Dear sisters,
Happy December and Merry Christmas! Have you started your holiday baking, decorating and shopping yet? For a daydreaming farmgirl I’m pretty practical during the holidays. How about you? Do you get all caught up in Black Friday shopping, midnight sales and cyber shopping deals? I’m just getting started making my gift list and decking the halls. I’ve got enough Christmas’s behind me now and I tend to stick to my trusty list of dos and don’t s during the mad rush of December. If you like to keep it simple during the holidays too, come on in and let’s compare notes on crafting a memorable and unique holiday together!
I confess, I DON’T do Black Friday. I DON’T do holiday crowds or malls and I DON’T overspend at Christmas time. We set a budget and do our best to select one special thing for each child and then have fun with little things. Does that sound Scroogie? I’m NOT a scrooge I just like to focus on the things that make Christmas, Christmas to us! I know that after many years of celebrating Christmas it’s not about how many gifts are under the tree, or expensive things. The gift of the season is time with loved ones ” in slow motion “.
So here’s a peek at what makes Christmas, CHRISTMAS at our house!
Christmas 2013
Let’s talk Decorating~
Trimming the tree is what really gets me in the holiday spirit. I love unpacking the boxes of ornaments and reminiscing about Christmas’s past. What’s the first thing you do that gets you revved up for Christmas? Do you keep to one theme with your holiday decor or to you create your own Christmas collage using a mix of decorations and ornaments from over the years? I like to mix and mingle different themes in my holiday decorating. I adore rustic holiday decor with fresh evergreens, holly, berries, and pine-cones just as much as I love glitz and glam and sparkly lights. I’m also a fan of anything Victorian vintage and I love Santa! But wait! I’m the BEACH farmgirl so nautical inspired adornment is a must too! Are you confused yet? Not to worry! It works! All that matters is that you love it and it makes you and your family feel happy inside.
Let’s talk Traditions~
Every family has their own holiday traditions! Whether it’s going to midnight mass on Christmas eve, hosting an annual open house, or donating to your favorite holiday fund drive, traditions bind us together even more during the holiday season and solidify our values as a family and as a community.
Christmas Day is a gift to unwrap slowly! So, rather than opening up our gifts first thing in the morning we take our time and open our stockings first. I tend to put practical items like razors, socks, body wash, perfume, gum, and gift cards. My hubby is in charge of the practical joke items! He always wraps them so pretty but that never fools us! I think must start collecting his stocking treasures for the following year the day after Christmas.
Next up are my hubby’s famous waffles! He makes waffles for breakfast, EVERY Christmas morning, right after we open our stockings and before we open our gifts from Santa!
We have a Belgium waffle maker which cooks them up light and fluffy every time! Then, we top them with fresh strawberry sauce and whipped cream or cream cheese. Some of us ( eh hem ) have been known to drizzle a little chocolate over the top for some added Christmas morning sweetness.
They look hungry!
It’s a tradition we all look forward to! This year’s Christmas breakfast will be even more special because Grammy Joy doesn’t have to drive over from her house. She’s ” home” with us now!
Let’s talk Christmas Cards~ I started collecting Vintage Christmas post cards recently and I just love them. They capture the magic and the peacefulness of the season so perfectly. Do you still send Christmas Cards the old fashioned way? Are you a Christmas letter writer? I like getting them! It’s fun to catch up with people and let’s face it, a lot can happen in one year’s time! We enjoy the family photo cards people send that are so popular today as well! We follow in that tradition too and we think we’ve got a real crowd please’r this year!
But, you’ll have to wait till our next shoreline visit to see it! 😉
In the meantime, don’t let the pressure get to ya! Just follow your DO and DON’T list and enjoy crafting a most memorable Christmas!
Much love and Beach Blessings~
Sister Deb # 1199
Guess it’s time to clip some evergreen boughs, get out the bows, bake some cookies and spread the holiday love. Blessings to everyone at MaryJane farm– what a treasure!
