The 12 Days to Christmas: Merry, Merry!

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I come bearing good tidings of great joy which shall be for all the people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ The Lord.”

Merry Christmas!

The 12 Days of Christmas: last-minute running around

Somehow, no matter how well you plan everything out, there are last-minute errands to run, stocking stuffers to pick up, and grocery shopping to do for the upcoming festivities. Here’s what our day looked like:

Technically, I got my nails and toes done last night, but it’s all good. My Christmas bonus treat for myself– putting the rest to pay off my credit card!

And because the world didn’t end and the zombie apocalypse didn’t begin yesterday like the Mayans never said but everyone else interpreted, we’re going to a party to watch zombie movies. I made a veggie tray to fit the theme:

Off to watch “Shaun of the Dead” and “Zombieland!”

The 12 Days to Christmas: Movie time!

I love Christmas movies and the debates that come with them. Which one is the best? How many times can you watch it before it gets to be too much? Which ones just drive you bananas? Are the ones you loved as a kid the same ones you love an adult?

So many questions to consider.

Favorites

I’ll get right down to it: my favorite Christmas move is “The Muppet Christmas Carol.” Sadly, I have not been able to watch it this year because our faithful VCR finally sold the farm gave up the crapped out. That’s right– until last year, I watched Muppet Christmas Carol on VHS. I had to rescue it from the yard sale pile when my parents sold their house! Totally averted a major disaster.

My second-favorite is “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” because it’s a classic and infinitely quotable. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said “I’m cuuuuuuuute!” or smacked my lips and said “Nuthin’” or “Eat, Papa! Eat!” or making references to the Island of Misfit Toys. There’s just something comforting about watching a movie your parents watched growing up.

As far as the new movies are concerned, my guilty pleasure is “Bad Santa” with Billy Bob Thornton. It’s one of the most vulgar films about Christmas out there (IMDb says the unrated version sets the record with no fewer than 170 instances of the f-bomb), but it cracks me up every time. We’ll watch it during the summer sometime just for giggles.

Confessions

I hadn’t seen “Miracle on 34th Street” until last year, I still haven’t seen “It’s a Wonderful Life” even though it’s Mum’s favorite, it took 3 or 4 tries for me to like “Elf” but I love Will Ferrell, and I can only watch 15 minutes of “A Christmas Story” before getting sick of it.

The Great Debate

Every year, Dan and I get into a big debate about one particular Christmas move franchise: Home Alone. Any kid from the early ’90s knows the only ones worth watching are with Macaulay Culkin (I mean, can you really forget/lose your kid more than twice and not be thrown in jail?) so the debate falls to which one is better: “Home Alone” or “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.” Dan stands by the first being the better of the two, whereas I’m a fan of the second. It’s probably because we had a copy of the second movie and not the first, so I learned all those lines (correctly or otherwise… I thought the line in the movie-within-a-movie went “I could smell you getting off the elephant,” which is a constant source of teasing) and knew the pace of the movie so much better than the first. I think Dan had the first, so there’s that.

What do you think? Is the first Home Alone or the second one better? What’s your favorite Christmas movie of all?

I’ll leave you with a few parting words of wisdom: “She’s a beaut, Clark.” from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and “I’ll give you to the count of three to get your lousy, lyin’, low-down, four-flushin’ carcass out my door!” Actually, I’ll give you til the count of three to leave a comment and let me know what you think!

The 12 Days to Christmas: Sing a little song

A little later in the day today, but better late than never, right? I’m taking a little mental break from end-of-the-year craziness at work before I start packing up my office for our upcoming refurbishing. Moving right along…

I’ll start with a question: What’s your favorite Christmas song?

If you’ve been fortunate enough to work in retail or the food & beverage industries near the holidays, you’ve probably hit the point of Christmas song saturation before. I’ve worked both, so for a while, I hit saturation years in a row. The good news is that I know a LOT of Christmas song lyrics.

I’ll tell you what is NOT my favorite Christmas song… “Dominick the Donkey.” And “Christmas Shoes.” And the millionth time I’ve heard “All I Want for Christmas Is You. ” Am I right?

Somehow, I never get sick of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” or the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Christmas Eve in Sarajevo.”

My favorite favorites, though, are the ones we get to sing in church, especially on Christmas Eve.

• “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”
• “”O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”
• “Silent Night” (probably my favorite of all)
• “O, Little Town of Bethlehem”
• “Angels We Have Heard on High”
• “O Come, All Ye Faithful”
• “Joy to the World”

There are a whole lot of songs starting with “O…” huh? I know I’m looking forward to the choir concert and “midnight” Mass (it starts at 10pm, but the concert is at 9:30 and ensures we get good seats for Mass) to sing my little heart out.

And just in case you missed me asking the first time, I’ll go ahead and ask again: what’s your favorite Christmas song? Do you have trouble picking just one?

