The Sunday Post: Happy Christmastime!

 

 The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted at Caffeinated Reviewer.

Oh my word I am so behind with blogging posts! And now Sunday is almost over, but here I am writing a quick little post! AHH! Life is so crazy.

Listening:

Breaking out the the huge Christmas playlist that includes all my favorite things. My favorite (roughly speaking) is this one from last year by Stray Kids. It's so funny and so great and just try not to sing and dance along!

Watching: We have joined the rest of the world in watching Wednesday on Netflix. It's very fun, isn't it? I think it's funny that it came out at Christmastime instead of Halloween. Whatever! But yeah. We have one more episode and then... what will we watch next???

Looking forward to the season finale of Amazing Race this week. Rooting for two different teams so I have no idea who I'll be cheering for in those final moments!

Reading: Ah I'm so behind on writing up reviews! I've finished a couple more books. Since the last Sunday post I did, I finished Not Going There, The Fox Inheritance and Atomic Habits. I have "one minute reviews" posted on the booktube channel if interested!

Writing: Zero writing as been done. Ugh.

Blogging: Zero blogging has been done. Dang.

YouTubing: Lots of Youtubing has been done though!

Over on the Booktube channel  there's much happening, but one video you may be interested in is when I compare my reading to what Rory read in The Gilmore Girls. Dang that girl read some crazy stuff!

On the Kpop channel I just finished editing this fast-paced intense thing that shows off some cool images and moment from MVs this past year. You should totally watch and make me happy!

Health Watch: Well, my husband got covid for Thanksgiving, so we cancelled all our plans. Then a few days later, sure enough, I got it too, so we cancelled all our plans the week after Thansgiving too. That means we missed our outing to see Moulin Rouge at the theater... and kpop movie that I was so excited to support. Sigh. Whatever. Anyway, that was our first bout of covid, so we finally got that over with. My husband has felt pretty crappy, but I only had couple of days were I needed ibuprofen, and have since been fine. Really hoping I can go back to work tomorrow but I haven't tested yet today to see what the verdict is. We have gone through about 12 tests just this past week between the three of us. My daughter didn't get it this time, probably because she had her turn in July and didn't feel the need to join us this time. LOL! 

Misc:

* We finally got our tree up today. So now it truly feels like Christmas around here. I have no idea how I'm going to get all the gift buying done though. 

Here's hoping life can resume this week and we get through all the events planned for this month! 

Merry Christmas!!

This video does a great job of expressing my feelings of the season. Enjoy!

 

Airing of Grievances for Festivus 2015

As is my yearly tradition, I get to rant today, all I want without fear, for the annual Festivus celebration.

Please feel free to rant with me!

Ready, set, GO!

• You know how you update your phone, and then two weeks later it bugs you to update it again? And then when you finally give in and update, your phone is all messed up? Yeah, I hate that.
• I also hate it when I decided to be all good about exercising and then I get some ailment that makes it pretty much impossible to do so.
• I really hate commercials on Spotify, but I also really hate paying for premium.
• Speaking of, I also really hate it when I can't find certain music on Spotify!
• I hate it when our ice maker thingy gets stuck in the up position which makes it think the ice bin is full and then it stops making ice.
• I hate that my pregnant daughter has been in pain for the past week with kidney stones. I hate that worse than anything else! (Update: things are much better now!)
• You know those people who come to movies (or concerts) and then get up and down and up and down and up and down and in and out and in and out and in and out? They make me crazy.
• I hate it when people rag on the prequels of Star Wars.
• I hate that since Nano has been over and done I haven't found time to write a word on my story.
• I hate that I wasn't able to go see Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff at The King's English last month.
• I hate that there's not enough time to read all the books I want to read!
• Ditto for all the TV shows I want to watch!
• I hate the traffic craziness the couple of days before Christmas. And the parking craziness.
• I hate the last minute frenzy in general before the calm and peace (usually) of Christmas day and the week after. 

But I love that week! Have a good one guys!

Holiday Extravaganza Guest Post at I'm Lost in Books

Hey everyone! I'd love for you to head over to Becca's Holiday Extravaganza at I'm Lost in Books where I'm guest posting today. If you do, you'll find out about my love for The Grinch in all his forms! 

Virtual Advent Tour: The Reason for the Season

It's my seventh year participating in this fun blogging tradition, The Virtual Advent Tour, started years ago by Kailana from AWritten World and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader. I love that this tradition is still going strong. Way to go guys!

