Bolt Upright

Well, it’s Christmas Eve tomorrow, as Sport has informed me approximately eight thousand times today. He has had a blast all week at daycare (have I mentioned we love this daycare?) with activities like tobogganing and cookie baking. The brave daycare workers even hauled the whole building full of rowdy kids to a movie theater for “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”.

We haven’t done much more at home other than watch some more holiday movies, do a few crafts, and drink a lot of hot chocolate. This has been a great Christmas season so far – no stress, no trying to do everything and see everyone – just low-key enjoyment. And I have four days off beginning with Christmas Day,  so we will have plenty of time to both celebrate and relax. (Is it wrong to feel like the best part of having that time off is not having to make school lunches for four whole days??)

May you all have a peaceful and festive holiday season. And in the immortal words of Sport, “Deck your halls with bows of jolly.”

At the end of our Christmas Relaxation Weekend, Sport pitifully said he didn’t want it to end. “Why can’t it be Christmas Relaxation all week?” he asked. Well… why not? So Monday we went to the library and picked out a bunch of Christmas books and movies, and then did some crafts. Tuesday we watched “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and had hot chocolate with candy cane stir sticks. Wednesday was “Miracle on 34th street” with Grandma (I confess I ditched Christmas Relaxation and went out for supper.) Thursday night we made chocolates and listened to Christmas carols. Friday night we watched “Home Alone”. (Sport hadn’t seen it before, and thought it was so good he watched it again this morning before I got up.) Today we went to see a play at the children’s theatre, and then bought a topper for our tree since I have never had one. Tonight we have the special treat of a favourite Auntie staying overnight, which means that I get to sleep in tomorrow since she gets up almost as early as Sport does. The two of them will play games and eat pancakes while I stay in bed, or at least that is my fervent hope. Later on we have a playdate with some friends, and might squeeze in another festive movie in the evening if we can keep our eyes open.

And that is why it was so, so worth getting the shopping over with early on. Other than making the chocolates, there was nothing that absolutely had to get done this week. I was free to just sit back and let the festivities roll. Sure, the housecleaning has slipped a bit, but in the grand scheme of things I’d rather hear “That was so FUN, mom!” than “Wow, your house is really clean.”

And the chocolates turned out very well this year if I do say so myself.

150 chocolates later...

Day 1 of Christmas Relaxation weekend: 1 batch of  cookies baked, gingerbread house created, holiday movie watched, hot chocolate and candy canes consumed, tree decorated. And of course visited with family & friends and ate… way too many munchies and cookies and treats. The fact that we didn’t have to leave the house at all was an added bonus considering it is insanely cold. (Insanely cold, as in the projected wind chill tonight is minus 48. Yes, you read that right.)

yes, of course it was from a kit

nothing like a real tree

Day 2 will start with waffles & board games, then move on to sugar cookies and chocolate making. Unfortunately we do have to go out for a little while tomorrow afternoon, which means I had better go plug the car in now if I want to stand a chance of starting it.

The presents are bought, but not wrapped.

The tree is up, but not decorated. (It’s still frozen solid.)

The cards are written (ok only half of them are written), but not mailed.

The cookie ingredients are purchased, but not baked.

But overall, that’s still better than last year, so I think I’m in good shape.

Here’s the thing: I don’t like Christmas music. Hate it, in fact. It can cause me to leave stores, violently stab radio buttons, and threaten coworkers. Christmas carols, on the other hand, I can bear as long as Christmas is imminent. What is the difference between Christmas music and Christmas carols, you ask? Simple.

Silent Night – Christmas carol. Grandma got run over by a reindeer – not a Christmas carol.

Adeste Fidelis – Christmas carol. Godawful Garth Brooks song about little orphan  Maria and a dead dove – not a Christmas carol.

You get the picture. If it says (Trad.) for a composer credit, I’m probably ok with it. Ok, but still not enthusiastic. With one exception: O Holy Night. I love O Holy Night. Love it beyond reason. And since my family did not go to church, and their idea of a Christmas album was the one by Boney M, I don’t recall ever hearing it as a child. You can feel free to laugh hysterically at this, but when I first heard it somewhere I had no idea what it was called. But I knew I loved it, so I asked my church-goin’ choir-singin’ best friend to identify for me the Christmas carol with the chorus line “Fall on your knees”. She looked at me like I was a total basket case but informed me that it was “O Holy Night”. (The “duh” was unspoken, but there.)

So. O Holy Night. Love. But I am picky about the arrangement, of course, because when am I not picky? It can’t be too fast, too slow, or by Celine Dion. And thou shalt not mess with the words and start ad-libbing in the middle. (Yes, people do this.) It can’t be sung by an opera singer, because I can’t abide opera. A good choir, though, could sing this for me from now until Christmas, non stop, and I would not complain. I particularly like the King’s College Choir. (All those generations of Anglicans had to have their way in some part of my genetic makeup, I guess.)

Which brings us to my request.

Dear internets: can you please find me an audio recording of King’s College Choir singing O Holy Night? For some reason best known to themselves and God, not one of their Christmas CDs (and there are many) includes O Holy Night. Basically, I want this as an audio track. It’s glorious. (But not this one, because the pacing is too fast. I told you I was picky.) Thank you, and happy Christmas, love tafel.

It has come to my attention that I was being unintentionally cruel when I posted on the last day of NaBloPoMo with the title “It’s….”. Apparently when this showed up in various feed readers a number of people frantically clicked on it thinking that after the jump they were going to see “a 4 year old boy!” or something similar. Obviously they were severely disappointed to find out that instead it was the lamest post ever. So, yeah, my apologies and all. Maybe next year. But I guess that explains the massive spike on the site meter that day.

… the end of NaBloPoMo.

… a full moon, and therefore was EXTREMELY nutty today at work.

… difficult to handle the nutty when you are totally exhausted.

… 8:27 pm and I am going to bed as soon as I switch the laundry into the dryer.

… the lamest post ever.

… we are making inroads into the food, the drink, and also the advil. Three small boys who see each other only twice a year if we’re lucky means CHAOS.

What do you think…. enough food for 6 people for 2 days?

Here is a picture of Friday night’s supper prep. You will notice it is a little different from the supper prep photo I posted earlier in the week.

And if you’re wondering what the heck that is beside the Corona – that, my friends, is a Friday  Afternoon Hammer. Some genius replaced the claw with a bottle opener. Is that not the best thing ever to keep in your kitchen drawer?