I just have a few minutes so I thought I’d pop on here and do a quick, no picture blogmas post. Today’s topic is Christmas Menu and that’s convenient as I’m getting ready to go to the store. Rather, my husband is taking me to the store since G took my car to work.

Our Christmas Eve Menu

Since J is playing at the candlelight service and needs to be at church by 4 with the service at 5, our plan is for taco soup in the crockpot. We’ll probably just plan on a late lunch at Subway (exciting, I know) so that we can enjoy church without worrying about everyone being hungry.

I debated getting an ice cream cake to have as dessert. Still on the fence as we have lots of cookie goodness floating around here at the moment.

Christmas Menu

Just got off the phone with my brother a bit ago. Finalized plans are dinner around 4p.m.

So, I’ll probably pick us up some million dollar cinnamon rolls from a local bakery for breakfast. Unless, my brother-in-law and his wife decide to come for breakfast, then it’ll be my husband making biscuits and gravy. Stay tuned.

Lunch will be snacks. Leftover soup.

Dinner at my brother’s house: Spaghetti, meatballs, salad, garlic bread. Cheesecake and pumpkin pie for dessert along with chocolate pie (my contribution by request). We’ll take some cookies. And I’m planning to make an odd *doesn’t really go with spaghetti but we talked about it at Thanksgiving* jello salad my mom used to make. And homemade whipped cream for the pumpkin pie.

Not exactly traditional but I’m looking forward to it.

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Hope whatever is on the menu for your Christmas meal, it’s delicious and your holiday is wonderful!

Well, we didn’t get as much snow but enough for a white Christmas. And the cold did arrive. Flannel sheets on all the beds. Me, turning the thermostat back DOWN, griping about the inability of certain people in this house to dress appropriate for the weather. Suffice it to say it’s NOT shorts weather even inside. Well, unless you turn the thermostat up too high. No, not the kids. The husband.

Shall we talk Christmas instead? Getting closer…

Today’s another quick Blogmas topic, I think. Just a question.

When Do You Open Presents?

We’re pretty much full on Christmas morning/day opening people around here. G had a tradition of starting our Christmases super early until very recently.

Last year I was waiting on them to get out of bed!

The kids do get to open one “Christmas Eve” present each year. It’s always the same: Christmas pajamas and a book. This year, might be a movie though. We’ll see if the books actually arrive in time.

As a teen, once all my siblings no longer lived at home, my mom used to always let me open one present of my choice on Christmas Eve. Sometimes she’d discourage me if I happened to choose one of the bigger gift choices.

Gifts from family/friends, however, are opened as received if they arrive early. Same with gifts from school.

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When do you open gifts?

It’s a cold, snowy day so let’s make it a 2 blog posts kind of day! First, this is the general Blogmas catch-up post. Then, later I’ll do the actual Blogmas post for today.

First up in the catching up….

Blogmas Day 25: Last-Minute Gifts, Homemade or Store-bought

Well, I’m not one for making crafts that turn out in giftable form so usually I stick with store-bought. My go-to gifts, not necessarily always last-minute:

fuzzy socks and lotion

candles

Small flashlights (packaged with some candy)

For young children/teens: a card with a small amount of cash

And sometimes, just homemade cookies/fudge in a gift bag

Day 26: Weather? Lights? Parades?

Well, today’s weather is more in keeping with a white Christmas but usually, it’s more mild at this time of year. There are lots of light show/display choices in our area though we’ve been to none this year. It’s in the back of my mind to make more of an effort to put these on the calendar next year, at least one.

They didn’t have it this year but in 2019, I did get to go with some friends to Winterfest at World’s of Fun (photos). 

And in past years, we’ve gone to see the iconic plaza lights.

Other classic light displays/events (not so many parades here at Christmas time) are something called living windows on the Independence square(photo below), some sort of huge display downtown at Union Station, Powell Gardens, Christmas in the Park (a free drive through display though they do collect for charity at the end), something called The Magic Tree (I need to do this, never been to it), and probably many others I’m forgetting.

New things this year are something called Zoo Wild at the Kansas City zoo, some sort of walk through experience at the Renaissance Festival grounds, and a newer drive-through light display somewhere east on Interstate 70.

Of course, I’m not giving up hope on seeing some lights as many of these displays run until New Years. And I know they keep the plaza lights on generally until some random mid-January day.

Finally, the last day of the catch up post…

Blogmas Day 27: Christmas Past, Present, and Future

Since past is first, I’ll start by sharing the little girl with the wreath since I stumbled across her photo when looking for light pictures.

And her she is with her sleigh. The bag in it is from a local soap company, I threw it in there that year.

She’s definitely from the Christmas past. I’m keeping this section fairly brief and so just moving on to Christmas present.