The idea of these posts is to share some sort of holiday tradition with each other. In the past I've shared our Christmas Eve nativity, our decorating the tree night, our advent box and lots of music. Here's the complete list, just in case you'd like to click back to the past.

2007: Christmas Eve Traditions (including a movie the year the nativity reenactment went to pieces!)
2008: Decorating the Tree (including a yummy cinnamon roll recipe)
2009: The Advent Box: (with a time elapsed video that was a blast to make)
2010: My Love for the Grinch
2011:  I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas!
2012: A Kurt Bestor Christmas

I've had a blast coming up with all these different posts over the years.

For today's post I'd like to share with you a slide show I made years ago for a church Christmas party. I'm venturing into a little bit of new territory as I usually avoid the religious topic for the most part around here, but I feel like for a Christmas celebration, I can break my own rules just a little.

Simply put, this is a slide show made from pictures of the life of Christ set to one of my favorite Christmas songs, Silent Night by Mannheim Steamroller. It gives me chills. I hope you click and watch, and enjoy it and remember the "reason for the season" as they say.



Be sure to check the other advent post today over at Dolce Bellezza's!
And you can find the complete list of blog posts scheduled for the whole month here.

Thanks for dropping by!

Thanks Secret Santas!

I'd look to officially thank my two secret santa buddies of this past Christmas season! I got some awesome books from them both that I can't wait to get to.

I participated in both The Broke and the Bookish's swap and the Holdiay Swap through Enna Isilee and Emily, but I don't know which package was from which swap! Funny how that happens!

Anyway, I got Across the Universe from an unidentified blogger that I'd like to thank! All I know is that the book came from the UK.

And then I got Hood and The Dark Days of Hamburger Haplin from Jennifer at A Librarian's Library!

Thanks to you both! I love the books and I'm so looking forward to reading them!

Have a Good One!

I had plans to blog through all the craziness, but it doesn't seem to be happening. First off, I seem to be completely out of bloggish ideas. This is a strange feeling, and a frustrating one! Next week I hope to do some more wrap posts, but I'm not in the mood to make those happen this week.

Secondly, there's just too much going on and I can't concentrate on blogging or reading... not even a little bit really. Tonight there's book club (I didn't re-read the books sadly) and tomorrow is a birthday at our house (if the world doesn't end of course) and then there's dinner to take to a sick neighbor on Saturday and perhaps make treats gifts for other friends, Sunday I hope to have a fun family hang out night, Monday we are hosting the extended family party, and then it's Christmas! Whew.

After that it's either hang out and relax... or take off and disappear. I guess we'll see.

Anyway, I'm sure it's a similar story for most all of you! But I just wanted to check in really quick to say that I hope you all have a great holiday and that if I seem to be scarce, it's only temporary! Maybe I'll be in and out, but I've a feeling that this year, it's going to be mostly out. I think if I give myself permission to forget about the blog for a few days it might be just what I need for now.

So take care, have fun and I'll be back to normal, hopefully, when life gets back to normal.

Happy celebrating and get lots of reading done!

Virtual Advent Tour: Kurt Bestor's Christmas Songs

Welcome to day eighth of the Virtual Advent Blog Tour! Now in its seventh year! Wow. I love it. You know it's a good thing when it sticks around this long, right?

I've been participating since nearly the beginning (see the list of my other advent posts below, I think I wasn't blogging the first year they started this) so I'm starting to really have to think about what I'd like to share with you regarding what says Christmas to me! But, I've a feeling I could go on for quite a few more years before I actually run out of ideas!

This year, I'd love to tell you about Kurt Bestor. He's a local musician (grew up just down the street nearly) who has made it pretty big out there in certain genres of the music world. However, my guess is you've never heard of him, am I right? (Unless you live here in Utah that is.)

So years ago he made several Christmas albums, there may be more now, I'm not even sure, and there are some "best of's" and some compilations, but these are the three "main ones" that I have:

Let me just say that it is NOT Christmas until we get these CDs out and play them! This music is definitely the background of all our Christmas doings... decorating the tree, baking, cleaning up for parties, during the party itself, Christmas Eve and for sure... Christmas morning.

