Christmas Eve.

My favorite Christmas Eve print.

Reminds me of sleeping at my

gramma and grampa's house as

a child. We had to kneel beside

the bed to say our prayers. It was

a warm, cozy spot and full of love.

💗 Chy 💗

The Eve before the Eve.

 

Cleaned off my desk as the letters and
cards are all done for the year. Finished!

Visited our granddaughter, son and our

daughter in law, as well as their pup. It

was a lovely time and we look forward

to more visits soon over the holidays!

Christmas tree all ready for the celebration

that is before us. So quiet, after a busy day.

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care."

We're worried they'll fall off but so far, so good!

Good night to one and all. Sleep well. Dream lots!

~ Chy

The Night Before.

Every year, we try to do a lot of early prep so that our

Christmas Eve can be a relaxing "no activity" night.

But every year, there is always something to do that

ends up taking time. I guess we're human! This year,

we did some baking on the eve. On the menu was my

"melt in your mouth" Shortbread (the before and after

are above), Gingerbread and more Confetti. We treat

ourselves each year to a dinner delivered to our tiny

cottage ~ this year, we had scrumptious pizza. It was

sooo good! And then it's time to place gifts around

the tree and write a note to Santa, along with a plate

of cookies. Finally, once the house is cleaned for the

big day, we get to sit back and enjoy. Sometimes its

a movie or a PVR'd show. And sometimes, just music!

Do you have a routine on Christmas Eve?

Or do you figure it out as it arrives?

~ Chy

Christmas Eve.

It's Christmas Eve. In our little cottage, this is the day we finish up our baking ~ today we're making butter tarts, shortbread cookies, gingerbread, more confetti (our "test batch is almost done) and then putting our gingerbread house together. Music on, gifts are wrapped, the kitchen will be smell like Heaven and we have some pre-Christmas wishes to send by phone later. Yesterday we had a little Christmas celebration with my mom at her care home. They've asked that families visit before the big day but not on the big day as they had an outbreak and though it's over, they hope to have the residents be all well tomorrow. I was okay with this as every year since my mom has lived there, there has been an outbreak at Christmas and we've not had visits with her on those days. It would have been fun to maybe bring her home this year but they were very adamant so we made the best of it and had great fun yesterday. Hopefully next year we'll be together!

After our baking is done, we're going to shovel. We've had very little snow this week. It has been bitterly cold but fortunately, we had no where to go, other than we trekked in to town yesterday to get our fresh ingredients for dinner tomorrow, visit mom, take our dgs to his kidney ultrasound, do our final end of year banking, a trip to the liquor store for special drink ingredients and a last check of the mail. By the time we headed home, the snow had started and it was scary driving on the highway in the blowing wind. Thankfully, it's not a long drive (we're less than 10 minutes from town), but it was still pretty scary. I can't imagine what it's been like for those who have been travelling to visit with family for the holidays. It's warming up here in Alberta, Canada. We were having extreme weather with  - 46 C temps with the windchill. But today, it's a very balmy - 18 C out here in the big woods. In the next few days, it will climb up to single digits, so we're feeling quite blessed that we haven't had the snow and other weather that many communities across Canada and in the States are experiencing. Not sure why it has hit us but we know it will likely be our turn at some point. For now, we're beyond blessed and grateful.

I'll have lots of posts over the next few days as we share our holiday celebrations. Wishing you and your family a beautiful day as you get ready for the big day. And hope wherever you are, you're safe, warm and healthy. 

Merry Christmas my beautiful blogging buddies!

~ Chy

Being Silly.

I forgot to share that on Christmas Eve,

after everything was set and done, we

broke out the fun slushy adult drinks and

with our little guy away, Cards Against

Humanity was our entertainment. Such

a fun night! The "Jack Frost" drink too!

~ Chy

Christmas Eve.

No words. Just a short video the night

before Christmas. Peaceful and calm.

~ Chy

The Olive Garden.

On Christmas Eve, we discovered that

The Olive Garden will deliver all the

way out to our little cottage. Since we

have lived out here, we've treated our

family to a delivered dinner each year.

We've been ordering Chinese food but

this year, wanted something different.

I'm so glad we found out that we could

order Italian food for our feast this year.

I ordered grilled chicken over asiago

cheese tortellini, with salad and bread.

I added in peas and some broccoli for

my veggie intake that day. Oh, it was

so good! And way too much food, and

that made a great lunch the next day

for everyone. We had the sweetest staff

member take our order, even calling to

ensure that my concern about avoiding

allergies was well communicated. The

delivery driver was so sweet, with curly

red hair and a lovely personality. She

was taken back by the cottage and our

forest, and we loved answering her

questions, before wishing all of us a

very Merry Christmas. We gave her a

generous tip for her time and energy

to drive all the way out here. Tonight,

I'm writing a review for the company

and a thank you as well as they sent

us a coupon for a free dessert. So good!

