Showing posts with label Blogmas 2018. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogmas 2018. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Blogmas 2018 - Day 26 - My Christmas Bucket List Update

To finish up the Christmas season I thought I should post an update of my Christmas 2018 Bucket List and I had planned on doing it as Day 26 of my Blogmas 2018 series. As you can see, I didn't make, so here goes...Day 26 of Blogmas 2018 almost a month late...(and some of you may not agree)...but better late than never! (At least I'm getting caught up!) 😉

(Note: Clicking on highlighted words will link you to posts where you can read more about that subject should you be interested in doing so.)
My Christmas 2018 Bucket List

1. Write my Christmas bucket list
2. Decorate for Christmas inside and out
3. Work Christmas on the Farm at Watkins Woolen Mill
The Centerpiece That Adorns The Watkins Family Table
is Always My Favorite Thing at Christmas on the Farm
4. Put up the trees...there are four of them...big one (in the Van Gogh room), little one (in our bedroom), vintage one (in the livingroom), and Jesse tree (in the kitchen) 🎄
Christmas Tree in the Van Gogh Room
5. Read a Christmas book
6. Spend family Christmas with all six of our children, their spouses, and the grands
7. Watch Christmas movies

A Christmas Carol starting Alastair Sim
8. Sing Christmas carols
9. Purchase a poinsettia
10. Drive around and look at Christmas lights
11. Drink hot cocoa
12. Make (and taste) Christmas fudge
13. Donate a toy 
14. Send and receive Christmas cards
Christmas Cards
15. Wrap Christmas gifts 🎁
16. Do a random act of kindness
17. Burn holiday scented candles 
18. Put cash in a Salvation Army 'Christmas kettle'
19. Choose an 'Angel Tree' child
20. Make a special treat and deliver it to the neighbors
Treats For The Neighbors
21. Enjoy the glow of Christmas tree lights
22. Bake Christmas cookies 🍪
Christmas Cookies
23. Listen to Christmas music
24. Make a gift for the mail carrier
25. Sip eggnog
26. Attend a candlelight service
27. Drink wassail
28. Have Christmas Eve lasagna (it's been a tradition for over 30 years)

29. Read the Christmas story from the Bible (Luke 2:1-20)
30. Spend Christmas Day at home with family and friends

That's what was on my Christmas 2018 bucket list. What was on yours? If you wrote a Christmas bucket list, I'd love to read it. Feel free to post the link to it in the comments section below!

Until next time...
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Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Blogmas 2018 - Day 25 - Christmas Day

Christmas Flowers From My DH
Twenty-four people joined John and I last night for Christmas Eve lasagna and, even though it was super crowded, we had a great time! As a family we are extremely blessed! 💗

This morning was spent exchanging Christmas greetings over the phone and online with various friends and family members. At noon a friend joined us for lunch, then we took leftovers to a family member down the street and spent an hour or two visiting. We just walked home a short time ago. 

Now, it is mid-afternoon on Christmas Day and all is quiet. John is asleep in his chair and I just made myself a cup of hot tea. I thought I'd sit down and write this post, then...well...I'm not sure what I'll do after that. I need to clean house and get things back in order after last night, but I'm just not up to it. I'm determined to let it go until tomorrow or, perhaps, Thursday, and just rest...something I rarely do.

How about you? How are you spending Christmas Day?

Wherever you're at and whatever you're doing, I pray that this has been your best Christmas ever and that you are enjoying it to the fullest!

Until next time...
~Rebecca

P.S. - As this is the last post in my Blogmas 2018 series, I want to give a big shout-out to Tamy over at Chasing My Life for introducing me to the idea and for allowing me to link-up with her and follow her lead. I'd also like to thank Jean over at So Not Organized for linking-up, too, and making the experience all the more pleasurable! Perhaps we'll do it again next year, Ladies! 😉

(To find all the posts in this series click HERE.)

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Blogmas 2018 - Day 24 - Christmas Eve






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Monday, December 24, 2018

Blogmas 2018 - Day 24 - Christmas Eve

It's 9:30 a.m. Christmas Eve morning. The laundry and housework are nearly done, two large pans of lasagna sit atop the kitchen cabinet, prepped and waiting to be baked. One loaf of French bread is done and another is rising, while yet a third is being mixed up in the bread machine. 