The 12 Days to Christmas: Bah Humbug

Of course, the lead-in to the holidays isn’t always gingerbread and snowflakes. A lot of people struggle this time of year, whether it’s because they’re lonely, depressed, stressed, or anything else.

The past few years, I’ve found myself struggling to hold it together during the holidays. I’ve mentioned it before, but with both our sets of parents split up, we wind up trying to figure out how to see everyone on Christmas without disappointing anyone and still have time for just the two of us to celebrate. Financially, Christmastime has been scary– we’re very fortunate this year to feel a bit more comfortable, but there have been years when I’ve been stressed that I couldn’t fully show my family how much I loved them with meaningful gifts. I always came down to the wire finding and buying all of those presents and it still never seemed like enough. I’d bake, decorate, send cards, and drive myself half insane trying to present my own perfect version of Christmas.

This year, I decided enough was enough. I resolved not to cry. I put an app on my phone that helped me track gift ideas and set a strict budget for every person on our list. I started seeking out those gifts in September. I delegated some. I set them all aside in the office, out of the way, and checked the person off my list. Because I started early, I was able to think of gifts I think people will really enjoy, not just some random junk because it’s that time of year to buy, buy, buy without much thought. In a way, that feels a lot better and I’m happier about it.

We started decorating early, setting aside a couple of days to put the storm windows on, the wreaths, the fans, the tree, the garland… all of it. We turn the lights on the tree and in the windows every night, and we’ve really been able to enjoy all the decorations a bit more.

We thought about last year’s Christmas rotation, considered who we saw when for Thanksgiving and Easter, and came up with our visiting game plan for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. There may have been a Venn diagram involved. By some miracle, all of our parents seem to be happy with our plans: seeing Dad for dinner Christmas Eve, Mum first thing Christmas morning, Dan’s mom right after that, then his dad, then heading over to see my extended family. It’ll be a busy day, but we’ll manage. And we’ll do our best to have some time for just the two of us– mainly Mass on Christmas Eve and super early on Christmas Day.

Through it all, I’ve been careful to reflect on how fortunate we are, and that’s helped stave off my formerly-inevitable sobbing breakdown. We have each other. We have a beautiful home where we’re blessed to live in for free. We have all of our parents and siblings with us in a 10-mile radius. We have money to spend on gifts and still be able to pay our bills. There are so many people on this Earth that are happier with less… who are we to complain? I’m not saying I’m above it all– far from it, I’ve had a few angry outbursts in the last few months– but when I take a step back and really reflect, I’m amazed at how happy I am.

Merry Christmas.

The 12 Days to Christmas: Trimming the Tree

So I told you about picking out our tree over the years… Now it’s time to tell you what’s on it.

Growing up, we always had an angel and white lights on our tree. Still do! I’m a white light snob, I’ll fully admit it. I like the soft lights playing off the colorful ornaments, and I think the colored lights get in the way of that.

And no, we don’t have a theme for our tree every year. We mix and match our ornaments from childhood with ones we’ve picked out together and we both love it.

The angel on top

Back to the angel: Mum gave us ours the first Christmas we lived together, 2008. You may recall that as an election year, one with a certain mavericky female candidate for Vice President. Well, our beautiful nature-inspired angel is called the Sarah Palin angel because we both immediately thought she (the angel) looked like she was from Alaska. What do you think?

Edit: Dan thought I should mention I’m really, really, really not a fan of Sarah Palin, which you may have not picked up based on the fact that we named our angel for her. Truth be told, she terrifies me and I think we’re so much better off without her anywhere near the White House. ::steps off soapbox::

The ornaments

Rather than t-shirts or magnets or shot glasses (though we have all 3) as souvenirs of vacations, Dan and I pick out an ornament to commemorate the trip. When we decorate the tree every year, it’s fun to recall the memories of where we’ve been together and how much fun we’ve had. Here’s a glimpse at a few:

Jackpot! This one has both our medals from the Marine Corps Marathon and MCM 10K this year, Whidbey Island (from our Washington state trip), Steamboat gondola from 2009, and the Enchantment of the Seas from our 2011 honeymoonaversary cruise.

The Mount Washington Hotel from our 2010 mini-moon after our wedding.

The Breakers mansion from our 2007 Newport, RI trip.

From early 2007′s trip to Lake Placid.

Another good batch! 2009′s family reunion in Waterville Valley, NH; early 2012′s ski weekend in Breckenridge, CO; and our first trip to DC in 2009 for our 5th anniversary dating.

From the hotel we’ll stay at someday, the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, CO. No date on this one (it was our most expensive ornament!) but I think it was from our 2008 trip. We try to make it to Colorado every other winter.

Don’t tell anyone I told you where the pickle was hidden!

What’s on YOUR tree?

