Everyday Adventures

12 Days of Blogmas: 10 Facts About Me

Just for Fun

1. This may be my least favorite prompt for Blogmas! (I always feel at a loss for these sorts of posts, but I’m gonna power through anyway in the true spirit of completion.)

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2. I am a craft supply hoarder. This has come in handy with my late in the day plan to make the Christmas gifts for my family as I’ve had to buy absolutely nothing thanks to my well-stocked dragon hoard. For once, DIY is cheaper than buying. Hopefully my family likes their gifts.

3. I prefer Star Trek to Star Wars, but I’m still curious about The Force Awakens. Generally speaking I don’t go near a first-run movie for the first two weeks. This one might need a month’s grace period before the crowds die down enough for me to be comfortable in the movie theater.

4. I’m currently binge-watching RHOA. I stopped watching ages ago so I have plenty of seasons to catch up on and Hulu just added it. I’ve noticed, though, that watching these over the top women affects how I reflect to ridiculousness going on with friends, my language becomes a little bit more salty.

5. I turn 40 next year and I’m actually not stressing about it. I’m even looking forward to it since I make it known that I wanted a party that I didn’t have to plan and our friend L has picked up the ball and run with it.

6. I have puppy fever like whoa! Todd and have I talked about getting a dog once we’ve had a chance to settle in and we’re actually looking at February or March, depending on when the right dog appears. Todd’s a fan of Basset Hounds and I like pretty much all short-legged dogs, so that works for me. We’ve been checking a couple of rescues in Georgia and Florida for likely candidates for adoption.

7. The variety of Christmas cookies in our house is currently 6, with at least two more to come tomorrow. That and DIY is how I’ve been spending my days off this week.

8. I’m really looking forward to 2016 in general. I’m hoping for some good things to happen and some changes in certain sectors of my life.

So I am now drawing a blank and Todd just came in to tell me goodnight so I asked him for two more facts about me, whatever came into his head, because I have stared at this post long enough!

9. I was in the gifted program in school, from first grade on through high school. It’s probably one of the things I put in the thankful column when I grumble about moving away from all our family after Kindergarten.

10. I bought the first house I looked at. This is true, the Dollhouse was the first house we saw when we were house hunting–we weren’t even house hunting yet, we were barely browsing and it was a whim, a chance, that we decided to try for this house and it paid off.

Phew! Made it through, and tomorrow we can go back to holiday stuff!

The 12 Days of Blogmas is a link-up hosted by The Coastie Couple and The Petite Mrs. Check out either of their blogs to see what everyone else has to say on today’s topic!

The 12 Days of Blogmas is a link-up hosted by The Coastie Couple and The Petite Mrs. Check out either of their blogs to see what everyone else has to say on today’s topic!

12 Days of Blogmas: Holiday Songs

Just for Fun

It’s time for Christmas music!!! Settle in with some cocoa and enjoy some of my favorites!

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When I was younger, a friend of Mom’s gave us a set of cassettes (yes, cassettes) with classic crooners caroling. So some of my favorites are oldies that don’t get nearly enough play on the radio.

Direct link for the feed readers: Christmas in Killearney, Bing Crosby

Direct link for the feed readers: The Holly and the Ivy, King’s College Cambridge

And then there’s this combination of a carol I care little for (Little Drummer Boy) much improved by a counterpoint (Peace on Earth)

Direct link for the feed readers: Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth, Bing Crosby and David Bowie

The story goes that David Bowie wasn’t a big fan of Little Drummer Boy, either, and pretty much refused to sing it with Bing. Instead, he and a couple of others wrote Peace on Earth just to keep the show going as planned.

Back in middle school we’d put on join band and chorus concerts for winter and spring performances and one of my favorite pieces to play was Pat a Pan.

Direct link for the feed readers: Pat a Pan, Julie Andrews

Of all the classic carols, though, Carol of the Bells has to be my all-time favorite.

Direct link for the feed readers: Carol of the Bells, Mormon Tabernacle Choir

So I managed to get more than halfway through this list without mentioning Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and that was tough. I could fill this list with three of their albums and have plenty of songs left over. Two of my favorites are Old City Bar (never fails to bring a tear to my eye) and Christmas Canon Rock (an edited version of which we used in our wedding).