Yup! Tis the seaon, Joan! Blessings to you and yours! xo Deb
Those are some lovely traditions, especially your husband’s waffles. I too make Belgian waffles from scratch and add anything from vanilla cream to chocolate syrup. Sometimes, I thaw the frozen blueberries and fill the crevasses so each square is a fork-full of yummy. We have eight days of lighting candles on our menorah, eating potato pancakes (latkes), jelly doughnuts (sufganiyot), and having the kids spin the dreidel with chocolate coins (gelt) as the prizes. It’s a great game where you can eat your winnings. I hope you and your family continue to celebrate Christmas in the best way by being together and truly happy!
Oh, Adrienne, your waffles sound divine! Thank you for sharing your traditions with us!I love potato pancakes. My mom used to make them for us when we had left over mashed potatoes. Any game where you can eat your winnings is a good game to me! 😉 Love, Deb xo
Love your traditions. Slowly getting the house Christmas ready. Twisted knee is slowing me down! Don’t do Black Fridays, or Cyber Mondays. It’s a home made Christmas this year. Quilts galore. Hope yours is a great holiday.
Howdy, Sylvia! Well, I hop your knee gets better every day. Enjoy the season.. sounds cozy at your place! Thanks so much for reading and for your notes, as always! xo Deb
Your Christmas sounds a lot like ours. It is a real gift to not have a huge CC bill in January. I love to bake gifts for friends and family. We had a horrible flood here this year as you may have seen on the national news. My goal this year is to bake for everyone who helped us out. We had to evacuate horses, cats, dogs and chickens. I had animals farmed out all over. It was a true blessing to have people around who did not mind one bit that I called in the middle of the night for help. They came to the rescue. I feel truley blessed.
Another way we celebrate is by being outside as much as possible. After 115 degrees and up this summer 55 is a welcome relief. We won’t have any “kids” around this year again, and it has been kind of weird not to have a large group. In years past we got in the habit of not putting up a big tree, just a little tiny one. This year we went ahead and put up a 6 ft. arttie. Ha! My husband found it sitting near a dumpster last year and brought it home. He’s a scapper. I really did’nt want anything to do with it being in the house, mabey outside somewhere. It is standing proud in my living room and looks wonderful ! I may leave it up all year Haha !
I love reading your posts and btw you might like to know Vegas was socked in with fog the last 2 days ! Once in 10 years. (I live 100 miles out in the middle of no where but close enough. )
Merry Christmas ! GW
Glenda! Fog in Las Vegas? Wow! Your husband is a scrapper too? What a neat find though. Would you believe we purchased our Christmas tree at a yard sale over 15 years ago for $20.00. Every year I say we are gonna get a new one, but it looks just fine! We had two trees for a while during the Boy Scout years. We always bought a ” real ” tree to support the troop, but we are back to just one this year… All Christmas trees are beautiful! Merry Christmas to you and your scrapper! xo Deb
Yay, I love all your Christmas ideas and the simplicity of each one.
No Black Fridays for us here either in the Ozarks, no crowds, no malls, no traffic.
This year its all about simplicity for the holidays, my husband and I will have a homemade Christmas for just the two of us and buy for our kids and grand kids.
Homemade Christma’s are the best, every thing is made from love and from the heart, not shoved into a shopping cart at the last minute.
Our best memories are of homemade toy wagons and doll houses for our kids.
Merry Christmas from the Christmas City, Noel, Mo!! Diana
Hi Diana! I agree! Homemade Christmas’s are the best. What fun you must have had during the toy wagons and doll house years. 🙂 Merry Christmas, Diana and thank you for reading and stopping by to say hello so often through the year! Love hearing your updates from the Ozarks! Blessings to you! xo Deb
Thank you Deb! I/we DON’T do the Black Friday thing either and we don’t live near malls or such. But over the past few years our family has decided that we just aren’t going to be spending money on Christmas gifts. We all just want to spend TIME with each other and agreed to save our money for any travel involved and activities we want to do together. Of course, we HAVE to eat, so we do want to spend reasonable money on food and prepare a special meal and treats.
We believe the “JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON” and that is our focus and that is our celebration. We do decorate (I get kinda carried away with it) and enjoy the fun things.
