Saturday, December 24, 2022

Merry, Happy Holidays-ukkah!

 December has been super busy but good busy. DH and I celebrated our 19th anniversary a week or so ago. We spent a night in Salt Lake City and ate Spanish tapas, drank Spanish wine, crashed an ugly sweater work party at our hotel's bar, and even met Buddy the Elf and Santa. Good times were had!


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We celebrated the Winter Solstice up at the Red Butte Gardens on Saturday.


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Wednesday was more Winter Solstice shenanigans to welcome back the Sun! I cooked up some stew, traditional wassail, G helped me make up solstice cookies, and we decorated paper lanterns and had them lit all night long on the longest night of the year. I love that feeling...waking up and knowing today's light is just a little bit longer than yesterday's! Welcome back, Sun!


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Books


I'm in the middle of two or three right now but I did manage to finish off I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. That's a wild ride. I hope she writes another memoir in ten years and I hope it's full of more hope and healing. 

I'm almost done with Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer. My niece just read it and she wanted me to read it as well so we could talk about it.

The Battle for Christmas by Stephen Nissenbaum is an interesting read on the evolution of Christmas and its traditions in America. He uses a lot of primary sources from the time so we get a sense of time and place and people. I don't think I'll finish this one until after the New Year but finishing it I am. 

I also randomly picked up The Maid by Nita Prose. I'm almost halfway through. Quirky but also painful to see how she's taken advantage of. 

TV

DH and I finally finished of the second season of The Witcher! I just started the second season of Slow Horses on Apple TV. Such an excellent show with Gary Oldman.

Movies


We watched A Christmas Story and A Christmas Story: Christmas. We just saw Spirited on Apple with Will Farrell and Ryan Reynolds. Really cute. Elf was the other night. DH and I watched The Holiday again. One of our favorites every holiday season. I think we'll watch It's a Wonderful Life tonight or tomorrow. G has not seen this one yet. I'm hoping he'll appreciate it even if it's a little old school for him. And I've caught quite a few on Hallmark so far. I'm actually pretty impressed with some of them this year. Three Wise Men and a Baby was really good.


I'm also hoping to get in A Muppet Christmas Carol and A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott sometime this weekend! And a couple of holiday horrors too like Black Christmas, Krampus, or that new one Violent Night!

Baking-- I'm hoping to get a Christmas Swiss roll made, peanut butter cookies, more sugar cookies and frosting. Drinks--I've got buttered rum and coquito on the list.

May your Christmas be a safe and merry one!


Joining up with Deb from Readerbuzz and her Sunday Salon.


28 comments:

  1. We are waiting on Violent Night but our library still has it on order. I guess we will watch it in January! Love your photos and happy anniversary!

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    1. I'm excited to see it eventually! Thanks for stopping by.

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    2. So, weirdly, I had a comment on my blog from Snapdragon and went to answer but I can't. You have to log in to Twitter, FB or WP. I am not on any of those. I clicked on the name Snapdragon and came to your page! I wonder if there's a glitch in the Matrix??!

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  2. Happy 19th Anniversary! Our holiday season has been so weird with moving in November and still trying to get things set up. We have not watched any Christmas movies which is sad. I hope you enjoy your books. Merry Christmas!

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    1. I hope you got to watch a holiday movie or two!

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  3. Traditional wassail, yay! Merry Christmas.

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    1. Wassailing is the bomb! Merry Christmas to you.

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  4. We watch Elf and Home Alone every year. Spirited was very cute! Sounds like you had an awesome anniversary and solstice. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

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    1. My son watched Home Alone in math class so he said no this year but usually we watch Home Alone as well every year. Thanks for stopping by!

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  5. Have a great Christmas!

    best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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  6. We are hoping to make today a big holiday movie day and watch some of our favorites like Love Actually and It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol and Miracle on 34th Street. I ordered the Marlo Thomas remake of Wonderful Life this year, so I can't wait to see that one for the first time in many years.

    What a great time you had on your anniversary!

    Happy Holidays!

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    1. Never got into Love Actually but we did get G to watch It's a Wonderful Life and he was mostly amazed at how old the movie was and how different acting, sets, and the era was. Hopefully another year he can actually appreciate the message! I hope you got to watch all your favorites!

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  7. Merry Christmas!

    Wishing you a wonderful week!

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  8. I'm usually not into as many Christmas movies normally but I just needed the extra cheese this year. I've been watching all the Hallmark Christmas movies and man oh man the tears have been falling!
    I hope you have a lovely week!

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  9. Happy anniversary and happy holidays!!!!!

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  10. Happy anniversary--sounds like a fun time! So, is traditional wassail any good? Happy New Year and happy reading!

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    1. Yes it is! Though, I'm not sure if the recipe I used is actually traditional! ha! But it was sure yummy.

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  11. You are both so cute! Happy New Year 2023!

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  12. Cute photos & happy belated Anniversary! We too have been enjoying Slow Horses Season 2 -- great! You seem to have some good snow there. Happy New Year!!

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    1. Oh, good. So glad you are enjoying Slow Horses!

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  13. The Elf is such a great classic. I like to mention the duet song between characters in that movie in improv scenes. Hope you get to watch even more great movies and enjoy everything possible this holiday, as it's tapering offf. @theglobaldig.blogspot.com

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    1. I did. I got a few more movies in before it felt like it was the end.

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