A Scrap of Life

Every year our Christmas season is marked by a series of traditional events, one of the oldest being the placing of the Santa sign. The time has finally come and the kids have hammered this poor, over-pounded sign into the ground outside our house where it will sit until Christmas day, a reminder to Santa of the good little kids living in this house.

I didn't want to mess with the "flow" of the Holiday Memories postings, so I've been saving this for after those were done. Now that they're completed I can fill you in on the news around here. Tristan (aka "Yellow" to his Daddy) had his Tae Kwon Do belt testing on Dec. 8. Wow, was that an ordeal. 4 hours of it to be exact. But he did such a great job and walked out of it with his yellow belt. We're proud in all that he accomplished and are especially proud that he skipped an entire belt color, advancing 2 belt colors instead of just one. Way to go Tristan! Here are some shots of him in action on testing day: And here is our proud yellow belt himself:

It's so hard to think about the fact that a new year is rapidly approaching. Christmas is just a few days off and that's still the focus here. After Christmas though things start moving along, back into the normal rhythm of life. By New Years Eve the Christmas tree is down, the decorations have been packed away and, besides the host of extra toys, things are just as they are the other 11 months of the year. New Years Eve will be wonderful this year. It's the first time Brian has been home with us since he started in law enforcement and we're all excited about spending it together. We actually have the option of having the kids go to my Dad's house this New Years, but there aren't any big parties or plans that we've been invited to attend so I think we'll be staying home with the kids. New Years Eve is the only night of the year that the kids are allowed to stay up until midnight (and get to sleep in the front room) and they make the most of it. We bring ...

Well, this prompt will have to wait until after the big day. So look for pictures of our loot and what our faves are after Christmas. :)

Our Christmas Day traditions are somewhat less regimented than our Christmas Eve ones. We are awoken early in the morning to the voices of our children trying to wake us up and asking if they can go see what they got from Santa. We try to get them to head back to bed but, of course, that doesn't happen. As soon as we're coherent enough we hop out of bed and head for the front room with the kids. Santa always leaves them one big gift and a stocking filled with goodies. They ooohhhh and aaaahhhh over their big gift and then dive into their stockings. After about 20 minutes they are ready to move on to opening the gifts under the tree. I usually sneak off into the kitchen to bake some cinnamon rolls for our Christmas Day breakfast. YUM! Sometime during Christmas day we have people over. We have a "we stay home" rule for Christmas day, so if someone wants to see us they have to come over here. We usually have at least 2 sets of Grandparents, and sometimes all 3, vi...

We have a plethora of Christmas Eve traditions in our household and we're looking forward to enjoying them all this year. The first tradition is a new take on an old favorite of Brian's. When he was a kid he would watch "Santa Watch" on the local news stations. This was a program for kids keeping them up to date on the whereabout of Jolly Old St. Nick. He has such fond memories of this as a kid that when our kids were old enough he tried to introduce them to it ... only to find out that they no longer do it. But we were able to find a substitute at www.santawatch.com . All day Christmas Eve the kids look forward to the hourly reports and videos of Santa's journey. We spend some time on Christmas Eve watching Christmas movies too. My personal favorite is the 1995 version of "Miracle on 34th Street". Other favorites are "Polar Express" and the Jim Carrey version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." We'll be sure to watch one...

Today's challenge is to ask your children what Christmas means to them. Here are their answers: Chase Getting together with your family to open presents and to see each others faces when they get them. Tristan Snow Santa Reindeer Christmas Trees Decorations Carissa Christmas spirit Happy spirit Giving thanks Christmas trees Santa Ornaments Snow Presents

We have a few key Christmas traditions in our home. Many of those are Christmas Eve related, so I'll leave those for a later posting. But here's a few traditions that we enjoy in the weeks leading up to Christmas. We always go out to the tree farm to pick our own Christmas tree. It takes quite a bit of searching before we find one that I'm happy with. Each and every year Brian gets down on the wet, muddy ground to saw the tree down then he and the boys try to haul it to the car. The boys tend to drop their end so by the time we reach the car we have a half-muddy Christmas tree. We also love to go see Santa. In previous years we had taken them to Santaland in downtown Portland, but it closed up 2 years ago. Now we take them to Santa's House in the Woodburn Company Stores. We make sure to take them between 6 & 7 pm, when there is snow falling outside of Santa's House. And even though the snow is only some sort of sudsy fake snowfall thing, we love it anyways.

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas ..." Yes, this is me. I dream of a white Christmas. I dream of waking up Christmas morning to newfallen snow, of opening presents in front of our non-existant fireplace then bundling up to go outside to make snow angels before coming inside to warm up with hot chocolate. Of course, I live in Oregon. It doesn't often snow here (and no, rain is not the same thing!) and it certainly hasn't snowed for any Christmas Day I've ever experienced. But if I had a Christmas wish it would be for snow ...

I'm not sure there is anything about Christmas that I don't like. I seem to find joy in everything that Christmas brings, including wrapping gifts. I really love to wrap everything. I have a big wrapping session about a week after we put up the tree. I banish the kids to another room and turn on the animated versions of Rudolph, Frosty and The Grinch for them. Then I scurry out to the front room, put on my favorite Christmas movies (this year it was "White Christmas" and the 1995 version of "Miracle on 34th Street") and wrap to my hearts content. I don't do anything spectacular with the gifts, just wrapping paper and bows. But I have fun doing it!