Direct link for the feed readers: Old City Bar, Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Direct link for the feed readers: Christmas Canon Rock, Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Did anyone else’s parents love the PBS pledge drive programming during the holidays? Mom was a big fan of Peter, Paul, and Mary and so when they’d play their holiday concert it was required watching in our house. What I liked most about it was not the Christmas songs, but the Hannukah songs, many of which were written by Peter and Paul.

Direct link for the feed readers: Light One Candle, Peter, Paul and Mary

And, finally, this PP&M song that always struck me as a but on the mystical side for my Baptist upbringing, but it was so pretty to listen to and is one of my favorites to sing in the car.

Direct link for the feed readers: Cherry Tree Carol, Peter, Paul and Mary

The 12 Days of Blogmas is a link-up hosted by The Coastie Couple and The Petite Mrs. Check out either of their blogs to see what everyone else has to say on today’s topic!

The 12 Days of Blogmas is a link-up hosted by The Coastie Couple and The Petite Mrs. Check out either of their blogs to see what everyone else has to say on today’s topic!

12 Days of Blogmas: Holiday Food and Drinks

Just for Fun

Now we’re getting to the good stuff!

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It always amuses me that Mom and I have to discuss what we’re doing for the holidays when, 9 times out of 10, we do the same thing every time. My family isn’t big on change, especially when it comes to holiday menus.

Glazed Ham

If Thanksgiving is all about the turkey, Christmas, to me, means ham. And not just any ham, but Mom’s glazed ham. It’s the glaze, which is super simple, that really makes the holiday ham shine. What she does is makes a paste with brown sugar and spicy brown mustard and then thins it out just a bit with orange juice. Spread it over the ham and bake according to the package directions. It’s just that simple.

Candied Sweet Potatoes

These are a holiday staple, any holiday, and because sweet potatoes are our go-to, we pretty much never do mashed potatoes for any family holiday dinner. We don’t go the mini marshmallows and nuts direction, just slices of sweet potato sprinkled with cinnamon and dotted with butter, topped with a cooked syrup of Karo syrup, brown sugar, and butter. So indulgent and so delicious.

Cheese Plate

This is a relatively recent addition to our holiday traditions. Who doesn’t love a good cheese tray, right? Ours follows no particular rules other than what sounds good when we go to the store. Some nights it’s been Boursin and St. Andre, other nights we’re doing Havarti and a blueberry-coated goat cheese. Wensleydale and Port Salut. Brie, however, is a staple. Sometimes it’s baked in pastry, but a wedge of brie never goes amiss at our house.

Cheese-Covered Something

Growing up, broccoli and cheese or cauliflower and cheese were regulars on the holiday buffet, it just depends on what looks best at the grocery store that week. Mom makes an enriched white sauce (a bechamel with eggs added) and adds a healthy dose of Velveeta with more on top. Now, okay, I’m not a big fan of Velveeta, but it definitely reminds me of my childhood. So points for nostalgia. Some years I’ll do homemade mac & cheese, instead (with Swiss, Cheddar, and Monterrey Jack). That’s our idea of switching things up.

Rum Balls

I mentioned these in my Memories post, and because of that story, I make Rum Balls most Christmases, even if it’s just a small batch for myself. Now, most recipes I see for these call them Bourbon Balls but Maw Maw always used rum so that’s what I use. I stopped using nuts in them when Todd came along (just use more crumbled cookies) and we always roll them in granulated sugar, not powdered sugar. They’re best if they have a few days to “set-up” so I guess I better get those started this weekend. (And just hope I can stay out of them until Christmas!)

Christmas Cookies

I usually bring dessert to Christmas Eve dinner and what I bring is more or less up to me. Last year I couldn’t decide what to make, so I decided to make a bunch of different cookies and call it a day. It went over so well I’m doing it again this year and it may become my new holiday tradition. Growing up we’d do the rolled sugar cookies but I don’t always have the patience for those, preferring drop cookies instead. So chocolate chip, chocolate snowball crinkles,  fudge cookies (can you see a theme?) along with simpler drop sugar cookies and cornmeal cookies were all a big hit. And I never make small batches, so we brought half of them over to Mom’s and snacked on the other half at home for weeks.

