Christmas Break

After the first 2 Christmas celebrations this weekend that went incredibly well and six new inches of beautiful snow to make it a lovely white Christmas, I am signing off for my own Christmas holiday.

I am looking forward to Christmas jammies, movies, snuggles and good time spent with my guys.

Merry Christmas and many blessings to you all.

Quick Takes Quick Takes Roly Poly Quick Takes

Disclaimer about linking up with Jen.

1. My house is clean. And not just "sort've clean" but company clean. Which is good. A clean house is a good way to start off Christmas week.

2. I was supposed to get to go to see Saving Mr. Banks tonight with Husband. On a date. With a babysitter. But the only showing after bedtime is 10:10. And I have to see my in-laws tomorrow. I need my rest. So...

3. #Clanunseen Elf Party for the win! I was bummed that I already had plans but I guess I still do. Start Elf at 8:00 Central Time and tweet along with the group. I am SO glad I did this last year. It was kind of a good way to say "Hello" to Cari and Dwija and then both of them came by my blog afterward and then Theme Thursday started and... now it's almost time for the second Twitter Elf Party! Do it!

4. I like smiling, smiling's my favorite. (This is actually true. And an Elf quote. Fun fact.)

5. I am hoping the weather plays along for this next 12 days for all of my holiday events and travels. It doesn't look very hopeful but who knows? I live in the land of the nothing-actually-happened weather warning so it could go either way.

6. I have a serious lack of Christmas cards this year. Every day has been a huge let down. I mean, I guess there's still time. And maybe people are sending them late? But I actually feel a little less cheery without the season greetings and such.

7. Home Alone has been totally ruined for me since I became a mom. No really. My childhood is destroyed. Because there is no Verisimilitude. It does not follow the rules Aristotle set up for us. And even if you can believe that it is possible that the little boy going to Florida was counted in Kevin's place, and they rushed through the airport and didn't notice he was gone then either WHEN they DO notice and call the Police, they would not just say "Tell them to count their kids again." That's all I am saying. He's 8.

Theme Thursday: Dreaming

Alright folks, I going to mix it up a bit for Theme Thursday and I am going to blog ala Pioneer Woman. 

Unlike Ree I happen to like bananas and love banana goodies.

Steak and Shake Banana Shakes? I die a little. Side by side Chocolate Banana? Sinful. Of course I am talking about the yellow-y fake banana shakes not the "real banana shakes" they drag out once a year. I've had 2 of those. The first one was okay. The second one was grey and didn't taste like anything much less banana. Stick to the yellow ones.

And with that little side note on Steak and Shake I'd continue to rattle off banana things but let's just go ahead and say you get it? Mmkay good.

So. Anyway. Earlier today my sole punk (I'm being Ree remember?) climbed up on the kitchen table to the fruit bowl and took a bit out of one of the 3 really ripe bananas that were sitting there. He was VERY pleased with himself in a way only a toddler can be and since he managed to peel all 3 in this table escapade I knew it was time for banana muffins. As fate would have it, I had actually been saving those bananas for that very thing, C just kicked it into high gear I guess.

The recipe I use is a slight adaptation of this charming recipe. I've made it just as it is. They're good. But I like my version better.

Preheat your oven to 350 and gather your ingredients.

• 1.5 C All Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• .5 tsp salt
• 3 large overripe bananas
• 3/4 C sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 C melted butter
• splash of vanilla

You will want to get a bowl. I use a Martha Stewart Batter Bowl myself but whatever you've got is great. 

1. Mash the bananas. Mash 'em real good. (Do a little Salt-n-Pepa groove while you're doing that. I won't tell. Count it as cardio too if you want.) 

Right about here you will need to stop to feed your punk(s) macaroni and cheese and a clementine. They might need more milk. That's okay. The bananas can wait. 

Starting over... 

