Christmas Past - Journal Your Christmas 2012

I remember the Christmas of my youth fondly, but I cannot put my finger on one year where everything shifted.  I still think our family celebration is fun...some years it is a tad smaller than others, but that is alright.  I guess that big extended family Christmas has changed, but not one big drastic change from one year to the next.  It was tiny, little shifts each year...until one day I turned around and was like "WOW!" that is different.
For most of my youth, I celebrated with my family in Beaumont.  We looked at our Santa gift...if it was small it came with us in the car.  If it was a big present...like a bike...we got to ride it up and down the street a couple of times...then it was time to load up in the station wagon and head to Granny and Paw Paw's house.  We would have just enough time to get cleaned up and family started arriving.  My Granny would have her tree up in the living room...a ham warming in the oven...and a plate of sweet and dill pickles, and olives for snacking.  The first change wasnt' a huge deal.  Well to me it wasn't a huge deal.  Instead of putting up the typical tree...7.5 feet...artificial...branches that needed fluffing...Granny chose to drape a table in a Christmas tablecloth and place her lovely ceramic tree in the center.  We piled our gifts for family around the table and didn't ask any questions.  Looking back...remembering that tiny tree surrounded by an avalanche of gifts...it did look silly (sorry Granny)...but it did.  I know she was doing the best she could do...and this started when my grandfather began to need extra care.  I'm sure with everything she had going on in her day to day life....getting the tree out of the attic and putting it up for us to enjoy for one day...was just a ridiculous waste of her precious time.

Our tree didn't have the gold...it was glazed and had multicolor lights.
Still it is a little small to be the main tree for HUGE family Christmas.

The next change was humongous.  Every year my Aunt Sissy hosts Thanksgiving...and my Granny hosted Christmas and Easter.  I wish I could remember the year...but well over 15 years ago...Christmas moved to my Aunt Maa's house.  Dunh...Dunh...Dunh!!!!  I think the tiny tree facilitated the conversation about changing tradition.  Everything else stayed the same for a few years.  The food was the same.  The people were the same.  We were just in a different house.
As the years drifted by other things started to change.  Both of my grandparents have passed away, so for a while I was just waiting for our big extended family Christmas to disintegrate.  I saw my grandparents as the glue that was holding our family together.  Turns out we hold ourselves together pretty well.  Things did change...we started having tamales AND ham...now sometimes we just have tamales.  Nothing says Merry Christmas like a piping hot spicy tamale.  Well I guess I shouldn't be too shocked, she does have a sombrero on top of her tree.  Then as cousins married we started the rotation of Thanksgiving this year, Christmas the next.  No problem as long as I get to see some people at each holiday I am good to go.  I am lucky...never getting married means I get to celebrate both holidays with my family every year.   The majority of my cousins are one one year and my brother and his family are on the other.  So one year is a smallish Christmas...and the next my aunt's house is bursting at the seams.  
The final change happened last year.  My aunt felt bad asking children to leave toys that were barely unwrapped to come to her house for Christmas...so last year she moved our celebration to the day after Christmas.  That way everyone can have their own small immediate family Christmases.  The children can enjoy their gifts...once the parents untwist every twist-tie holding the toy SECURELY in place.  I'm not sure what changes the future will bring, but even though our Christmas may look a little different...all the love is still present and that is all that really matters.

