It's been a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants Christmas season this year. Most of the time I make lists and plan and prepare and anticipate WELL in advance of things happening. I've always thought it makes things more organized and less stressful. Especially around Christmas.
But this year I've been preoccupied with Other Things and so, wind up getting ready for things to happen moments before they actually do. And you know what? It hasn't been as stressful as I would have thought. Maybe the long lists and preparations and mental space I usually devote to Christmas may add to the stress? Or maybe I am just out of sorts and would be pandemonium if it weren't for the Lord being gracious to me in allowing everything to work out in the end. That 's probably it.
Also- my expectations aren't quite as high.
Even still, these days of December have been filling up quickly!
St. Nicholas filled klompen on St. Nicholas Day but without the chocolate letters for everyone and only with dutch treats from Aldi- not REAL Dutch treats this year. It's all good.
Corynn and Andrew volunteered to bring costumed cheer at a library Christmas event and looked pretty cute doing it. Moses made a pretty dashing Santa too.
The Christmas card picture was done on one of the COLDEST days and took about 40 seconds so we wouldn't freeze... it had to be good enough.
Didn't get the picture done in time to send to a nice printing place with Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals, so we get the darkened, drabby walmart printed Christmas cards. It's all good.
I made a mistake on the FIRST LINE of the Christmas letter which I noticed AFTER I printed 80 of them. (And then I noticed quite a few more...) Ah well.
I just got them all in the mail YESTERDAY. sheesh!
And- I over ordered and wound up with about 20 extra cards. Anyone want a Christmas card from us?! (Totally not kidding: email me your address: sgrbear724 at yahoo dot com)
First snowmen were made with the dusting of the first snow. There has been opportunity for much bigger snowmen ever since.
Our Trim the Tree party happened. There are a LOT of rules to the trim the tree party.
Here's how it goes down: we eat EveryGoodSnackWeNeverGet and the first rule is we cannot use silverwear. It has to be dippable, scoopable or prickable with toothpicks. The food table HAS to have colored lights on it. A toast is made with eggnog topped with whipped cream- and that MUST BE the first eggnog of the season. (We take this rule very seriously even though we inevitably crave it for weeks beforehand.) Only Christmas tree lights are allowed on during the decorating. Christmas music HAS to be playing. The night MUST end with Christmas books read by treelight. And, the most crucial part is that it must be a party for JUST US. (I'm told this is one makes it all the more special. I think they are right.)
So it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Ineke's birthday is on Sunday and I have yet to start ANY of the gifts I wanted to make for her. Even still, I think she will have the best birthday ever. (Papa made my dream come true!)
Neighbors need treats and I need to make them.
I am nowhere near being done Christmas shopping.
I will probably not have time to make all the gifts I originally wanted to make since, well, you know, I haven't STARTED anything yet.
Birthday feasts and Christmas feasts will be sorted...eventually.
But, guess who isn't worried about ANY of it?
That would be ME.
Be Merry! It's almost Christmas!
5 comments:
I love this post. Are y'all Dutch by chance? I am reading Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, and it is such a fun story about the Dutch. I just read in the book about some of the things y'all do. We come from a Dutch background, so that is why I am so interested.
Rebecca, your posts always make me smile. Love your family, love your traditions. You're building treasure for the heart. Be sure to keep one of the extra Christmas cards for each child's memory book/box (yes, I'm way late on getting that done, too). Being German, St. Nicholas also came to our house on the night of Dec 5 as well when we had kids living here. Such a fun tradition to continue. We put out boots when I was a child, but they had to be clean or we got coal. (My parents were so German--right off the boat actually).
I wish you and yours a very blessed Christmas and the best in 2020. Enjoy the wonders and heart of the season!
You look amazing, Rebecca! I've gotten cards from you on the past. Not sure if I'm still on your list but I'd love one! Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family!
Miranda
blessingswith4@gmail.com
Merry third day of Christmas! In case I forget this Sunday, can you all come over for the Epiphany party this year? Just remind me I asked, because judging from my belated thank you card, I might forget to ask you until December 2020.
I told Andrew I hoped you'd post a picture of his manly gingerbread costume. Thank you! What fun pictures of your festive crew...and I approve of Santa. It looks like he's wearing pajamas in daytime and a Santa bathrobe. That's my kind of Sinterklaas!
I hope you all had a blessed Christmas day and are finding spaces of deep rest in these days following. Don't worry about the present-making. I haven't started anything, either, but we still have ten days left. ;)
Sounds like a wonderful December. I save extra Christmas cards, letters, and pictures for my kids. I hope someday they'll be curious to remember what happened when they were young, and here is a little capsule of each year. :)
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