 All the while Alexa quietly plays classic Christmas songs in the background and I await an expected visit from a couple of  "unexpected" Christmas Eve visitors who plan to stop by while in the area.

 The music is soothing. Many of the songs take me back to Christmases long, long ago to days of childhood. Sweet memories pop into my mind. So many sweet faces that I miss.

 After the bread is done, I will pop the lasagna in the oven to bake while I run out to the park to do a couple of things that need done before the holiday. 

 After that it will be time to come home, set up the tables, pull out the Christmas linens, and put all the finishing touches on everything before the family arrives for our annual candlelight Christmas Eve dinner.

 Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year. It is with much anticipation that I look forward to it year after year. And, then, after the busyness passes and the midnight hour approaches, it is with childlike wonder I press into the real meaning of Christmas. It is then that I go outside, look up, and observe the heavens. 

 As my lungs drink in the frosty, crisp air of a cold winter's night, I gaze up at the stars. They hang there, large and sparkling against the inky blackness of the winter sky, and I wonder. 

 I wonder what it must have been like that first Christmas night. I think of Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger...of the shepherd's tending their flocks on the hillside when, all of a sudden, a host of heavenly angels appear...heralding the birth of the little Lord Jesus our Savior and King! What an amazing and wonderful thing it must have been to witness such an event first-hand! 

 Then I think...what an amazing thing it still is! To KNOW beyond the shadow of a doubt that what happened that night, 2,000 years ago, was real and that, we today, if we will receive it, are able to bear witness of that same Gift that was given to a hurting world so long, long ago.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16)"

How about you and yours? How do you spend Christmas Eve? What's your favorite part of it?

 Until next time, 
~Rebecca

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Happy Homemaker Monday - December 24, 2018


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Sunday, December 23, 2018

Blogmas 2018 - Day 23 - The Christmas Dinner Menu

As my children always say...Merry Christmas-Eve Eve! I hope you're having a great one! 💗

 Okay...I'm going to post the Christmas dinner menu, BUT, keep in mind, I'm married to a man who is half-Sicilian on his mother's side...so...here goes...
Candlelight Christmas Eve Lasagna
Christmas Eve Menu

Lasagna
Salad
Homemade French Bread 
Olive Oil Bread Dip

Image result for holly and ivy clipart

Christmas Day Menu

Pasta
Sauce
Meatballs
Salad
Homemade French Bread
Olive Oil Bread Dip

Cheesecake

That's what we're having here. What's on the menu for Christmas at your house?

 Until next time...
~Rebecca

*Joining in with Jean over at So Not Organized and linking up with Tamy over at Chasing My Life for Blogmas 2018

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Blogmas 2018 - Day 22 - Christmas Tree and Decorations


Blogmas 2018 - Day 21 - When Do You Open Presents?



Happy Homemaker Monday - December 17, 2018



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Saturday, December 22, 2018

Blogmas 2018 - Day 22 - Christmas Tree and Decorations

Today's topic is Christmas tree and decorations. For me that is plural Christmas tree(s) as we have five of them...one big one and four little ones.
This is our big tree. It sits in my office (the Van Gogh room). As you can see, the doorway entering that room is also lighted with a strand of pretty Christmas lights.

A lighted angel adorns the top of the tree. She is constantly changing colors...first blue, then purple, then pink, then aquamarine. She's so pretty! Everyone loves her!
Next is my mother's tabletop tree...the vintage tree. I set it up every year, just as she did, and I only use her ornaments to decorate it with, including her Christmas tree skirt and the snowmen couple that she crocheted many years ago.

The only thing that I have added to the tree is a set of vintage glass Christmas tree ornaments like the ones that hung on the tree when I was a child. Over the years most of the ones Mom had have gotten broken and, by the time I inherited the tree, only a couple of the original glass ornaments remained, so I got online, tracked some down, and replaced them.
Vintage Glass Christmas Tree Ornaments

The same with the icicles. When I was a child these metal Diamond Ray Jeweled Icicles always adorned the Christmas tree. By the time I inherited the tree and its decorations, only two had survived, so, again, I got online, tracked some down, and replaced them. 
Diamond Ray Jeweled Icicles
This tiny silver tree sits in our livingroom, too, amid a village of tiny holiday houses. 
The Jesse Tree sits in the kitchen.
And last, but not least of the trees, this is the tiny tree and that sits atop the vanity in our bedroom. The mirror is outlined in lights. There is also a strand of battery operated lights laying over the cabinet in the bathroom across the hall.

