 Day 16 - Culture & Entertainment

Gee - I have LOTS of things I could chit chat about under this heading....concerts, movies, parties, music...how to choose, how to choose?

Keeping with the theme of thinking back to my childhood, I'm going to pick one, special outing we had when I was in elementary school (wish I could remember which year - but it was after grade 2 - and I know this because I was already taking music class (organ) every week and I think my parents could tell music was one of my strengths and that's why they chose this as our first big outing).  The outing was a Christmas concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at the Jubillee Auditorium.  We had never been to a concert before or heard an orchestra.

We sat on the main floor, kind of in the middle, but to the right of middle.  I remember that on the stage was 2 beautifully decorated trees.  Some of the musicians were already sitting in their spots and tuning and as the rest arrived, the sound from the instruments got louder and louder, but no specific music was being played, they were all doing their own thing.  Then, 1 man walked out with his violin and all the musicians stopped tuning and waited for this fellow to play a note, and then they all tuned their instruments to that tone - cool.  Then, silence until you could hear someone walking onto the stage...the conductor.

I specifically remember them playing "A Christmas Festival" and "Sleigh Ride" - both by Leroy Anderson.  I remember being in awe at the changes in volume and speeds and sounds that were coming from the stage.  There were also 2 small performances by a couple of ballerinas.  At the end, they played several Christmas tunes that the audience got to sing - FABULOUS!  I sang as loudly as I could (and still do for Christmas tunes) and didn't even need to look at the program for the words, I already new the words to pretty much all the Christmas carols.  Just before the end, Santa came out and walked down the aisle amongst the audience and up onto the stage.  I remember the kids going crazy when they realized Santa was there.

I'm not sure I was able to sleep that night.  The music kept swirling in my head.  When it was time to start jr high, I realized that we were able to take "band" class and I was so excited because then I would be able to make beautiful music like I heard at that Christmas concert.

I continued taking my organ lessons (which I never really had to practice for) until about grade 10, at which point I started teaching a few young kiddos.  I played the clarinet in the school band from grade 7 - graduation.  I also didn't have to practice my clarinet but did decide to take saxophone lessons in grade 11 & 12 for something to do.  I had grand plans of becoming a musician in a symphony...but once I realized that it meant doing auditions...that plan poofed - I was far too shy to be doing auditions.

But I digress - In grade 9, we got to play "A Christmas Festival" - I was never so excited about a tune.  I got to PLAY the one song that had impressed me so much when I went to that ONE Christmas concert and had focused my experiences toward classical music.  Even NOW, when I hear that tune, I can "play" along my clarinet parts by singing along with it.  I think we played that song every year in high school and actually played "Sleigh Ride" a couple of years too - so fantastic!

This coming weekend, we are taking our 7 yr old to the Christmas Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra...I can HARDLY WAIT!!!!   If he likes it 1/2 as much as I did, he's going to have a great time!

Here is A Christmas Festival

 Here is Sleigh Ride

  

2013 Day 15 - Deck the Halls

I'm almost done decking our halls, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to think about this topic from the perspective of my childhood.

'Halls' weren't particularly decked at my mother's house.  In the main living room, there would be a tree (of course).  She would put plastic poinsettia on lamp shades (its not as nasty as it sounds).  She has had several different coffee table centre pieces over the years, which she often made.  The 1st one I that I can recall was full of blues and white and silver baubles, flowers, filler (to hide the Styrofoam base).

Other coffee table centerpieces she had (other than a big bowl of unshelled nuts & a box of turtles) include a Santa in a wicker sleigh and mounted on Styrofoam with cotton batten "snow", pine bough arrangement with large pillar candles, and a large decorative dish loaded with ornaments.  Lately its been large flower arrangements.

I wonder if the reason I think of this particular blue one is because of the colors (since those are my favourite) AND I wonder if it was the catalyst in my loving those colors at Christmas? It's probably the reason why I like to do Christmas crafts (mind you, its been a few years since I 'made' a Christmas decoration...hmmm).


I wish there were photos of these details - not only because it would be nice to see them again, but also because my mother MADE them, to they are special just for that fact alone.

2013 Day 14 - Places We Go

Christmas always revolved around my father's family - his parents lived in Saskatoon and we always had Christmas (either a few days before and the day of OR a day or so afterwards) with my grandparents.  They would take turns being at our place, or down in Calgary with my Uncle's family - and they would leave wherever they were, to go to the other home around Dec 27....so that we'd all have some time with our grandparents during the Christmas break.

One thing that came back to mind (that I had totally forgotten) while thinking about this was mixed nuts!

One of the things that was brought to eat was bags of in-the-shell mixed nuts - lots and lots of nuts - at least a bag each of walnuts, almonds, filberts/hazelnuts, Brazil nuts.  All of the grocery stores had piles of nuts setup in the produce area and you scooped as many as you wanted in bags and paid for it by weight.  My parents had this big green bowl that they'd keep stocked with nuts and sitting out on the coffee table in the living room with nut openers sticking out of the nuts for anyone to use.