1. Melt the butter. Stovetop. Microwave. It doesn't matter just make it liquid. I know 1/3 C of butter seems irresponsible but you just did some cardio and butter is delicious.
2. Mix the butter, splash of vanilla, egg, sugar into the banana. Get it all together. 
3. Add the salt, baking powder and soda then mix it all up again. If your husband is home ogle his butt. If not just think about it. Ree would. 
4. Fold in the flour. This is when most recipes for muffins scare you about over mixing. Sometimes I under mix because I want them to turn out. So we're taking the word mix out. Just fold all the wet and flour together until you don't see white powder anymore. 
5. Pour into your muffin tin. I use Baker's Joy to spray the living daylights out of the pan but I am sure you can use paper baking cups if that's more your thing. This step is where the batter bowl comes in handy in case you were curious. 
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Our oven runs hot. Yours might not. The tops of the muffins will bounce back if touched or stick a toothpick in 'em. Your house is going to smell really really good. Unless you don't like bananas. 
7. Take them out of the tin to cool them. 
8. Eat them. I like butter on my banana bread/muffins. If you do too take a bite of these without the butter just once. The melted butter in the recipe does magic and it already has a great flavor. But then go ahead and butter it anyway. We are being Ree people and she uses butter like there's no tomorrow. 

So that's really just it. You should go make these.

The ultimate in unedited Theme Thursday pictures you guys. Because I am dreaming about Ree's kitchen(s) and her mega million $ book deals and show and everything. Yet I like my life and the fact that my cooling rack is next to my crock pot, a bag of Cuties, the scissors used to get into the bag of Cuties, a pen and the Lead never goes Extinct magnet. That is real life. 

Dreaming is fine. But real life is even better today. Now I'm going to go have a muffin since it is nap time I won't have to share. Linking up with Cari. 

Stay Awake! Be Ready! Paper Towels!

Do you know the song Stay Awake Be Ready?

When I was but a wee tike in Sunday school even (I think I was actually younger than RE age. Hunter was in my class then. Hunter was in my confirmation class years later.) we sang the song for our Christmas program.

Stay awake! Be ready!

You do not know the hour

when the Lord is coming. 

Stay awake! Be ready! 

The Lord is coming soon. 

Alleluia, Alleluia!

The Lord is coming soon!

If there is one song that makes me think of Christmas/Advent it is that song. Even now I will sing it loudly and proudly because even though it is SO simple it is perfect. It encompasses the anticipation of Advent with the childlike impatience we may have.

On some level  I am ready for it to just be Christmas already! I love Christmas. Maybe not as much as I love Easter but I still love Christmas. I am ready to give gifts and enjoy time with my family. I love giving gifts, it's totally one of my main love languages. I am more excited for certain people to open the gifts I picked for them than I am for receiving anything. I mean, not my in-laws, I could give them the best gift ever and I would get no response at all. Everyone else though? Super excited!

On another level I am really enjoying this waiting part. The promise of what's yet to come is exciting.

In totally unrelated note we are on our last roll of paper towels. I love paper plates and paper towels. I know that they cost money but I despise doing the dishes and gosh paper towels are just so useful. I decided that for Lent I would give up paper plates and have a limited amount of paper towels available.

I would sit here and pretend that I could be the person who has those unpaper towels that snap together and go on a roll but you wash them? Yeah. No. I like doing laundry but if I had to do laundry every time I used a paper towel I'd go insane. I could try to not use paper towels so often... but it's not Lent yet so I'm good.

2013 In Review: Five Most Posts

So... Sarah over at Amongst Lovely Things is hosting a best of link up for 2013. Well, I am never one to say no to a link up and this seems like a particularly good one! So, with that I give you my recap of 2013 in "Most" Posts.


1. The post with the most clicks.

It's almost sad that this post of all of my posts had the most clicks. It's not that representative of my blog... but hey I do love The Wet Brush so I stand by it.

Bright Copper Kettles

2. The post with the most comments. 

I am still a little blog and I don't have a whole lot of regular followers or readers. So I especially look forward to Theme Thursday's to post a picture (I have been working REALLY hard to learn to be a better photographer) and hopefully get some comments. I try to comment on other people's blogs often because I know how excited I get when I get one. So 15 comments (I'm not counting my reply) seems small but for me that was a whole lot of smiling one day! Plus if you were ever wondering how I got started blogging and found my way to this little corner of the blog world that is also explained.

Theme Thursday: Black and White (And/Or Brown Paper Packages Tied Up with String)

3. The post with the best picture. 

Alright. This is hard. Because, as I just mentioned I am trying really really hard to take better pictures. I have 3 pictures I am really proud of. If you really care about the runner ups you can see them here and here. But my most favorite picture is from another Theme Thursday post. I swear I do more than linkups! But I just really liked my food styling and the light and everything. It just was a killer shot. 

