Christmas Traditions- decorating the tree

Hi

A few days late with the next installment of christmas traditions but hey! This week I want to focus on our traditions for decorating the tree. Probably the most traditional thing we will look at!

The tree is big in our house. Literal and metaphorical.
It doesn't go up until all of us are home for holidays. We all broke up on Friday so the excitment of going home was added to by the excitment that soon the tree would go up.

We always get a real tree. Nothing beats the smell of pine when you come into the lounge or the ecclectic mix of short and long branches! It is our little tradition that my dad and I go together to choose the tree. Just the two of us. I am normally very fussy about what one we get but this year there was only one left in the right size! Shock horror!

So, the tree is pushed into the back of the car with much umming and aahhing. At its destination it is hauled out and the umming and aahhing starts again as it is balanced in the holder and screwed in...only to find that it is on a tilt.

Once it is inside the house we have the time honoured task of seeing which set of fairy lights work. There is always one set yes? The one set that are put away fine but come out not working. Typical. At this stage we all donn the christmas hats and antlers and I make myself busy with the christmas music.

Then, as it has always been. Mum sorts through the decorations and passes them to the rest of us. We choose where they go and there is much critical comment along these lines...

" The left side of the tree looks bear."

"well put the next decoration there."

"T, stop putting them so low."

" A, no one will see that decoration at the back!" etc etc.

But the job gets done with much laughter. The last thing to go on are the chocolates and the littlest always insists on putting his in its "secret place" which he promptly forgets five days later. ( In our house, christmas tree chocolates aren't allowed to be eaten until christmas eve!)

So, the fire crackles, the camera pans around and laughters falls through the air.

Yep, christmas at it's best.

Do you have traditions for decorating the tree?

Thanks for stopping by

xxxx

Christmas Traditions- Christmas books

Hi

Thank you all so much for your response on the advent post. I loved reading about your advent traditions. All so different but clearly so special to you.

So, today I am moving on to another tradition in our family which is the christmas books.

Books are big in our house. Each room has at least one bookcase and I have known my family to spend an hour or more in a bookshop- just browsing. My Mum has even given a book away to a charity shop, promptly forgot what book it was and subsequently bought it again the next week. True story.

You get the picture. It then only follows that we have a plethora of christmas books that come out in December. With mum being a teacher, most of these are childrens books. I have to admit though, they still come out every year and we still read them. There is a strange sense of cosy familiarity that comes with reading a book year after year.

Very simply I just want to give a list of my favourites. My favourite christmas books that I come back to year after year.

First up is Letters from Father Christmas by Tolkein

This is a truly beautiful book. In it's simplest form it is the collection of letters Father Christmas wrote to the Tolkein children. The book is complete with pictures of the original envelopes and letters. As time went on and the children grew up, Father Christmas writes longer and longer letters as he expanded his household to include several elves and a very naughty north polar bear. Tolkein included beautiful hand drawn sketches in each letter.

A really magical book that honestly lets you believe in santa again.

The Christmas Mystery.

A book for older children and a fictional tale of a young boy who recieves a magic advent calender. Each day a piece of paper falls out with the continued story of a young girl who makes the pilgirimage back in time to the birth of Christ. The mystery centres around whether this actually happened and who in fact made the calendar.

I am reading this to the girls in my dorm and they are enthralled by it. There is a chapter for each day of advent so it is keeping them well and truly hooked.

Mary's first Christmas.

This book has the most beautiful illustrations I have ever seen. A childrens book with a difference. The story follows the boy Jesus as he starts asking questions about his birth and Mary his mother gives her account. Very biblically sound and a beautiful message.

A Wayne in a Manger

Not a childrens book but about children. Gervase Phinn gives a true and very amusing account of life in the dales as a school inspector. Very very funny. Typical antics of a childrens nativity. Below is a short introduction to it..

