What Christmas is

We don’t live around any immediate family members, so our Christmas is all about us and the boys. Personally, I wouldn’t have it any other way. We are able to be just the four of us and there’s no drama or rushing around. Even though I get homesick this time of year and feel a need to be around extended family and would especially like for my boys to know their cousins better, I really do prefer how we have it. We have been able to set our own traditions and keep to ourselves, which is our favourite thing to do.

We have a few traditions:

Christmas eve we open a present. The present consists of a new ornament for the tree and new jammies. This is a tradition that DH and I always wanted to have but have just in the past few years been consistent enough to make it a real tradition. We’ve always been a little late to the party on these things.

The boys are allowed to get up before us and open their stocking and play with their gift from Santa. Santa doesn’t wrap gifts. This is a tradition that I had as a child that I am passing on because it’s awesome. It makes it so that the children do not wake up their parents at 4am in order to open presents. They get a mini box of cereal in their stocking so that they can have breakfast. We were never allowed to have “sugar” cereal growing up, but our stockings were an exception to this. This made it extra special. Each of us had our favourites; mine was Frosted Flakes, Mrs. Bowie’s was Corn Pops. I can’t remember what Brother’s or Baby Sister’s was. This way, our parents could sleep as long as they wanted to. The major rule was that there had to be a fire lit and we had to be ultra quiet. I always thought this was a brilliant tradition, especially now that I’m a parent that is up half the night filling stockings and putting together Santa gifts because the boys take for-freaking-ever to get to bed on Christmas Eve. Mama needs to sleep!

The funny thing about Christmas morning – I can’t sleep in. I have never been able to. Not as a kid, and not as an adult. There’s just something about the magic of Christmas morning. Everyone’s quiet but excited and happy. The boys want to show me what Santa brought. As a parent, Christmas has become more magical because I see the light in the boys’ eyes. I love seeing their reactions to their presents more than anything. I don’t even care about my own gifts. This year we’re supposed to have snow on Christmas Eve – I’m really excited about that.

None of my siblings can sleep in either. I wrote about our first Christmas as a married couple and how we drove up to Canada to surprise my family for Christmas. I still got up at the crack of dawn. I heard voices downstairs, so I knew that someone was up, so I tip-toed downstairs and Baby Sister and her boyfriend were already up. Soon after, Brother got up and Mrs. Bowie and her husband arrived. DH slept in through all of this. It was after ten and he still wasn’t up. My family made me go up and drag him out of bed. I could not believe how he could sleep in on Christmas morning! He’s still the last one up. I have to lure him out of bed with waffles.

That’s another tradition: I always make waffles for breakfast (after presents are unwrapped, of course). I make waffles on special occasions and sometimes for no reason at all, but on Christmas morning, I have special Christmas plates for the waffles.

Christmas Day is usually spent in our jammies. The boys always play with their new toys together, and there is rarely any fighting. We don’t have a turkey because DH’s cousins always have us over for Christmas dinner a few days before Christmas, but I usually make a roast “beast” (like in the Grinch) in the crock pot.

Depending on what day Christmas falls on, we will go and see a movie. Before we had kids, DH and I went to see a movie on Christmas Day a few times. I loved it and wanted to make it a tradition. We don’t always go on Christmas Day, but we normally go and see a movie some time during the holiday. Santa usually gives us a movie for Christmas, so we definitely watch that movie on Christmas Day. We also watch the Christmas Story marathon, and pull out the old classic Christmas specials that we have on DVD and watch those.

I always have time to read on Christmas. I don’t have anything that I’m craving to read right now, so I think I’m going to write this year.

DH always takes a big long nap.

I absolutely love our low-key, mellow, just-us Christmases.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Okay, okay, enough already. It’s winter.

Time to pull out the hard core sweaters and boots, down coats and sleds.

Bring on the snow! It’s okay now that we are in love again.

Hot chocolate is one of the best things in the world. An added bonus; Huey has informed me that I make the world’s best hot chocolate. He rarely tells me that I do anything right, so this is a very very good thing.

I bought a pair of Sorrels a couple of years ago and a whole new world has opened up to me. I had no idea that you could be out in the snow and NOT have cold, wet feet! Those boots are the best. I can wear them with pantyhose when I’m shoveling the driveway and still stay toasty warm.

Winter is fireplaces and snuggling and staying in. Winter is evergreen trees weighed down with snow.

