Posts Tagged ‘challenge’
Real Meaning Of Christmas
Blog This Challenge 24 is ‘The Real Meaning of Christmas”, what an interesting topic! So many answers to this… but I think I’ll take the time to explain to everyone how Luke and I are approaching Christmas and what we’re working out works for us, and our ‘family- Luke, Pepper and I.
What does Xmas mean to you and your family?
Christmas is really the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Luke and I, as Christians, are pretty big on this being the only thing we’re celebrating, so we’re removing the Santa/Reindeer part from our celebrations (and kinda unfortunately- our decorations too). We’re also trying to make everything more Australian…. I’m in the middle of making a Christmas Advent Calender, which I’m embroidering, and instead of snowmen etc. I’ve got watermellon and thongs and the beach… cause that’s what Christmas time is to us!
Have you got some traditions??
Our Christmas traditions are being pulled from each of our families, and then brought together to make our own. I imagine we’ll develop a few more when we have kids.
Some of our current ones are:
Having Christmas Eve dinner with my family
Having Christmas morning with Luke’s family
Going to church on Christmas morning- it’s a beautiful way to start the day- celebrating, singing Christmas Carols, and seeing friends.
There’s this book that my family always reads each Christmas, and we have done since we were all little. I’d love to get a book of the Christmas story for our kids as well.
Oh course, listening to my Peter Coombe Christmas Album, is always a must as well! And I don’t mind hitting a few keys on my parents piano and playing along to them!
What will you cook?!
One of my favourite parts of Christmas- cooking! Here are a few lovely things I’ll be cooking up (I’ll post the recipes in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!):
Almond Bread
Mini Christmas Puddings
Peach Blossoms (My great Aunty Letty would make these all the time for any celebration before you passed away the other year, so I love to remember her when I make them)
Panettone- Because Luke’s family is Italian we’re now eating this at Christmas time too! It’s a new thing for me, but very yummy!
Who will you spend it with?
Christmas means family time. So we’ll be spending time with each of our families, planning a bit of a Christmas party to spend with friends, and hopefully enjoying some quite time- just the three of us.
Got a favourite Christmas memory?
When we were younger we would always get water guns (the boys more so then me). So one of my favourite memories is going out onto the lawn and shooting each other with the guns. The best times were when mum or dad got water guns as well and played along!
Last Christmas we went and got some chickens and a duck! It was pretty awesome to have them running around the house, and Pepper was SO good with them! Even when Duck Norris tried to eat her!! They are gone now (dog attacked them the day we got back form Israel!), but it was such a fantastic time picking them out and taking them home!
How are you decorating??
Like I mentioned earlier, we’re going anti-Santa this year. We’re also looking into every regular ‘tradition’ and where it comes from etc. wreaths, christmas trees, etc. which is something we did when we got married- looking at why people do various things and looking at if we should do them or not.
So we’re not having a Christmas Tree, but we are having some other pretty things. We’re having a handmade christmas this year- so new decorations (apart from the few I bought last week) are handmade, as well as presents for people.
We have a massive bar in the middle of our house/shed so this year my mission is to make it pretty and Christmas-y, and use it as a bit of a center for the decorations…
Some of our decorations are:
Christmas Elves
Christmas Swag
And of course this, which I’ve been working on for EVER!
Oh, and all the other decorations I haven’t taken down from last year yet!!
Tags: blogthis, challenge, Christmas, deocrations, elves, food, stars
Gifts, Glorious Gifts!
This is Challenge 13 of Blog This.
Do people think you’re hard to buy for or are you constantly dropping hints? What’s on your ultimate gift list? If you were to write a list of 5 things that would be on the list of perfect presents for your next birthday what would they be? Would it be a particular thing or anything from a particular store/shop? An
experience or something with pretty bows? Practical or whimsical?
I’m going to be heaps practical about this. Not cause my birthday is any time soon, but because CHRISTMAS is just a few short months away. My FAVOURITE time of year!!
1. Spotlight voucher. Yes! fabric, craft supplies, scarpbooking, knitting… it’s all there! A few hundred dollars would be perfect…
2. Embroidery threads. I know that sounds kinda boring, but didn’t you hear?! Embroidery is my new thing!! I need to stock up on some more colours…
3. Walls. Okay, so this one isn’t so practical, but I have heaps of stuff I want to put on the walls, and just no wall space really left! (P.S my newest thing I’m doing is framing small embroiderries and putting them up on the wall!
4. Photos Printed… you know I love scrapbooking? And I’m working on my travel scrapbook from Jan/Feb at the moment, but I have HUNDREDS of photos that I need printed from post-schoolies week (2004) to well, now. The earlier part of my life is already scrapbooked. So if all those could just get printed out for me, that’d be great!!
5. Suprise me! As much as I love getting what I want, I really, truly, madly, deeply (Oh GOD, Savage Garden moment…*shakes head in shame*) love SUPRISES!!! They’re my favourite, and really make an gift giving time special!!
Click the picture of Pepper (below) to see all my Christmas photos from last year (there’s not too many- I promise!)
My best girl stuffed after all the unwrapping on Christmas Eve "08
Tags: challenge, Christmas, Craft, embroidery, gifts, love, pepper, photos, presents, spotlight, suprise, walls
Blog This Challenge…
This is my FIRST BlogThis Challenge! You can join in too, here.
BlogThis Challenge 11 | What’s on your bedside table…
Fiction?
Non Fiction?
Romance?
DIY?
Recipe Book?
Fantasy?
What are you reading at the moment? What book can you not put down or just can’t finish? Are you drawn to certain authors, genres or just what’s in the bargain bin? Do you get books from a book exchange, library or are you beating the doors down at Dymocks on release day?
Write all about the last book you read or the one you’re reading/struggling to read!
Books, Books, Books!!
I actually pretty much suck at finishing books… which is why my collection of current reads looks like this!! I’ve got some craft/scrapbooking/patchwork magazines, a baby book (no, I’m not pregnant, just learning!), my bible, my diary ( i know technically this is not a book you read, but I do look back on it every so often!), three books in one on prayer, and ‘A lineage of Grace’ which is a fantastic book my mother-in-law gave me TWO CHRISTMAS’ ago!!! I MUST finish it before this Christmas!!
To be honest, reading is not a priority of mine- I love, and I wish I had more time for it, but I think more then READING books, I love BUYING them… Is that terrible of me?! I mostly love to go to QBD and get books with cute covers for $7.95 They usually end up being excellent books!!
Oh, and yes, that’s a pattern for an elephant on the top… One day I will make it! For now I read through the instructions and plan it all out in my mind!
Tags: baby book, bible, blogthis, books, challenge, grace, magazines, prayer, reading
