I can not believe I only have 12 days until Christmas.
Where did the time go?
Usually by this date, we have the tree not only up, but decorated; I have my Snow Villages on display; the garlands are up; the lights frame our exterior. The only thing done is the outdoors–Dan has been working on it for the past 10 days and it looks fabulous. I’m the one who has slacked off.
We did drive up to beautiful Apple Hill to cut down a tree. It’s about a 45 minute drive from our house and a terrific place to take all the kids. My youngest “pointed” like a dog at the tree he wanted.
We also picked up two apple pies, one we’ve already eaten, and one frozen. For soon. Yum. 🙂
Picking out a tree that the entire family can agree on is never easy, but we found one that most everyone was satisfied with. Right now it’s sitting in a bucket of water on our back patio. Here it is before we cut it down:
I’m hoping to have everything up this weekend, but I might have to say no to the Snow Villages. They take a full day to put up and a full day to take down, and I have a mid-January deadline for my first Maxine Revere book. It’s been deadlines that have delayed Christmas decorating — as well as sports, the kid’s studying, my oldest being away at college (she just came home! Yeah!) I’m blessed that my family is healthy and I am working, so I’m not complaining. But one year, the Snow Villages stayed up until Easter … and I have a feeling if I put them up this year, they’ll stay up until Memorial Day …
However, I decided that if I don’t put up my 40+ house collection that I’ll do one table (I usually have FOUR tables) … I’ll pick my favorite 8-10 houses/stores plus accessories and display them in the entry way. Then I won’t feel so unspirited. The Snow Villages are such a tradition for me I have to do something, even if I don’t go all out.
This past summer, my friend Terri sent me a bunch of pictures of my Snow Villages when she and her family came over for New Years. So I thought I’d share them with you!
Another reason I’m late this year is that the kids don’t get out of school until the 21st, making me feel like I have more time than I really do. I usually do a lot of my shopping on-line, but spaced this year and now fear for delivery — and refuse to pay huge shipping charges. I just ordered a bunch of stuff from a few places yesterday, but the rest … yes, I’m going to the mall. Wish me luck :/
We generally have a very traditional Christmas — we go to Christmas Eve mass, finish wrapping presents late into the night while watching a classic movie like IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE or, my husband’s favorite, A CHRISTMAS STORY, stuffing the stockings with toys so the kids will let us sleep at least until after the sun gets up, opening presents (I get to play Santa, always fun!), drinking first coffee then switching to mimosas, brunch, and just enjoying family. No travel — I’ve already told my kids that when they get married, they can do whatever they want on the other holidays; Christmas is mine.
When I was growing up, we always went to my Aunt Lois & Uncle Bob’s house for Christmas Eve. Aunt Lois was my grandma’s sister and they were very close. That house and all the memories will always stick with me as some of my favorite memories. It was also the place we went for Easter Egg hunts and family parties. I hope that someday, my kids will have the same fond memories. What about you? Do you have a favorite Christmas tradition from growing up or one you started with your own family?
Good luck, Allison! I’ve “pre-shopped” the mall here and discovered Aeropostle had some great sales, but I didn’t have time to wait in line–and I was still late picking the kidlet up from school! Hope there is still stuff available for the kidlet and her cousin!
Why don’t you start a new tradition and have your daughter put up your snow village? She could take it down and pack it away before she returns to school. Everyone could enjoy it then. I’m sure she’d be very careful with your special pieces.
My two oldest have helped every year since we moved to the bigger house. It STILL takes all day. My 9 and 11 year olds helped last year. Lots of arguing. I was going to do it one day when they were all at school.
The villages look beautiful. Too bad you don’t have time for them this year. Sometimes you just have to pare down. This year we’re paring down on the gifts and cutting back on the cookie baking. No big traditions here – the tree’s up, the fudge is made and we’ll have ham for dinner on Christmas Day. Other than that, we’re pretty flexible. =o)
See, I don’t bake! My mom makes chocolate chip cookies with my 9 year old daughter every year (it’s their thing) and my 16 year old makes cookies for the teachers (I make her make extra for the younger kids’ teachers since I am the one buying all the ingredients.)
Love the villages! Tell your baby he has great taste in trees!
LOL. He knows. 😉
My mom’s a Lois too.
The one tradition that stands out is making home made decoration by using glitter and stuff on those fiberglass balls. We also made paper chains and occasionally a popcorn one. Christmas music would be playing, hot chocolate and treats at hand.
