"CHRISTMAS" Thread - 1500

[Noel+]

It's official: 1500 posts by Christmas Day!

[kiwidogy_max]

Merry Christmas everyone!! It's finally here. Love to everyone!!!

[Noel+]

MERRY CHRISTMAS! to all my special friends here at Christmas All Year! Wishing you a day of blessing that overflows with love!

[kiwidogy_max]

It is hard to believe that Christmas Day has come and gone. What a wonderful day! I am both happy and sad at the same time. I know that even though the day is over, I will keep that love and joy in my heart the whole year through. I want to spread that love with everyone and try to make this world a better place one day at a time. Just because Christmas is over, why should people stop saying hello to each other on the street...holding the door for the person behind you. Keep it up the whole year. Fortunately, this community makes it easy to keep that generous feeling flowing.

[Jolly O'Leary]

Next is Christmas in July! July 24-31 in the Lundgren household. This year, I will try to remember to freeze some christmas bread only available at this time of year and buy extra Julmust (a carbonated soda only sold at christmas and easter) for an extra summer treat! Most everything else is available year round or you make from scratch anyway. Swedes eat pretty much the same thing for Christmas, Easter, and Midsummer.

[kiwidogy_max]

Good luck freezing the Christmas Bread for July. If yours family is anything like mine, you probably won't have much Christmas food left!

[kiwidogy_max]

Just enjoyed Christmas #3 with my cousins and new nephew. Loved it! Trying to convince my brother from CT to stay an extra day on VT so that he doesn't try to brave the blizzard on the way home.

[Noel+]

Our Christmas is extended through December 29 this week when my siblings come to exchange gifts/dinner. It was a beautiful day with family.......touched with a tinge of sadness missing Mom. Her chair was empty but our hearts were filled wtih precious memories of she and Dad.

We have left over turkey, ham, potatoe casserole and macaroni & cheese. The fudge pie is much too rich for me..........it should take the kids a few more days to polish that off. We do still have Christmas cookies........my siblings will finish those on Wednesday!

Christmas blessings from church on Christmas Eve, and today, fill my heart with enough love & joy to last a year. Every day is Christmas when you give love, peace and joy to others.

[kiwidogy_max]

Beautifully said, Noel.

[Jolly O'Leary]

[b][color=#008000]The fudge pie is much too rich for me..........it should take the kids a few more days to polish ]

Fudge pie? hm...have to have that recipe!

We just back from our boxing day cruise. It was wonderful, the ship was a private yacht in the 1930's so it only holds about 300 passengers and there were far fewer than that on board. It was quite cozy, excellent food, and great fun. We didn't even get stuck in the ice!

During my boredom at work this week, I was reading about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. I wondered if anyone on this forum celebrates kwanzaa or any other religious/cultural holiday along with Christmas, and if so, how do you combine the traditions? Learning about other people's holidays is always so fun.

Swedes say 'God Jul och god försättning´from now until Jan. 1. Merry Christmas and a good continuation, since Christmas lasts until Jan. 13. I have one more day off, then back to work on Dec. 29 since I am only a temp. Bah humbug!

[Noel+]

Today my name went on Santa's "naught list' fornext year!
I couldn't sleep last night..........then called in to work. Just exhausted with body aches so I decided to postpone the work routine until tomorrow.

Christmas passes so quickly after 11 months of longing and anticipation that the New Year seems like an after-thought to me.

Hope all of you in the eastern US are safe during this record-breaking blizzard!

[kiwidogy_max]

Noel, I know what you mean by the anticipation building for 9 months then quickly having New Years come along. Christmas is, by far my favorite holiday...it is more how I try to live by day after day, but now attention is shared with New Years. I will still enjoy my beautiful Christmas tree while I enjoy ringing in the New Year.

[Noel+]

I'll toast to that kiwidogy_max!

[kiwidogy_max]

Noel, on that note, I think I will enjoy a glass of wine as I sit next to my Christmas tree and watch some football. How long do people in here keep up their Christmas decorations? I ask because I felt bad when I saw so many trees tossed out to the curb yesterday.

[Noel+]

Some people leave their tree up til the 12th day of Christmas..........or Jan 7. Usually we leave ours up til after the 1st, but this year the children preferred not to put up the tree. So I took down the decorations......except for 2 large remaining.......to clean for the new year.

[Jolly O'Leary]

Noel, on that note, I think I will enjoy a glass of wine as I sit next to my Christmas tree and watch some football. How long do people in here keep up their Christmas decorations? I ask because I felt bad when I saw so many trees tossed out to the curb yesterday.

In Sweden, the decorations stay up until January 13, St. Knuts Day, which unfortunately is not a holiday. Therefore most people take it down the weekend before or after. Since they don't put the tree up until Dec. 23, the time to me is too short. I'm used to putting it up the day after Thanksgiving and taking down on New Year's. But, next year is an 'American' year in the Lundgren household, so we will do that for Christmas 2011. Since the tree is so small and easy to store, I MIGHT bring it out for Christmas in July,, but we don't usually. It's just too hot, but we shall see.

[kiwidogy_max]

Jennifer and Noel, thank you for sharing. Last year the Christmas tree and decorations went down the weekend after New Years. It is always a bittersweet time. Like last year, this year I will keeP out my grandmother's angel. It is small enough to keep in my bedside drawer. It always gives me comfort and keeps her close to my heart.

On an unrelated note, this evening I watched The Santa Clause 2. I love those Tim Allen movies! I still have more holiday videos to watch...time flew by this year! Have a wonderful night everyone!

[kiwidogy_max]

I am going to watch Fred Claus tonight. I have enough Christmas movies to last a while.
Tomorrow I hope to go to The Christmas Loft (a store open all year long that has everything Christmas in it...even a life-sized holiday village in the center of the large store). I can hardly wait!! I will be looking to get a Christmas pickle for my parent's tree. They seem to have lost their pickle from last year.

[Jolly O'Leary]

Went food shopping today. The Lundgren Family New Year's menu is as follows:

New Year's Eve
Impossible Mexican Pie
Cowboy Caviar with nacho chips (has black eyed peas in it)
Salad

New Year's Day:
Beef 'back steak'
brussel sprouts (technically 'green')
baked Sweet potatoes
my last cornbread mix from the US
mincemeat/pumpkin pie-saw a recipe online where the person poured the last of her pumkin mix over the mincemeat, sounds good to me!

To be fair, Swedes usually eat seafood for new year's and either salmon or oxfilé for new year's day. On New Year's Eve we watch the program on tv from Skansen Outdoor Museum, and on New Year's Day, it's downhill skiing and the concert from Vienna (sometimes shown on PBS in the US).

[Mrs.Claus]

Well it was a CRAZY CHRISTMAS but everything went well at least. We are finally home from the in-laws and will be celebrating New Year's at home - which I like as there is not a lot of pressure to be places and do things.

When at in-laws over New Year's we go out to a VERY expensive restaurant (we have no choice) and then bowling, but because we have a young niece and nephew everything is done early around 8 or 9. Then it's just sitting around waiting, which, as the kids say, gets rather boring.

When at home we have snack food out from around 5 and just keep adding to it throughout the night. We play board games and Wii family games, watch the ball drop, and then run to the basement to jump on bubble wrap laid out on the floor. Surprisingly the kids love this - hopefully it doesn't change as they get older.