Christmas Traditions

Every year the hubby and I try to accomplish Christmas traditions to be able to share with our growing family. With our big announcement that we posted yesterday we have kind of fallen off the tradition wagon. I get home and by the time dinner is made all I want to do is sleep. I have been desperately trying to keep the holiday spirit alive.  In true holiday tradition the hubby lugged all our holiday decor up to our apartment the weekend after Thanksgiving. It seems like we are getting gypped on a week here and maybe the tree will stay up until after the new year. Honestly it most likely will. Haha. We took our bokeh shots and even made a GIF of us putting up the tree. We always have such fun decorating together. Then we had dinner and watched both of the Home Alone movies.....only the ones with Maculay Culkin count people! Our pup laid on her bed pouting because of the cone of shame the entire time. Poor thing.

Poor conehead pup!

We took a break for the week because I was wiped after doing just the tree so we finished the rest of our decor the next weekend. We had an unusual cold spell last week and it made me feel incredibly bad for our pup. So I decided to put her in a t-shirt to "attempt" to keep her insulated. The dog hates clothes which is why she doesn't have a sweater, but I think she might get one this year from Santa.

Also every year, with the exception of last year....the hubby and I paint a craft. We usually go to a ceramic pottery place like Color Me Mine but this year we decided to make something at home. It's going to be a little special Christmas gift that you should stay tuned for!

The Bear was our holiday craft from 2008

I think that it's wonderful that the hubby wants to make something together every year with me as a reminder of each year we are together. I love that we can continue this tradition with our children as well! What kind of Holiday traditions do you have?

Day Twenty One - Bells

Day 21 was bells. If you have ever read The Polar Express you know what the role sleigh bells play in the spirit of Christmas. This little guy is a door hanger and gladly chimes every time we open our front door!

Välkommen and God Jul

So this past weekend Linda (M.I.L) asked me to go with her to the Swedish festival at the Shrine auditorium. Always up for a craft fair and holiday carols I agreed to attend. It was really neat seeing all the wonderful handmade Christmas crafts and eat some Swedish meatballs. My mouth was watering at the thought of them, and the hour wait in line only made us want them more, add in some roasted potatoes and lingonberry sauce and we were scarfing! I also got to try some Glogg, which is a Swedish alcoholic beverage. It has port wine, Bourbon Whiskey, rum, cinnamon, cloves, oranges, raisin's and almonds. Served warm it was a really nice thing to have if your out in the cold all day. A little strong for my liking but all together really fruity.

While in the midst of the crafts and wonderful food I got a glimpse into the Lucia Pageant. Backstory on St. Lucia, "The story of Lucia tells of a terrible famine in Sweden and people were close to death from starvation when a large white ship appeared across the lake. At the helm was a maiden, dressed in gleaming white, her head encircled by a crown of radiant beams. As the vessel touched shore, great quantities of food and clothing appeared with her for the starving. When asked her name, she simply replied, "Lucia". When all were fed and cared for, the vessel disappeared as quickly as it had come. The legend of Santa Lucia dates back to the year 304 A. D. in Sicily. Lucia was born to a noble Christian family during the days of persecution of Christians. While still very young she promised to dedicate her life to serving to the poor. When betrothed she refused the man and gave all her dowry to the poor. He reported her as Christian and she was to be burned at the stake. Her body did not burn and she became radiant with light as she died. The story of this Christian martyr in Sicily is celebrated in the land of dark long nights of the North in Scandinavia. In Scandinavia, and especially Sweden, the annual celebration on December 13 is especially beautiful. A young woman in each family is selected to represent Santa Lucia. Dressed in a white robe with a crimson sash about her waist she wears a crown of lighted candles adorned with leaves. She awakens the members of the household early singing the hymn, "Santa Lucia" and serves steaming coffee, freshly baked bread and saffron buns at each bedside. The lighting of the candles on the crown of Santa Lucia is a special welcome of light during the darkest time of the year, dispelling darkness and gloom and sending good will, peace and hope to the world."  Young children came out into the crowd and onto the stage dressed in white with red sashes and singing wonderful music carrying lighted candles. Even though I couldn't understand the lyrics they were singing, it gave me such a wonderful feeling of Christmas inside, thinking about our own choirs and how we celebrate with song here in the U.S. as well.

After the pageant we wandered around some more, looking at the baked goods and of course the CHOCOLATE! We couldn't resist and split a bar! So yummy. Linda bought some really cute decorations and I almost bought a gorgeous wreath....but held strong to my willpower. The Swedish horse, also known as Dalecarlian, was seen in many craft items and God Jul (Merry Christmas) was on everyone's lips. Smiles were had all around and I had a lot of fun learning a little more about a new culture. Time to plan a trip! :-)

And Caroling Bells Ring

The hubbs and I have various traditions when it comes to our own tiny family Christmas. We usually paint a ceramic together. Watch Home Alone 1 & 2 (we need to get on this), decorate our apartment together, and bake Christmas cookies while listening to music. We also love to go to Disneyland for the holidays. Out of all the places in the world....Disney does it right. The decorations and atmosphere really put you in the mood. So the first weekend in December we and our annual passes made the trek to Anaheim. When we got there we saw that we came on the weekend that they were doing the Candlelight Performance. This is where a person reads the scriptures of the first Christmas and choir members sing caroles. This year it was read by Gary Sinise, one of my favorite actors. I told the hubbs that if we didn't do anything else that day I wanted to watch that.