Winter is bundling up and layering even more. Winter is wool socks and sweaters that are so cozy and warm. Winter is reading and writing and hunkering down with movie marathons.

Winter is an excuse to bake so that you can warm the house up.

Winter is snowball fights and throwing snowballs for the dog to chase and search for. (Where did that white ball go?) Winter is getting an excellent cardio workout by shoveling the driveway. Winter is finding a good hill for sledding.

Winter is coming in from the cold.

Winter is “Mom! Can I go outside? Please please please?”

Winter is Christmas Holidays.

Winter is a new year and new opportunities and hope.

Winter is remembering getting married to the man of my life.

Winter is Valentines day.

Winter is remembering the holidays we have taken in order to escape winter.

Winter is more reasons to walk the dog because he’s been cooped up inside all day going crazy. It’s watching the joy and wonder and sneezing as Orso snuffles through the snow. It’s the joy of watching Orso act like this is the best thing ever!

Winter can be dull and boring and blugh and cold and there is much to whine about with winter, but there are many awesome and beautiful things about winter so let's just focus on that, shall we?

Hey did you know that it’s still Autumn?

Hey! You over there with the tinsel and the Christmas music that’s been playing since Halloween. You that are dreaming of snow and icicles and all that junk. You that are driving me nuts when it only rains instead of snows. You that rushed through Back to School and Halloween and Thanksgiving to get to the so-called most wonderful time of the year.

It’s. Still. Autumn.

I know that it’s a rule here in Utah that in-between seasons don’t count and we should only have two; Summer and Winter – but I am here to tell you that Autumn is STILL happening.

That’s right. September, October, November, AND December – all months of Autumn. I am not a Winter baby, I am an Autumn baby. (or Fall baby, which would explain all the clumsiness)

I’m so tired of people rushing through the seasons just to make Winter happen. I’m sick of not being able to relish in Autumn, it’s my favourite season and by golly I am going to enjoy it!!

So in honour of Autumn and in the spirit of my “What Summer Is” post, I am going to extol the virtues of Autumn.

Full Moon on Halloween night

Autumn starts with A, so that makes it Awesome.

Sorry – that was cheesy. I have a cold and my brain is not fully functioning.

Autumn starts out with mornings that are crisper than usual. The afternoons are still hot as heck, but the mornings and evenings are cool and lovely. Yardwork can be done because it’s finally not one thousand degrees and your face won’t melt off if you exert an iota of energy. You can start wearing socks on occasion and the feeling of the cotton stretching over your toes is welcome. It feels good to pull your jeans out of the back of the closet. You don’t have to shave your legs as often. There are back to school clothes and the excitement of a new year. You can open the windows. The house gets aired out.

As the days get progressively shorter and cooler, the layers come out. Long sleeved tshirts, cardigans, flannel button down shirts. It starts to rain and the leaves change colours. The fact that the mountains change colour into this cool rusty red make up for the lack of real rain. Sometimes there’s snow, but it doesn’t stick around and it’s still a form of precipitation, so I’ll take it.

There are apples and all the treats that come along with it; apple cider, apple pie, baked apples, caramel apples, apple Danish, etc. I love apples; their cheery red colour, their juciness, how they taste with peanut butter, how magic happens when they are combined with cinnamon and sugar.

Jack

There are pumpkins with their fun orange colour and weird shapes. There are pumpkin seeds, pumpkin and chocolate-chip cookies and bread, there is pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice. The smell of pumpkin spice is the best.

You can wear a tshirt and a turtleneck and a cardigan and a leather jacket and jeans and cords and tights and wool socks and boots. There are cute hats and gloves. You don’t have to wear a coat yet – just a jacket.

The colours are all gold and orange and red and brown and deep green. Autumn colours are my favourite.

There is the fun of Halloween and corn mazes and hay bales. There is Thanksgiving with all the food and remembering what you are thankful for. There are gourds and cornucopias. There is the beginning of the hockey season (usually).

There is the contrast of the orange leaves against the blue sky. The colour of the sky in Autumn is different. Bluer.

There is the smell of the heat coming on for the first time. There are open windows during the day and warm fuzzy blankets at night.

There is all kinds of change; from the weather to the trees to the types of clothes that you wear.

Muddied Timberlands from
walking the dog

Did I mention boots and hats and jackets? I know I did, but yeah.

There is snuggling up with a good book. There are good movies.

