Christmas Memories 2021

Hello, friends! I got behind in my holiday posts due to illness in December, so today I’m going to try and quickly wrap up Christmas and New Year’s in one clean swoop of a post.

We began decorating the weekend following Thanksgiving, but it took me a few days to really get into it and finish it all. I don’t like to get too themey with Christmas–I mean, Christmas is a theme in and of itself, right?–but the last couple of years I’ve gone with more of a natural, woodsy vibe. I adore the outdoors and the woods behind our house, so it just felt very natural to use evergreen garlands, pinecones, and starry twinkle lights. Last year I used blue for my main accent color; this year I went even more natural with olive green and brown and enjoyed it so much. Who knows? Next year I might go back to traditional red and green.

It was my desire to purchase all new garlands this year, but the ones I looked at in November were quite pricey. So, I decided to use my old garlands one more year and then purchase new ones on sale after Christmas. These old ones were shedding soooo badly, I had to throw them away as soon as Christmas was over. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find any at the craft stores to replace them. After-Christmas sales are just not what they used to be. I think they must be putting their inventory away for next year??

Do you spot my son’s sock over our front door? (zoom in to the photo below 🤦‍♀️) He’s ten and thinks it’s a lot of fun to toss things in places we can’t easily reach. That sock has greeted all our guests this year. Lovely.

Unfortunately, the gas logs weren’t working the day I snapped these photos.

We cut our tree down at a local farm and it stayed so fresh all month long! In fact, when we threw it out on New Year’s Day, the branches were still flexible and not dry at all. Longest lasting tree we’ve ever had! The cat had taken a strong liking to it the minute we brought it in the house and often slept beside it or under it, so she was NOT happy when took it down!

I’ve wanted a new nativity set for a few years, but they can be very expensive. I found this one marked half off before Christmas and I love it!

For my Christmas chalkboard ideas, I usually find something on Pinterest to copy, but this year I had my own design in mind. Seeing this each day brought me so much joy!

I’d like to say we carried on with the season without a glitch once the decorations were up, but, after the first week of December, a certain virus reared its ugly head and put us in quarantine, cancelling all our events, gatherings, and festivities. My son and I were sick buddies so for the first several days we stayed in either his bedroom or mine while my husband and daughters kept the public areas of tge house since they were well. My sick buddy and I passed the time with movies, books, and games of checkers.

Once we were all able to be around each other we spent the rest of our household quarantine with a lot of needlepoint, knitting, movies, taking walks, reading, and puzzles! I felt a little guilty at first that the well ones in the house were having to miss Christmas events, but then one day my oldest daughter said, “You know, this is how the holidays should be spent. Just relaxing with movies and books and naps.”

And the cat was right there with us through it all! She is the funniest little kitty. She loves to be with her family and was quite happy to have us all at home for so long. Whatever we were doing, she just snuggled in with us.

Once quarantine was over, we scrubbed the house from top to bottom and resumed our Christmas routine. I had not baked yet and was desperately trying to prove I still had taste buds after my virus. I saw this cookie recipe on Instagram and gave it a try. Apparently, my taste buds were still in working order because these were delicious but a little rich for me, even given my love chocolate!

Our daughter’s boyfriend came through town for a couple of nights on his way to his family’s home, so we celebrated with a special meal, and enjoyed finally getting to set our first Christmas table of the season!

My husband spoiled us with a delicious steak filet!!

On Christmas Eve we had a meal of lasagna, salad, and bread!

The red dishes were my early Christmas present, and I was so tickled to start using them in December! I plan to use these year-round for Christmas, Valentine’s, Fourth of July, etc. There are plenty of red occasions, right?

Later, after our meal and a movie, the kids exchanged their gifts to each other, and the pets got their gifts. Yes, I know. It’s a little bit ridiculous, but we get them stuff they really need, lol! Kong toys are the only dog toys that hold up to Barney’s powerful jaws. He played with his new toy until he fell asleep. So cute! Just like a baby.

Christmas morning brought more gifts to open! You might notice some bags of dried fruit on my son’s gift pile. Well, that was a running joke between him and his dad. Every time he would ask us if he could have a hover board for Christmas, my husband would reply, “You’re getting dried fruit this year!” So, naturally, we had to get him some dried fruit to follow through with the joke. But he also got his hover board!!

We had a simple breakfast of pumpkin muffins, sausage balls, clementines, and wassail.

And lest you think we only ate junk all season, I lost count of how many veggie trays I put together! Salad, fruit, and lots of raw veggies were our go-to between splurges! Through summer and fall, I had almost completely avoided gluten and sugar, so I was really having to pace myself with the goodies.

On Christmas Day we gathered at my parents’ home for lunch and then my mother-in-law’s for dinner and had a wonderful time with both sides of our family! We went home very, very, very tired at the end of the day, lol, but the memories made are priceless. I did not take many photos because I just kept forgetting to, but here’s one from a Dirty Santa game at my parents’. I’m one of 5 siblings which means I have a lot of nieces and nephews–16 cousins total, ranging in age from 7 to 26! For many years the cousins drew names and shopped for that cousin’s gift. Last year we changed it to a Dirty Santa game, and it’s been a big hit! We laughed so hard this year over the hilarious gift ideas (all clean, of course), the ruthless stealing, and the merciless revenge moves! They were such good sports. At my MIL’s we played some very fun games as well with great prizes and lots of laughter and ragging each other!

The biggest gift of all this season (besides Jesus Christ Himself!) was our daughter’s engagement two days before Christmas! Y’all, my husband and I knew about this ahead of time, but we were sweating out whether or not we’d all be out of quarantine in time for the proposal! I knew I would be clear of the virus by then, but we were praying our daughter wouldn’t get it and miss her own engagement! Thankfully, more than a week before Christmas, we were all cleared, and the engagement went off without a hitch. The day after Christmas, we enjoyed a little celebration lunch at our house with our daughter’s soon-to-be in-laws and had a great time together. She is so blessed to not only be getting a great, Godly guy, but wonderful in-laws as well.

We continued the celebrations the following week with my husband’s birthday. In our house, the birthday person always gets to choose a restaurant meal plus a meal or two at home for the week of their birthday–my husband has dubbed this the “Birthday Extravaganza”. The day before his birthday, for his meal out, we ate at a fantastic deli in our little downtown area. My husband got his all-time favorite: fried smoked bologna and bacon sandwich! I had their muffuletta which is one of the best I’ve had anywhere.

Since the day of his actual birthday was New Year’s Eve, he simply requested a day at home for family time and football, including whole wheat waffles for breakfast and football food for later in the day. I tried a new recipe for buffalo sliders because it just had his name written all over it. They were so good! I’ll share the recipe soon.

In the 25 years we’ve been married, I’ve made my husband’s birthday cake every year with the exception of two times: one was when our second daughter was a newborn (need I say more?), and the other was this year. Both times I bought an ice-cream cake from Dairy Queen because was his favorite growing up.

Not only was the ice-cream cake a win, but so was the football–Roll Tide!!