Theme Thursday: Food

4. The post that was the hardest to write. 

I had a couple of difficult posts this year. But all in all I had a pretty darn good year. I know which 2 posts I was the most worried about writing and posting. But the winner... the winner... oh goodness. Still makes my heart race in case someone just tells me off. 

Bullying

5. The post that is my personal favorite. 

Pretty easy to pick. It isn't the best written post but it recaps the best time I had this year and I hope I can remember all those moments forever. Especially the Hanson concert with my dad. Boy howdy it was so hot and humid it was like swimming through the air and everyone was persistently damp. Then we went to the fair 5 days later and were cold. Crazy. I love it. I love August! 

Catching Up with My Life

And there it is. 2013 in Most Posts! 

5 Gift Ideas

So I know this is late late late but if you're still seeking some gift ideas for people in your life I have a few ideas for you.


1. Books.

I know that is SO easy to say and much harder to execute. I know. But really for the 2 and under crowd books are your best bet. They're going to be overwhelmed with all the newness and excitement. They'll probably want to play with a box or wrapping paper more than anything.

So invest in their future with books. Really, when they're 8 and you want them to want books they might have their heart set on something stupid and the budget can't accommodate both. Put your now budget towards sets of books that you enjoyed when you were young. I was always fond of series, I like my stories to continue I guess.

Ideas: Magic Tree House, Boxcar Children, Lemony Snicket, Little House on the Prairie, The Ramona Books, Judy Blume's Fudge Series.

2. The classic toys. I'm talking your Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Legos, Etch-a-sketch and my personal favorite The Magna Doodle.

C just got this exact one. We just threw caution to the wind with that 3+ age thing. (It's because the cord could strangle him. But we supervise him and it's really not long enough.) I like that the pen is attached and that C can scribble all day long and I don't waste paper. Oh and he stays clean. Love it. It's fun all around, even I have enjoyed doodling with it. 

3. For a bigger gift for a group, family or someone special I am a fan of the do something gift. I quite often gift people tickets to a concert or something. This year my BIL's family is getting amusement park tickets from us. Along with awesome 80s sunglasses, sunscreen, a water bottle and a fanny pack. (In turquoise.) A membership to a zoo/museum are always appreciated. At least I would appreciate it. Or a Netflix subscription. You can even buy a few months for people who already have an account! 

If you really don't feel a membership is the right idea and don't want to assume that your recipient is free on a specific night, a TicketMaster gift card works for a lot of different venues including sporting events. If I went the gift card route I would pick a specific event I thought they would like and make the amount work for 2 tickets (or whatever the number would be.) 

4. For the person who is completely un-giftable. Like for instance your father-in-laws new wife who you don't know at all, my go to gift is a grocery store gift card. It is impersonal I grant you but everyone needs groceries. Everyone needs to eat. And sometimes a thoughtful gift card (for something they'd actually buy, like groceries) is the best bet for the hard to buy people. Or people you feel obligated to buy for even though you haven't the faintest idea what to get.

5. And my absolute fall back gift perfect for anyone aged 7+ is Spot It!

This game is so much fun. It's fast. It's travel friendly. I will even say it is a game you can play by yourself just to get good at it. From 2-8 players...5 different mini games. I haven't met anyone who doesn't like this game. And they have different themes: MLB, NHL, Golf, etc. They even have a Jr. edition. For real this will be given to my cousin, and both of Husband's grandmother's this year. That is how versatile the game is. (Plus is is really affordable!)


So there you have it. With just 9 shopping days until Christmas these are my 5 best ideas for you! Linking up with Mary Kate and her awesome gift giving ideas linkup!

Flashback Saturday

My eighth birthday was a wonderful wonderful day. Do you have memories of your birthdays? It's funny I remember that day being so magical and wonderful, yet I can't remember every single detail. This is actually interesting as I can remember some moments of my childhood crystal clear.

My eighth birthday. My first birthday in the "new" house. (It was new at the time but gosh my family has lived there for 19 years now.) I remember two very important details about that day however. It was the day I found out I made a competition kick line at my dance studio. (Tid Bits) And it was the day I got my American Girl Doll.

I had Molly. This was back in the day when there was just Felicity, Samantha, Kirsten, Molly and Addy was still pretty new only a year old or so.

