Christmas Part 3

In my family, we don't really have any set Christmas dinner/gathering traditions, anymore.  Like I said before, things are always changing.

I don't throw around the words "as a firefighter's wife" too much, but I do, if possible, try to work it so he isn't left of the Holiday festivities.

That meant, this year we, and my sister's family, gathered at my Mom and Dad's house on Dec. 23rd and 24th.

This actually a relatively newer tradition for us. We've only been going up to my parent's the past few years.
Before that, we would go to my oldest Aunt's on Christmas Eve day, then after Christmas we would go to Florida and have Christmas with my parents and sister and her family down there.
    At some point I can't really recall at the moment, my Mom or Dad wanted to start having Christmas up here at their mountain home (Dad's Mom's home) again.

We packed a lot of fun into two days. I'm not sure how we did it, that Christmas magic, I guess.

On Sunday, the 23rd, John-the-husband got off from work, came home, and we packed the car and hit the road. It's just over a two hour drive from here to there.

We arrived, said Hey, and then several of us jumped in Mom's van and went shopping up in Murphy.
      Just Walmart, but we had a good time.

When we got back to Mom's, dinner was ready, so we ate, and then we played our White Elephant gift exchange game....which we're still not very good at doing.

My sister started this White Elephant thing a few years ago, to replace our normal gift exchange. I didn't do well with it, because I had already bought specific gifts for specific people, and when something you buy your niece ends up getting opened by her younger brother, no one's happy.

So the following year, I bought random, meaningless, kinda dumb gifts. But her gifts were pretty good. She just wrapped them in funny or trick boxes, and had an idea that after unwrapping the box, you still couldn't open the box - which seemed redundant to me - and decide if you wanted to keep the gift or trade, or...something.

I was not doing well last Christmas, and don't really remember much about it, but apparently my complaints finally got through, and she said, okay, give to who you want to (which actually means, give to everyone, because you don't give to one or two, and not the others), and also something for the white elephant exchange. Now that I could live with.
    Except I still suck at the gifts because, it's not gag gifts, it's decent gifts, but it may go to a 20 year old girl, or a 70 year old man, or anyone in between, and I don't know how to shop for that. I ended up just buying cheese&sausage and popcorn&candy sets.  Turned out, they loved those.

We played several rounds of Uno Attack, and had some cocktails, and snacked, and then later several of us jumped in Mom's van and went to look at Christmas lights.

These aren't my videos, but it all looked pretty much the same. It was bee-yooo-ti-fullll! 




The next morning we had breakfast, and then me, my sister, and my niece went shopping at some thrift and discount stores that were closed the day before.

We got back and ate dinner, then did our family gift exchange.

Later we had drinks and dessert.

My youngest niece decorated some of my gingerbread cookies for Santa.

A little while later we had to say our good-byes and head home.
   It went by so fast, but it was, I think, one of our better Christmases. One I'll probably remember best.

Back at home, we opened our Christmas gifts because John-the-husband had to go to work the next morning and, to be honest, none of the gifts were worth getting up extra early to open.
   I told them, this year I went for quantity over quality. They got a lot of gifts to open, but most would have normally been considered stocking stuffers: air freshener for Ryan's car, sticks of deodorant, bag of sour gummy worms, theater box of candy, etc. They neither needed, nor wanted anything.
    Because when they do want something, they just buy it right then.

Then I sat and watched one of my favorite Christmas movies.

On Christmas Day, me and the boys went to visit their older brother, my oldest son, and take him presents and have dinner.

We had a good laugh when Ryan came downstairs.

The spending limit on our white elephant gift exchange is $15.00, so if my Mom spends less than that, she'll include cash to make it $15.00.

So these red Santa shorts were one of her white elephant gifts, with $10.00 included.
   When the gift stealing was going on, Ryan says he wants those red shorts. We all thought he wanted the $10.00.
Haha, nope! He really wanted the shorts.

He's so funny.

Christmas Part 2

In addition to decorating, I celebrate the Christmas season in a couple of other ways, one is my traditional Christmas baking/making, and also doing Christmas-related Activities.
We don't really have many set Traditional activities we do. We used to, but things are always changing.
      For instance, we used to take the kids to the Mall every year to visit Santa and get The Photo, but they outgrew that in their teens.
      So many things change, over the years...kids grow up, marriages, deaths, illness, work schedules, activities shut down/get too expensive, etc. etc.