To the Moon and Back,
Sarah

My Merry Mentor - Journal Your Christmas 2012

I did not have to look far to find my mentor.  She is hands down the fullest of Christmas cheer.  She rejoices in decorating each room of her house...starting the day after Thanksgiving.  She lovingly places all 96 nativity sets in their specific place (she probably as more sets now...but that was the last count)...changes out linens...and finally places the tree under the Christmas Sombrero that acts as a place holder for her amazing tree throughout the non holiday days.  
I come from a family that loves Christmas and had the obligatory lights around the roof...tree decorated and in the window.  We had other decorations around the house, but it was still our house dressed up for the holidays.  It was great and considering the fact that my mom had to do it all on her own without much help once my brother and I hit our teens...it was perfect.  It just was not the same as Christmas at my aunt's house.  Every room was completely transformed into a winter wonderland.  Beds had new coverings...sometimes new curtains too.  Bathrooms had new towel sets and new pictures decked out in holiday frames.  I mean everywhere I turned the holiday was displayed.  It isn't just her house it is her entire person.  She carries Christmas cheer in her pockets and doles it out whenever needed.  She knows I love the holidays and I love to have my house decked out...I mean I have 4 different Christmas trees.  Since I was diagnosed with cancer and have been having chemo on a very regular basis...I am wiped out most of the time.  Last year she went to storage...dug out some of my Christmas boxes...brought them to my house and decorated my living room for me.  It was a half speed Christmas for me, but I appreciated that she did that for me.  Just seeing my decorations loving placed around the main living area lifted my spirits on the regular.  I need my spirits lifted more often than I would like to admit, and the sight of my "Charlie Brown Village...complete with tree" just does something special for me.
She is also the person I go to if I want permission to spend money on more holiday cheer.  One year I went to the "cattle barns"...a local flea market type place....and I found a 6 foot tinsel tree complete with light.  The man wanted $100, and at the time I just could not see spending that money.  It was an amazing tree...absolutely beautiful.  I went to visit my aunt later that day and we talked about the tree.  In a matter of minutes she had me convinced that the tree had to be mine.  We drove over the next morning...I offered the man $75 and left with the tree.  It was amazing...and every year when I take each branch out of the box and put it in place I am reminded of my Holiday mentor.  To banish bad cheer or the bah-humbug spirit that may take up residence in my cluttered subconscious...I remember my Maa...and I might even sing a verse or two of "Must be Santa."  For now that is all I need...my growing collection of holiday goodness..."Must be Santa"...a house nearby that is dripping with holiday cheer in every nook and cranny...and my Maa.  Thank you Maa for being all I need to make my spirit bright!

to the moon and back,
Sarah

I dare you to be in a foul holiday mood
while looking at this face!

Sensory Overload - Journal You Christmas 2012

This time of year is unlike any other for me.  I mean no matter where you look sights of the season smack you in the face...christmas carols can be heard in almost any store or elevator...Starbucks starts using their special christmas cups and their beverages have that special holiday aroma...you can feel the chill in the air, and the wind starts to have a little bite to it...it is even O.K. to indulge every so often in the sweet treats people inevitably bring in to the workplace.  This time of year as each of my senses cry uncle I find myself begging for more.   More sights, smells, sounds, tastes and touches. 

I will take a detour in the twilight hours to see what types of decorations my neighbors have out.  I will tell the Bug to put on her pajamas, grab a cup of cocoa and meet me in the car.  We will drive up and down all the streets in our neighborhood looking for the most festive...the tackiest...the most colorful...the house with the most inflatable decorations (7 is the max so far), and just let the pure delight of each twinkling light wash over us.

Christmas is the time to give all the people you love an extra squeeze.  Go ahead and buy that toy that makes LOTS of noise...and give it to your favorite niece or nephew...when else is it acceptable to drive family member bonkers.  Remember how it feels to get real hugs...to be completely enveloped in a loved ones arms...those kind of hugs can warm you from the inside out.  When you wrap up in your favorite coat and scarf...but then remember that the wool of the scarf is almost too scratchy to bear...wear it anyway because it reminds you of the christmas you received it as a gift from a treasured friend.  

Make the cookie that take hours to chill.  Roll out the dough...preheat the oven...revel in the fact that for the rest of the day the house will smell like the finest bakery in town.  Mix batch upon batch of colorful icing to decorate each cookie for Santa.  Use some of the icing to build a gingerbread house.  Take the time to hold each piece in place even if it means the house ends up a tad lopsided.  Take a trip to Bath and Body Works and spend the money on the candle that just screams holiday cheer.  Actually burn the candle...instead of saving it for a special occasion.  Make some random regular day a special occasion.  Fill the house with all different kinds of smells.  Cinnamon will always remind me of the holidays, because my mom would buy the cinnamon scented pinecones and put them all over the house.  The Macintosh scented candles are another scent memory I will carry with me forever.  The mixture of sweet apples and the cinnamon of the pinecones would blend together in my mind to create the perfect scent of the season.