There is switching from cotton to flannel sheets. There is cashmere and there are slippers. There is so much coziness.

I know I mentioned boots, but they deserve many many mentions.

The air is better and the colours are better and even though everything is dying, everything feels like a new beginning because of all the change that is happening.

What summer is

Blackie Spit, Crescent Beach, B.C.

You wake up early in the morning and the window is open gently blowing the curtains with a cool breeze. The sun is already up and it’s very quiet.

You open all the doors and windows and let the breeze cool the house down. The breeze is the definition of “breeze”: just gentle and quiet enough to flow through and air the house out.

You eat delicious fresh fruit for breakfast and drink fresh squeezed orange juice.

There are fresh cherries and raspberries and strawberries and oranges and bananas at your fingertips.

Around noon you close all the doors and windows and shut the blinds and curtains shutting out the noise and heat outside. In the distance you can hear the muffled sounds of children running through sprinklers and the tinkling music of the ice cream truck.

You hang your laundry outside to dry. When you bring it in at the end of the day it smells of hot breeze, the baking sun, fresh cotton, gold, and sunflowers.

You go to the beach or the pool and lay outside until it’s so hot you can’t stand it and the sweat runs around to the back of your neck so you jump in the water and play around long enough to get cold so you get out and lay on the ground and let the sun warm you up again until you can’t stand it any more. Repeat.

Kihei beach, Maui, HI

The heat is a deep, penetrating, soothing heat that goes right through to your bones. It makes your muscles completely relaxed and at ease. You feel all elastic. It’s like sitting in a sauna in the most relaxing, peaceful way.

When it rains, no one complains.

Your toenails are painted.

You grill something and you eat salad and corn on the cob. You eat watermelon for dessert.

At the end of the day the shadows are long and look like photography from the seventies.  The sun sets and casts a liquid glow on everything. You put something light and cotton on over your swimsuit which you have been wearing all afternoon. The feeling on your hot skin is fresh and you feel like your skin is breathing in the scent.

The smell of Noxema.

The Pina Colata smell of sunscreen.

You have a bonfire on the beach or in your backyard and maybe you eat ice cream cones or maybe you roast marshmallows or maybe you don’t. You lay on the sidewalk or driveway or basketball court that has been roasting in the sun all day warming your back and making patterns out of the stars whose constellations you don’t know.

It’s cool enough to wear a sweater, but warm enough for shorts and flip-flops.

Franklin Covey Field, home of the Salt Lake Bees

You stay up late. You go for walks on the boardwalk, the beach, the pier, along the path to the beach. You rarely wear shoes. You hardly wear anything more than your bathing suit. You never have to take a bath because you’ve been in water for a good portion of the day. Walking barefoot is a natural exfoliant. Your skin is darker and your hair is lighter and you have a smattering of freckles across your nose.

The Drive-in is open and you go in a huge group to the all nighters where they play three movies and you play Frisbee and hang out at the snack bar and maybe see one of the movies and go from car to car chatting with your friends and flirting with boys. You can wear your jammies and no one cares.

Day or night you can lay in the backyard on your grama’s old quilt and close your eyes and know everything that’s going on around you just by listening.

There are Creamsicles and Fudgesicles and Drum Sticks and Ice Cream Sandwiches.

You drive with the window open at night (or the top down if you’re lucky) and you can feel the air.

Even the air is sunkissed.

Nothing feels heavy.

There is no school, and there is camping in the backyard.

Water Park, Provo UT

There is no place to go and nothing to do and no schedule and you eat when you’re hungry and there’s always lemonade.

There is getting together with your family and going away on vacation and road trips and going into the mountains and camping where you don’t bathe for a week and you’re so happy to come home to your own bed.

There is time to write in your journal and sketch and read and read some more.

There is the heart break from breaking up with your school boyfriend because you know you won’t be able to see him over the summer and the anticipation and excitement of the summer love that you met on the beach. There is the freedom of knowing that it’s just for the summer and not forever so you don’t have to take yourself so seriously.

You always look your best in the summer.

There are roller coasters and summer fairs and open markets.

Everything is green leaves backlit by the sun and warm grass and hot sand and blue sky with fluffy clouds.

Ke'e Beach, Kauai, HI

When summer is like this, summer is the best time of the year. I always lived for summer and was at my happiest in summer. My relationship with summer has changed so much since I moved to Utah that I feel like we’ve broken up and my heart hurts.