It seems we're having an unintentional international week of pre-Christmas dinners - Saturday was Japanese, Monday was Greek and Wednesday will be Italian - you know, we all need some Christmas Cannelloni don't we?
I've been given this week off work and I've been filling time very nicely -watching a bit o' TV, reading, cross-stitching, shoveling snow, taking The Jazz out for a walk or two and some baking - yesterday I made Banana Bread muffins, sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies. Today (yawn, stretch) I'm not sure what I'll do yet, but I know I'm enjoying it!
Yesterday's dog walk was great - it was above zero and the snow was more like sand (or dry pastry dough before kneading) - what a great leg work out - for about 20 minutes until I hit a windy area and then I was ready to come home.
The biggest key to success this time of year, is making sure none of it is stressful - which starts by not seeing any in-laws (hee hee, just kidding babe - I know, it works both ways).
For years, my mum made Christmas a terrific time of year with great decorations and wonderful treats, it was always a cozy atmosphere, but after she moved away it has been hard to find my own traditions and style. I would get sad because Christmas only felt like Christmas at her house. But since I can't always travel to her house this time of year, and with Jp I think I'm finally learning what Christmas is to me, to us.
Here's a little acrylic nutcracker that is one of my favourite tree ornaments. I think I like his painted blue eyes the best.
And here's a lady who knows what we're going through in our house this time of year. Remember those felt slippers I made? I found they were great on the tops of my feet but couldn't do enough to cut the cold from the floor - so I put them INSIDE some other slippers (that look like UGG boots) which have a plastic soul and a lot of foam padding on the bottom and now my feet are not cold as long as they are in these super slippers.
(P.S. I still like Christmas at my mum's the best).
2 comments:
Thanks for the link to HotbellyMama's blog. I think I'll be checking it out often.
I do agree with you about aiming to keep the stress levels down at this time of year. This is the first time we've been all alone (just the 2 of us) for Christmas Eve (and so far, Christmas Day, too). Since we moved here (this'll be our 4th Xmas) we've been inundated with inlaws....Art's brother's family. Last year was a disaster, so we opted out this year. Very peaceful.
...oh ya.....nobody does it like Mom, that's for sure. Missin' mine this year. I'll post a little something on my blog today or tomorrow about her.
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