I don't really know why I wanted Molly the most. I didn't even wear glasses yet but I was only months away from that step so maybe excellent foreshadowing? Everyone had Samantha or Kirsten. I mean, we lived in Minnesota so everyone had Kirsten. But I wanted Molly and I got her. The Molly books were the best anyhow. And then during art class in the "clay" unit. I made my own Molly in her Halloween Hula costume. It still lives in my parent's china cabinet. And it is...special. Sculpture was never going to be my talent, let's just say that. Photo evidence here care of my mom.

My clay Hula Dancing Molly. 3rd grad art. 

The back side. Poor sweet hunchbacked hobbling Molly. 

Molly's Dog Bennett He's actually not so bad.

So last night totally on a whim, we watched the Molly movie on Amazon Instant Video. I LOVED it. And it brought all my childhood memories of looking through the catalogs every month and circling things right back. As we were watching I would say things like "You could buy that bed. I never got it." or "I always wanted the Miss Victory costume." The Hula costume was omitted from the movie but I always wanted that too. I never did get anything other than Molly and her books. Truthfully that is okay. Really. I was just so glad to have my doll.

But I went online after watching the movie and lo and behold Molly is being retired on December 31! And all of her outfits are already sold out! While I can get over it and I will, my inner 8 year old is devastated that it is no longer even a possibility to buy any of those coveted outfits. Ah well.

Theme Thursday: Dozen

It's Thursday. And it kind of snuck up on me. For the first time in the history of Theme Thursday I didn't have a plan. I didn't even know what the theme was until I rolled over this morning and checked under the projects tab to look.

Dozen. It's funny that the theme is dozen. I often say "It's that dozen phrase," when I mean "six of one, half a dozen of the other." I say it a lot. Luckily Husband knows what I mean by that. We also say "Potato potato." (Said completely normally no change in inflection or anything. Just the word repeated."

But that is not a picture or even very interesting to you I am sure. And I sure as heck didn't have anything to just whip up this morning to take a picture of. I mean, I could pour a bowl of mini Nilla wafers or something and find a dozen but that just seems like cheating. Or forcing an issue.

So instead I visited the Ye Old Family Stock Photography Area (AKA the pictures folder on the expandable hard drive) and found 2 very representative pictures of a dozen for your viewing pleasure. I somehow decided that using an old photo was cheating less than taking a new one of something dumb. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense but just go with it okay?

So have I mentioned Husband bakes? I like to bake too but Husband get's all into it. Especially with bread.
See?

But he's not crazy because he sells it. See? And cinnamon rolls. With cream cheese frosting. And other kinds of baked goods when he feels whimsy. Imma be honest, there was a point in time when he couldn't find his cinnamon roll recipe because it had been a long while since his last excursion and...I didn't mind one bit. Is the dough good? Sure. I guess I am not really a fan of cinnamon rolls. Not just his either, I just don't groove on cinnamon rolls in general. They do smell good. He did make blueberry rolls once and they were REALLY good.

Anyway. There are more than a dozen loaves in the first picture. And a dozen cinnamon rolls in the second. So I have decided that counts and I have officially fulfilled my duty as a Theme Thursday-er.

Have a delightful weekend! And link up all your dozens over to Cari. She's won't bite. And she has very limited rules for Theme Thursday. (I actually don't know of any but I'm sure if the need arises she'll create one or two to make it work.)

5 Favorites and WWRW

1. Recipes for Gingerbread Houses

In case you wondered at all we use this recipe to make our gingerbread houses. This was the second year in a row of making it and it has worked twice perfectly. Clearly we are the foremost experts at gingerbread so take my word for it.

We use the basic royal icing recipe: 4 cups powdered sugar, 3 egg whites, 1/2 tsp cream of tartar. Mix for about 7 minutes on high until it forms peaks. If not going to be used right away cover with damp towel. We use the pasteurized dry egg whites (2 Tbsp powder, 6 Tbsp water) so I have no idea how it works with just cracking an egg in there but I'm guessing it would. This icing is not super tasty but it dries like cement. When first constructing your house be ready to hold it in place for about 15 minutes but after that...it's probably not going anywhere.

2. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. 

Go get this book. It's a YA book but it's about a WWII young lady spy who's been captured. I don't know if really deserved it's YA title though. It's probably because it's about young ladies, and it's fairly clean. But it is still about war. There is violence and torture. And evil Nazis. If you have sensitive teens I'd pre-read. 