Do you stay home on Christmas Eve?

If you do, is dinner something you order?

~ Chy

Surprise Treat.

After all our hard work getting ready

for Christmas, both inside and outside

the house, in town and at work, with

family and friends, a treat on the Eve.

A favorite quick dinner that is filling

but not stuffed! Fresh veggies stir

fried in a teriyaki sauce, with chicken

and shrimp and extra breaded shrimp

on the side. So delicious and though it's

fast food, it's good food and such a treat.

~ Chy

All is Calm ....

The mantle is lit ....

.... the stockings are hung ....

.... and filled to the brim ....

.... the tree is bright ....

.... and the packages set ....

.... for family and friends ....

.... to open in the morning ....

.... or when they stop in to visit!

We had a quiet Christmas Eve, with

goodies and warm drinks, a game to

play and books to read, an old show to

watch that brought back nice memories.

~ Chy

Frosty Eve.

 We drove down the highway in to town to visit

my sweet mom in her care home on Christmas Eve.

Icy roads but no traffic made the drive just fine. The

fog doesn't look bad here but it was hard to see ahead.

On the way home, our little lane out to our house was

empty as well. The frosted wreath a dear friend made.

Trees were covered and though it's a bit hard to see,

even our garland on the veranda was icy and white.

The potting shed once more. It's our measure of our

snowfall. But with the sun and warm temperatures

the last few weeks, we haven't had any additional

accumulation, just flakes here and there to remind

us that it's now Winter and Christmas. Next week,

it's supposed to all melt away. We'll see if that is true.

~ Chy

Christmas Eve.

This sounds like the best way to spend Christmas

Eve. We usually treat ourselves to delivered food,

the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" and maybe a game.

As avid book lovers, this would be a great addition.

How do you spend Christmas Eve?

Would you adopt this tradition?

~ Chy

Santa Gifts.

And then the children were snuggled in their beds

and Santa Claus finally arrived with all his gifts.

Placing them carefully so no one would

wake up and spot him doing his work.

A favorite moment for me when everything

is in it's place and we tiptoe off to sleep ....

~ Chy

All is Bright.

Our mantel on Christmas Eve. Stockings

are hung on the desk close by as they are

too heavy for the garland and we don't

want the chocolates to melt! So pretty.

~ Chy

Our Dinner Saga.

Once we are done getting ready for Christmas Day, our family now has a new tradition of ordering pizza that night for dinner. However, this year we didn't check what time the restaurant would be open until and went we were all finally hungry, there wasn't time for them to deliver to us before they closed. Such good pizza and the only one that will drive out to the country. We put a call out on FB and within minutes discovered that one of the Chinese food restaurants in town would come out to our little forest. So we called in, happily ordered and settled down to wait. Then we got a call. Yikes! the delivery driver unfortunately had gotten in to an accident on his way out. We felt so bad but they were very reassuring that despite our food ending up all over his car, he was fine. There wasn't time to make more as they would be closing soon, so we contemplated peanut butter sandwiches or taking a peek at the list and discovered another Chinese food place. Called and they were very happy to make us dinner. Not long after, they arrived with great food that we devoured that night but there was still so much left over ~ a great Boxing Day lunch for all of us. We definitely will be ordering from them again and are happy now we have more than one choice for the once or twice a year when ordering food in is just what we need. 

                                   ~ Chy

Christmas Eve.

We had a quiet but fun and very

traditional Christmas Eve. A bit

of baking for the morning, setting

the table for dinner, a last bit of

cleaning, reading a Christmas book,

putting out cookies and milk for

Santa, filling the stockings once

our little guy was tucked into bed

and sitting by the tree, with just the

fairy lights on, sharing memories of the

year and our excitement for morning.

Christmas Eve.

Our Christmas Eve started early in the afternoon,

once my dh had arrived home from picking up

some packages from the Post Office. He had the

day off and we planned to be home all day but we

got a notice that some unexpected but lovely

gifts were waiting for us to be picked up. 

So off he drove into town. Thankfully, the Post Office

was nice and quiet and he was soon back home.

We finished wrapping gifts, put the fire on and poured

some wine to share, with yummy cookies on the side.

Outside it was overcast and very frosty but not too

cold. Just enough to make it Christmasy everywhere.

We found a great place to display our Christmas 

cards on the wide windowsill in our Great Room.

After dinner, we watched a few Christmas shows,

then it was time to head off to sleep. Soon, old

St. Nick would be visiting our house and we were

thankful everything was ready so we could sleep!