Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Belated Christmas Post

 Hello Interwebs!

Ironic that I fell down on the final day of my 12 Days of Christmas but Christmas and the following days have been rather insane. I was up until almost noon on Christmas and got minimal sleep before work that night while also trying to finish a final washcloth for presents. Then I got about three hours of sleep Saturday morning before we made our way over the pass to visit family: mine on Saturday night, mine again on Sunday, his on Monday and then heading home early Tuesday morning. So it's been a very, very busy weekend and Wednesday night it's immediately back to work. 

So on my final day off, the night in which I stay up all night I am watching Bridgerton on Netflix, trying to finish one last book for the year (number 75) and relaxing. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I will be back with some wrap-up posts coming up soon along with many a belated book review. 

Happy Reading!

Richelle

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Christmas Traditions

 Hello Interwebs!

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas, My True Love Gave to Me...

Christmas Traditions

In my family, Christmas has always been a big deal with Christmas Eve being the most important of the days. When I was very little Christmas always started about a week before when my great aunt flew in from Idaho. I remember as a very little girl (pre-9/11) going ot the airport early in the morning with my dad and grandma to pick her up at the gate. She stopped coming when I was still young but some of my earliest memories of Christmas are of those trips to the airport.

Like I said the most important day of the holidays was Christmas Eve. We would always go to my mother's parents' home for Christmas Eve. My grandma always made chili. After chili and cornbread with all the fixings we would sing Christmas carols, always ending iwth Silent Night for my grandma. After the singing (which no one was even the slightest bit good at), my grandfather would read the Christmas story out of a children's bible story book. Only once the singing and reading was over would we get to open presents. It was always our family, my grandparents, and the families of two of my mom's cousins. 

After we finished the Christmas Eve festivities at Grandma's house we would drive home, always taking the long way around to go look at Christmas lights. There is always the biggest and best display done by the Davison's Auto Parts store in McMinnville with a little merry-go-round and ferris wheel with Disney characters. After the christmas lights were all looked at we would go home, get in pajamas and take turns opening Christmas presents from each other. After presents we would go to bed. 

Like every other child in the world we would be up early on Christmas Day to see what was in our stockings and what the "Santa gift" would be. We always had one or two gifts from Santa as well as fully filled stockings with treats, bath items, socks and underwear. Later in the day we'd either go back to grandma's for Christmas dinner or we'd have the family over at ours for the big meal. When I was very little after Christmas presents at home from Santa we'd go to my dad's parents house for breakfast and presents with them. 

Those traditions happened until my grandma died and we became estranged from my grandfather adn the rest of that side of the family. Some traditions we continued like chili on Christmas Eve and presents after, looking at Christmas lights, and the big meal on Christmas Day but it was smaller with just immediate family. 

Now our holidays look even different. This is the first year that my family: me, my boyfriend, our son, and the dog; can't be there on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day itself because I work both nights. So in our new traditions we went out looking at Christmas lights on my days off. Then we decided to do a Christmas dinner of sorts tonight: Red Wine Cranberry Braised Short Ribs with Holiday Roasted Vegetables, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and Martinelli's Sparkling Cider (a peach one we found). We opened one present each: insulated wine tumblers for my boyfriend to use for eggnog or sparkling cider tonight or in the morning and a Matilda tote bag from Litographs for me. I also made a batch of blueberry muffins to take to work to share with my coworkers. In the morning when I get home I'm going to change into our matching family pajamas, we'll eat scones (we have a gingerbread scone mix) and have Christmas coffee (I have the Bones Coffee Holiday Sample Pack), and open presents before I get some sleep before my Christmas Day shift. 

So those are my family's traditions, new and old. Tomorrow there will be a short post for Christmas and then on to 2021!

Happy Reading!

Richelle

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Decorations!

 Hello Interwebs!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas, My True Love Gave to Me...

Christmas Decorations

I cannot believe it is already the 23rd of December. I'm writing the majority of the blog around one in the morning on the 23rd while I watch videos on YouTube, read, and knit washcloths. I have two to finish by tomorrow night, for my coworkers so I'll show pictures eventually. But onto the good stuff, my Christmas decorations!

First of all, I live in an apartment, it's small and this is only the second Christmas we've celebrated together on our own so decorations are sparse but we're slowly amassing things. This year we added two new sets of lights for the tree, a new star, and a hook to hang a wreath on our front door. With those additions came a wreath and the migration of our old tree lights to the game shelves. 

Let's start with the tree. We went out into the national forest out here for our tree. Lucky for us here in Oregon we can buy a permit for a nominal fee and go out onto public lands and cut our tree (within certain parameters). We spent about an hour trudging through the snow and finally found a tree: my son loved the snow but I was less excited about it. 