Thats all for now friends!
to the moon and back,
Sarah

Making A List - Journal Your Christmas 2012

I have never really been a list maker.  I try if there are a huge number of things I have to get done, to write them down so I don't forget anything, but I am not one of those people who makes out a list of things to do each day.  Christmas isn't different...I hate to write out the list of what I want!  I thought I might use this post to chronicle how I made it to my perfect gift on Christmas morning and then follow up with how the Bug makes her wants known.
I know that as a small child my parents would ask what I wanted and my list was usually VERY short and VERY simple...a ball...grover...a ball.

As I got older I remember writing a few letters to Santa.  I remember getting a Trunk with my name engraved on a brass plate...filled with amazing dress up clothes.  My brother and I spent many a day digging through that trunk for the perfect outfit.  One of my favorite pictures of my brother has him completely outfitted head to toe in baby blue (tights, leotard, shirt, hat and dyed to match heels).  He is a very handsome man, but as a little boy he made quite a lovely lady.

As time shifted my parents needed ideas of what to get to put under the tree.  I remember for more than a few Christmases we got cash.  Unable to scrounge up ideas for gifts they would give us money.I don't know why it was so hard for me to give them ideas.  I still have trouble asking for specific things around the holidays.  I want people to just know me and know what would make the perfect gift.

When I made the shift from child to adult the list needed was much shorter.  We exchanged gifts at home, but were placed in a drawing for extended family.  A couple of years ago this morphed again into a gift card draw.  Everyone buys a $25 gift card and then we draw numbers to see the order of who picks their card from the tree.  Of course if someone picks a card you really want...you can steal it instead of picking from the tree.  We have very well mannered family, so if they know you really like your card they probably won't take it from you.  This has worked really well for the last couple of Christmases...I know I usually buy a card I want to have and then hope to draw that one off the tree.

Christmas with the Bug was different.  We mostly lived with my parents, and I was in college...so Santa was usually a joint effort.  I would scour the Internet looking for the pink barbie scooter she just had to have and then my parents would help make sure to get it under the tree for her.  This was our Christmas tradition for many years...the trampoline...the tree fort and swing set...the T.V. and DVD player for her new room in our new house.  Once we moved to Fort Worth I took Santa back.  The gifts may be a little less extravagant, but the Bug's needs are smaller now.  One year it was several WebKinZ..another year it was a trunk filled with Harry Potter books...last year it was an XBox 360 Kinect (Mimi and PawPaw helped with that one.) 

No matter who financed the gift the Bug needed to make sure Santa knew what she wanted.  By the time she was old enough to understand the concept of writing a letter...Santa had email.  I love this...she got an immediate response and was so happy to know that Santa could check her off his list...I also could not be caught years later with an old email to Santa in my wallet (she found one of her first letters to Santa in an old purse of mine like 5 years ago....after lots of explaining and the convincing her that all parents get the letters their children write back on Christmas morning to keep...I still have the letter.) Still email was less risky.

So even though the delivery process is the same the way we have made our deepest desires known has changed drastically over the years.  Why not take a minute to remember how many holiday lists you have made?

