Monthly Musings: Holiday Preview

It's NOT the last Thursday of the month but it's one of my new favourite blog link ups with Holly and Patty for their Monthly Musings. Since next week is American Thanksgiving, they moved the link up a week. (And then Wednesday got busy and I didn't get this post done in time, so I'm posting this on Friday, later than I had intended.)

 

image from here

1) Favourite holiday traditions?

I think my favourite holiday tradition is our Christmas Eve night. We start the evening by eating French Onion Soup for supper. We usually go to the Christmas Eve service at church (but not this year -- BOO) which is a lessons and carols service. We end by singing Silent Night and a few other songs by candlelight and it's so beautiful.

Then we come home, put on our matching family pjs, and have our appetizer snack --  fancy cheeses, crackers, meats, and chocolate. And then, for the past two years, we open up a new book and spend the rest of the evening reading. We've incorporated the Icelandic tradition of Jólabókaflóð, which means "flood of books" into our Christmas Eve and we love it. The kids call it the "Christmas-athon"!

 

My favourite Channukah holiday tradition is our church small group Channukah party with its reading of "The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story" and the crazy game of driedel. I think the kids/teens in our small group look forward to this gathering every year.

(And now I'm just sad about not being able to do some of my favourite things this holiday season.)

2) Must have holiday wardrobe staples?

Our matching family pjs! We found a Canadian company which makes non-Christmasy ones and we've had them for the past two years. I LOVE them and I'm excited about this years pairs!!! We usually break them out on December 1.

3) Favourite holiday recipe/dish?

For the past few years I've made my friend's bourbon apple cider for Christmas Eve and I love it. I won't share the recipe because it isn't mine to share but I will give you some other ones.

The cookies we love to make are Jell-O cookies. We make them with blue and yellow Jell-O for Channukah and with whatever colours for the rest of the month. You can find the recipe here. (Sidenote: I know the post is dated May 2019 but I was definitely making them before that date. It's so weird.)

I also love making holiday potpourri. I put a few orange slices, two cinnamon sticks, some whole cloves, and some cranberries into a small pot with water. Then I bring it to a boil and let it simmer. Whenever I'm home in December, this potpourri is simmering on the stove. It smells sooooo good. I mix up a new batch every few days and add water as necessary. This is another thing I break out on December 1 :)

4) What will your holiday plans look like this year?

I don't know.

Honestly, we were so tempted to fly and spend the holidays with my parents in Saskatchewan. It doesn't feel like the smart decision but our province is talking about extending our winter break from school because they know people will get together with their families over this time. So either we enjoy Christmas with my parents or we "enjoy" two (three? four? more?) weeks of lock down at home by ourselves. Neither choice is awesome and I am crying just thinking about it.

 But if the province is assuming everyone will get together with their families over the holidays, then why can't we?

Edited to add: It now appears that our province won't extend the school winter break and we are trying to find fun things to do at home. Honestly, I'm just sad about the holidays this year.

5) Favourite holiday song?

I don't know that I have one. I love The Pentatonix Christmas CD and I have a CD of Christmas choral music from a local church and I basically play those two CDs nonstop in December.

6) Does Covid-19 make you want to do up the holidays or make you not into it?

It makes me not into it. I wish I could just sleep through the holidays this year. I won't because Dave and the kids don't deserve that but I'm being really honest. Can we just all skip Channukah and Christmas this year? Please.

7) Do you have any charities you like to help this time of year?

 Nothing to wake me up out my selfish perspective like reminding me other people are in way worse shape. There are people who feel like I do this year every single year. Their worries aren't stress about getting the holiday shopping done or trying to fit all the fun things in but rather, Will we have food to eat? Do we have enough money to pay the power bill and keep the heat on so we don't freeze? Can we at least give our kids one small gift this year?

For the past few years we have done a reverse Advent calendar. We use the one below and take the kids grocery shopping for it around the end of November. Each kid gets their own cart and picks out their own food. Then we wrap a cardboard box in paper and every day during Advent the kids put an item in the box. On Christmas Eve we take it to the local food bank and donate it.

 

We also buy hats, socks, and mittens for each of us to hang something on our church's tree during each of the four Sundays of Advent. The kids' school usually does "5 Days of Giving" and we send something for that every day. We really try to give back a lot during December because we know we have so much.

8) Tree before or after Thanksgiving?

Don't forget, for Canadians, Thanksgiving was way back in October so definitely after! But for us, it's even after American Thanksgiving. As I've said before, we do a live tree (except for the one year we did a book tree because we were traveling) so we don't get it until the first week of December. But then we keep it up until after New Years. 

Our book tree from 2016 (I think)

9) Favourite holiday movie?

I don't know that I have one. Maybe Love Actually. And we always watch A Charlie Brown Christmas one night in December. But I don't really have one. I am looking forward to diving into a bunch of Hallmark movies this year. I haven't started watching them yet but we may start this weekend...

10) Egg Nog... yes or no? 

I say, "A HARD NO!" Dave and Rachel love it though and Rachel is bummed we haven't bought any yet this year.