10 on the 10th 12.2021: Qs & As About the Winter Holiday

Sweet friends, time for another holiday-flavored edition of 10 on the 10th.  Today I am sharing Qs & As about the winter holidays.  Had an earlier post this morning about my favorite holiday so getting my 10 on the 10th 12.2021 post out a little late.  While I was out of town last week, I hardly touched my laptop and my phone only a little more.  Can’t say I really missed it much.  But when the dust settles after the holidays and the new baby’s birth, I think I would miss it more.  Just hard to think about blogging when there are other worries looming.

But here we are!!  Let’s put some answers to these questions.  Shall we?

• In what ways do you decorate for the winter holiday season?  Do you use traditional colors or have your own color scheme?  Is there a theme to your decorating? This year is different from previous Christmases.  In years past, I would have decked the halls…all the halls by now.  But we have been out of town visiting our moms this first week of December.  And will be in Ft. Worth helping with new baby for the second half of the month, right up ’til New Years.  So, the decorating is pretty scarce ’round here this year.  Not even a tree.  When we do put up our tree, it’s in the living room where the colors in there are largely red, gold and brown.  So I started out using predominantly those colors on the tree, too.  But have branched out and any color goes these days.  As far as a theme when I do decorate, I would say my theme is generally*S*N*O*W*!!  In any form…men, flakes, balls, angels.  Two years ago, I also set up a hot cocoa bar so pulled those decorations out this year because I can keep them up well into February, right?

• Share a family holiday tradition or recipe.  Is there something new you plan to try this year? For years, my daughters and I would bake the same cookies at Christmas.  Most important were Brennyn’s favorites, ‘caramel heavenlies’ and Lauren’s favorites, ‘lemon almond cookies’ that we shape like balls then dip in holiday colored sugar before baking. Hope to bake some of both for each of my girls sometime over the holidays.

Favorite Holiday Books, Movies, Song or Shows

• Do you have a favorite Christmas book, movie, song or TV show?  Why is it special to you?  Is there a popular holiday book, program or movie you have never seen? One of my all-time favorite movies is “When Harry Met Sally” with Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.  Just so happens it is kind of a winter holiday movie, too.  And “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed is hard to beat.  My favorite Christmas-flavored books are written by 2 Patricias –  True Gift by Patricia MacLachlan and The Christmas Tapestry by Patricia Polacco.  Both are children’s books.  Of course they are.  Back ‘in the day,’ I read The Christmas Tapestry on my televised reading show and for years to my babies (students) at Christmas. And as far as a holiday movie I’ve never seen…there’s “White Christmas” with…Bing Cosby…had to look it up.

 

Keeper Calm

• How do you handle the stress of the holidays?  Do you have some go-to for restoring calm to your life when things get crazy? I don’t handle stress well 365 days a year so Christmas is no different. Exercise is always a good way to handle stress, I hear!!  (And actually know first hand but refuse to do it because I rather enjoy wallowing in my stress sometimes)  Going to the movies is a great way to restore calm – when the movie is good.  Or soaking in the hot tub, reading works well, too.  Glass of wine?

Sparkle and Shine

• What will you wear over the holidays?  Do you dress up for New Year’s Eve?  You know what?  I would love to dress up for New Year’s Eve this year.  Will I?  Probably not.  Because chances are we will be sitting right here at home.  But I would like to wear my sparkly sequined top and faux leather skirt (if I can get it on).  And feel fancy and pretty.  The rest of the time, I will no doubt be in some form of my ‘uniform’:  turtleneck or tee, cardi or vest and jeans.

• How do you feel about snow?  What are the chances you will see a white Christmas?  Do you enjoy any snow day activities?  What will the weather be like where you live in this last month of the year? I would love to take a poll to see how you guys think I feel about snow.  People who know me well know I have a definite opinion about that particular form of precipitation.  Chances are slim we will see a white Christmas.  But we usually have at least one dusting in El Paso every winter.  I really enjoy tubing in the snow, walking in the snow, taking photos of the snow, making snowmen and snow angels.  And I am pretty certain I would completely enjoy a sleigh ride in the snow.  But so far the weather in El Paso, Kentucky and Ohio has been unseasonably warm.

‘Tis Better to Give

• Do you have a gift-giving budget?  For how many people do you buy gifts?  Do you buy for the postman, your hair dresser, nail tech, children’s teachers?  When do you open gifts?  Who is the hardest person you buy for? I really need to have a gift-giving budget but don’t.  I always want to get one of everything for my babies.  One pair of pjs, one dress, one casual outfit, toys (multiple) and books (multiple).  I buy for around a dozen folks, family members.  I don’t have a hair dresser, nail tech or teacher to buy for and our postman is dreadful.  He gets coal.  We open one gift on the evening of the 24th and the rest of the presents on Christmas morning.  Santa presents are not wrapped as the jolly ole soul doesn’t have time for that nonsense.  Finally, PC is the hardest person to buy for.  Except this year.  He mentioned a couple of things he liked and I was able to get them.  Yay!!
• If you could give a kind of impossible gift to someone, what would it be?  Perhaps something beyond your price range?  Or something you can’t buy.  Something intangible. I know I wrote these questions, but I wish I had allowed that we might want to give dozens of impossible, intangible gifts.  Not just one.  There are so many things I would want to do for so many people I care about and even people I don’t know.  You know?  But today, as I write this, my wish for a gift would be for a healthy baby for Brennyn and Mustafa.  (And a cure for all types of cancer.  And an end to hunger.  No one should go hungry.  And healthy lungs for someone I know who has been fighting Covid in ICU for 3 months.)

Farewell 2021, Wishes for 2022

• As we bid farewell to 2021, what was your biggest success this year?  Will you be making goals or resolutions or plans for 2022?  If so, what will some of them be?  My biggest success in 2021 was finally (FINALLY) coming to terms with retirement.  I have many folks to thank for that but among them my blogging friend Leanne from Cresting the Hill.  And the girls in my book club who have given me a new sense of purpose.  Really need to write about that.  This coming year.  If I continue to blog.  Or maybe, even if I don’t, I will journal about this revelation.  Some more. Hmm, plans for the new year.  Maybe one big goal needs to be that I become more flexible.  I need to be nicer.  Less rigid.  More optimistic.  All easy to type…now to make some attitude adjustments.  Goals – write more, create more, read more, love better.
• Describe 2021 in 3 words.  Name 3 things you wish for in 2022.  Better than 2020 (just thought of that…pretty good, huh?).  Three things I wish for in 2022…a healthy baby Declan, contentment for my family, an end to the global worry over Covid.

And with that, 10 on the 10th for 2021 has come to a close.  I’ve had fun hosting this series.  Hope the posts have been enjoyable to read.

YOUR TURN

 

Come play along with me!!  Pick a couple of the questions to answer in a comment or link up your 10 on the 10th post below.

 Hope your holiday plans are coming together perfectly.  Off to finish my Christmas shopping tomorrow.  And maybe take in a movie…to de-stress afterward!!

Thank you for stopping in for a visit.  Enjoy your weekend.

Hugs and kisses,