Every year, he puts on an awesome spectacular Christmas concert, with guest singers and other musicians and his band and all sorts of production. For years it was my dream to go to this and finally, a couple of years ago, we manged to make this happen! It was so awesome. And the guest singer that year happened to Jason Castro who I loved from American Idol! Sweet!! (Here's a link to Jason singing during that show, with Kurt on the piano. So awesome.)

I've struggled trying to decide what songs to share with you, they are all so wonderful, but we've (daughter Toto has been helping me and in fact has made the videos and loaded them to her YouTube channel!) zeroed in on these few:

Joy to World... because this is the quintessential song from all three albums that means Christmas is here! Listen, blast it and see if you don't agree:


Little Drummer Boy.... because I love this arrangement and I can't help but la-la-la along when that part comes. So pretty. And there's cool drums of course.



He Who Crafted the Earth ... because my guess is this is one you've never heard before. It's based on a fourteenth century poem and I find it to be absolutely chilling. Toto has added the lyrics for you even!




And finally, the Kurt Bestor song that many of you MAY be familiar with... Prayer of the Children. It's not a Christmas song, but it's his signature song that he sings at every concert. This one will also give you chills and perhaps cause a tear or two, especially this video that I found that's illustrated with powerful images.



I hope you took a moment or two to experience these songs! I hope you loved them! I hope it brought some Christmas spirit and joy to your day. (And P.S. Kurt Bestor has a ton of other non Christmas CDs that are equally as awesome!)

Other bloggers participating in the advent tour today:

Susan @ You Can Never Have Too Many Books
Robin @ A Fondness for Reading

To check out everyone those participating this year, please click on over to this post. 

Here's the list of my past advent tour posts highlighting other Christmas traditions in my life:

2007: Christmas Eve Traditions (including a movie the year the nativity reenactment went to pieces!)
2008: Decorating the Tree (including a yummy cinnamon roll recipe)
2009: The Advent Box: (with a time elapsed video that was a blast to make)
2010: My Love for the Grinch
2011:  I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all! Have a blast this holiday season. Enjoy.

Our Christmas Book Loot

And I thought we weren't  going to get as many books this year as last:

These are the books the whole family received, not just me. Here's a list in case you can't see them well (though clicking on the picture helps that too:)

The Doctor Who Visual Dictionary
The Most Human Human
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
The Girl of Fire and Thorns
Clockwork Prince
Clockwork Angel
Steve Jobs
Shadow Moon
Shadow Star
Shadow Dawn
The Iron Daughter
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Fire
Slaughter House Five
Okay for Now
Return to Exile
Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever
Goliath
The Iron Queen
City of Fallen Angels
City of Glass
Destiny of the Republic

Whew. I really better get out of my reading slump FAST!

And here's what I got from my Secret Santa Exchange blogger.... who only revealed herself as Heather:

What a perfect present, because as you know I've recently had a little issue with The Iron Daughter, what with the missing pages from the book I had and then the store where it came from being totally out. So when I opened this up and saw a new copy of this book, I was very excited and have since been reading pretty quickly through this book! I'm very excited about the other book too, which also makes me giggle, because it's the same book I gave to my exchange person!

Thank you Heather!

Thank you Deanna and Jenny and Santa Claus and SIL Katie and Grandma and Grandpa and everyone! It's been a wonderful bookish haul!

Merry Christmas!

Here's hoping you are all having a lovely

 weekend with friends and family!

Happy Holidays to you all!

The Saturday Salon: Merry Christmas!

I decided to do my salon journal post a day early and share my random thoughts this Christmas weekend. I'm writing on Christmas Eve Eve. We've had a bunch of college boys over eating pizza and playing cards and it's been fun. Tomorrow on Christmas Eve we'll be off in the evening for a family gathering. Party on!

Outside my window: It was a beautiful day today. Clear and blue and very very cold! Still no snow though, but we got enough of some wetness the other day to clear the air, which is very nice indeed.

I am listening to: A random Christmas music mix that has been going all day long, and also someone just turned Ghost Hunters on the TV. They are having a marathon! Who knew!??

Song of the week: Love this version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen:




TV Talk: I watched the finale of Terra Nova. Pretty intense, but that whole show is pretty just ho hum for me. Oh, well. Haven't watched much else this week, but we did go see Sherlock Holms and that was fun. Robert Downey Jr. was awesome as always, and the special effects were wow. But the coolest thing about that move was seeign The Hobbit trailer... have you seen it yet? Here it is in case not:



Richard Armitage singing? YES!