How is your present Christmas season going? I cannot explain my relief at getting a delivery of a substantial part of the Christmas presents last night before the storm hit. Whew! Other than that, I’m a bit of a mess this year. Can’t think straight/get organized/minimal decor out. And I don’t think it’s just me in talking to my hairdresser yesterday.

As I pondered this yesterday, I think what it might be is an after-effect of the pandemic. Things were so off the past two years and then suddenly, they’re mostly back to normal this year. A bit of a jolt and I don’t think I’ve had time to adjust to the sudden changes from the past 2 years. Maybe? I don’t know. Just a thought. I’m certainly glad Christmas is back to normal this year though we’re doing something different for the 3rd time in 3 years. Dinner at my brother’s which is kind of back to normal and yet it’s been so long it almost feels new again.

Finally, Christmas future. I’m still enjoying this season (and playing along with Blogmas is helping!) but I’ll tell the truth and say I’m also thinking ahead a bit to things I might do/not do/do differently for next year. The yearly wail of next year “I’ll be more organized!” certainly comes to mind.

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If you’re in the path of the great storm, I hope your staying safe and warm. Don’t forget to go check out all the wonderful Blogmas posts over at Chasing My Life. I’m off to bake a few cookies but I’ll be back later to add today’s topic in a new post.

Today’s topic is what Christmas means to you. So, since I don’t know how to start, how about with a song?

On a more serious note, Christmas means lots of things to me. Sometimes I get into a bit of a Grinch mood at this time of year, for 53 years now….LOL.

However, I often find little reminders of the true reason we celebrate Christmas throughout the season. While Christmas is certainly about food, family, and gifts, I believe the true meaning is to embrace and remember the greatest gift. The birth of Christ.

Keeping it super short tonight as lots to do including a bit of a mad dash cleaning of the basement. One of G’s friends is in from out of town (on leave from the army) and may stay over with us later.

So, I’ll just flip the question and ask what does Christmas mean to you?

Don’t forget to visit Tamy, the host of Blogmas, over at Chasing My Life.

It’s day 23 of Blogmas and I show today’s topic is childhood memories. Don’t worry I won’t break out into my very off-key Ellen Page version of Memories, all alone in the moonlight... Okay, well not out loud anyway.

Way off topic, I was watching the Cats movie on HBO Max the other night. What did they do to that? Ugh, barely made it through the first two songs or so. Now, I’m feeling the need to find the proper musical to watch it somewhere.

Where were we? Oh, right childhood memories minus stories of Cats and off-key singing.

One of my favorite things pictured up above, my mom’s Nativity set. Definitely a little worse for wear lately. Poor angel’s wing broke, Joseph’s staff missing, a few animals gone (my mom actually gave one of them to a nephew many years ago because he was obsessed with animals at the time and loved it so much!).  I looked long and hard at a Nativity in a thrift store last week because it’s the only other one I’d ever seen with an angel holding the “Gloria” sign like that.

Playing with the Characters

While I don’t remember necessarily playing with the above Nativity, I do remember playing with the other decorations. And I should take this quick opportunity to say that Batman and Spiderman action figures were known to visit Baby Jesus in the Nativity when my boys were younger.

I can remember we had a very neat Santa claus sled, his bag, and reindeer, all plastic I think, that all the kids myself included loved to play with as the Christmas decorations started appearing around the house.

Then there was the girl with the sled, though best to be very careful with her…one you did NOT want to break it. I’ll have to share a photo sometime. Not sure why I didn’t put her out this year.

Seeing Family the Week Before Christmas

Because our family was larger or more likely my dad “put his foot down”, we stayed home on Christmas. I can remember we’d go visit all my aunts and uncles the week before Christmas and my mom would take them plates of cookies and pumpkin bread. We’d often visit my grandparents (my mom’s parents, my dad’s parents passed before I was born) on Christmas Eve. They lived in Kansas City, Kansas. And I remember us driving across the big, long bridge to get there. I think it was this one (could be wrong, I was young): Central Avenue Viaduct. 

I’ve spent way too much time this afternoon trying to figure out which bridge. And why my dad went that way. Of course, he always took a different route no matter where we went. And I must remember some of the highways (670) weren’t there back in the 70’s and 80’s.

Moving on…one more before I get back to doing Christmas chores. Regular Saturday chores but close to Christmas?

The Donny and Marie Morning

Just something silly but Oh, how I remember the excitement of going down the hall and seeing that Santa had not only left me the Donny and Marie dolls but the entire stage!

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I could share lots more but am stopping here.

Today is all about ideas for wrapping Christmas presents. Oh boy, Um, not one of my strengths. At all.

I do personally prefer to open wrapped gifts as opposed to simply pull items out of gift bags. However, of course, I appreciate any gift someone took the time prepare for me. And living surrounded by men, most my gifts are in gift bags.