"Every teacher of young children has a story to tell about the Christmas Nativity play. There was the time the Innkeeper, when asked if there was any room in the inn, answered, 'Plenty', and ushered the startled Holy Family inside; the occasion when Mary dropped Baby Jesus, immediately bursting into floods of tears as the large pink doll rolled off the stage; the time that the Archangel Gabriel informed Mary that he had tidings of great joy to bring but had completely forgotten what they were; and the memorable moment when the giant cardboard star, which had been suspended on a wire above the stage, fell on Joseph who, very much out of character, rubbed his head and exclaimed, 'Bloody 'ell!' Then there was the time when the little boy playing Joseph strode confidently onto the stage and asked the small figure in blue who was cradling her baby, 'And how's our Jesus been today, Mary?' 'He's been a right little so-and-so!' came the blunt reply."

So. What are your favourite christmas books. I would love recomendations. Are there any new christmas books you have found?
 

Thanks for stopping by

 

xxx

Storytelling sunday-The story of the backwards christmas

It's funny isn't it as you grow older? Christmas sparkle is tinged slightly with more stress. Presents need to be bought, money to do so is not forth coming and finding the elusive gift for your Dad gets harder as the years go on.

I am totally and irrevocably in love with christmas. I am going to put that out there. My christmas music gets played on the first of December and I still have an advent calendar. But.. as the years have rolled on and the idea of santa moves further away, I am seeing christmas from a more grown up perspective...

That was until this year. This year when suddenly I was thrown back into a world of children, of uncontained christmas excitement. When suddenly Father Christmas was real and very much alive, when the putting up of a tree made the little ones squeal and when each little face every morning pressed his or her nose to the window in the hope of snow.

That my friends is christmas as it is meant to be. I always get excited at this time of year but this year it is different. I am full of expectation, of joy. I am loving seeing christmas again through a childs eyes. I am loving talking to each of them about their christmas traditions.

 I feel I have gone back in time. I am a grown woman living a childs christmas and that is the best thing ever. For when else do you get to cut out paper snowflakes, turn "let it snow" up on the speakers and dance around with a group of nine year olds.  

Yes, this is a backward christmas but one I am heartily enjoying.

I want to finish with a story about a little girl I know that really made me chuckle.

A small girl aged nine decided that this year she was going to prove that Father Christmas was real. She therefore set a cunning trap on christmas eve night. Sneaking downstairs she grabbed a bag of flour and brought it up to her bedroom whereupon she shook it gently over the floor. The effect was lovely- rather like fake snow. Smiling happily she turned off her light and fell asleep.

The small girl was incredibly excited next morning to find large footprints in the flour. Santa was real then!

Mum and Dad however were less happy that the small girl had not told them of her plans and now had a mass of flour to clean up on christmas day.

True story.

Finally huge huge thanks go to Sian. Storytelling Sunday has been such a joy to be part of . I have loved having an outlet to write, loved connecting with new people and have loved hearing many beautifully told tales. Thank you.

P.S I would love it would you would take a look at the post below and help me document our christmas traditions!

Christmas traditions

Hi

Apologies for being away so long but I have some exciting things to share...

Over the course of the next few weeks in the run up to Christmas I am going to share a few Christmas traditions. I am unashamedly excited by Christmas and the more I talk to people about it, the more I realise how special our own traditions are. Each tradition makes our Christmas what it is.

So, I figured that during the season of goodwill it would be great to share some traditions with each other. Maybe we can give ideas or maybe we can just really enjoy connecting over a really special time of year.

I am going to start with the theme of advent. The theme will be “live” from now to next Thursday. What are your advent traditions? How do you start preparing for advent? Do you have an advent calendar?

My advent traditions are ingrained into Beach family Christmas. In many respects my family are traditional and so for many many years advent calendars were strictly non chocolate. Mind you as a child finding a picture every morning was still very exciting.

My two brothers and I would each receive a calendar from our two sets of grandparents and they would arrive in the post at some point through November and remain on display waiting for Advent. It was always fun to admire the pictures on them and assess who had the most glitter on their calendar. It was fun to see them sitting on the sideboard just waiting to be opened on the first of December.

Even now I still go to bed on the 30th of November feeling excited that soon I can prise that little door open. The first day of advent duly came and we would rush downstairs to find the number one. One at a time we would open the door and admire the picture behind the window. I always tore my doors off while the littlest brother kept his open. The middle one went through a stage of tearing the doors off and keeping them in a box in his room! Even in opening the advent calendar we had our own traditions!