The 12 Days to Christmas

In the frenzy that is the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’ve been a but slow in posting, I know. I’ve tried to turn over a new leaf at work, too, and have buckled down on the “mental breaks” I’d take through the day. Now that landscaping season is wrapped up for the year (hallelujah!) I finally get some quality time with Dan after work, snuggling up and watching episode after episode of a series– we just finished season 7 of “How I Met Your Mother” on Netflix. I think “Big Bang Theory” or “Modern Family” is next. Last thing I want to do is tap away on my phone or computer.

But it’s a season if sharing and caring, and I’ve never really done a proper posting streak before. Since we’re 11 days out from Christmas, I thought I’d share one tradition or memory every day until the big day. Without further ado…

The First Day of Christmas: Procuring the Tree

When I was little, we’d get a group of friends together, load up in the car, and drive what felt like forever to cut down our own tree. It was a blast! We had cathedral ceilings in the first house I really remember, so we’d find the tallest tree out there.

When my brother and I got older and thus busier, we’d find time as a family to head on over to Home Depot to pick out the best one. The ceilings in our other house were lower, but that just meant the tree was fatter.

When Dan and I moved in together, we tried once or twice to start the tradition of going with friends to cut down a tree, but the realization that a fresh-cut tree was more expensive (how does that work, by the way?? We’re doing all the work!) and our schedules being tricky to align, we stopped doing it. Still, we went to a local farm stand to pick out a beauty.

Now that we live together in Our Old House, we have to have our tree bought and set up by the first Sunday in December for the Christmas Tea. One of the clubs reimburses us for it. We traipse across the softball field to the area where the summer farmers market is held, find the one least likely to scratch the ceiling, and carry it back home across the field. It’s set up downstairs (if you recall the tea pictures from a few posts ago), then decorated and Grinched in the course of a day. This year, Dan lugged it upstairs while I was babysitting one night, and we decorated it a few days later.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you what’s on it! For now, a teaser picture:

Quick Christmas Tea Recap

This past weekend, Dan and I played hosts to 300 of our closest townsfolk in our house’s annual Christmas Tea. Saturday morning, two separate garden clubs and the Arts & Crafts Society descended on our house, decorating for the season with reckless abandon. From one to four on Sunday afternoon, all were invited to enjoy Our Historic House in all its festooned glory. Dan and I did the smile and wave routine so as to make Wills and Kate (our British equivalents, you may have heard of them– we’re total BFFs, by the way) proud.

I have some nicer shots I took on my real camera, but bear with me and accept this meager offering as a taste. We decorated the outside and stairway- everything else was the clubs.

The aftermath:

Busy bee decking the halls

Once again, life intervenes with posting. I’m trying to be more present and enjoy moments as they go, and as such I’ve been running around drinking it all in and not doing as much reflection.

So pictures are in order! Here are some befores, durings, afters, and miscellaneous shots from the long weekend.

Tough stuff

Yesterday’s Real Simple quote was:

Love is what you’ve been through with somebody. –James Thurber

It’s 100% true. Once you’ve gotten through the “honeymoon phase” when everything is sunshine, rainbows, and puppies, the real world intervenes and makes a relationship work. For us, the real world popped its head up about 3 months into our relationship, when we had to decide if we wanted to make our summer love (gag, Grease reference) into a long-distance relationship. We decided it was worth it, and never looked back. It strengthened our communication abilities, since we would talk on the phone more than actually seeing each other for 9 months of the year. But we made it, and now have each other to come home to at the end of a long workday. There’s nothing better.

The quote is also true in another facet for us. In the 5.5 years we’ve been together, both of our parents have gotten divorced. Neither of us saw it coming, but we’ve made it through it all together. The holidays are particularly tough.

This year, the FI and I made a venn diagram with our parents’ names on opposite corners and analyzed the overlaps to see who would “get” dinner and who would “get” dessert on Thanksgiving and Christmas. We agreed that we’d trade and one of our parents would get dinner on Thanksgiving, but the other’s would get dinner on Christmas, then the opposite for desert. Unfortunately, we didn’t take Easter into consideration, so that’ll be another battle.

The point is, Christmas isn’t the same. There is no end to the hurt feelings, the running around on the day-of, and the general stress of the season. It’s gotten to the point where I was in tears on Saturday afternoon trying to work it all out. Some of the assumptions we made in order to make the holiday mapping work out since changed, which changes all of the plans and adds another burden to planning and already-high emotions.

As awful as it sounds, it makes sense that my new favorite holiday (which I’ve written about before) is Oktoberfest, mostly due to its lack of expectations. You show up, drink some beer, chicken dance, and eat brats. If it doesn’t work out, no one’s disappointed. There are no family members to let down, and if you wind up staying home in your pajamas (like my ideal night for New Year’s Eve, the most over-hyped holiday EVER), no one judges you.

I’m sorry to be such a Debbie Downer with this post, but I thought it would be helpful for me to put it all in words. I’m trying to keep my chin up about it all, but am (clearly, as you can tell from this post) having a hard time.

Does anyone else find themselves struggling with the holidays?