To the Moon and Back
Sarah

Brown Paper Packages...Journal Your Christmas 2011

Yes it says 2011.  I took a look back at the Christmas I did NOT journal last year and stole this topic.  Wrapping paper...I read it and thought...what could I possible have to say about wrapping paper.  Then I thought more about what goes int he paper...where I get the paper...the things I have pinned on Pinterest about making my own paper.  Outside of actual wrapping paper there are all the paper goods that shout "Merry Christmas!"  The cards, the napkins, cups, plates, the garlands I have made, the garlands I have purchased, the cookbooks, the list could go on and on and on!  So for this post I will reminisce about some of my favorite forms of holiday paper...excluding my absolute favorite...paper money...heehee.
Every Christmas growing up I remember my mom pulling out this cookbook that was a compilation of recipes my great grandmother used to whip up in her kitchen.  The one my mom chose to use was Strawberry bread.  It was amazing.  Perfect mixture of the tart berries and a sweet breakfast bread.  She would make one batch and then another.  Checking her list over and over.  Who would be lucky enough to get a large loaf...usually my teacher earned large loaves and my brother's teachers got the mini loaf...just kidding if that was true it would be because I took so much more stress and work than my brother.   After the baking was complete and the loaves had been allowed to cool.  Each loaf got dressed for the holidays.  This usually meant red or green cellophane, and in the early years a piece of that puffy yearn everyone used on packages...then we graduated to curly ribbon...and finally ended up with the wired ribbon used today. No matter what the smell of this bread baking means Christmas to me.  I have even made it a couple of times for the Bug's teachers and my friends.  Mine never looked quite the same as my Mom's...I had big chunks of berries in mine and my bread was brown instead of the lovely shade of pink that my Mom always achieved.  I only found out the reason for my differences a couple of days ago.  My mom ran the same type of kitchen as my grandmother.  Stay out of the kitchen until it is time to set the table.  So I was never present when the mixing of the batter occurred.  Now I know it is a good idea to drain most of the juice from a package of frozen berries and then puree them...also before completing the mixing process add a few drops of red food color.  Viola...no huge berry chunks and a pleasant pink hue.  My mother is not magic...I am not a complete goon in the kitchen I just did not have all the pertinent information.  Oh well this is about the wrapping.  The crinkly of cellophane the joy in making the perfect bow...these things I can do..and I can do them well.

Abrupt change of topic

I also love shopping for wrapping paper.  I wait patiently for the day after Christmas and then I pick all my papers for the following year.  I go through each roll thinking about what person would love the paper dotted with simple ornaments...who would love the paper with the whimsical little penguins?  By the time I leave the store I have a roll chosen for every family member.  That way I will have a great variety of papers under my tree.  An explosion of color and holiday joy that is fit to be under a tree covered in handmade ornaments and the hodge podge of ornaments the Bug and I have been given every year since we were born.  I may not get the gifts wrapped and under the tree until Christmas Eve, but Christmas morning that tree is a sight to see.  Man...I want to write about my tree now.  That was the prompt for today and I did not think I had anything to say about a Christmas tree.  I was wrong.  So tomorrow...tune in...I will let you all in on the way tree decorating went as I grew up and how it goes now.

To the moon and back my lovelies!
Sarah

Can you jut smell it...I can and t is AMAZING!

This is the idea, but I think my tag might look a little different!

This girl is creepy looking...but I bet I kind of looked like that while
waiting for the first piece of strawberry bread!

Finally...here are some of the papers I have in my closet...lovely coordinated...
but different enough that everyone can stilll ahve their own unique paper!

Time to Get Cozy - Journal Your Christmas 2012

I'm not sure how I feel about this title.  I mean I live in Texas...we don't usually get cozy until around February.  We are currently having temps in the mid 70s.  That type of weather doesn't really inspire me to hunker down with my favorite cocoa...or make me want to heat up the oven so we can make our traditional sugar cookies.  It also makes me think about getting "cozy" with that special someone.  I know gross...whatever....that's just what I thought.  After reading the prompt I remembered the perfect way I get cozy in a sub tropical climate...the holiday movie.
Thee Bug and I have several films that scream Christmas.  For a long time we would watch Annabelle with my aunt.  It is a movie about a calf and the special relationship she has with a boy who refuses to speak.  I don't want to give anything away but for an animated film it is a tearjerker.  As the Bug got older her taste in holiday films changed.  Now we have a couple of go to pictures.  We usually choose at least one movie to see over Thanksgiving break.  I remember heading out to Sundance theater after our huge Thanksgiving meal.  The whole family would go...I think we saw "The Santa Clause"...maybe "Liar Liar"..."Elf" there are so many.  Now I continue that tradition with my girl.  We went to see "Tangled" a couple of years ago and this year we took in "Rise of the Gaurdians."  I thought the sandman was adorable.   
Now we also curl up and watch movies at home over the holidays.  The Bug is out of school we have at least a couple of days that we get cool weather and we can stay in our pajamas cuddle up on the couch and watch something great.  "Elf" makes the home cut every year.  We can both quote most of it from memory.  Liar Liar is another favorite.  I have talked about watching the specials the show up every year on television.  Rudolph, Frosty, Charlie Brown....I may be more into these now that the Bug...but I know she will come back around to these...I did.  
So this is how we manage to get cozy in 70  degree weather.  We crank up the AC put on our flannel PJs and watch something great on DVD!  What do you do to get cozy for the Holidays?  Do you have a go to holiday movie? tradition?
To the moon and back,
Sarah