Reading Report: HA!
Books I've finished: Wait, I finished a book! Blood Red Road by Moira Young. It was really quite good! I should probably review it.
Books I've started: Well, I started The Iron Daughter... again (first time had to take it back to the library), but when I got to page 67, it jumped to page 90something. And when I went to get another copy they (Walmart) were out. Dang. And I was really quite getting into it!
Books I want to start: I can't decide what to start. I read a few chapters in A Path of Daggers today. Are you impressed!?

I am thinking: that it has been a long week and I'm anxious for the weekend to come... and go even.

I am grateful for: all the abundance surrounding me this crazy season. We are so very lucky and spoiled and blessed.

What I learned this week: family time at the holidays, for the kids actually means FRIEND time. But I'm getting more used to the idea. Tonight we combined the two and it even worked for the most part. Family and friends of kids CAN play together if all parties are welcome to the idea.

Around the house: Not bad, quite festive looking actually. Not dirty, not spotless, just about right. Oh and did I tell you about the new mattress? I can't remember, but yes, we have one! It's awesome. It's heaven. I love it. I think that's pretty much my Christmas. :)

Recipe of the Week: I have made these Andes mint cookies that I found on Pinterest so many times! Wow. But the hard thing is... finding the Andes mints.

Favorite things of the week: Kid #2 turned 20 and we all as a family went out to dinner, and then ice skating. That was a very nice evening.

Family Matters: Lots of bored kids around here. We have had a week off already and people have been going to bed at 2:00 am or after and sleeping in until noon. Seriously. Every day. It's pathetic.

Things we discussed at home this week: relationships. Sort of an ongoing topic around here.

Things I hope to accomplish: This next week? I hope to accomplish pretty much nothin'. Have no family drama at all the parties. Read a lot. And sleep and not worry about nothin'. :)

The Blog Report: This past week I aired grievances, pondered a quote seen on Twitter, reported on book club and listed my books wish list.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Virtual Advent Tour: I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas!

One of my favorite blogging events that we do this time of year is the Virtual Advent Tour. This is where bloggers take turns sharing different Christmas traditions and post them on their blog. This year is my fifth year participating! Which means, I'm having a hard time thinking of something new and interesting to post about!

Here are links to my past years' posts in case you are interested:

2007: Christmas Eve Traditions (including a movie the year the nativity reenactment went to pieces!)
2008: Decorating the Tree (including a yummy cinnamon roll recipe)
2009: The Advent Box: (with a time elapsed video that was a blast to make)
2010: My Love for the Grinch

So this year, after much pondering, I've decided to keep it really simple, especially since I've found it's hard to spend a lot of time reading blogs and hopping back and forth to see what everyone's been posting (in fact, I've been really lousy at this!)

I don't really know how this tradition got started. It must have just been that my dad's family had this song on an old 78 record (I hope someone out there knows what that is!) and played it all the time during the holidays... played it enough that my dad memorized the thing... accent and all! Every year as we were growing up, he would recite/sing this silly song for us kids and we thought it was so so funny! Now that we are all grown and gone, when we do get together for our party, we make our dad do this song, just like he has every year.

Now, I really wish I had a video of him doing it, and I probably do somewhere, but I'm feeling so lazy these days that I'm not going to search for it and spend the time editing. (Besides, he'd probably rather not be featured on my blog I'm guessing) so instead, I give you this original version that my brother found on YouTube for us last year, which we all thought was pretty cool.




So.... anyone heard this song before? Does it feature in your holiday traditions at all? Doesn't the idea of my straight laced conservative dad singing this crack you up? It does me!

Be sure to check out the posts of the other participants! (All listed at the main blog here.) Thanks for dropping by!

Advent Tour: How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Ever since I can remember, Dr. Suess' Grinch story has been one of my favorites. I love how awful he was, and then how quickly and simply he changed to be the nice guy. I love the message that Christmas is not about ribbons, tags, packages and bags. That Christmas doesn't come from a store, but perhaps means a little bit more. I love how the Whos handled their Christmas morning surprise. It's awesome.

When I was a kid, this version of the the story was on TV every year and I loved it!