Egg Nog

Egg Nog is a love it or hate it thing for most people, I think. I love it! I put it in my coffee, I drink it regular or spiked, I adore it. I stock up starting on Thanksgiving, but since I’m lactose intolerant I stick with the Lactaid brand Nog and it gets scarce pretty quickly. Our local Publix was completely out last week, so I stopped on my way home from Tallahassee and they only had 1 carton at the newer, big Publix on the north side. I didn’t even see a space for it, so I doubt it’ll be restocked. So I also settled for a carton of Silk eggnog, though it’s not my favorite. Maybe if I mix it it won’t be so bad.

Leftovers

The last thing I want to do, after prepping a big dinner for days, is get right back in the kitchen. We always cook for an army no matter how many or few we are, and it’s totally in service of having leftovers for at least a few days. In previous years I’ve made a separate Christmas Day dinner for Todd and I but I decided that was really too much work for what it was, so we’re going to nosh on leftovers and some other finger foods we’ve laid in for the day and take a holiday for extra work and extra dishes!

The 12 Days of Blogmas is a link-up hosted by The Coastie Couple and The Petite Mrs. Check out either of their blogs to see what everyone else has to say on today’s topic!

The 12 Days of Blogmas is a link-up hosted by The Coastie Couple and The Petite Mrs. Check out either of their blogs to see what everyone else has to say on today’s topic!

12 Days of Blogmas: Winter Activities

Just for Fun

Winter is subjective around here. We’ve had a few days that were approaching 80° this week and heat and humidity to boot. We’re not feeling the winter vibes so much. But just because it doesn’t feel like winter, our calendar is still full of fun doings for the winter season here in Thomasville, GA.

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Downtown Christmas Parade

We almost missed it this year as it seemed so early (the Monday after Thanksgiving), and the parade units line up on our street up through our block (which meant we had to do some serious circumnavigating to even get home that night), but we hustled up to Broad Street in time to catch the second half of the parade this year. The stand-out this year was definitely the synchronized lawn mower maneuvers.


(Direct link for the feed readers: Lawnmower Maneuvers)

Golf Cart Parade in Boston, GA

I wanted to try to make this one but it just didn’t happen. The same community that puts on Witch’s Night Out hosts a parade of decked out golf carts. Hopefully we can make it to this one next year!

Victorian Christmas

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Scenes from Victorian Christmas 2015, Thomasville, GA

This and the Rose Festival in April make up the two big festivals Thomasville hosts each year. For two nights there’s a big block party downtown with a living nativity, a performance stage, and vendors of food or other goodies. This year featured the World’s Largest Rocking Horse as well as stilt walkers, Santa, and horse drawn carriage rides.

Flowers Foods Driver-Through Christmas Lights Display

You may be familiar with the Flowers Foods lines that started right here in Thomasville in the early 1900s and makes breads, pastries and other yummy goodies. Walk downtown on any given day and you can partake of the heavenly smell of bread dough rising or cinnamon rolls baking. It’s amazing. Anyway! This year on the radio we heard about their annual light display that runs through New Year’s Eve. We haven’t made it yet, but I’m hoping to make some hot chocolate for two and take in the sights this weekend.

Holly Springs Subdivision Luminary Light Display

This popped up in the weekly visitor’s center email and it looks like another fun drive-through light event. It’s one night only, December 20th at 6pm, so it’ll depend on if we get back from our monthly meet-up in Tallahassee in time or not, but I want to check it out. I love the idea of a neighborhood getting together for something like this (I just hope they’re not like the one in Christmas with the Kranks!).

Of course, we’re still only a short drive from Tallahassee, and they have their own share of holiday festivities that we’ve enjoyed in the past.

Winter Festival

Usually the first weekend of December, it starts with the official turning on of the lights down Park Ave and includes multiple stages set up downtown for all sorts of performances and then a parade. Santa’s there, of course, and they usually do a great job of decorating the queuing area for Santa. For several years Lofty Pursuits has been out there making and handing out candy canes.

