2006 Advent Blog Tour

Marg and Kailana came up with this fun idea of an Advent Blog Tour. I signed up for today. I wanted to share with you a few of the cute ornaments my husband used to carve BEFORE becoming a UPS man, which is synomous with Santa Claus this time of year.


Every year he would carve me a star or snowflake. Here's a sampling of the beautiful stars I have hanging on my Christmas tree. The middle picture is a star of David and even though we are not of Jewish lineage, it's this star that sits atop the tree. It looks quite big in this picture. In reality it is about the same size as the other stars.

This bottom picture shows three of the ornaments he carved for our three daughters.


At the time he was carving we only had 3 daughters. Now there's 4. Sadly, M had stopped carving, so daughter #4 only has store-bought ornaments. I'm hoping when he retires, M will carve some for her.

I love these 3 ornaments because they look similar to the girls at those ages. They are wearing the coats, gloves and boots they wore then. I made the youngest's coat out of a pleated skirt my mother had made me when I was 8th grade. Isn't that a terrific example of resourcefulness?!

The idea was that when the girls left home they could take their ornaments with them. It was a nice idea all those years ago, but now we don't have their darling ornaments to adorn our tree any longer. The only ones we wouldn't let them take were the 3 carolers. We felt like they needed to stay together until we are both gone. The kids enjoy putting their ornaments on their trees in their new places, though, so I'll miss them in a happy sorta way.

Christmas Movies

This is my third post for the G.I.F.T. Challenge (on this site, anyway). Part of the challenge is to read, watch, etc. something you haven't before or at least not for a long time. So I rented a couple of movies that I'd heard other bloggers recommend. Our daughter went to SLC, so M and I could watch black and whites without receiving any flack. First we watched Going My Way with Bing Crosby. It's not typically a Christmas movie, but it came on the same disc from Netflix that Holiday Inn was on, so we watched it. Ohhh, it was good. Much slower paced from movies that are produced today, but still very good. It reminded me that there was once upon a time when boys wore their pants above their bottoms, not revealing any underware! Then we watched Holiday Inn, which is a favorite of M's, but I don't think I've ever seen it before. It was fun hearing Bing's beautiful voice and watching Fred Astaire dance. Such talent. And, of course, in the end, everything turned out just the way you wanted it to.

To start the weekend, we watched Scrooge on Friday night. I made mention of it in an earlier post. Again, a bit slower paced than we're used to, but a wonderful portrayal of Scrooge by Albert Finney. I had forgotten quite a bit so it was good to watch it again.

Finally, on Sat. night we watched Polar Express on tv. UGH! Those pesky commercials! The movie was truly a feast for the imagination. We really enjoyed it. It doesn't seem like a children's movie, though. More for older kids, teens, and adults.

Thirteen Christmas Traditions

I'm combining my Thursday Thirteen list with Carl's G.I.F.T. (Giving Inspiration, Fostering Tradition) challenge. The challenge is giving of yourself for the shared edification and inspiration of others. Your favorite Christmas movie, story, song, etc. may just inspire others to try it out. At the very least we will share in your joy and enthusiasm as you give us a glimpse into who you are by sharing memories, traditions, and favorites.

This is entry 2 out of 4 for this challenge. Parts of this post have been posted previously in a meme. Sorry for the repetition.

1. We decorate our tree with colored lights and the hand carved ornaments that my husband did for the kids when they were younger. As the kids have grown and moved out, they have taken their ornaments with them, but we still have the carved stars that he made for me.

2. Every year each child, and now grandchildren, get a new Christmas ornament. They used to be carved, but now they are bought.

3. In my husband's and my family we buy gifts for one of the other siblings and rotate through the family year after year. In my family we used to draw names for the cousins to exchange presents, but that's fallen by the wayside since so many are married and moved to the far reaches of the US.

4. Every December, after all the family members in town have their trees up, we do a progressive dinner, moving from house to house for the next part of the dinner. That way we make the rounds and enjoy the Christmas spirit in each other homes.

5. At my house we try to watch the movie Scrooge starring Albert Finney.

6. We celebrate the joy of light during the darkest days of the year with a Danish tradition I read about years ago. I don't remember the real word, but over the years it's become known to us as Who Goolie. We turn on the tree lights and light all the candles in the living room. All other lights are off. We sing carols, retell stories and cuddle lots.

7. In addition to the Who Goolie we do in the living room, we do traveling Who Goolies. We pick up my mother and drive around the valley seeing all the lights and decorations. I love to think about the light of Christ chasing off the darkness and that all the decorative lights are symbolic of that.

8. Since I was just tiny and, probably before I was born, we have held a special family night on Christmas eve to celebrate the season of Christ's birth. I'm almost 56 and we still get together at my mom's home on Christmas eve. We all bring a dish and share a wonderful, festive dinner. Then there's a program that includes the story of Christ's birth with lots of songs thrown in. After the program we open presents to and from Grandma and our sibling exchange present.

9. Once back to our house on Christmas eve, each of our children open one present. It's always pajamas! My parents did the same thing with their children.

10. Our daughter, husband and the 2 grandchildren live right behind us, so on Christmas morning we wait for the call alerting us that the children are awake. Then we hurry through the gate and in the back door to enjoy what Santa has brought to them. Then we come back over here and enjoy our Santa presents.

11. Before opening wrapped presents, I slip into the kitchen and throw together a healthy breakfast casserole of eggs, sausage, and croutons that bakes for 50 min.

12. While breakfast is cooking, we take turns opening presents. Just as we're sitting back with a delighted sigh and the suggestion of hunger working its way into our thoughts, the buzzer in the kitchen rings. We gather around the table for breakfast casserole, grapefruit, juice and toast.

13. We enjoy the morning together, then start out on a traveling caravan that goes from one family members home to the next. At each stop we pick up more members for the caravan. Eventually we end up at my mother's house where we share pots of soup we've all made a couple days before Christmas. My sister makes a birthday cake. We sing Happy Birthday to our Savior and thank Him for all our blessings.

2006 G.I.F.T. Challenge

The blogosphere's very own Carl V. is hosting another terrific challenge. For the Christmas season it's the 2006 G.I.F.T Challenge, which stands for Giving Inspiration, Fostering Tradition.

What you agree to do, if you choose to participate, is to partake of and/or post on any 4 of the following:

Christmas movies
Christmas novels/short stories
Christmas songs
Christmas poems
Christmas traditions
Christmas memories

For whichever 4 things you choose you will post about them. That is where the giving comes in. Giving of yourself for the shared edification and inspiration of others. Your favorite Christmas movie, story, song, etc. may just inspire others to try it out. At the very least we will share in your joy and enthusiasm as you give us a glimpse into who you are by sharing memories, traditions, and favorites.

My favorite Christmas movie is the musical Scrooge starring Albert Finney. The picture of him on this cover looks pretty dorky, but trust me, the movie is great, the best rendition of Dicken's Christmas Carol I've ever seen. Alec Guiness plays the part of Morley's ghost and he does an awesome job. In fact, all the ghosts are amazing. The flashbacks to Scrooge's past are heartwarming and heart-breaking. It's time to pull it out and watch it again.

Merry Christmas!