Of course, my favorite decoration of all time, is the Nativity. Some day I'd like to have a big set sitting in our front yard. 

How about you? One tree? Or many? What's your favorite decoration?

 Until next time...
~Rebecca

*Joining in with Jean over at So Not Organized and linking up with Tamy over at Chasing My Life for Blogmas 2018

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Blogmas 2018 - Day 21 - When Do You Open Presents?

Blogmas 2018 - Day 20 - Favorite Tradition(s)




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Friday, December 21, 2018

Blogmas 2018 - Day 21 - When Do You Open Presents?

Photo Credit
When the children were little, we would let them open one gift on Christmas Eve and one family gift...perhaps a movie or a game that everyone could enjoy. After the children were in bed John and I would exchange a gift or two, then, early Christmas morning (usually about 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning) we'd all get up and open the rest of the gifts. John and I always had as much trouble sleeping and were always just as excited as the children! Sometimes we'd go back to bed and try to get a few more hours sleep; sometimes we wouldn't. 

 Now that it's just John and I we always open our gifts on Christmas Eve.

 When do you open presents?

 Until next time...
~Rebecca

*Joining in with Jean over at So Not Organized and linking up with Tamy over at Chasing My Life for Blogmas 2018

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Blogmas 2018 - Day 20 - Favorite Tradition(s)


 Blogmas 2018 - Day 19 - Christmas Future



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Thursday, December 20, 2018

Blogmas 2018 - Day 20 - Favorite Tradition(s)

One of our favorite traditions here is the candlelight Christmas Eve dinner. 

Candlelight Christmas Eve Lasagna Dinner
My husband asked me to marry him on Christmas Eve 1987. We have celebrated every Christmas Eve since with our traditional Christmas Eve lasagna dinner (this will be our 30th). The dinner has always been open to whoever happens to be around and is able to join us. 

In the early years it was just John and I, our children, a few close friends, and my mother-in-law (sometimes she would come over early on Christmas Eve, help with the cooking, and spend the night). Since our children have grown up, married, and started having families of their own, the dynamics of the Christmas Eve celebration has changed and varies from year to year. 

Some years one or two of the children and their families have joined us; other years, some of the children, their in-laws, other extended family members, and/or friends and neighbors have joined us. We never know from year to year who might join us at our table come Christmas Eve, but everyone is welcome. For John and I it is a constant...not only a special time to celebrate and embrace the wonder of Christmas, but a time to celebrate the love that we share...for each other and for those that are near and dear to us. 💗

Another tradition that we have always enjoyed is the making of cookies, candy, and Christmas canolli. We got to the cookies and candy this year, but, sadly, not the canolli. Maybe next year. 😉

Christmas Canolli

 Other traditions include an annual reading (if our youngest daughter gets her way) of The Secret. 
The Secret by Rebecca Knox
This is a story that I wrote for our older children before our youngest was born. The story features our five oldest children and a wise-cracking gingerbread boy named Ralph that, after baking, came to life in their very own kitchen. The children have a secret and Ralph has been sent there by Santa Claus to learn what it is. The problem is, the secret is so secret that even the children don't know what it is until, together, they and Ralph figure it out and realize how truly blessed they really are. Pink icing, Christmas magic, and the delightful smell of whimsical berry all add sweetness to the story and it's a story that bears repeating year after year...for our children and, now, for our grandchildren, as well, when the opportunity arises. 💗

 And, of course, last, but not least, the most important tradition of all is the reading of the Christmas story from Luke 2:1-20 in the Holy Scriptures. 
Christ the Savior is Born
Until next time...
~Rebecca

*Joining in with Jean over at So Not Organized and linking up with Tamy over at Chasing My Life for Blogmas 2018

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Blogmas 2018 - Day 19 - Christmas Future

Blogmas 2018 - Day 18 - Christmas Past



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