So, about as Traditional as it gets is that I just see whatever is going on, that looks fun to do, that fits our schedules, at that time.

One caveat to all that is the one Tradition I keep, that isn't really all that fun to me, is Christmas Shopping.

     I think I hang on to this Tradition for two reasons, that I can think of...one, obviously, is gift buying.
I started doing a lot of shopping online, but there's always a few I have no idea what to get, so I think going into the stores and looking, maybe I will find it.

The other reason is sentimental/emotional. Memories of Days Gone By.
    I miss the over-the-top, but tastefully-decorated Malls, the days when people didn't shop 24/7 and have everything they wanted, and a new sweater, record album, or doll was much appreciated.

I'm basically looking for something that's no longer there, but oh well, it's not so bad.  It's time spent with my family, and usually fulfills reason number one, even if I end up buying Sausage&Cheese Sets.

I didn't do too well photo-menting our shopping adventures, but the fun Cousin Eddie display was spotted during one of our outings.
     This was apparently a popular thing this year. I shared mine, and my sister shared one she saw in her area, and then my Aunt saw another one.

One that used to be more a Tradition, but fell mostly to the wayside over the years is going to look at Christmas light displays.
I really enjoy them, but I guess not enough to make a point of going most of the time.

This year, I made a point of us going to a couple of them.
      They were pretty awesome. I made more video than photos, and the photos didn't turn out very well...but Pupper enjoyed the lights, too.

Then there is my Traditional Christmas Treat making/baking I do every December.

I started making the white-chocolate-dipped Oreos a few - actually, many, at this point - years ago, after Oreo/Nabisco came out with them.
    The boys asked for a box one time, and I bought them a couple of times (a couple of Decembers) but they got to where the price was higher, and the cookie content was lesser, so I said, I believe I can make those. And I did.
     Later I added the white-chocolate dipped pretzels, and milk chocolate-dipped Oreos.
       
I could make these all year 'round, but I don't. Only December, so they remain Special.

I do make Rice Krispy treats year 'round, but only at Christmas will you see/get one of my Rice Krispy treat Wreaths.
      (Rice Krispy treats pressed into my bundt cake pan, wrapped in green saran-wrap, red-hot cinnamon candies glued with red cake frosting.)
      (The plate is made from cardboard. Traced the top edge of my bundt cake pan, cut it out, wrapped it in tin foil.)

Other than those two particular things, the treats may be different from year to year. Depends on requests, or new things I want to try out.

Believe it or not, I had never actually made gingerbread cookies before!
    I mostly stopped trying to make cookies a good while ago, because I apparently suck at making cookies. But Ryan was having a gathering with friends, and wanted some Christmas party activities to do, and decorating gingerbread cookies was one of the ideas.

   I suggested he get Little Debbie gingerbread men and decorate those, but then oddly enough I didn't see any of those in the store this year.
    So, I said, well, guess I'll give it a try. And, amazingly, they came out good! I credit my Kitchen-aid mixer. I'm not sure why but, everything I make with it seems to come out really good.

I made a batch of Candied Pecans (pecans from my backyard..I'm so proud of that, except I can't take credit for it. All credit to the Trees, Mother Nature, God) and Cheese Straws to give as gifts.

Ryan had mentioned something about a gingerbread cheesecake awhile back. He wasn't sure such a thing existed, but if it didn't, it should.
    So, me being me, I came home and researched it, and found out, yes there is such a thing, and I made one for Christmas.  Starting with baking homemade gingersnap cookies to use for the crust.

The cookies came out excellent! The cheesecake was good also (I'm told. I don't like cheesecake myself), but seriously, I never have been a good cookie maker.

For my last amazing feat (LoL) we start with growing my own Chocolate-Mint plants.
    Don't be terribly impressed, Mint isn't actually that hard to grow.

But back in the Summer I picked some of it and put in a jar with Vodka, stored in a dark cabinet, gave it a shake every so often.
    Few months later, I strained out the leaves, and was left with Chocolate mint flavoring.
        It ain't too pretty, but it's good. 

I used it to make homemade Ande's candies and Peppermint Patties. (Also not pretty, but my first time. I need practice.)