It wasn't a very crazy day that day, but we decided that we didn't want it to be a traditional Mickey day. We wanted to do things that we normally don't do, including some of the rides. We went into Innovations, and on Autopia....a ride I haven't been on in 10 years. We watched the portion of the Christmas Fantasy parade that was my float, and I sung and danced a little choreography while in line for AstroBlasters. We even went on the Ferris Wheel inside California Adventures (for me that was a big deal!) We met a very nice family from Australia and spoke with them about the differences between here and there. We even got a chance to see my cousin, her husband and son too. They were going to the park the next day so they were staying at a nearby hotel for the evening.

At 4:00 we went back inside to claim our spots for the Candlelight. We were in the perfect spot for the flag retiring ceremony; we all stood and sang the National Anthem. Watched the lighting of the Christmas tree too. I stood and talked with a girl that worked in the parades too. We joked about all the fun things that we did. Once the ceremony started hundreds of choir members took their place in front of the train station on Main Street. The singing and scripture was so beautiful that it brought me to tears. When they had us join in singing Silent Night, I felt truly honored to be apart of it, with all the people that were watching and singing along. This is the spirit of Christmas. To be joined in unison, whether in song or otherwise and remembering who have come before us and what will come in the future. I was truly moved.

Afterward we ate dinner and walked over to where Santa's Reindeer were taking a break from flying practice. Went on a couple of more rides, then went and got some hot chocolate/coffee and picked out our places on Main Street for fireworks. We snuggled together to keep warm, and played Eye Spy with a little girl who was there with her father for the day. It just helped me see into the future of what a good father my hubbs is going to be. We watched the fireworks and listened to the music and when it started to snow (although I know that its soap) you couldn't help but look up in wonderment and feel that giddy kid feeling inside that this time of year brings. It was a wonderful day and helped us to get into the holiday spirit.

New shades!

Flag Retiring Ceremony

Flag Retiring Ceremony

Tree lighting and hundreds of people

The choir

Tis the Season - Decor, Cards and Clocks

As a child, I always looked forward to putting up the Christmas decor with my mom the day after Thanksgiving and keeping it up until New Years. We would pull out the 10 or so large plastic containers and get to work. One year, after many years of me being sick on Christmas my mom decided that it was time to get an artificial tree. As much as I protested this, ever since I have not been sick since. So each year we would set up the 7 foot artificial tree and begin the process. First went up the angel, then the massive collection of childhood and Santa ornaments, and then the bead garland (we did popcorn and tinsel a couple of years, but that was a pain and difficult to clean up). Then, while my dad and I giggled and teased my mom regarding her Santa obsession we then put out the rest of the decor and stair garland.

As an adult however, things haven't been the same. So Darin and I have started to make our own traditions. Every year we go to Color Me Mine and paint a ceramic Christmas decoration. We also have a Home Alone marathon. While pulling out our ornaments I decided that we would only put up sentimental and ornaments that we have purchased together. I have a massive collection of ballerina ornaments, that got left in the box since Shelby thinks they are eatable. This year we decided to start a photo tradition. While listening to holiday music to put us in the spirit, we would take photos of our tree set up in its various stages. This made the task really fun, and Darin put together an animated image to show the various stages. We made our entire holiday set up in a record 2 hour time! (Including putting the boxes away!) We have our stockings hung, lights up and all the music accounted for to be able to keep the spirit alive in our house.

Another tradition that we started was to send out Christmas cards. We took a couple of our favorite photos from the last year and sent them into Costco to get them printed. Then we did the unthinkable! A Costco run, on a Sunday three weeks before Christmas! It was a MAD HOUSE! We did some shopping and got some good ideas for some gifts. Now to address all the cards and get them in the mail this week! All in all it was a productive weekend! Next weekend my good friend Hope and I plan to have a baking frenzy weekend! Cookies and treats galore! This just might be my favorite part!

On a side note, we have a Christmas wall clock that has been sans batteries for years. Mostly because we haven't had any handy during the holidays. On our trip out to the warehouse store Darin decided to buy the jumbo pack of batteries (40 batteries for $15!) When we got home he put batteries in this clock. Now let me tell you that this isn't an ordinary clock. every hour on the hour it sings a different Christmas Carol: 1: The 1st Noel, 2: We Wish You a Merry Christmas, 3: Joy to the World, 4: Angels We Have Heard on High, 5: O Come All Ye Faithful, 6: O Little Town of Bethlehem, 7: Deck the Halls, 8: Jingle Bells, 9: Silent Night, 10: O Christmas Tree, 11: Hark the Herald Angels Sing, 12: 12 Days of Christmas. Needless to say this is one of those hand-me-down gifts that my mom got sick of and gave it to me. If you come over to our house be for-warned that you will either be sung a carol by our clock....or the face will be stuck in limbo because I went crazy and took out the batteries! :-P