'Tis The Season.............

Since Christmas and the holiday season is only a few days away I thought it would be fun to blog about what makes this time of year so special.

Here's my list of favourite Christmas things.......

1) Presents! Well, I had to put this first since, well…it’s Christmas. I don’t normally love shopping. Probably due to the many years I spent working as a retail manager in a department  store. But now I write full time I get to enjoy shopping, and this year have had fun choosing gifts. I love wrapping presents too…I love the bright paper and those little sticky labels

2) Christmas Tree! I love putting up the tree on December 1^st. Well, hubby actually puts the tree up and does the lights and then I do the ornaments – which include jewel coloured baubles and cute little red velvet bows. But no tinsel. I remember as a child my parents would hang tinsel ALL over the house. From the picture below you see where one of my cats has been climbing the tree and moving said lights. 

3) Food! Is there any time more designed for overeating that Christmas time? The ham, turkey, seafood, trifle….sigh…. I come from Welsh parents and my mother would always cook pork, beef and turkey for Christmas day, even in the sweltering Australian heat. These days we tend to do colder options, but the feastness (that’s a word I just made up) is still the same. Once Christmas and Boxing Day are over I always feel like I’ve been eating non-stop (and probably have) and don’t care if I never see another prawn or slice of ham. Thankfully this feeling wears off.

4) Family! Definitely the best part of Christmas. I live in a small regional town and many members of my extended family are scattered through several states, so some years there’s ten people and other years twenty or thirty. But no matter how many of us get together there’s always plenty of laughter and long talks about Christmases from years gone by.

5) Friends! Equally the best part of Christmas.

6) Pets! It’s no secret I am animal crazy (It’s not like I’m going to end up on that TV show Animal Hoarders or anything) I always get my two outside puppies a special bone-ish treat and my inside dog Samantha has a fabulous festive collar for Christmas Day. I have trialled the cat’s with their red velvet collars but neither were impressed.

7) Presents! Oh, did I cover that already? 

Well, since it’s Christmas I have a giveaway from any of my backlists books to one commenter.  Tell me what you love about Christmas and I’ll draw a winner on Monday.

                               Merry Christmas to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Memories

A Rummage Through the Christmas Ornaments!

by Sharon Archer



 

One of my favourite jobs approaching Christmas is decorating the tree.  We have an eclectic collection of ornaments and because they lurk out of sight for eleven months of the year, opening the box means a trip down memory lane.


















There’s the little fold-out apple I bought as a souvenir while on holiday with a friend and my sister. We spent a week travelling around Tasmania - the Apple Isle.  The delicate red-paper lattice is a concertina that folds into a flat pack for storage. That holiday was more than twenty years ago, but I only have to get out the apple to remember the adventure we had.



Then there are the clothes-peg ornaments which came from a clearing sale.  I bid on a box of bric a brac and these two were hiding right at the bottom.
  






I can’t help wondering what their story is... the beef-eater is so perfect while the reindeer is much more basic.  Were they painstakingly crafted by a couple of children working together on a newspaper-covered kitchen table?  Or perhaps they were made, years apart, by the same child.





This little wooden boy, toting his tiny Christmas tree, was given to me by a friend for my first Christmas in Australia.  We worked together in a research laboratory and she invited me to spend Christmas with her family. I see this figure, all rugged up in red and green, and it brings back wonderful memories of their warm hospitality.

 
These musical instruments were used to decorate the wrapping on a present from another Christmas.  Such a simple but clever idea - and a lovely addition to our ornaments.






The beaded Santa face came from a holiday with friends in the Victorian High Country. It was just before Christmas and we went to the local market.  It was packed with glorious treasures.  We all went home laden with homemade goodies for the table and the tree and for gifts.



So what's stashed in your box of Christmassy goodies?  I'd love to hear about your special ornaments and the memories attached!

Wherever you are and 

whatever you're doing, 

I wish you a 

wonderful Christmas 

and many blessing for 2012!