This is  hard book to write about because you don't want to spoil a single thing. But I will say plan on reading it twice. Once just to read it. You'll get so caught up in the adventures of Queenie and Maddie you won't be able to help yourself. And a second time to unravel the plot and see that Wein gave you all the information you'd need the first time around, you just didn't know to look for it. 

It's definitely worth a read. Find it. 

3. Cuties. (Clementines) 

I love winter. I love fresh citrus so much. I love how easy these are to peel. I am thankful we we able to make apple season run right into citrus season. It's totally worth it to have to change C's shirt 3 times a day from sticky orange juice. (And use Oxy Clean on every load.) 

4. Getting Mail

I just love Christmas card season because of the high likelihood that not all of the mail will be junk. Plus then you get cute pictures, updates and cards? That's winning and the reason I hope the art of Christmas cards will never die. 

5. Schwan's Mini Bow Tie Pasta and Vegetables 

Do you have a toddler? Or a picky eater? Buy these. It is an awesome side dish for grown ups and kids alike. C LOVES it and it's a good way to add veggies to a meal. I love that I can make a cup or two at a time and the bag seals up. (Like a Schwan's things.) This is absolutely the best purchase. We love love it. It goes well with just about anything too. (Often it's chicken or left over meatloaf or something for lunch.) AND all of it is in little bite size toddler pieces that do not need to be cut up. Let the angels rejoice! 

I am getting absolutely NO kickback from Schwan's or the Cutie people though if they wanted to send me something I'd gladly take it. The point is, I just really love these  two things. 

Linking up with Jessica AND Hallie today because sometimes I roll that way. 

Gingerbread building

Oh what a weekend.

I slept in on Saturday. I love sleep. I am quite good at sleep. I am a bear without enough sleep. So on Saturday I slept in. And I woke up to a very cute little boy and a clean kitchen. Husband is kind of amazing.

Saturday evening we decided it was too cold to go to the Christmas Village and Kathryn came over to have dinner and make gingerbread houses. Having experienced last year's making a gingerbread house from scratch project I was not nearly as nervous. I still maintain a kit works fine and we probably should have worked our way up to making one from scratch but Husband likes to dive into projects instead of wading.

We made a template for our house during nap time, I guess we dreamed a little bit too big so we wound up sizing it down quite a bit. But it was still plenty big. We made two batches of dough in order to make both houses. (One for us and one for Kathryn.) Our had a chimney and entry way added on, while Kathryn's was just our basic shell.

All in all it took a long time. But we persevered. Both houses survived shaking laughter while the royal icing dried. Candy was consumed right along with the construction. We stayed up way too late. But it was all worth it for these:

Kathryn enjoyed building her house. It was her first gingerbread house from scratch. This is the front. The back of her house says "Merry Christm (smudge)" in royal icing with crushed peppermint. It was SO funny that she couldn't squeeze in the a and s. It really really was. 

This is our house. We opted for a red and white theme and then added the wreath because the front needed something. My entire vision this year was for a shaved almond roof. So I got to work right away. And then when that was done I was pretty much useless. I had no ideas. The peanut brittle chimney was actually our second chimney attempt. Husband made an M&M chimney originally at my direction. But we had different visions so I did it over. After I removed the M&Ms I determined my vision with the delicious red candies wouldn't have worked either. We used the peanut brittle left over from Kathryn's roof. This marks our second year of a red, white and green color scheme. Next year we're breaking out and it's going to be colorful! 

Sunday brought a snowy day and brunch with friends. That was nice. After Sunday nap we all went outside to shovel our 2.3 inches. It was C's first time with his snowpants and boots. He did well. And all in all I think he liked the snow. Generally. No tears until it was time to come inside. Now our little neck of the woods has a reputation for the snow to not last very long. The weather is supposed to be cold for the rest of this week but who knows if it will last 17 more days until Christmas? I do love a white Christmas. 

After C went to bed we finished up The Amazing Race. (YAY Team that Won!! Sorry it was a spoiler all day!!) We've been tuning in since it is before The Good Wife. Now both shows are on hiatus and that is a bummer. I strongly dislike winter hiatus time in TV world. We also wrapped all the presents that are in the house. I have 2 more shipments coming in this week, they'll be here by Wednesday. And then my only non-Amazon or in-store purchase will arrive sometime before Christmas. But now I am DONE DONE DONE with Christmas shopping and THAT is something to celebrate! 