When I got to be a little bit older, I would make my brothers and sisters (if you'll remember, I'm the oldest of nine kids) act the story out for part of our Christmas Eve celebration. I had a blast with the details. The props, the organization, the costumes, everything. One year, my dad filmed us with his silent camera. I've managed to find that video (which we digitized several years ago) and have had some fun with it. At the time of this filming, there were "only" seven kids, with my little sister,who really was just two, starring in the Cindy Lou Who role. My third brother, who was nearly 12 at the time,played the Grinch. Luckily, I am the narrator and am not on camera!

.......and here's where I would have embedded that video, but sadly, I've had several issues with it, which though I feel like ranting about, I won't go into right now! Anyway, I wish I would have kept up the tradition of acting out this story with my own kids, but it didn't happen. That's how it goes with some things I suppose.

What is your favorite Christmas story?


Be sure to check out the other stops on the Virtual Advent Tour!

Music Stuck in My Head: Carol of the Bells

Yes, it's officially safe to break out the Christmas music now, right? And so today I thought I'd highlight one of my most favorites, Carol of the Bells.

I like my Carol of the Bells done up in many many ways.

There's the all guys a capella version, which I really really love:




The piano version, and there's many of these, but I picked the George Winston one:



The choir version, by the Mormon Tab of course!:



The ladies Celtic version,:



This awesome rock version by TSO:



And finally, a handbell choir:



Do you like Carol of the Bells? What's your favorite version?

Christmas Book (and Movie) Loot

Today's the day I really look forward to during the holidays. Christmas day is good and all, but there's still "stuff that has to be done" and all that visiting and such. But today, it's sort of an unofficial readathon, a real "do nothing and no guilt involved" sort of day. It's truly the part of Christmas I live for.

And besides that, there's time for blogging again! Well, sort of.

Anyway, it was a great Christmas. This year, we had quite the book and movie Christmas. Sometimes it's an electronic Christmas, but this year, and you know what I have to say next, it was.... All About Books! :)

Here's our book loot list, because I know you're dying to know:

(This includes everyone's books, and isn't that the great thing about books... and music.... and movies... it doesn't really matter whose name is on the present, everyone gets to enjoy, I love that.)

Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins

The Luxe series by Anna Godbersen

Intro to Mind and Brain by Angus Gellatly

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

The Crow by Alison Croggon

The Asthonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Vol. 2 by M.T. Anderson

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George

The Riddle by Alison Croggon

The Pendragon Traveler series (before the war) by various authors

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn

Epic by Conor Kostick

Nation by Terry Pratchett

The Rice Krispie Treat Cookbook (I think my 10 year old should do a recipe a week and blog about it... what do you think??? )

The Princess and the Bear by Mette Ivie Harrison

Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Hannah Montana Sweet Niblets Cookbook (we could add this to the cooking blog!)

The Help by Katherine Stockett

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (THANK YOU MY SECRET SANTA KAREN from BOOKS AND CHOCOLATE!!)

New York by Edward Rutherford

The Illustrated 1776 by David McCoullough

Opitcal Illusions by Inga Menkhoff

Ummm.... see what I mean about not having to worry about what to read next? Insane I tell you.

Movies and TV series added to our collection, in case you're interested in that too:

Star Trek

Up

Harry Potter 6

Firefly series

Moonlight series

Gilmore Girls Seasons 1 and 2

Monk Season 1

Pushing Daisies Season 1

Smallville Season 6

I'm feeling like a little Firefly right now... followed by a little Moonlight! Mmmmmm........

Blogger Progressive Dinner Dessert Recipe

Welcome to my recipe post for the Blogger Progressive Dinner Party 2009! I decided to share the following recipe that my family loves at Christmastime. For the list of other recipes being shared, be sure to head over to The Book Blog Social Club site. Yesterday we had entries, the day before was appetizers and salads. Today, it's desserts!

Hershey's Chocolate Mint Brownies

Ingredients:

Brownie Layer

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

½ cup butter, softened

4 eggs

1 16 oz. can Hershey's syrup

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Mint Layer

2 cups confectioners' sugar

½ cup butter

1 Tbs. water

½ tsp. mint extract

3 drops green food color

Chocolate Topping Layer
6 Tbs. butter
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix up ingredients for brownie layer until smooth. Pour into greased 9x13 pan and bake in 350 degree oven 25 to 30 minutes until top springs back when touched. Cool completely. Beat the stuff for the mint cream layer until smooth, frost cooled brownies. Chill. Then melt ingredients for the chocolate topping layer in microwave until smooth. Spread on top of green frosting! Chill in fridge some more!