This is a tradition from my father's family because I remember that he and his parents would eat and eat nuts all day long - I can still hear the crack, crack, munch of them eating nuts.  I would have a few and it is totally addictive, but if I had a few in a row that were harder to open, I'd lose interest.  My mother also joined in with the nut eating, but it really was my father and his mother that were the BIG nut lovers.

NOW, there are still these kinds of nuts around to purchase, but not like the quantity there was before and often they are in a (small) bag where the types of nuts are already mixed.  I'm not sure my parents still purchase them, and if they do, they don't have them out on Christmas, that I can remember.

After my Granny stopped being able to come up for Christmas, the nut quantity at Christmas time dwindled.  One reason was that Mom thought it was too fattening to eat so many nuts (which is true...they ate a TON of nuts) and I think it was around that time it started to get harder to find the nuts still in the shell (which I presume is because it got more expensive).

2013 Day 13 - White Christmas

We pretty much ALWAYS have a White Christmas...literally WHITE as in bloody cold, hoar frost on everything, white and COLD! 

Its hard to read (unless you click on the photo), but it says that with wind chill, the temperature feels like -38C!  YUP - COLD!

Typically, this kind of cold weather often starts on Christmas, and the last week of December (and maybe 1/2 of January) is often when we get these extreme cold days, but we've had it off and on all December this year.  We also have had a TON of snow - in the month of November, we had 50% of the TOTAL snow we typically get the entire winter (Nov - March).

Its been a crazy winter thus far, and YES, its going to be a WHITE Christmas!

I *love* that we get a white Christmas - when the snow falls for the 1st time, that's when I whip out the Christmas music.  It looks beautiful and when its sunny (and its often REALLY sunny...which is a big clue at how cold it is) because the sky is SO blue with all the white around and when its really REALLY cold and sunny, the hoar frost is amazing.

Snow and cold is FINE so that Christmas looks white, but really, if it would just land everywhere OTHER than the roads and side walks, that would be ideal - driving is really difficult and challenging (especially like this year when it RAINS and then immediately freezes and is covered with a foot or more of snow).   I also would be MORE than happy if it would all GO away by the end of January...a winter that lasted from Nov to Jan would be PLENTY, trust me!

Here are a few photos of what Christmas typically looks like (I took these Jan 2013 walking around a park near our house)

2013 Day 12 - Merry Mentors

The person that most emulates MY remembrance of Christmas is my Granny.

She lived in Saskatchewan and would come for Christmas and she'd take turns sleeping in my brother and my room...it was so fun.  We'd pick her up at the train station and she'd be LUGGING the heaviest suitcase...full of her home made fruit cake (which only Dad liked....gotta love Mom's bringing her son HIS Christmas Sweet Treat every year)!

She was always talking and laughing and doing silly things...not on purpose, funny things just always happened to her.  We'd look at the tree and gifts underneath it...and guess WHO would be searching through them - shaking, squishing, sniffing....SHE would!  She always seemed WAY more excited about Christmas than anyone I knew.

Being the older sibling, I was clever enough to count the days from when she arrived to Christmas Eve and nicely declare that she could bunk with my brother 1st...aren't I sweet....NOT!  I knew darn well that would mean that I could have her ALL TO MYSELF in my room on Christmas Eve!  We'd giggle and talk and stay up too late...my parents would come to my door and tell us BOTH to go to sleep....LOL! 

We'd get up at the crack of dawn and run to get my brother out of his room (he was always awake waiting for us) and then off to the tree to see what Santa brought - we weren't aloud to touch anything until my parents were up...and my Granny lead the charge to wake them up!  LOL!  She'd turn on and off the light in the hallway, talk loudly outside of their door; she'd sing "wake up" songs or Christmas songs...on and on...it was the best fun ever!!  She appeared to be MORE excited than us...but I'm sure she was at least as excited as we were.

She wasn't all anal about decorating and Christmas songs and stuff like I am, but my exuberance for the whole experience definitely came from HER!  If she was still with us, she'd be 103 and still as loveable as ever. 

Thanks Granny!

This is my mother (by the organ) and my Granny (on the right) with our 2nd cat - photo is probably from around 1985 (can't remember when they got rid of the nasty orange stuff in the house)  NOTICE the 3 Turtle boxes!

2013 Day 11 - Holiday Papers

The instructions for Day 11 is "wrap" a page in your journal with Christmas wrapping paper to that its a quick and easy task...well, that's pretty darn difficult in a blog...lol.

I always buy my paper during the prior years sales and in the last couple of years, I've been fortunate enough to find a TON of blue, silver and white paper...much to the chagrin of both of the boys in the house.  It looks so lovely to have those hues on the gifts under a tree of the same hues...lol!

I lived on the edge and purchased 2 rolls of shiny red paper...wonder if I'll use it?!

2013 Day 10 - Christmas Lists

We always wrote 2 letters to Santa every year when we were kids.

The 1st one was always the one that asked what we'd like Santa to bring, as well as niceties about saying HI to Mrs. Claus and hoping the reindeer are doing well....that sort of thing ;)  This one was mailed up to the North Pole I suppose, I really don't know what my parents did with those letters - did they actually mail them or not?  However, since we usually got what we requested, the letters MUST have arrived!  We always made sure that what we TOLD him when we visited with him at the mall was the same as what was in the letter - didn't want to confuse the issue during this crucial gift-asking time!