For our Christman decorations we have gone with blue and white, especially for lights/ornaments. So here's our tree all decorated. 


Most of our ornaments are just round baubles in blue and silver, some with sparkles and some without in two sizes. We also have candy canes on the tree and our star is brand new this year. Actually, the star is kind of cool it's an LED star and changes colors. In addition to the blue and silver balls, we have a handful of special ornaments:
A wooden dog ornament for Emma.
A baby reindeer for Ryder's first Christmas last year.

Then there's the imprints we made of Ryder's hand and foot for Christmas last year in this foam clay stuff.
Our family of penguins: baby, daddy, and mommy: we bought these for our first Christmas as a family
A Santa dice our friend Gabby made. 
The ship Serenity from the show Firefly

A glass bauble with a set of mini dice inside, also made by Gabby. 


A yo-yo style ornament with a dungeons and dragons theme giving you a "+1 for holiday cheer", again made by Gabby.

Those are our special ornaments. We have a wreath on our main apartment door.
There's the lights on our game shelves (most of which belong to our roommate):
And then we have our little knickknacks around.
Our table behind the couch with its Christmas stuffies.


Christmas Pusheen stuffie with a mug of hot cocoa and a little Santa hat.
Our bigger squishy gnome stuffie next to the perpetual calendar. 

The ceramic candy cane house that belonged to my grandmother. My mother has one too and she allowed me to take this one home with me this year. 
Christmas Pusheen vinyl figurine wrapped in Christmas lights. 
A blue dinosaur with a Santa hat that plays "Jingle Bells" and is my son's favorite. 

Clarisse from Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer that my dad got me from the Build-a-Bear at Disneyland on the hall bookcase. 

Finally we have the crowning glory of our Christmas collection: the stockings I made for the whole family last year. 
All four stockings hung by our gas fireplace.
Ben's stocking with a deer and pine tree design. 
My stocking with a love bird motif
Ryder's stocking with a candy motif, featuring gingerbread men, gingerbread houses and candy canes.
Emma's stocking with her name and paw prints/bone motifs. 

I knit all four stockings last year by hand while I was on maternity leave after having my son and I am very proud of them and how they turned out. 

So those are our little Christmas decorations around our little apartment. Nothing major but cute and festive. We'll continue to add through our time together and the next things I want to get are lights for the cabinet behind the couch and some lit garland for the fireplace. 

Happy Reading!
Richelle





Tuesday, December 22, 2020

My Favorite Things

 Hello Interwebs!

On the Ninth Day of Christmas, my True Love Gave to Me...

My Favorite Things

Becasue this is a book blog first and foremost for this one I found a book tag about my favorite things. This reminds me of My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music which is a song that ends up being played at Christmas most years. This is the A Few of My Favorite Things book tag that I found on the blog Zezee with Books

A Few of My Favorite Things

1. A Book You've Read More Than Once: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black (The Folk of the Air book 1)


2. A Book You Would Take on a Desert Island: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 


3. A Book that Made You Cry: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (Me Before You #1) 


4. A Book that Scared You: Salem's Lot by Stephen King 


5. A Book that Made You Laugh Out Loud: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally 


6. A Book That Disgusted You: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov


7. A Book You Loved in Preschool: Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss


8. A Book You Loved in Elementary School: Matilda by Roald Dahl


or Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (Brian's Saga #1) 

9. A Book You Loved in Middle School: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials #1) 


10. A Book You Loved in High School: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee


11. A Book You Hated in High School: Lord of the Flies by William Golding 


12. A Book You Loved in College: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez


13. A Book That Challenged Your Identity: Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob 


14. Your Favorite Horror Book: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (Dread Nation #1) 


15. Your Favorite Science Fiction Book: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (The Illuminae Files #1) 


16. Your Favorite Fantasy Book: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) 


17. Your Favorite Mystery: Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn 


or The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

18. Your Favorite Biography: A Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary


19. Your Favorite Classic: Persuasion by Jane Austen


20. Your Favorite Romance Book: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston 


21. Your Favorite Book Not on This List: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 


22. What Book Are You Currently Reading: Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life by Lucy Worsley


A Promised Land by Barack Obama;

 The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker

23. What Book Have You Been Meaning to Read: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood


So there's A Few of My Favorite Things book tag for Christmas. Some of these are my favorite books overall, even ones that disgusted me (Lolita) or scared me (Salem's Lot). I would recommend all of these (except for Lord of the Flies, for reasons). 

Happy Reading!

Richelle