So far we've decorated, got the Christmas cards out, gingerbread house made, finished shopping and started wrapping. Pretty snazy place to be by December 9. 

Alright I am going to leave you with another gingerbread house picture. It is the exact same picture as before just with the filter. I love the filter. It's all old-timey and Betty Crocker Cooky Book-esque. Which is my FAVORITE cook book of all time, if you need a gift idea for someone in your life. I have my Grandma's copy, with vanilla stains and her notes and extra recipes she clipped from newspapers and magazines. The binding isn't doing so well. But then I also got a new edition and it's exactly the same! Spelling it cooky and everything. It is a delightful delightful book. I highly recommend it. 

Have a good Monday!

7 Quick Takes: St. Nick Version

1. It's St. Nicholas Day! St. Nick brought C a Little People Nativity Set and Elmo's Merry Christmas. In the future St. Nick will probably only bring a book or a DVD but this year we needed a Nativity for little hands to play with. 

2. Tomorrow is a big day for us as a family. It is the Feast of St. Ambrose. It's a favorite feast day of mine and while our honey based food may simply involve Honeycomb for breakfast it will still be noted. We are also going to make our yearly gingerbread house and if it's not too cold go to the Christmas Village. (Think decorated store fronts, live nativity, carolers etc.) 

3. I've been having kind of a rough week. It's complicated and I am trying to sort out my emotions. But you know what has helped? This song. The lyrics really speak to me. (He is With Us by Love and the Outcome) I am working on relinquishing control and putting my trust in Him. 

4. My mom gave me a series of 5, not great but not horrible either books on the Kindle. I read 4 books in one day and for some reason I cannot get into the 5th book. Weird right?! I have no idea. I'm going to finish it though. I swear. 

5. We watched NBC's Sound of Music. Eh. Carrie Underwood was a bad bad choice. She was not horrible at some points but that's about as nice as I can be about her. She was stiff and awkward and isn't an actor. The rest I thought wasn't bad. I mean, just because they had 10 cameras doesn't mean they had to use all 10 all the time but other than that, not horrible. 

6. I have a not so secret love affair with Amazon. I love it. I could sing it's praises all day long. But I won't. Other than to say the deals they've been running, some have been really good and some haven't. 

7. I got all my Christmas cards out by Wednesday. I was pretty excited about it. I've got extras in case we receive some from people we didn't send to but other than that I am fully done. It feels good. Plus I updated my address excel document making sure all the addresses were up to date. I also added columns for 2013 sent and received to keep track in the following years if we have a drop off in numbers or what have you. 

Linking up with Jennifer because that's what the people do on Fridays. 

Theme Thursday: Light(s)

It's Thursday. So that means it's time for my favorite party on the internet over at Cari's house. Well her web house anyway. And the best part? It's an open house party--come one, come all! 

This theme of lights got me thinking and all because it was/is Hanukkah. I know that back in the ye old days, prior to that Jesus fellow we're all so fond of, we were mostly all Jews. And I am glad because while some traditions are kind of foreign, Hanukkah and the Festival of Lights is really quite amazing. It was a miracle after all right? 

I mean, that being said, I love me some New Testament so I am ecstatic that God sent us a Jesus. I wonder how long he had that name in his pocket? Like from the moment Adam and Eve fell? Was he all like "They ate that darn apple! Ah well, now I can use that other name I like." Or if it was closer to the actual event he settled on the name. 

Anyway. Do you have a picture of light(s)? Want to go take one, I can wait. Cool. Then come to the party! It's a good one. I mean, how else were you planning to spend the last night of Hanukkah? And the end of prohibition? (That is also today. Which calls for a glass of wine. Or a beer. Or something.) 

Have a good Thursday! 

Internet Round Up!

You'll need to forgive me people. I have FINO disease. That is to say Facebook in name only. I don't post links. I don't comment (usually, very rarely I may.) I don't wish you a happy birthday. (I should probably but it's always someone's birthday.) I don't "like" brands, stores or blogs for that matter because I just don't. 

I use it as a means to not completely lose track of people. The people who don't otherwise have my email can get a message to me and vice versa. 

