A few of my favorite things- Christmas Edition

A few of my favorite things- Christmas Edition is this week’s blog. Perfectly fitting too! We are right in the middle of this incredible holiday season. I am overjoyed to be writing this. If you know me, you know that from September is my favorite time of year. I love everything about those months. But, this blog is dedicated to just the Christmas ones! Which for me, is mid Nov-Dec.

I though it would be fun to list some of my most favorite Christmas things. A while back I did a 10 of my favorite things blog post and thought this would be a fun edition to that. The irony of this post is that my most favorite things about the season can’t be bought. It’s the feeling, the perfectly imperfect moments, the smells, the memories of the season that I love most. There will be a blog on that, no doubt. However, today’s favorite things are going to be about those special little Christmas things that I just love to put out every year. So here it is, a few of my favorite things- Christmas edition.

My Christmas Cookbooks: It’s true, these actually stay out all year. But, I don’t open them up and sit down and look at them until the season starts. Some of my most favorite recipes are in these pages and I LOVE flipping through their (some cat eared corners) pages and choosing what to make next. In my family, food is a big deal. Meals are a big deal. They are eating together around the table. Regardless of the season. But, something about the glow of the Christmas lights and the smell of one of our favorite recipes on the table make it extra special.
Indoor lights: I have tons of indoor lights around our home during this season. My favorites are of course on the Christmas Tree. Or are they? A few years ago we started adding fairy string lights to our living and dining room. It’s one of our son’s favorite things to do in preparation for the season. It just makes everything feel so magical. Turning these on once it turns dark brings a level of peace and comfort into our home that makes it feel extra wonderful.
Christmas Dishes: A few years ago when my husband and I were shopping in downtown Grand Junction, he found this beautiful old fashioned Christmas dining set. It was beautiful. He bought it for me, and we love using it during the holiday season. It has an old-timey nostaglic feel to it. Reminds me of the dishes we would use at my Grammy’s house when I was little. We would pile those Christmas Tree plates full of her best pasta dishes and sit around the table laughing and telling stories. These dishes just make me happy.
Stockings: My amazing Aunt Sandy hand stitched a stocking for each of my children (that’s a lot of stockings, guys) she made sure each one was different and ready for us to hang in time for Christmas. They are beautiful and I cherish them so much. I feel like it’s rare to recieve hand-made time consuming gifts anymore. So, these stockings are just extra special to me.
Musical Carousal: This is one of those things that is not the most asthetically pleasing. It’s cute, but it’s not exactly my ‘vibe’. What makes it one of my Most favorite Christmas Things- is that every year when I break this out of it’s box- my children’s eyes light up as if it is the frist time they ever saw it. Pure. Perfect magic.
Jack Chill: Another thing that visually doesn’t exactly fit perfectly. But there is something about it, I love. We took our kids to the North Pole in Colorado Springs a couple years ago- and I heard this voice- it sounded like Frank Sinatra but wasn’t quite. It was soothing like this though, and comforting, and I had to have it. Insert Jack Chill- he sings old fashion Christmas Carols, and tells sarcastic jokes and my kids LOVE him. You can find him here.
Christmas Books: I have almost all of my child Christmas books from when I was little. Some are those precious classic little golden books. One is a huge book from Italy printed in the early 60’s where the binding is nearly unglued and its pages show years of turned pages. We also buy one for our kids every year to add to our collection.
Ornaments: I am extremely organized and particular about what we bring into our home and where it goes. You would think I would be one of those moms that only allows the ‘pretty’ ornaments on our Living Room tree, or rearranges the ornaments after the kids go to bed. Shockingly, I am neither of those. It’s never bothered me to have the tree full of a lifetime of ornaments. Each one has a story. Some are from when I was a little girl, others my children got from their grandparents, and some are homemade with dried hot glue oozing out and googly eyes falling off. It’s all okay by me. I love our tree and the thousands of memories it holds.