Sunday, November 8, 2009

The Real meaning of Christmas

the BlogThis challenge this week is to discuss what Christmas means to ourselves and our families....

I adore Christmas, I get tingles of anticipation from the roots of my hair to the tip of my toes planning and looking forward to this special holiday. I love everything about it from the way the earth smells in the run up to Christmas (the heat on the Australian soil and the dry clean smell of eucalyptus in the air) the squeals of delight as kids run around their homes knowing that school is out and 6 weeks of holiday is ahead of them - I just adore this time of year, the joy, the atmosphere - even down to the last minute rush at the shops and jostling to get to a checkout - all the time smiling because deep down I know how lucky we are to be living in Australia and have the freedom to celebrate this season as well as being blessed enough to have finances to allow us to celebrate in our own style...




What does Xmas mean to you and your family?
Christmas to us means spending time with family, lots of food and spoiling the little ones in our lives. It's about giving of gifts, showing love and simply being in each others company :)

Have you got some traditions?? We have lots LOL - you ready????
~Christmas Run-Up~
*Our Christmas tree used to go up Dec 9th on my birthday - but I usually get impatient and want it up on Dec 1st LOL
*We will attend Carols by Candlelight at the Burnie Soundshell, it usually means parking blocks away and walking together down crowded streets with heaps of excited children running around in the cool Tasmanian summer evening - such a special time....
*We also go Christmas Light spotting (although there aren't that many around now - too many vandalism's)
*My best friend and my families will come together to spend several days making Christmas decorations and food - lots of cooking :) We will have lots of laughs, food and fun - oh and mess to boot ;)
~Christmas Eve~
*My children do their own gift swaps - kinda lets them have a day with something new before Santa spoils them LOL
*Then in the evening we attend the Wynyard Christmas pageant and
*come home to the kids getting some new pyjama's from mummy and daddy (that way I know they are decently dressed for Chrissy morning piccies haha)
~Christmas Day~
Santa has come with the goodies, they brats are usually up around 3-4am **yawn**
*Lunch and dinner with alternating parents and in-laws.. this year it is dinner with the in-laws and dinner with my parents (always a BBQ)
*Early night - yes I'm hallucinating, but we always say we're going to get one hahaha

What will you cook?!
Me - nothing hahaha the in-laws and parents do it all. We do take a salad and desert to mums for the BBQ table... I've not even planned it this year - very slack!!! I'll possibly make my layered Mexican dip and take a rice salad and pavlova overloaded with cream and juicy ripe straberries and raspberries fresh from the local berry fields **drool**

Who will you spend it with?
FAMILY and FRIENDS!!!!

Got a favourite Christmas memory?
Traveling up to Campbelltown (Tasmania - inland from Launceston - Midlands region) to my paternal grandparents - It's not so much a Christmas memory as such but the whole time we spent with family that we didn't see much at all... . I loved that they lived on a property in an old rambling farmhouse. My pop would move the sheep from paddock to paddock during our time there and I would watch and smell - I can still smell it today, the heat of the animals, lanolin on the wont, drying grass in the background... It's one of the last times I saw my grandfather healthy - he passed away from cancer not long after this memory and time we spent with him after this holiday was minimal so it's a very precious memory for me... I also remembering being given crayons that Christmas and instead of drawing with them I watched them melt in the sub - it fascinated me watching them go from a solid drawing implement to little piles of molten wax LOL



How are you decorating??
Our tree will be adorned with decorations I've collected over the years and with little trinkets my children have made and collected for the tree :) and topped with a star of David so we can honour the true meaning of Christmas... As for lights, I did deck our house with lights one year but it's such a HUGE job that I think I'll skip it this year - unless I get a huge burst of energy somewhere to actually sort the tangle that is our outdoor lights out ROFL But mostly the house will have the tree, we will have carols playing all day every day (jsut because I LOVE them!!) and we will ahve our indoor statues and childrens drawings hanging everywhere :) Lots of home made love <3



1 comment:

Skipper said...

Your Christmas sounds very relaxed and happy! Here's hoping you get that early night! LOL.

My Pops died of cancer too, around Christmas time. My fondest memories of Christmas involve him as well.