This week’s Think Write Thursday topic is to write about my favorite holiday tradition – what I love about it, how it started, and why it’s important to me.
So, here is my favorite holiday tradition that absolutely makes my Christmas brighter:
Christmas music – hundreds of hours of it. And, an eclectic mix of it that is heavy on English Carols, but includes Aaron Neville, James Taylor, Vince Guaraldi, and lots of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Those are the sounds of Christmas to me – but the best part of all were my mom’s Firestone Christmas Albums. And, singing along – so much singing along – loudly and with much joy! The Julie Andrews albums were my favorite. I came from a musical family, and every Christmas it feels good to be immersed in musical memories.
This pairs with the tradition above and involves more singing! But this singing is in church choir on Christmas Eve. To lift my voice in joyful song – there is nothing better in all the world. I have sung in choir since high school and cannot imagine Christmas without it.
But, what about you? Do you have any Holiday Traditions?
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Tuesday…You are becoming more dreaded than Monday!
Trying to work out a convenient thing for Tuesday’s is giving me fits! Perhaps even causing insomnia!
Okay, maybe my insomnia is a problem of an entirely different sort – you know, the one that comes with being a certain age?? Yeah, that one.
Anyways, at 2:30AM Blog Post Eureka struck.
Christmas cards!!
That’s right – I am a Christmas card sender – and getting them done is on my list this week!
Now all I need are some Diwali stamps, which will be hopefully obtained today. (That is if there has not been a run on Diwali stamps at my post office!!)
My favorite part of Christmas is the anticipation that Advent brings.
I love the twinkling lights, the decorations, the candles, and the music. They all add to the anticipation of the season – that feeling of getting ready for something special.
It was not always this way – I grew up in a house where we did not put up a tree until Christmas Eve – and most years we took it down on the day after Christmas.
Perhaps because of that, the minute I had my own place – Christmas anticipation started early! Most years, decorating began the day after Thanksgiving – and I kept the decorations up until Twelfth Night. And, trees – I put up more than one. There was a “fancy” living room tree, a Santa Tree in the den, Kitchen Tree, and small trees in the bedrooms. But the best tree was the “kids tree” that they could decorate or undecorate as often as they wanted!
Christmas now is a more relaxed affair – there are not trees everywhere but, the anticipation of getting ready for something special is the part of Christmas that I hope to never let go.
For this week’s Think Write Thursday we are welcoming December with a hearty hello:
Hello, dear December,
I love you so much, but you can be a bit overwhelming at times.
With the flurry of activities that you bring, it seems that you can be over and done with before I even know it.
This year let’s try something different, shall we?
I think we will both be much happier if we slowed down and savored the season.
I love the anticipation that is Advent…my savoring plan to appreciate Advent each day will start with some Advent meditation.
I love the decorating portion of preparing for Christmas. The tree is up, the lights are on – but there are no ornaments on yet. AND – the tree in this state is not making me crazy! I know, right? My savoring plan for tree trimming is that it will be part of this Friday’s Happy Hour celebration – cocktails, good eats, music – and Steve and I will trim the tree together.
I love the foods of Christmas, and especially the sweets. However, all those sweets are unnecessary – and don’t fit in with the diet very well. My savoring plan for cookie baking will be to bake just one or two favorites – and it a manageable quantity (not dozens and dozens of cookies of a million different types!) And, these will be things to savor – one or two at a time – over the course of the month.
Other things to that I will be doing to remind myself to slow down and savor… tune out the news and tune in the Christmas music or turn off the television and open a book and read – things that are a good reminder that the world will keep, but December won’t.
I am glad you are here December and I am looking forward to spending some quality time together!
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