Another thing we like to do is have our church fellowship group, which is very small, over to sing carols and share snacks on a Sunday afternoon. When it’s possible and the schedule works out we sometimes invite our neighbors by for an open house on a Sunday afternoon.
We are musicians so Christmas music is a “requirement” and we love it!
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Farmgirl Hugs!
CJ
Howdy,CJ! I love your traditions…:) Its’ so wonderful to have music in the house, especially during the holidays. Live in musicians are even better! Enjoy your holiday season my dear!
Hugs,Deb
Deb, I love your family Christmas traditions. And your husband cooking the waffles will be such a special memory for your kids when they have families of their own! 🙂 Does he do any other cooking through the year? I love Christmas cards and letters; both sending and receiving. I think that is one of the negatives of social media – people aren’t really sending out cards and letters as much. I really enjoy displaying them as they come in the mail! I’m sure you are enjoying this Holiday Season with your Momma right in the house with you! Hugs – Dori, Ranch Farmgirl – 🙂
Hi Dori! My sweet hubby makes delicious buttermilk pancakes, stuffed french toast, cranberry relish, homemade syrup and a few other things throughout the year. Mainly he’s a breakfast guy which I love… It gives me a break from cooking and I set the table and get the sided ready! Breakfast is also my favorite meal to go out for. 🙂 I love displaying the Christmas Cards as they come in as well. I bet you are enjoying being back home in the arms of those sweet grand girls too! Hugs,
Deb,
I don’t exactly celebrate Christmas as everyone else……no ecrations because it takes me a month to pt them a d a ml the to put them away….just can’t be bothered with those things…. no one comes to my house for the holidays no more….kids have their own traditions. But I do relish in buying gifts and making gifts whether it be a scarf or a pumpkin pie or cookies….love giving all kinds of gifts to friends, family and some neighbors or my mail persons. I just love doing those random kindnessds this time if the year….saying thank you to all….with something special to let them know they are appreciated. I wish more people would try t…..I’m amazed how it can turn a Grinch into a Teddy bear. And gives me an endorphin rush of adrenaline….and thse feel good hormones get a lift. ….it really is better to give then recieve too. I always feel bad when someone tries to validate my feelings….I don’t feel good about getting a gift just because I gave someone a gift….they don’t have to give he a thing….I’m happy with a hug fir thank you….to me that is more welcomed than a guilt gift! I like just giving because its his I am….I work on Christmas all year long….giving to me us an art and a release fir my creativity. And I give because its the only real meaning of Christmas…..G*d gave and any one who believes in G*d should emulate him and just give….because giving us a way to say thank you to G*d….its saying you believe I. Unmeritable love! He gave because he loved us….he cane down to show s his much….he/gave up his glory, his throne and lol the Roche, so we could have everything he felt we deserved…. his love was just the beginning if it! If were his children, we should be Abel to give…..from the heart, not the purse. Giving is what we do f we love……
Susana, I agree with you… I love random acts of kindness and like you if I come across someone cranky I make a special point of turning up my smile. We just watched the Grinch Who Stole Christmas last night. Sometimes people are just tired and afraid, like the Grinch and they just need a good turn to make them see the light again. Blessings to you for keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year ’round! xo Deb
A Christmas from my heart!! we do just about the same thing and love it. We love the ‘happy’ of each other, it makes a wonderful celebration. Thanks for sharing. God Bless
Hello, dear Joan! The ‘ happy ‘ of each other! I love that! Blessings to you my dear and thanks for your note! xoxo Deb
Ah, a woman after my own heart! I spent many Christmases in that silly mad rush, too, but not anymore. All the commercialism takes the real joy out of Christmas, so no Black Fridays for me, and I try not to have to shop at all during December. I love the real things, like spending quality time with family and friends. I love baking gifts, and knitting gifts, too. Real trees, boughs of pine and holly are lovely things I look forward to using every Christmas season. I love snow, candles, and poinsettias, too. I think most of all, I love the peacefulness of a quiet Christmas! Blessings on you and your family. Merry Christmas, Marilyn