Tag Archives: Christmas

Bookish Talk, Life

The Sunday Salon: Christmas Countdown

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Hello! My vacation started one day earlier than planned due to a surprise campus closure so I have been off since Thursday. Sigh. Which was great because I had to spend half of the day getting a new phone. I work in IT but when it comes to your own phone, you like things a certain way and I needed to spend time on the process which I just did not feel like doing on my vacation. But, I had no choice and finally got it taken care of. I ended up with a Moto X, in case you were wondering.

Small World

It was nice to have that extra day because the very next day, we headed to Disneyland! Disneyland at Christmas is just the most magical thing ever. The lights, the sounds, the food and smells. I love it. The weather was mild and the crowds weren’t bad. We waited fifteen minutes for most rides and that’s amazing since most rides average an hour or more at this time of year. It was an amazing day, but after nearly fourteen hours, The Teen fell ill. He could not wait another second to begin the trip home so we left and he’s been down for two days now with a horrible cough.

Tonight, we are doing our annual Christmas light tour with friends but I don’t think The Teen will be able to make it. He’s still asleep but we’ll see how he is feeling. I am making cookies for the trip and then somewhere along the way we hit the coffee shop for holiday drinks. We drive around, look at the neighborhood lights and listen to holiday tunes. It’s fun. We have been doing it for over fifteen years if you can believe it.

Tomorrow we are hitting the Christmas Eve service (a day early) and then we’ll spend Christmas Eve with my in-laws. Christmas day, we have reservations for Christmas dinner. This restaurant is on an air field so you get to watch the planes take off. It’s fun. The kids love it, as do I. No cooking and no cleaning! My present to myself.

Sunday Salon

What am I reading?

Not a thing at the moment. I might just call it a year with this last book I read.

What am I cooking?

Just cookies today. I am making Snickerdoodles, gigantic Ginger cookies and Coconut Macaroons dipped in dark chocolate. The Snickerdoodle recipe is new but the other two are the BEST cookie recipes ever. They come out just like the picture and everyone always asks for them. Try them!

What am I watching?

We watched Christmas with the Kranks last night, along with the I Love Lucy Christmas Special that aired on CBS last Friday. It was a little strange and creepy to see Lucy in color. I still need to see Frosty, A Family Stone and a host of other shows/movies but I’m getting there.

What are you doing today? What do you have planned next week?

Life

November 1st Means Christmas? In What Universe?

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National-Lampoons-Christmas-Vacation
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Let’s see, it’s already November 15th so it took me awhile to even write this post, but I noticed that as soon as November 1st hit, so did Christmas. No kidding! I know some of you have noticed it too. It seems the stores have completely forgotten about Thanksgiving and that’s a shame, because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for many, many reasons. Why rush it?

I adore Thanksgiving because of our annual Thanksgiving in PJ’s tradition. If you are new to the blog, you may not know but after years and years of hosting and forcing my family to take the all important Christmas card photo, The Teen and Girl told me that they really hated that aspect of Thanksgiving. The FORCED stuff. The nice clothing, the having to drop everything to take the damn pic, the fact that there is always some sort of drama to be had. Oh, and the Hub hated it too. In the midst of all of it I’d be cooking a freakin’ meal, sweating up a storm in my Christmas sweater. So when the kids (and hub) complained, I listened.

From that point on, we stay in PJs. We eat, we watch movies, we eat. Sometimes we do puzzles or play a game but there are no rules really and it’s made the holiday SO wonderful. Oh, and we don’t have anyone over either. It’s just us and the Otter Pup and we like it that way!

So for the stores and everyone else to rush us into Christmas so early, I gotta say that it saddens me. I love Christmas music and I do admit to breaking it out early because it eases me into a holiday that is wrought with commercialism but the stores. Geesh. I went out on November 1st and the decorations were up around town. TREES were up. People had lights up. Come on. I like Christmas for the traditional stuff (baking, the decor, the holiday drink menu, etc.) but the stores. Ugh. It pains me. Putting the stuff up early means that people buy the stuff early and then what? They just keep buying! Why? Because they can! I hate to think of all the families going into debt. We’ve been there. It’s not fun to take an entire year to pay off Christmas. Don’t do it.

Instead, buy a few gifts, make a few gifts, see a play or concert, check out the Christmas lights, drink eggnog, make cookies (and eat them!), visit with friends, read a great book (or six), stay in and watch Christmas Vacation, make soup, build a gingerbread house, cozy up by the fire and take a nap, make peppermint hot cocoa, watch A Charlie Brown Christmas.

You get the idea. It’s so easy to be overwhelmed by the obligation to buy stuff. Do family gifts. Auto Club memberships, zoo and museum memberships mean that that family will get to enjoy your gift ALL year long. With everything going on in my life right now, this return to simplicity almost seems like a requirement to me, not a choice. I am sick of electronics and gadgets and the need to keep up with all of them. Yes, it’s my job but it blows sometimes. I want simple back.

Don’t forget about Thanksgiving this year. It’s a wonderful time to spend with family and friends and it shouldn’t be skipped. I am SO looking forward to it and there is no way in heck, that you will see me in a store shopping on Thanksgiving day! No way.

Now that I got all of that off my chest, what do you have planned for Thanksgiving? Any new recipes to try? I am actually craving banana cream pie so I may make one in addition to the traditional pumpkin pie that we normally have.