Hello dollies!
Had planned to include this update on the 5 activities on my mini Christmas Bucket List with the reveal of my 2018 Winter Bucket List but still had a couple of activities pending. But as of today, I am pleased to report that I can mark everything off as done! Yay, ME!! Let’s take a look.
Mini Christmas Bucket List
We were so caught up with out-of-town travel and house painting that we didn’t begin getting in the holiday spirit until the week before Christmas. As I have said, PC really doesn’t care much for Christmas, so even if we’d had time, he wouldn’t have wanted to have the tree up or the decorations out much before that. We are in full on Christmas mode now, though.
1st Annual Christmas Keepsake Ornament
When we were in Germany, I was lured into a little shop in Triberg by their window display of wooden snowflakes. Once inside we discovered some unique ornaments whittled from a round of wood. We bought a number of these as souvenirs to take home to family and also picked two for our Christmas tree. One a nativity scene, the other a candle and pine boughs. I teased in a couple of earlier posts that the most appropriate ornament to represent our 2017 would be a swimming pool or Santa with a life preserver. Because of the issues we have had with our new pool – now 10 months and counting. But we decided to go make this German ornament our 1st annual Christmas keepsake ornament.
Christmas Movie and Bethlehem Dinner
We did this a week before Christmas. It would have been a great activity for Christmas Eve but I didn’t want to leave it til then. I spread out a plastic Christmas table cloth on the rug in the den, then used a small bale of hay as a kind of table for our Bethlehem dinner. Our meal consisted of several types of cheese, raisins, dried pineapple and bananas, nuts, Triscuit crackers, shrimp (and chicken nuggets – probably not available in Bethlehem back in the day) and avocado. I lit candles and PC built a fire in our fireplace (which really means he switched on the gas). We began watching A Christmas Story Live, the new musical, while we ate. But once the nibbles were finished, that floor became pretty darn hard. And a third of the way through the musical, at the one hour mark, we had had enough of the singing and switched to football.
Gifts for Sergio and Ariadna
You guys probably remember the brother and sister that I met at Whitaker while subbing there who were the homeless children of a unemployed, migrant working, single mom. PC and I decided rather than select a name from the angel tree at the mall, we would get a little Christmas for Sergio and Ariadna. My BFF Sharon even got in on the action because she asked me to buy something for them rather than send her a gift. Here’s what I bought for them.
I dropped off the gifts at school the other day. Along with a Walmart gift card for Ms. Reyes, the children’s mom. Hope their Christmas is just a little bit brighter and that the new year brings them many new opportunities.
Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt
Here’s the list of items we sought on our Christmas light scavenger hunt.
And here’s how we did. Found 18 out of 20 items. Are there any items on the list you would have had trouble finding in your neighborhood? Can you guess which ones we didn’t find? I’ll share the answer at the bottom of the post. But here is a photo of the lovely lumanarias at Loretto Academy and Convent.
Progressive Dinner Date
This was fun. And will be something I think we try again soon. We went on Saturday night and incorporated church in the middle of our date. So it was actually a progressive dinner and church date. I solicited suggestions of new restaurants to try from my FB friends. Vona suggested a date to Old Mesilla, New Mexico (30 miles away), visiting several establishments there. Zulema suggested a restaurant Crave, known for their chicken and waffles (sounds amazing). However, we had been to Old Mesilla and Crave on dates past, so it was Juliana’s suggestions that we tried.
We dressed up a little bit, nothing fancy but we both took showers! My image gallery-maker has gone on permanent holiday and this is the new gallery maker I am using. Please click on the photos for a closer look!
We had an early dinner at Pot Au Feu. My Prince had a Philly sandwich and I had the Croque-Madame. Which was a sandwich a lot like a Monte Cristo or my Monte Cristo casserole, recipe here. Then we attended Saturday evening church. Stopped by Bella Cora bakery for dessert – cheesecake and a pecan pie pastry – and finished the evening with a drink at TradeCraft. This was fun! Will try it again in the near future.
And that’s a wrap for our mini Christmas bucket list.
It is now Christmas morning. My granddaughter Lucia has been sick since they arrived on Friday. Last night, poor baby, didn’t get to sleep until after 3:00 am. Not sure what time we will start our Christmas festivities. Just thankful she is still asleep now at 11:00 am. I am thankful for this little one and my Cady, my daughters and their loves, my family, friends and my darling PC. I am thankful that those many years ago a sweet baby was sent to light our way. Happy birthday, Baby Jesus.
Your Turn
Did you accomplish or try something special, new or different over the holidays? Won’t you share in a comment below? I love getting inspiration from your lives. And I am so thankful to each of you for spending time with me in 2017. Hope we become better pals in the coming new year.