I love, love, love Christmas music. I don’t like hearing it before Thanksgiving, however!
Allison,
I LOVE your snow village! Perfect, perfect, perfect!
I also remember choosing and cutting the tree with our children. Now that they are twenty-somethings, it’s not as easy to get them to do so, and certainy not as much fun without them. (Sigh)
Thanks for this trip down your memory lane in the making. Made my morn!
🙂 Josie
I agree — it’s much for fun with the kids are little 🙂 Wait … someday you’ll have grandkids to spoil!
hey allison, i can’t even begin to contemplate your name and “slacker” in the same sentence! it sounds like your house is full of holiday spirit. i am enjoying my little tree very much – i have all the kids’ ornaments on it, going back 20 years so it looks full. tonight i plan to walk around downtown oakland in the holiday lights. i smiled to see your little one in shorts on the christmas tree hunt – one of my favorite things about our state.
Um, it was freezing. Mark never wears pants. NEVER. The only time I got him into pants (and a tie!) was for his First Holy Communion. I told him if Jesus could die on a cross for him, he could wear a suit and tie for one hour. For Christmas last year, he wore his school uniform shorts and a button down shirt (about as formal as I can get him.) We got him a Christmas sweater, but he hates layering clothes, and the sweater was too “scratchy” for him. He’s so damn picky about his clothes — 90% of his clothes are blue because that’s his favorite color. If I don’t teach him how to cook, no woman is going to want him! Fortunately, he DOES put the toilet seat down and likes to vacuum. 🙂
I’m going to spend Christmas Eve with my husband’s family. He’s been gone a year but I wouldn’t miss the fun of Christmas with them. They do gift exchange where you bring a guy or gal gift depending on if you’re a guy or a gal. Then they draw numbers and the men grab from their stack and the ladies do the same. When we were first married with 9 kids it wasn’t too bad then the family grew as kids married. So they drew names. They outgrew that too, my mother-in-law had 9 children, she has 13 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren with one due in early summer to make 23. I love Jim’s family his youngest brother was 2 years old when we married now there are still 2 year olds running around the family.
My family is small and everyone is more formal sit down for meals but Jim’s just grab a plate and find a seat and hope no one steals your chair when you go for more food. Everyone pitches in brings stuff and it works great nobody is stuck in the kitchen cooking while everyone else is visiting and catching up.
For me I like the more informal way and if I can ditch this bronchitis I will be there in East TX for Christmas Eve 2012.
I hope you get over the bronchitis! I love the big family dinners 🙂
I’m feeling like it is crunch time this year. We have my brother, my husband’s two sisters, and all our families coming to my house this year. I’m so not ready!! 🙂
It’s just us and my mom … no other relatives! I don’t think I would be ready, either!
The snow villages look great, hopefully you will be able to put some of them up this year. I have to make sure that my shopping is done by the second weekend of Dec because of my job and not having a lot of extra time. I even wrap everything and keep it at the clinic until I take it home right before Christmas. This year I am on call on Christmas Eve and will take the gifts with me when I get off at 10 pm.
One table, and I’ll definitely post on facebook 🙂
Love your Christmas village! What fun. We are slowly building a collection of painted gingerbread houses.
We don’t go totally over the top with the decorations, but plenty to make the house festive. My favorite is the real tree that smells wonderful.
That’s very cool. We started the Snow Village collection 20 years ago for our first Christmas, the first a gift from Dan’s sister. It’s grown to about 44 buildings …
When I was growing up, we decorated the tree. I used to have a bad habit of snooping under the tree to find what packages had my name on them. We used to go down to my grandma’s and get together with my dad’s side of the family. We would eat dinner, and while the adults were cleaning up, I would be snooping under that tree. But there were so many gifts for everyone in the family, I wasn’t really able to snoop much. At my parents’ house, we would wake up and check our stockings. Dad would make breakfast and we open presents.
So, did you end up being a reporter when you grew up? LOL. I only snooped once and regretted it. I like being surprised 🙂
Another “love the villages” comment here!! This will be the first year in about 10, that I won’t be having Christmas or day after Christmas dinner here. We’re getting a tree, lights are on the house and the stockings are up and that’s it!!! I discovered the stockings are very important to my girls.
I will be able to go for a run, wake the family for gifts (otherwise I’ll be sitting around til noon!) and take a nice walk at the beach with hubby. All without having to worry about cleaning or company. Yeah for me =)