December Traditions

By


 Hello and Happy December!

A little-known fact about me: I will wish everyone I meet a happy first of the month for every month. Why? Because I love celebrating the little things. The first frost. The first of every month. The first fire of the season in our wood-burning stove. The first daffodils. The blue-eyed grasses. New paints. First drafts. The list goes on. I figure the little things should be celebrated as much as the big things.

Which is why, I think, that I love traditions, particularly those my family celebrates December with.

Here are a few:

  • We always get a live tree. We used to go as a family to get it, but these days, we just gather as many of us as we can and go down the mountain to get one.
  • We string popcorn for the tree while watching It's a Wonderful Life.
  • The first movie of the season is usually  Elf.
  • I always wrap gifts in shiny blue wrapping paper. I do this because as a little girl, I heard Pretty Paper sung by Randy Travis and there was a stanza that said, "Pretty paper, pretty ribbons are blue." So, I decided to wrap my presents with blue. It looks so pretty!
  • We usually make gingerbread cookies, butter cookies and almond snowballs. Sometimes we'll make sugar cookies (if I'm lucky. I love them, but my mom is sugar-adverse so..).
  • We usually open up a pair of Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve so that we'll wake up in Christmas festive gear.
  • We used to go to the theaters every Christmas Eve night after the Christmas Eve service, but we stopped going after the theaters stopped putting out movies we'd like to see. (This tradition started because my mom would be still be wrapping presents and dad had to get us kids out of the house.)
  • Christmas is not complete with our Christmas ham. Not even sure how this tradition started, but the ham has to be there.
  • I get out my Christmas sheet music and clean the rust off of my piano playing. (We have a very old piano that was made before 1912 so it needs to be tuned. I don't care much what it sounds like, but my dad doesn't like the sound.)
  • A recent tradition we have formed is to listen to The Christmas Carol  when we decorate the tree!

What traditions (if any) do you have?

Until next time...

Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NaNoWriMo Know Your Novel Introduction

By
Image
This is my first time joining the wonderful  Christine Smith  and a bunch of other wonderful writers in her three-month Know the Novel link-up for writers in these final months of the year. I'm completely nervous, having never done anything like this before, but also very excited.  October's theme is  Introduction  which is the post featured today.  Earlier this month I announced that for the months of October and November I would be switching projects from Harbinger  to Tear   in honor of NaNoWriMo, using this month to prepare. So without further ado, let me introduce you to my novel. KNOW THE NOVEL: PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Q 1. What first sparked the idea for this novel? A 1. Well, most of my novel ideas, (no pun intended), come from questions. I had this question pop into my head, "Where does Writer's Block come from?" This story was born out of the quirky answer that I came up with. Q 2. Share a blurb! A 2. I warn you this is an ...
Read more

NaNoWriMo Know the Novel: Introduction

By
Image
I can't believe it's already this time of the year again. Last year I joined Christine Smith   in her three-month Know the Novel link-up. This link-up starts the month before NaNoWriMo and goes through December. If you've been following this blog for more than a year, you'll recognize this series from last year. If you just started following me or are visiting this blog: Welcome! I'm so glad you're here. This month's theme is Introduction  and sets up the groundwork for what I'm doing today.  I've mentioned Harbinger  before. It's a WIP I've been working on for almost six years now. Over the summer I've decided to split it in three books, so now it's the Harbinger Trilogy. The working title for book one is called Sirens of Fate,  and it's this book I will work on for NaNoWriMo. I'm rebelling NaNo, meaning instead of doing this writing challenge traditionally and starting a book from scratch on November 1st, I'm using the c...
Read more

NaNoWriMo: Know the Novel Link-Up: Introduction

By
Image
  *Happy squeak!* I am so excited to be joining  Christine Smith  in her Know the Novel link-up for writers in this festive season of the year. What festive season, you may ask? Why, NaNoWriMo season, of course! *Flings glitter.* Many years ago, I did my first NaNo and started my wild ride or writing and an intense commitment to the craft that has lasted until this very day. (Hopefully it doesn't end here. That would be tragic, and while I do love a good tragedy, I would like for my life not to be tragic. Thank you very much.) *Pull self out of hole she fell in.* Ahem.... Where were we? Oh yes. The link-up. Moving forward. October is the month where we introduce our NaNoWriMo projects to the world, so in the spirit of that, here is my introduction post. KNOW THE NOVEL PART ONE: INTRODUCTION: Introducing: Drop , book #2 of my Drops of Inspira trilogy. Q 1: What first sparked the idea for this novel? A: I actually featured the first book for this link-up series a few years...
Read more