Plan for Happiness - Journal Your Christmas 2012

Almost 4 years ago my aunt, my daughter and I started what has become one of my favorite family traditions.  We have always loved driving around looking for christmas lights.  The Bug was born in December so for a couple of years her birthday party was to invite friends over decorate our tree and then head out with a thermos of hot chocolate and some christmas cookies to look for the biggest and best light displays.  It makes me a little sad that we did not yet know of "The Christmas Potato."  We would ooooh and ahhhh over each house...laugh a little if some poor sap happened to live next door to an amazing display and thought their festive red porch light would suffice.  One christmas we even tossed around the idea of "Humbugging" houses.  We would buy lights on sale after the holidays and then the next year if every ouse on a block was decorated...leaving one lone house with not a single light...we would "Humbug" the house.  We would take a few moments of our time...and a few strands of lights and decorate for them.  We decided this probably wasn't a very good idea...the family might be seventh day adventists...so the decorations would be seen as a slap in the face of their religion...and that is SOOOO not the point of Christmas.
Back to the point of this blog...I have been fighting cancer for the last 2.5 years...so planning any huge party...heck even attending any huge event can be draining for me.  Don't get me wrong...I love christmas and I would love to plan some enormous party....have everyone over...cook an amazing meal...chat over mulled cider...but that just isn't in the cards...when I get tired taking a shower.  Enter "The Christmas Potato!"  This is a way for me to get some of my nearest and dearest together...pour a travel mug of cocoa...pile into my mother's van...and head out looking for very special lights...even better we get to do all this in our pajamas!  There is very little prep work needed for this get together.  Simply a bag of potatoes...some rubber bands...and a print out of the potato history.

The Story of the Christmas Potato 

No one is quite sure how the tradition of the Christmas potato began. Many believe it began in the later half of the 20th century when a young man tossed seasonal greetings wrapped around uncooked potatoes into the yards of houses decorated with Christmas lights. It was his way of saying, "Thank you 

and Merry Christmas." 

Before the advent of the Christmas Potato there was no way to easily thank those who brighten our holiday season with their unselfish efforts. Now each year children and adults alike look forward to the annual pitching of the holiday spud. 

But why a potato? The young man grew up in a town called Topeka, which for many years was commonly believed to mean "A good place to dig potatoes."

Like I said we have done this for three Christmases.  It started with The Bug and me.  We had 2 potatoes each and the night we went out there was even some snow on the ground.  I remember the first potato tossed was the Bug's and her first throw hit the window...rolling the windows down is important.  The second throw ended up on the curb...so she just got out of the car and placed it under a tree.  I guess we had dawdled in front of the house too long, because the owners came outside to see what we were doing.  Thankfully the Bug was back in the car so we simply shouted "Merry Christmas...Read the Potato"...and drove off.  The second year it grew to include my parents, and last year my brother, sister in law, their son, and 10 pounds of potatoes got in on the action!  Like I said this is the easiest way for me to plan some holiday happiness.  I hope someone reading this will take to the streets potatoes in hand and lest someone know how much you appreciate the effort they put into their holiday decor.  Be careful though...if you pitch the potato too hard you might break a 

window and that is not cheery at ALL!!! 

To the Moon and Back,

Sarah

Here are some of the potato worthy houses from last year!

I think these look like cotton candy!!!!

"A" for awesome!

The Bug potatoed this house for her science teacher
a HUGE UT fan!!!