Dorthy B Oven Park Lights

Oven park is beautiful any time of the year but at Christmas the whole place just sparkles with lighted displays you can walk through. They even designate one night during December as Elf Night with Santa, Mrs. Claus and the elves in attendance. It’s definitely one of the must-see displays in Tallahassee this time of year!

The 12 Days of Blogmas is a link-up hosted by The Coastie Couple and The Petite Mrs. Check out either of their blogs to see what everyone else has to say on today’s topic!

The 12 Days of Blogmas is a link-up hosted by The Coastie Couple and The Petite Mrs. Check out either of their blogs to see what everyone else has to say on today’s topic!

12 Days of Blogmas: Holiday Movies

Just for Fun

There are a LOT of holiday movies out there and I thought I’d actually have trouble narrowing it down to just 6 for today’s post, but it turns out that I’m pickier about movies than I thought and coming up with 6 strong favorites actually took a little thought!

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Classic Holiday Movies

The first movie I watched this holiday season was White Christmas. It’s one of my favorites because of the comedic elements as well as the overall message: doing something good for an old friend just because it’s the right thing to do. Bing Crosby is always a pleasure to listen to, after all, and the movie is just so beautiful to watch. I always get choked up at the end.

My other classic favorite is Meet Me In St. Louis. Now, it might not seem like a true Christmas movie since it covers an entire year of the Smith family and lacks a lot of the holiday movie hallmarks, but the Christmas/Winter arc is really the meat of the story, so I consider it a Christmas movie. It also happens to be great Victorian home eye-candy and a fabulous Judy Garland musical.

Animated Holiday Movies

There are tons of retellings of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but my favorite version, hands down, is Mickey’s Christmas Carol. Todd and I were chatting last night and I wondered aloud about whether Scrooge McDuck was created first for Mickey’s Christmas Carol but, no, he first appeared in “Christmas on Bear Mountain” though he was, yes, created in the image of Ebeneezer Scrooge. I remember we’d taped it off television back when I was a kid (so there’s a nostalgia angle) and would watch it frequently over the holidays and then I had to hunt down, as an adult, which Christmas set it was part of in the days of DVDs. Plus it’s Disney and, say what you may about some of their practices, they make pretty movies. Even the short ones.

Nightmare Before Christmas is another favorite; though some argue whether it’s a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie. We consider it both, actually, but since it specifically deals with the ruining (even if through good intentions) and rescue of Christmas, I think it meets the benchmarks of a holiday movie. It’s fun, quirky, a little dark at times, with amazing music and a pretty good message, too (let’s not cross the holiday streams, it doesn’t end well).

And while I’d really love to have 2, 2, and 2, I just couldn’t NOT include How the Grinch Stole Christmas! I mean, really, I couldn’t. While I actually don’t mind the Jim Carey, live-action version (he was well-suited to the role and I appreciated the delving into the Grinch’s backstory), there’s something about the classic cartoon with the iconic song.

Holiday Rom-Com

Finally, a more modern (though it’s 12 years old, now–what?!) holiday movie favorite is definitely Love, Actually. Between the charm of the interwoven stories, the amazing characters, and the intelligent humor of it all, it is an often-watched movie at our house (and not just at Christmas).

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Last week the fine folks at Casper (the foam mattress company, not the ghost) reach out and offered a custom movie night essentials checklist. I’m not being compensated for posting this (though if they wanted to send me a queen-sized mattress to review, I’d be hard-pressed to say no), it’s just something fun that I can totally get behind. Granted, most of our movie nights are spent on the sofa, but the idea of cuddling up and watching Love, Actually in bed with cookies and cocoa? Doesn’t sound too shabby, now does it?

The 12 Days of Blogmas is a link-up hosted by The Coastie Couple and The Petite Mrs. Check out either of their blogs to see what everyone else has to say on today’s topic!

The 12 Days of Blogmas is a link-up hosted by The Coastie Couple and The Petite Mrs. Check out either of their blogs to see what everyone else has to say on today’s topic!