A couple other desserts on the menu:

Imperial Sugar Cookies from A Well Watered Garden

Aebleskivers from Winter Write

Thanks for dropping by and happy baking!

The Book Loot or What We Got

For those interested, here's the list of books that ended up under our tree:

For The Mr.:

Everyman by Philip Roth

The Lighthouse by P.D. James

1001 Places to See Before You Die (USA/Canada version)

For me:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke

The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer

501 Must Read Books

Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (from my secret santa Ruthie )

Dashing Through the Snow by Mary and Carol Higgins Clark (from my neighbor)

For Bud (19 year old son):

The first three books in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan

The new John Lennon biography

For JJ (17 year old daughter)

The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding

Princess Ben by Cathrine Murdock

The Twilight Movie book thing

A huge Ansel Adams coffee table type book

For Moder (13 year old son):

Books 2, 3, and 4 of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan

For Toto (9 year old daughter):

Ever by Gail Carson Levine

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

I can't wait to read them all! In fact, this evening I've finished The Hunger Games. Wow! Amazing. Stinkin' cliff hanger though so I hope that means this is a series and there's more to come. (It did say "End of Book One" at the end... that's a pretty good clue, right?) I didn't realize it was, so now I'm hoping. I need to read four more books to get to the year end 100 mark. It's possible, but not probable. I should be reading right now instead of playing on the computer. But I needed to blog something!

Merry Christmas to All!

I just wanted to hop on here for a moment today to wish you all a Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful time with family and friends! We've been making fudge and cookies and Christmas morning breakfast today. Yesterday we were still shopping and the crowds were insane. Soon we'll be leaving for our annual Christmas Eve gathering, which will be at the sister-in-law's this year. Tomorrow they say we will be having another whopper of a snow storm. That would be cool in some ways, but quite sad in others if the grandparents can't make it out to come celebrate and eat and play with us.

Anyway, hope you all have a great one. See you later when things calm down again!

Blog Advent Tour: Decorating the Tree

For my turn as part of the Advent Tour, I've invited you all to join me and my family as we decorate our Christmas tree. But first, before we go any further, we must have music. There can be no Christmas tree decorating without music! So you can click on my "currently listening" playlist in the sidebar to experience some of my favorite Christmas music as you read this post, or just click this YouTube video and then listen as you continue to scroll down.



Okay! Music.... check!

One of the things we most look forward to on tree decorating day, is that once we are done, we have cinnamon rolls. So it's important to get the dough made and rising before we even haul up the tree or unpack the decorations.

Once that's going, we can start building the tree. We used to get a real tree... I love real trees... but it was so stressful to deal with that we instantly lost all pretense of having a Christmas spirit so, I gave in and several years ago, we got the fake tree.

As the kids build, I string the lights. I bought a new strand this year and thought I'd have enough, but as we got to the top, I ran out! Seems like this happens every year! So, we are a bit light heavy on the bottom and sparse on the top. My light philosophy? Colored and a bit of twinkle too.


Now that the lights are on, the kids have at it. The ornaments are piled on. There's no rhyme or reason. No theme. No particularities. We put on nearly everything we have. Kids homemade school ornaments, my homemade ornaments from years past, special ornaments from Grandma Great, other ornaments people have given us. We plaster the tree.


Then we take a break and roll out the rolls, so they can keep rising.

Once the tree is totally covered, I add a bit of garland, and we declare it done! Oh, don't forget the skirt, a quilted one I made a few years ago. It's amazing what a little skirt does for the tree. Oh, and a couple of presents to instantly put under helps complete the look too.

Now it's time to bake the rolls. They smell so good! Here's the recipe which is taken from a book (Bread Baking Made Easy by Dora Flack)I got for a wedding present had have baked from constantly since:

Eve's Knot Buns

2 cups milk, scalded

2 Tbs. dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1/4 tsp. sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp. salt

4 Tbs. sugar

2 eggs, well beaten

5 to 6 cups flour

For Dipping:

1 1/2 cups sugar

3Tbs. cinnamon

1 cup butter, melted

Scald the milk.

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water with the pinch of sugar.

Beat eggs.

Stir in butter, salt, sugar into hot milk and then let it cool.

To milk mixture, add eggs, dissolved yeast and 2 cups flour. Cover and let rise about 30 min.

Add the rest of the flour to make a soft dough. Knead for five min.

Cover and let rise for 1 hour.