P.S. We couldn’t find a leg lamp (what????) or an igloo. Now I know what to add to our decorations for Christmas 2018.
Hugs and kisses,
Sheila DelCharco
Well done on your list! I like the scavenger lights idea! We have not gone looking at lights yet so we may try this!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
The light scavenger hunt was fun! PC was not terribly enthusiastic to start but then went the extra mile – literally – to make sure we got as many of the items on the list as possible. Going to try to find a cheap leg lamp a la A Christmas Story so we have it for next year!!
Cindi
What fun! You have done so many things that (to me) are new and so different!
I love a scavenger hunt, for sure!
Marry Christmas and Happy New Year to my new BFF! YOU!!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
We really enjoyed the light scavenger hunt! I think it will become a holiday tradition for us. Happy new year, new friend! Looking forward to getting to know you better in the coming year.
Tamara / My Retirement Project
Leslie, I think I mentioned during your initial mini-bucket list post that I loved the idea of your Bethlehem dinner. Reading your results above, I love it even more, and definitely plan to do something similar with my husband next year. What a lovely tradition!
Bravo for completing your entire list. It sounds like you had a wonderful month full of love, good food, compassion and fun, and I couldn’t be happier for you and your PC.
Here’s to much more of the same for us all in 2018!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Oh, Tamara, so happy that you are going to try the Bethlehem dinner next year. I would like to try it again next year but with lots of padding on the floor to make it more comfortable for us! Maybe surround ourselves with lots of pillows? Or our big sleeping bag opened up on the floor.
December was a good month for us. We were finally able to set aside our pool worries and just enjoy family and friends. Having my youngest daughter and granddaughter here for Christmas made the holiday even more special. And I have cooked and eaten to my heart’s (and stomach’s) content. All of the cookies my family requested!
I hope your family and ours can move beyond the troubles with projects at home, your flooding and our pool, and we can enjoy a less stressful year in the home improvement department. Lucia (baby grand) and I stood on our balcony today admiring the pool and from 30′ up, it looked really good! Anxious to be able to swim this spring and not have the distraction of issues with the deck, etc. on the back of my mind.
Happy new year, my dear friend. I am so thankful that I searched for retirement blogs one day late last spring and found you! XO
curlycraftymom
You always give me SO many great ideas. I just love the progressive dinner night idea and have been thinking about doing that with Brian. I also love the Bethlehem dinner idea, not sure where I’d get a hay bay tho after Thanksgiving!
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
Leslie Roberts Clingan
File away the Bethlehem dinner idea for next year. I used my fall decor hay bale for our Bethlehem dinner and have just stuck it in the closet now til next year. I left it wrapped in cellophane even when I used it to decorate with…hope it doesn’t attract critters!
You and Brian have to try a progressive dinner. I had always heard of them being done from people’s houses…like several couples would go to one house for cocktails, another house for appetizers, another for dinner, etc. But it worked out doing it like this, too! When I was still with the gals at The Blended Blog, I suggested we do a progressive dinner blog hop and it turned out to be one of our most popular posts. Would like to do that again!
You always make me feel so good about blogging. Thank you for the support and kindness. One more day and I get to start my gratitude journal. YIPPPEEEE!!!
Deb
I love that idea of having a new decoration every year, happy memories as you decorate the tree.
I realise us Brits are much more conservative in our external house decorations, you would have struggled with that list over here. If it’s not icicles hanging from the roof or a reindeer, it’s unlikely you’d find it!
Hope your granddaughter is feeling better now and able to enjoy her new toys!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Ha! Got a kick out of your comment about conservative British exterior Christmas decorations! We were really surprised how many of the lights we were able to find from our scavenger hunt list. PC was a little reluctant at first but wound up taking it as a personal challenge to try to find as many of the lights as we could.
Lucia seems to be feeling better, thank you. Having a little one around for the holidays made them even more enjoyable. We have had toys everywhere…just like the good old days when my girls were little.
So glad that we have connected and become blogger buddies. Looking forward to growing our friendship in the new year. Happy 2018!
Gail
Well done on completing your list! I love to read your bucket list posts. The ornaments are just lovely. I have some precious ornaments that I also bought in Germany a few years ago. Happy New Year Leslie!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Oh, Gail, I have felt so badly about the Christmas post for your blog. I cannot figure out what happened unless I thought I sent it or sent it but somehow it didn’t send. I thought your questions were so well thought out and I was so eager to be a part of your post. I am so sorry, Gail.
Anytime you would like to join the bucket list posts, we would LOVE to have you! We post every 21st of the month and begin new bucket lists with the first day of each season. Just in case!! Thank you for coming by to visit and read my latest bucket post.
Happy new year, beautiful friend. Here’s to a wonderful 2018 for us all.