The recipe called for semi-sweet chocolate chips, so I'm not sure why mine came out looking more milk-chocolate than black-chocolate, like the recipes I followed pictures.

Anyway, I'm told they were good, and everyone was impressed to hear I made the mint flavoring from plants growing in my backyard.

Christmas Part 1

 *Warning: Photo Heavy*

Sadly, I never did decorate for Halloween this (past) year, but I did fairly well for Christmas. Better than I was expecting, tbh. 

I had gotten this Christmas tree in some of my Free-finds, had cleaned it up and planned to offer it to someone who didn't have/couldn't afford a tree.

I didn't get around to offering last year, and ended up bringing it in the kitchen to decorate for use in my Gingerbread kitchen theme decor. The tree sat (in the way, mostly) on my carport all year.
I *almost* gave it - or one of the other three "garbage" trees I have piled up around here, but the person that asked for/I offered a tree to never contacted me back, so...Idk what was up with that. 

Anyway, I brought the tree back in and put the gingerbread-y decor on it.

 The majority of the tree decor was cinnamon-applesauce "gingerbread cookies", that still smell very cinnamon-y.  Every time I walked into the kitchen I got a craving for cinnamon toast.
Seriously, I bet I ate a whole loafa bread worth of cinnamon toast by myself, lol.

 On my Baker cabinet I just replaced my big, metal mixing bowls with a gingerbread house cookie jar, and added some vintage ornaments, Mr. & Mrs. Claus S&P shakers ($ Tree), a gingerbread candle ($ Tree), and cinnamon-apple liquid potpourri ($ Tree) in an old jar sitting on a candle or mug warmer.

 At some point last Fall, I got the idea I wanted to switch my living and dining rooms. It's one of those long stories about my house, but basically, my dining room suit was too big for my dining room.

I had previously had a comfortable den in the dining room, so I thought instead of a good-size living room and a too-small dining room, I would have a comfortable living room and a just-right-size dining room.
Well, the dining room idea worked out great!
The living room, not so much.

The room shrank when I moved everything out of it, so the two recliners doubled in size, the vintage 70's stereo in the corner suddenly took up half the room, and the couch wouldn't go through the doors into the room, at all, period.
The Christmas tree tripled in size when brought into the room.

So, I cried - because what else are you going to do? - decided the dining room would have a couch in it, and moved on.

This tree - another free-find destined for the landfill - is decorated with repro 70's C9 lights, vintage Woolworth silver garland, 70's lighted tree topper, and several but not all of my ornaments collected over the years.

I don't really have any vintage ornaments for the tree - unless you count 90's glass balls, which, it's getting to the point that 90's is going to be considered vintage really soon. Aaak.

Most of the ornaments this year were ones I pick up in our travels, for instance this year we vacationed, in our camper, at Jekyll Island, Georgia, and the Western North Carolina area.

I decorated the faux-fireplace mantle in this room with some of my vintage Christmas collection - which includes my little Charlie Brown Christmas tree, although it's not vintage, but the cartoon is.

 I found these little Elf legs at Dollar Tree and wanted to use them, even though I wished it had been Santa Claus legs instead -

 I laughed at myself awhile back....Dollar Tree had witch legs like these, and I was like, Oh that's cool! and looked for some, but when I found them, the shoes were flat, and I didn't really like the look of them....and then it occurred to me, Wait a minute, witches don't come down the chimney anyway. LOL

I had a Dollar Tree sign I tacked up on the side of the faux-fireplace, facing the carport door, and another Santa sign someone had gifted me several years ago, I hung on the wall,

 In getting ready to switch up the rooms, I cleaned out all the stuff I had stored in my china cabinet...and came across this Santa incense burner again.

 I got him back in the late 80's/early 90's, when the Christmas Around the World home parties were a big thing (like Tupperware, and Home Interiors).

His chair lifts off the round platform and you put an incense cone, and smoke wafts up through a hole in his hot chocolate cup.

I can't remember where I found him again, cleaning out some things, but no way I was getting rid of him, no way!

I hadn't seen incense cones in years - hadn't looked, so Idk if they were out there - but I didn't know where to find any, so I checked Ebay....which led me to this beautiful lighted rustic cabin incense burner.
    The chimney comes off for you to put the incense cone in, then the smoke comes up out of the top of the chimney.