In small bowl combine sugar and cinnamon for dipping. Melt butter. Grease muffin tins.

Roll out dough about 5/8 inch thick. With a pizza cutter, cut into long strips about two inches wide and five inches long.

Dip each strip into melted butter, then sugar/cinnamon. Tie into a loose knot and place in muffin tin.

Let rise 30 more min. then back 10 to 15 min. at 375 to 400 degrees.

Thanks for joining our tree decorating party! It was a blast having you!

Bonus:

Last year I posted this video I made of a Christmas Eve nativity gone wild. Since I have some new readers, I thought I'd stick it in again! Enjoy!



Participants in the Advent Tour:

1 December Alabama BookwormJoanne from Lost in a Good BookSusan from You Can Never Have Too Many Books
2 December Louise from Lou's PagesPenelope from Life's Sweet Passions
3 December Booklogged from A Reader's JournalLisa from Book Lists LifeAlison
4 December Ladytink from Ladytink's NeverlandKim from Page After Page
5 DecemberVickie from Scrapbooking and TidbitsRob from The Snig's Foot
6 December Andrew from The View from ArizonaMarny the Bookworm
7 December Becky from Becky's Book ReviewsMelissa from Book Nut
8 December Amy from Passages to the PastAlyssa from By the Book
9 December Raidergirl3 from An Adventure in ReadingSherrie from Just Books
10 December Kerrie from Mysteries in ParadiseDolce Bellezza
11 December Chris from Book-a-ramaBookwormomMister Teacher from Learn Me Good
12 December Bigsis from Through the Eyes of the CreatorTrish's Reading NookJulia from A Piece of My Mind
13 December Nymeth from Things Mean a LotLisa from Book AhoySuey from It's All About Books
14 December Emily from Dreaming on the JobStephanie's Confessions of a Book-a-holicCindy from Nocturnal Wonderings
15 December Natasha from Maw BooksSomewhere in BetweenWendy from Caribou's Mom
16 December Strumpet from Strumpet's LifeChris from Stuff as Dreams are Made onTammy from Omah's Helping Hand
17 December3M from 1 More ChapterStine from The WashingtoniumKim from Sophisticated Dorkiness
18 December Alex from Daemonwolf BooksLeya from Wandeca ReadsJulia's Book Corner
19 December Laclau from Conversacions de CafeKrissi from The Swim MomMorgan from Insert Clever Name Here
20 December Jessica from The Bluestockings SocietyNaida from The BookwormBookClover
21 December Rhinoa from Rhinoa's RamblingsMelissa from Remember to BreatheThe Bluestocking Guide
22 DecemberThink Pink DanaMy Friend AmyNicole from Linus's Blanket
23 December Jane from JanezlifeandtimesMemory from Stella Matutina
24 December Carl from Stainless Steel DroppingsKailana's Written World

A Bunch of Book Bloggin' Business!

There's a bunch of stuff happening out there in the book blogging world lately that I feel the need to promote and support! One of them I've totally been looking forward to because it was so much fun last year. That is the Book Blogger's Christmas Swap! Both Nymeth and Dewey are doing it again. So, if you're interested, click here or here for details! But basically, you send an email saying you want to be included, and then they assign you your blogger and you send them a small Christmas package.

The other thing making it's way around is the movement Amy from Book Blogger Appreciation Week fame has began. That is to buy books for the Holidays in order to support the book industry! Easy, right? We do it anyway, right? So, if you want to know more about this effort, click here. Oh, and also, she's got a Book Bloggers Directory up if you want to check that out. Click here for that and be sure you're listed if you blog about books!

Let's see what else? I think the other thing was new challenge that caught my eye. Of course, it's one I do anyway, so I can handle joining it! It's being hosted by J. Kaye and is called the Support Your Local Library Challenge! Wahoo for the library! So, click here if you want to know more about that and to sign up! I'll be making a post for this challenge that will be blank now, but I'll fill it in as I read my library books next year.

Oh, and in other news! I got an early birthday present yesterday from Serena! She said she was going to, and she really did... send me a book that is. I did a for fun birthday wish list the other day and she went sent me something on my list! I was so curious to know which book it was going to be and it turned out to be The Lace Reader which I've heard so many of you talking about. It sounds wonderful and I'm anxious to read it. I think I'll be moving it to the top of the stack. Thank you so much Serena! You are the best book bloggin' buddy ever! :)