But that means occasionally funny or sweet things are posted and I want so badly to share and repost but I have made a solemn vow not to do that. And even if it's with myself, I just can't break a vow. So I ask your forgiveness for sharing I will be doing in this post. 

First off, I'm not sure if you realize it but it's getting close to Christmas. Which means Christmas music. I love Christmas music as I said yesterday and make no apologies for that.  But I don't think many will disagree with me that certain songs just should not be played anymore. (Really at all, but since that ship has sailed I will settle for never again.) The John Lennon Happy Xmas (War is Over) is number one on my do not playlist, but that just may be because I hate John Lennon. Beatles or solo career. But a CLOSE second is Christmas Shoes. Oh my gosh. The ear splitting horror. Gross. So when someone on Facebook posted this here article entitled: The 5 Best Ways to Survive "Christmas Shoes" I was sold. It's even funnier when you're reading it. 

In the music camp but with nothing to do with Christmas I am slightly obsessed with this song right now. 

If the video doesn't work for you, it is River Flows in You by Yiruma. It's just gorgeous and relaxing. If you've been to a non-Catholic wedding (or heck even a non-traditional Catholic wedding because I don't speak for The Church as a whole on what's allowed or not.) you may have heard this song before. Anyway, I just love it. 

Sometimes to really reflect on life I need silence. Other times silence drives me mad. This song is good when I can't have silence. And it makes me want to take piano lessons. Just kidding, I'll just force C to take piano until he's good enough to play this song. 

So those are the two things I'd post on Facebook but instead you are gifted here on the blog. But at least I'm not hashtaging right?! 

Advent

Advent has begun. Which is wonderful because it's my most favorite time of year. I love it. I just love it. The anticipation. The planning. The festivities. Husband was commenting today that this year, based on the calendar, that Black Friday was really kind of the baby shower for Jesus. We didn't go shopping but I actually like that idea in that then you can just relax and focus during Advent. 

We decorated today. Oh my gosh. It was wonderful. Carols were listened to. One of my favorite Christmas movies was watched. I'd share with you but I'm going to tell you you've never heard of it. Husband and my parents will tell you that you're better off for that. It's a childhood favorite. It gets me really really excited. I was super excited to watch it with C. He liked it too. 

In lieu of a fireplace we use our staircase. They rhyme. It's cute. It's what I remember as a youngster before we moved to the house with an actual fireplace. But those first 7 Christmases were especially fun because as we were coming down you could TELL that Santa had come and Christmas was really here because the stockings were full. I like that. 

This is our Jesse Tree/Special Ornaments Tree. It has a few of the special ones I need to put up. You know, the pickle and the pierogies, as well a the "Our First Christmas" one and all that good stuff. We read our first 2 verses for the Jesse Tree today. C may or may not have cried through part of it, but I am happy to have started this tradition for him while he's young and impressionable. We will eventually add an Advent wreath to our celebrations but we haven't found one that speaks to us. I guess we're picky. 

What I am basically saying here are those are two of my favorite things about Advent. The OLD and NEW. I love the traditions that we have started and the traditions we continue. It's just the little things that spread the joy and warmth of the season. And they bring focus on family and Christ and let's be honest those are the most important things in life. I feel like the holiday season just brings about a bevy of traditions that are created and continued. It's beautiful. It doesn't matter if you've done the exact same things forever either, some part of the experience will always be new. 

This is our real tree. Empty because while I am ahead of the game with the shopping I pretty much suck at wrapping. I make a beautiful gift bag. Really, I can arrange the tissue paper artfully and so that you can't see the item that is within. But wrapping? Nope. Not my talent. 

And my third favorite thing about Advent? The fact I can listen to carols and nobody looks sideways. I might possibly be one of those people who listens to Jingle Bells by Frank Sinatra whether it's July or December. So being able to listen to the songs I love loudly and possibly on the radio is winning in my book. My favorite secular carol is listed above but give me the religious O Come All Ye Faithful and O Holy Night and I am going to be a puddle of melty go. And in the secular/mash up world I love love love Trans Siberian Orchestra's Christmas Canon. (Not Christmas Canon Rock... the one with the children.) Chills. I get chills. 

So that's three things. I love the music, the old and the new. Wonderful. I am linking up with Micaela for her 3 Favorites Link-up.