As we got older my mum discovered that there was such a thing as a playmobil advent calendar. Well, let me tell you that the excitement reached fever pitch. A plastic figure in each box! Far far more exciting than a picture.

Not only did we have an advent calendar each but also an advent candle on the table. Each breakfast it was lit and we watched the number slowly burn down.

Over the years the advent calendar excitement dimmed, yet we all still receive one in the post from my grandma and we now - much to our mothers consternation- buy our own chocolate ones! The candle is still on the table each December and the cat still tries to knock it over!

Advent for us was always about preparing, of waiting and of expectancy.

What are your advent traditions?

If you blog about them please leave a link in the comments so we can all share and feel free to take the christmas traditions picture at the top of the post!

Thanks for stopping by.

xxx

I will thrive

The other day I read this from one of my favourite bloggers.

What really struck me was her desire to thrive rather than just survive.

Ok, so I know the boy isn't on deployment etc but the truth of those words really hit me. So bearing that in mind I write this letter to my man.

Dear T

A lot has changed in the past few months. We are a long way from each other. We have gone from seeing each other every day to seeing each other on average once a month. This is the one year we will be furthest apart.

More than anything I want to come out of this strong and confident. I want to mature and grow and understand more.

I want to come out of this year with a deeper realisation of you and us. I want to use this year to trust. To trust in God's timing and plans and trust in your love. I want to grow as a woman to be the best I can be for you.

I don't want to just survive this year.

Even in three months we have grown. We have communicated more, shared more, loved more.

More than anything I have learnt to accept. You do not find this as difficult as me but I am learning to accept a situation that I have no control over.

In short we have grown up.

We are learning that Happy comes from knowing each other are in the right place. I am blessed that you "get" me, that you love that I am loving my job. I am blessed to know that you care so much that I am happy.

On paper this year is not ideal.

In reality we are thriving.

Me and you; we are doing just fine.

xx

Storytelling Sunday: The mud pies

Hi, today I am joining in with Sian and her storytelling sunday.

This is a very simple story that makes me smile.

The location: The school woods.

The time: A sunny saturday afternoon.

The culprits: Three eight year old girls.

On a saturday afternoon the boarders who are in for the weekend either have matches or they have time to play. Time, to run around, make things, ride their bikes or build dens in the woods.

It was my turn yesterday to supervise the children playing in the woods. I hasten to add that this is one of the childrens favourite activities and my least favourite especially when it is cold.

But, the sun was shining and the children were keen and excited. So, donning the wellies we marched into the wood and there opened up for them a world of leaves, branches and superb den building space.

Half an hour passed and the shouts of the children echoed around the beautiful space. Squelching along I soon came across three of the girls. Each girl was standing in the muddiest place they could find and were picking up huge sloppy lumps of sticky black mud.

On asking what they were doing they gave me a time honoured answer  "we're making a mud pie."

And what was I to do but smile and take the photos? The sleeves weren't rolled up, trousers were coming out of wellies, mud was plastered over jumpers, arms and faces yet they were having the time of their lives. The didn't need expensive playstations or tv's. All they needed was a mess.

And at the end of it all, they were popped straight into a bath.

Who was I to stop them?

The corner chair

When I am at home I like to sit in the corner chair.

Here by the window in the armchair with the light streaming in.

The chair closest to the window and closest to the radiator.

With the door propped open I can hear the ebb and flow of family life. I can hear the laughter, I hear the piano, I hear the questions and the answers.

I sit still yet things change around me. Brothers move in and out, the tv is off and on, newspapers are pulled out and then folded away.

Sometimes I am joined by the cat who snuggles close into my legs asking for affection.

I sit in my favourite chair watching and listening. Watching the world pass outside the window. Watching the light change as the day passes.

The room starts to feel smaller as curtains are closed as lamps come on and the heating fires up.

My favourite place to go when I want to be still. In the hub of everything the chair is an island.

A place to read for hours on end, a place to knit and feed soft yarn over the needles, a place to doze.

The corner chair. My favourite place when the clocks go back and the days get darker.

What is your favourite place? xxx