Funny thing there is that, my husband can actually wrap presents beautifully. Of course, he must have the table and the scissors and everything set up just so to do it. I’m more of a wrap presents on the bed or floor kind of person. The kind of person who loses the scissors. And the tape. Then, has to cut paper more than once or add more.

So you can probably guess what packages I wrapped might look like compared to ones my husband wraps And of course, who wraps most of our packages? Yep, the lose the scissors/tapes/sloppy lady.

Not much to share on this topic today as I’m a pretty straight-forward buy my wrapping paper. Usually, I buy it at Hallmark.

Funny Story About Attempting To Make My Own Wrapping Paper

You know those people who are crafty and everything they touch just looks beautiful? Could wrap a present in yesterday’s newspaper (well, back when they were more common) and it look like the world’s most special present? Yeah, not me.

When the boys were very young (probably preschool/early elementary), I read one of those what I refer to as “guilt-trip” parenting magazines. And it was all about recycling (not a bad thing) and how to make our own wrapping paper out of newspaper. Oh, and of course, a fun craft activity for the kids! So, we attempted to cut christmas tree shapes in potatoes or maybe it was apple stars. Stamped it on the newspaper, wrapped some gifts in this “masterpiece” paper. Trust me it wasn’t the kind of paper you save because it was so pretty or even so overdone ugly it was pretty.

I’ll never forget my husband coming home from work and looking at me puzzled, asking, is our budget so bad we can’t afford wrapping paper?  Yes, the packages looked that bad. The kids didn’t wrap them and honestly, weren’t over enthused on the whole make our own wrapping paper idea either so it didn’t bother them. They probably don’t even remember.

One Quick Tip If Santa Gifts Come Wrapped

Borrowed this idea late in the game (kids were pretty close to knowing just how much Mrs. Claus helped with things) but sometimes at our house, Santa leaves the roll of the different kind of wrapping paper he used on his gifts so we can wrap presents with it next year.

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Be sure to go check out Tamy’s post over at Chasing My Life, she has lots of great wrapping ideas over there.

I think doing this is starting to slowly get me a bit more in the Christmas spirit. Took sometime this morning to finally make a list so I could see what I needed to do. Helped a lot. Sometimes, I think I need to do so many things and the truth is I don’t.

My current mood:

Can’t believe I forgot to include that song on my favorites list!

Onto the topic of the day.

Favorite Family Traditions

Pretty much an evolving category for us as our boys are now older and our families look different than just a few short years ago.

In Our Personal Family: Christmas Eve Pajamas and a Book

Stole this idea from somewhere when the boys were very young. Had visions of them wearing the pajamas and picture perfect Christmas morning photos. Reality: They didn’t always wear the pajamas so our photos weren’t always so “perfectly perfect” (to quote Mr. Mooseltoe).

The books were usually a big hit with the occasional miss (middle school years are tough!). Originally, I always did Christmas books but in the last few years, I’ve just picked books I knew they’d enjoy. Reminds me I need to get a book suggestion or two from G.

One unexpected bonus of this tradition: When they were younger and not excited for clothes, the Christmas Eve presents proved a good opportunity to practice saying “thank you” no matter what was inside the gift. Ha.

Old Tradition/New Tradition (I hope)

My in-laws used to always have a Christmas Eve party. Basically, we just went over there and ate snacks/appetizer foods/drank perhaps some slushy wine and hung out a bit. My husband’s family is not large so think more like maybe 6 people and 3 kids plus a few extended relatives. Their neighbors would also usually just stop by. This was more when the boys were a bit younger and our family from Oklahoma would sometimes come up for Christmas.

My FIL/new wife tried to carry on the tradition but honestly it just wasn’t the same without the warmth of my late MIL. And since the kids were older, it sort of fell to the side. I’m not sure if they still do this but we haven’t been over there on a Christmas Eve in many years.

However, for the 2nd year in a row now, the band J performs in with his brass instructor (they mainly play at the church) is going to play the accompaniment to the hymns at the candlelight Christmas Eve service.  I loved going last year and am excited we get to do this again. Certainly, hoping this becomes a new family tradition.

If you’re wondering about my side of the family, with so many of us, Christmas Eve kind of became the day/night everyone did stuff with their in-laws so that’s why we don’t really do anything with my side around Christmas Eve.

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So not a lot of family traditions at the moment besides the pajamas, books, and church. As I said, a lot of our traditions are evolving as the boys are now young adults. One tradition I’m not so sad to let go is the tradition of my oldest getting up around 4 or 5 in the morning each Christmas! Of course, now I wake up at that time so maybe I wouldn’t mind it so much now.

What are some of your favorite family traditions?

Don’t forget to go visit Tamy over at Chasing My Life, the host of Blogmas.