With the cabin, I pulled together some "rustic" pieces I had been collecting here and there, but had never really done anything with yet, on top of the old living room/now dining room fireplace mantel.
    It still didn't turn out great, but maybe one day I'll figure out how to display those two red lanterns pretty.

My sister and brother-in-law made the pallet tree as Christmas gift last year, from some fence wood that had been knocked down during one of the Florida hurricanes (*note to self, find out which hurricane and write it on the back. Won't be a good story, if I can't remember the story!).

I added the "rusty" star at the top...it's actually made out of a cereal box, and the lights and strand of red beads I found at thrift stores.

I made the cardboard Rudolph a couple of years ago.

I had this little tree - you guessed it, a free-find!

I cleaned it up and had no plans for it until awhile back I had saw an idea or ad or something, where someone had spray-painted a fake tree pink.
  Y'all know I'm all about spray-painting!

I saw some beautiful white trees with red and blue, America! decor, and *loved* that, and definitely wanted a Patriotic tree for my own!

But I never could bit the bullet and spray paint the tree white, so I ended up decorating with my "rustic" ornaments, most of which came from Dollar Tree.

So, now I'm on the look-out for a free, white tree...or, worse comes to worst, break down and spray-paint one I already have and hope I don't ruin it.

Because next year, I'll be looking to do a Patriotic Christmas theme (why haven't I already??). 

     These items were some of things I found while thrifting before Christmas.
I had meant to go Christmas shopping. For others, not myself.
     I didn't know what to buy others, but I racked up! LOL.
          I told my sister, we went Christmas shopping today and I bought a lot of gifts!...for myself.
    
The Patriotic Santa was $3.99, and the red, white, and blue oil lamp (missing globe) was half off, so like $2.50.

The other Santas I also got half-off so they were $2.00 or less, and the 80's era cross-stitch was 30-something-cents.

Also, I attempted to set up my little glitter houses in my china cabinet.
     I think it needs more.....something.

Anyway, I figured out to use stick-up, press-on, battery lights from Dollar Tree to light it up.
     Or light up whatever is in there to be displayed.  I've previously tried to display things in this cabinet, and it did not display well. 

I also finished some glitter-putz candy-gingerbread houses I had been working on for gifts.
   I was making myself one, too, but messed it up and threw it away. Hopefully I'll get me one made sometime this year.

Chiffarobe Re-Do

Awhile back, my neighbor hired me/us to clean out her garage for her.
     She just wanted everything gone; I could keep anything worth keeping, and sell, donate or toss the rest. A lot had to be taken to the dump because age/weather/mice, but there was a few items I was able to salvage/clean up.

One of the things was an antique chiffarobe.*
     Couple of years ago I posted about we'd remodeled the old upstairs kitchen into a bedroom. It didn't have a closet, and I didn't especially want to take space from the room to build one, so I had been on the lookout for a wardrobe of some sort.

The chiffarobe was a little rickety so we added some bracing inside, tightened some nails and added some screws.

The clothes hanging brackets ran from front to back, one on each side.
     We removed those, and added closet pole hangers, and a dowel for a closet pole.

I painted the outside with white semi-gloss paint I already had.

It didn't originally have knobs, but it was difficult opening the doors with just the key in a key hole, so I decided to add handles or knobs.
     Not long after, my brother-in-law moved houses, and threw out some old, cheap, broken down furniture (yes, I did bring home a few items anyway)....There was a dresser or night table, I can't remember which, that the drawer front had fallen off, so I grabbed it and took the set of knobs from it. Spray painted them gloss-black.

I painted the interior a blue/lavender'ish color that is not nearly as electric-neon color as it looks in the picture...I don't know the name of the color, it was a can of paint I acquired or was given, with a sample of the color dabbed on the outside of the can, but had no sticker with the color name or mix....and painted the pole black.
   

Wa-la! (Voila', I just get a kick out of ppl saying wa-la!)
    A lovely closet (if I do say so myself) that only cost about $3 bucks, for the dowel.


* Technically it's a wardrobe, because it has no drawers, but we have just always called these types of pieces of furniture 'chiffarobe' (correct spelling is chifferobe), except for the cedar wardrobe Grannie had, we called the cedarobe, lol.