The hedge in my backyard still holds a few last leaves. I have never had such a colorful bush as this prolific stunner. Despite its nasty thorns, it is a real beauty.
I took the photo yesterday on a sunny afternoon, and this morning it snowed. Christmas time in the Pacific Northwest brings a mixture of weather: it is just as likely to be sunny and 65, as it is to be a sky filled with flurries and icy roads (and sometimes it will do both on the same day!). I have been in the greater Seattle area for almost 18 years, and it has truly become home.
This is how my daughters looked when I first moved here. It is hard to realize how fast time has raced by me.
The holiday season brings memories of each year that has gone before.So much is different, and yet so much remains the same. There are many things I love this time of year:
The sight of a Christmas tree tied to the top of a car will always make me smile. I have photos of all the years my girls and I hiked through the snow to chop our own. The smell of hot cocoa and candy canes from the tree barn after our tree-finding-expedition pops back into my mind as I put up my tree this year.
The ornaments that decorate my tree date back to the very first Christmas tree I ever had (and that's alot of years!) - some are handmade (that the girls created in school), others we made together for many years.... we bought or made decorations that represented all the phases of our lives. I hang them with joyful memories.
One of the first boxes I unpack during the holiday season is my Christmas CD's. Some of my favorites are: Vanessa Williams - The Christmas Collection; Bebe Winans - My Christmas Prayer; Sarah McLachlan - Wintersong; and Celtic Woman - A Christmas Celebration.
It is just about time to bake a batch of Christmas Cookies. The recipe I use has been our family for over 50 years - and all of us make some every year (grin). Normally we have a whole crew of people to sprinkle decorative candy toppings on the icing - yet this year, it will have to wait until Erin can come down - It's a fun process that somehow ends up covering every flat surface in the kitchen (smile)
I hang my handcut snowflakes in my windows, and unwrap my snowman collection.
The holidays have begun for real at my home. It is good to have continuity amidst all the changes life brings.
How about you? How do you welcome the holidays? do you have favorite music, ornaments and traditions?
You've reminded me that to feel closer to my far-away family all I have to do is unwrap some of those little Christmas traditions (and put Meet Me in St Louis in the DVD player). Yes, it's time.
Posted by: Jane | December 10, 2007 at 03:28 AM
Dale and I have a print of Christmas-y scene that we bought together the first year we were married. We hang it up on Thanksgiving night and that's how we start our Christmas decorating. Are you going to share that family cookie recipe?
Posted by: Carole | December 10, 2007 at 04:11 AM
I have a few favorite Christmas CDs, but my all-time fave has to be the Vince Guaraldi Trio's "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Having grown up on that Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon, that music immediately evokes the holiday like nothing else. I also love the Beach Boys' Christmas Album, Ella fitgerald's "Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas" and Diana Krall's "Christmas Songs." I usually start making dough for Christmas cookies about a week or two in advance and freeze it. Around the 22nd, I start the baking marathon, which includes spritz cookies, 2 different kinds of shortbread, gingerbread men, spice drops and raspberry crescents. I'd love to swap recipes with you if you're willing to part with that family recipe!
Posted by: regina | December 10, 2007 at 06:43 AM
I don't really have any holiday traditions, but it's lovely to read about yours!
Posted by: Chris | December 10, 2007 at 11:13 AM
Ah yes. This year, the holiday involved unwrapping treasured ornaments and telling who made it or where we got it to my new husband. The girls just encircled him with all the goings on. How weird it must be for them...I too have a snowman collection. Please send a post address to me...Blue skies!
Posted by: Lark | December 10, 2007 at 11:52 AM
i like to watch the house across the street as it it slowly transformed over the course of the weeks between thanksgiving and christmas. from the moment it is stripped of cornshocks and pumpkins, it gathers winter decorations like a magnet so that, and by the week before the holiday, it is a glorious blaze of lights and a cacophony of figures, hangings, and garlands (picture coming soon at my blog).
we are much more quiet revelers.
Posted by: anne | December 10, 2007 at 12:38 PM
To be honest I don't do any of things I used to do when my kids were small. It's just not the same, so I kind of skip it all now. And I'm ok with that.
Posted by: Karen | December 10, 2007 at 02:56 PM
Traditions are a flexable thing in my house. It all depends on who is around for the holidays and what the road conditions are like. We will have a real tree that the kids will decorate (after I do the light thing) with ornaments that we have gathered and made over the years. I will watch with a glass of holiday cheer held in my tired hand. We will have a turkey dinner with all of the fixings, although where is yet to be seen. We will spend time with family and friends. And we will have Cindy over for her birthday dinner on the solstice. And i will not have to get the kids up for school for two weeks!
Posted by: jackie | December 11, 2007 at 02:52 AM
Oh my gosh, your daughters look so cute and tiny! With James now being 5 MONTHS OLD I'm starting to realize how quickly time can pass. *sniff*
I welcome the holidays with eating. Seriously- it's non stop here. Cookies, cakes, big dinners and lunches to catch up with friends and family. It's INSANE.
Posted by: Allison | December 13, 2007 at 07:03 AM
Well, we usually buy a Hallmark ornament every year to commemorate the year. This year, my hubby decided to go handmade and is having a co-worker (who is extremely crafty), to make a couple for us. Yes, training him well... :-) We also like watching holiday movies togeter. I also always get a box or two of Andes candies as we love eating them at Christmas, and the kids and I sing Christmans carols together whenever possible.
Posted by: Jennifer | December 13, 2007 at 06:40 PM
You have been having some nasty weather out there. Try not to get hurt again. Does your having those pictures of fiber in the sidebar mean you are dyeing and selling again? Or is it just history?
Posted by: Jennifer | December 14, 2007 at 05:15 AM