Today's challenge is to post what holiday gifts you got for everyone and why you chose them. Well, I'm not going to give you all the satisfaction. I'm going to make you wait until you open them. So there!

I LOVE holiday shopping. I know, I'm one of those in the minority but there's something about all that shopping that just makes me happy. I love getting into the holiday spirit early and starting my Christmas shopping in October. I love getting up at 4:30am the day after Thanksgiving and scurrying down to the store still sleepy-eyed to gather great holiday deals. I love to search the holiday ads for great deals on holiday gifts for my loved ones. And I love to have the shopping done and have them all wrapped and under the tree well before Christmas day.

I'm a music-lover at heart so Christmas carols are something that I absolutely love. There is a station in Portland that plays Christmas music 24 hours a day and I love to turn that on during my morning drive to work. The kids absolutely love my musical carousel, which plays a variety of Christmas carols. I can't say that I have a favorite one, but I certainly do love the bit of Christmas glee that they bring.

Yummmmm ... I love holiday food. I have several must-haves each holiday season and they all revolve around my sweettooth (suprise, surprise! LOL). My absolute favorite is nanimo bars. These are 3 layer bars. The bottom layer is a mix of crushed graham crackers, coconut, walnuts and chocolate. The middle layer is vanilla pudding mix and butter (this is the sweetest, yummiest part!) and the top layer is just plain chocolate. You chill them and cut them into squares to enjoy. I can't make these until 1 or 2 days before Christmas because I will sit and snack on them all day long. They are just sooooo yummy. Another favorite is my homemade cheesecake. I'm not a huge cheesecake lover, but this homemade recipe I have is just so wonderful. I like to top it with sweetened raspberries. Again, this is a just-before-Christmas project for me. My final favorite holiday food are spritzer cookies. Believe it or not, I haven't actually made these since I was a kid. My mom makes ...

Here's my little pile of Christmas cards, all written up and ready to go. I sent 14 this year ... about the same number that I send every year. These go mainly to family member but some also go to our close friends. This year we included photos from Brian's police academy graduation. I don't send out a mass newsletter to everyone. I prefer to write personal messages, which is why it takes me 2 evenings to complete all of the cards. But they are completed and are ready to be mailed out. YEAH!

Oh, Christmas parties. Dressing up in beautiful holiday dresses, sharing bowls of egg nog and tables of holiday goodies. You always see these on TV but here in the real world it doesn't happen. At least not here in the boondocks where I live. There are no Christmas parties where you dress up and hob-nob with your friends. At least I've never been invited to one. Then again, it couldn't be that I'm a hermit, could it?!? LOL Holiday parties ... who needs them?

Each year I get the urge to put up the outdoor Christmas lights. The urge usually hits before Thanksgiving, on a day when the sun is shining and it seems perfect "lights" weather. Of course, I'm nearly always wrong about this because by the time I've gotten the lights from the attic, untangled them and readied them for hanging, evening has come and with it the cold. This year I put them up in the semi-dark with freezing cold fingers. (I will admit that Brian did come help, as I do NOT get on the roof .) Yet I was determined... I wanted them up and ready for Thanksgiving night, when we turn them on. And I did get them up and we did turn them on Thanksgiving night, despite Brian's claim that they should not be turned on until the night AFTER Thanksgiving. This is what our house looks like now, glowing brightly in the cold winter night. Adorned with bring blue and white bulbs, flashing snowflakes and spiral tree. Beyond the lights we have two very important Christm...

Decorating for Christmas is always fun for us. The biggest focus is the tree, but we also have a lot of little Christmas items strewn around the house. These sleigh bells for instance. We've had them for 10 years and each years the kids truly enjoy them. They have been used in past years to simulate Santa's sleigh bells when he comes to check to see if the kids are in bed. Of course, the kids each take a turn ringing them while we are trying to find a place to put them up. Nothing like sleigh bells to wake up the holiday spirit. I also love this Christmas carousel. It was given to me by Brian's parents many years ago after the kids and I admired it at their house. Each time we were over the kids would turn it on and watch it go round and round, light glowing, to the sound of Christmas carols. This has been a favorite of everyone's but Carissa especially loves it and has a habit of turning it on whenever the mood strikes her. My Snowbaby collection holds a special place ...

Well, I'm a bit ahead here today too. It was on actually decorating the tree. Since I can't seem to shut up when posting, I already talked about this. :)

We LOVE our Christmas tree. We love picking a really big one and making Brian haul it in the house. We love putting it up and decorating it with colored lights, glittery snowflakes, Christmas balls and garlands. And the best part of it all is the crowing glory - our angel. This angel is so special to me. Brian and I got it the first Christmas we were married. It lights up and it's wings and arms move. It is beautiful and unique and carries so many wonderful memories. It has now graced our tree for 13 wonderful years of togetherness. It just wouldn't be Christmas without her.

Today's Holiday Memory is picking your tree. I already posted that a few posts below this one so I'm already way ahead of the game. ;)

We can politely be called a "non-religious family". We don't celebrate the religious aspect of Christmas. Instead we celebrate this as a season of togetherness, of cuddling up on the couch watching holiday movies, of making cookies and treats together, of decorating the house, of listening to Christmas music, of driving around to enjoy the holiday lights, of thoughtful gifts, of the magic of Santa Claus. We celebrate this as a fun season of memorable, happy times spent with one another. So while we don't celebrate the traditional way, we do enjoy our own traditions and the happiness and joy they bring to all in our family.