The 2nd letter was done on Christmas Eve, to go along with the milk, cookies and carrots!  This one never asked for anything, it was more about thanking him for coming, hope he was doing ok on his big run and hoping he enjoyed the treats we left for him and the reindeer!

NOW, if you mail your letter to the correct address...you get a RESPONSE from Santa!  So, get writing YOUR letters to:

Santa Claus
North Pole
H0H 0H0
Canada

2013 Day 9 - Special Treats

I have LOTS of things I would call Special Treats for Christmas, so I'm going to go with the 1st one I think of...and the one that's been in that position for the longest time....TURTLES!

Boxes of lovely TURTLES!  Regular, original, vintage, chocolate, pecan, caramel...turtles....and IN the box shown above!  Now its hard to find them in these boxes.  The last time I bought a box, it looked fine on the outside, but each turtle was individually wrapped and they honestly tasted WRONG!  They were too soft or too hard or too something!

The reason that these are a special treat is because for as long as I can remember (even before Hobo's arrival)...Santa would bring us kids 1 unwrapped gift and each adult would get a box of Turtles (and he'd also leave a stocking's full of little wrapped gifts...for all...even adults).  It was THE only time we had Turtles and I'm sure we'd go through at least 1 box before supper - Yum-O-Rama!

This tradition continued until I no longer lived at home, but there was always a box of Turtles to munch out of for Christmas morning/afternoon/evening/night!  Now, my father has diabetes, so we don't whip out as much chocolate as we used to, and because they just don't taste right, I'm not sure we've had a box of them around for Christmas for about 6 or so years.  Even so, every year, I look longingly at the Turtles at the store (and as recently as this morning), but the boxes are different and I'm sure they are individually wrapped and taste differently, so, my special treat hasn't been indulged in awhile.

Turtles, Turtles, Ra, Ra, Ra,
Turtles, Turtles, ha, ha, ha
MMMMMM, I Love Turtles!

http://youtu.be/X4IyoI77j1Q

2013 Day 8 - Christmas Tree

I guess I already spewed about Christmas trees but I'm sure I can pull out another story (who am I kidding...I have TONS) about this topic.

After I started being "THE" tree setter-upper (so, probably in jr high school-ish), I decided that we needed to try having strung popcorn...O.M.G!  The biggest thing I learned was...Do. NOT. Do. That. Again!  What a mess!  As long as you had a BIG HONKING piece where you could put the needle through, you would end up with exploded popcorn all over the place (the popcorn would split).  You really never notice, until you pop popcorn & foolishly think that you can string it...that maybe only 1/4 of it has big enough puffy sections to actually string.  Please...do NOT attempt this!

Just when you get on a roll....your STRING KNOTS up and you can't dare tug on it because any extra movement on the string results in popcorn splitting and falling onto the floor - nightmare!  I don't recall any photos with the year of the popcorn on the tree...but there may be one at my parent's place.

Perhaps we just didn't know what we were doing, or maybe there is special stringing popcorn to purchase...I don't know, but I repeat, yet again....do. NOT. make this mistake!

I vaguely remember also stringing FROZEN cranberries the same evening...I recall once they got partially thawed, it was relatively easy to string...but if you waited to long, it was a red/liquid mess.

Repeat it after me....Do. Not. Attempt. This!

2013 Day 7 - Sensory Overload

Getting in touch with the 5 senses for 1 day....

Seeing...During my morning walk, there were a few more lighted trees that showed up around the mall - all lovely silver and white and blue...my favourites!    To me, Christmas sights = lights

New tree that arrived over night at the mall

Hearing…I've been listening to my Christmas CDs since early November during my morning walk.  Today "Caroling, Caroling" by Johnny Mathis was part of the shuffle and it made me smile so much that I re-played it several times whilst singing it during my walk...surprisingly, no one noticed or thought it was strange someone walking around a mall was singing "DING DONG, DING DONG, Christmas Bells are Ringing" over and over again to herself.     To me, Christmas sounds = Christmas music

Smelling....I went to Michael's today and they had all their cinnamon scented pine-cones outside - you could smell them before you could see them and it always reminds me of Christmas...not sure why, but it does.  I love that scent.  Every YEAR I think...why are they putting these outside...by the time someone purchases them, all the lovely scent will be gone!       To me, Christmas smells = cinnamon

Feeling.....Warm!  It was -24C today (-11F) which is cold, but I felt warm.  The main reason is that compared to last week when it was -35C (-31F), it felt warm!      To me, Christmas feels = COLD outside but still warm

Tasting....I stopped for a lovely Candy Cane hot chocolate this afternoon at Second Cup.  Its my favourite seasonal treat.  I normally only get around to having maybe 1 or 2 before they are gone, but this year, I've had at least one a week since they came out and I'm enjoying every slurp...even IF they are crazy full of SUGAR!     To me, Christmas tastes = sweet