Ten on Tuesday
Today's Ten on Tuesday topic is: 10 Things I Truly Enjoy About the Holiday Season
- Christmas music
- All the different holidays that happen at this time of year. Hanukkah, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and Kwanzaa - and I know there are more. I love learning about other religions and other cultures and customs.
- Christmas decorations. I've downsized mine in recent years, but I do like to decorate - it's festive and it always makes me smile. :-)
- Christmas music.
- Fruitcake. And don't say you don't like it. Generally speaking, most people who say they don't like it never had a good one. Try the Collin Street Bakery. I confess that I didn't get one this year because I could eat the entire thing.
- Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas CD. None of their others were as good, and they are not good in concert at all (I left at the intermission), but this CD is probably my all-time favorite.
- Watching Christmas movies, like Love, Actually (Ooo! there's a 10th Anniversary edition!) and White Christmas.
- Did I mention Christmas music?
- The Christmas Eve service at my church.
- That I am alive to celebrate another Holiday season :-)
I guess the one thing conspicuously absent on my list is time with family. My extended family doesn't really do much for Christmas or Thanksgiving any more. Gone are the years of Christmas Eve at my late Aunt's and Christmas Day at my cousin's mom's. I will likely spend some time at one or the other of my cousins' homes, but lives are busy and putting something together for a large extended family is a lot of work and a lot of money. I suppose that, as the matriarch of the clan, so to speak, I should probably have something at my house, but I don't because many of my extended family smoke - they don't really enjoy coming here because they have to go outside. It's the same reason I don't stay long at any of their gatherings - they know that my breathing will be affected by cigarette smoke so they are kind enough to not smoke around me, but then the gatherings always split, with smokers outside and a few of us left inside. I always feel like I'm imposing somehow. In any case. I do love Christmas time and I am very grateful to be here to celebrate another :-)
Enjoy . . .
Enjoy . . .
Comments
Having smoking relatives really would put a damper on gatherings.
If I gain 10 pounds this season, I'm gonna blame YOU. After your last mention of Collin Street Bakery, I remembered visiting one in person with my mom and sampling some of their versions. Then I found a coupon in the paper, and ended up ordering a pecan and apricot fruitcake. A blogpal recently shared her family recipe that looked really good, too; I might have to try it!