TToT – We Are Christmas-a-fied!
Well, at least I am. And Kidzilla definitely is!
Hard to say how the Hub feels about the whole thing, given that he’s Jewish and all, but he certainly has done his fair share of tree-trimming with us and shelf elf duty and OUTDOOR LIGHT HANGING.
We have been quite busy Christmas-ing this week and getting Christmas-a-fied. Yes, that’s a thing, trust me. And because we’ve been so busy doing all the things, I suggested to Lizzi that surely the BoSR/SBoR includes a provision that says if you have so much good to be about doing on a weekend then you just have to live life and not write the post. Right? (I’m pretty sure those were actually my exact words, too.) Lizzi said perhaps, but reminded me that there is supposed to be dancing involved when petitioning the Guard Virgins.
I’m way too tired to dance for anyone after the busy few days we’ve had, so here comes my post…
First, I’m thrilled to be back among the ranks of the TToT co-hostinae! Unfortunately, it means that Sandy has moved on, but I’m glad for the opportunity to jump back in. Life is different around here from when I first co-hosted, so it’s a good fit.
I’m glad that we seem to have kicked the nasty cold germs out of the house – hopefully this time for good!
I was invited by the lovely Well-Tempered Bards, Lizzi and Zoe, to guest bard at their place. That was fun and exciting and I’m really delighted that people went and read and left lovely comments. If you haven’t hopped over yet, please do! Click this right here.
In fact, I’m pretty happy with a couple of more creative pieces that I’ve posted lately thanks to inspiration from Josie’s Two Shoes Tuesday linkups. Again, I was delighted with the positive feedback and great thoughts presented in the comments. I don’t often stick out my creative neck, so the reception was quite nice. Thanks to all. And if you haven’t read…do click over and do a little reading to see what you missed.
Winter Drab
Sacred Store
The Spirit of Christmas
I’m also thankful to have joined Eli over at Coach Daddy for a some of his Six Word Stories roundups recently. Check those out, too, will you?<
What We are Chicken Of, in 6 Words
Our Family Stories, in 6 Words
(And I’ll add here that I’m thankful that my lovely friends and readers don’t mind a little excited self-promotion.)
I have a huge pile of thankfuls here relative to our Advent and Christmas preparations. Kidzilla is completely and totally into the whole process of Advent and at the same time is so completely and totally excited for Christmas that she positively vibrates. And this week we begin the celebration of Hanukkah with the Fab Hub so we have another holiday to enjoy, too!
We have been saying prayers and lighting our Advent candles, setting up our Nativities, decorating the tree, HANGING THE OUTDOOR LIGHTS, spinning our dreidels, counting out candles for the Menorah, catching our shelf Elf in all manner of troubles, searching for the box of stockings so we can hang those, and continuing to deck our halls.
![20141213_235917[1]](http://www.themeaningofme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/20141213_2359171-e1418533466212.jpg)
Friday evening I had dinner with my Mom and Super Sister before attending the Moravian Vespers service in a nearby town – what town? Get this – Bethlehem. Yup, we live near the “Christmas City,” as they like to call themselves. It was lovely all around. Sorry – no recording or photos allowed during the service. You’ll have to take my word for it.
Today Mom and I took Kidzilla to see her first performance of The Nutcracker and we may or may not have purchased a pink Nutcracker afterwards. Even better? Turns out a portion of the proceeds from this little guy go to breast cancer research. Win!
![20141213_235717[1]](http://www.themeaningofme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/20141213_2357171-e1418533774138.jpg)
The Fab Hub joined us for a nice warm dinner out at a favorite restaurant before the crazy dinner crowd descended. And because we’re completely out of our minds, we bundled up and went to see the Winter Lights Spectacular at our local zoo with Kidzilla’s Godfather Uncle D. and his wife Aunt D. It was a great night – not too cold, not windy, not snowing or sleeting or raining. Perfect.
After all of that, Kidzilla went to bed without grumbling, poking, or stalling and is now nestled snugly in her bed with, I am certain, visions of Sugar Plum Fairies, pink Nutcracker dolls and a million Christmas lights dancing in her little head.
And that is where I’m headed right now…hope I can catch up to her!
Your turn…what are you thankful for this week? What made you smile?
You know the drill…share ’em or link ’em! And now you can link ’em right here!
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Welcome back!
Thanks for barding. ..it was an awesome piece!
Happy Chanukah ! Merry Christmas!
Thanks, Zoe! I’m really glad you thought so!
You are duly Christmified. I love this season so much and I am so glad you are enjoying so many fun things, as well. Josie’s link up is one of my favorite (besides TTOT). I may visit some of the others. Enjoy the holidays!!!!
I am definitely enjoying the season in a very different way this year, Val, and it’s awesome!
Josie’s TST has given me a chance to exercise some long underutilized creative muscles and it’s been a lot of fun.
Yep, we’re all Christmas-ed up as well, but with very little effort on the Dude’s part. 🙂 His contribution is always that he hangs his beloved Fenway Park ornament. But he’s come a long way so I am grateful. Once I start baking, he’ll really get in the spirit of things.
It’s the singing that really gets me in the spirit. With Hanukkah right in the middle of December, I’ll have to miss some of the sing-outs, but I still get to do some.
The Hub gets an ornament each year like the rest of us. We have some lovely stars of David and the most gaudy menorah ornament ever. It’s how we share here!
I think I kind of prefer Hanukkah in the middle. It feels overwhelming when it hits at Christmas. And last year when it was right at Thanksgiving day was just nuts. Although it did save some travel!
I really need to get my tree up and decorated because I want to be Christmas-afied too 🙂
Yes but you have been busy celebrating other great things, too!
excellent ‘inaugural’ Post!
Lizzi said perhaps, of course, she might not have mentioned the ability of the SGV to induce TSVD*, which with the advent of cellphones and selfies…has become so much more er….persuasive in terms of the SBoR/BoSR
*Transitory St Vitus Disease
Yes it’s great to be back, Clark!
TSVD huh? Perhaps that’s why everyone ‘forgets’ the dancing part…
SO much holiday spirit – I love it! I think it is so cool Kidzilla is celebrating Christmas and Hannukah.
I am sure part of my spirit is happiness with my new life/work situation.
We have always included Catholic and Jewish traditions in our home because we are, after all, a multi-faith family. We knew we would raise Zilla Catholic but it is important for her to respect and understand her Dad’s faith traditions as well. It works well for us. And I definitely see that my own faith is enhanced by such close experience with Judaism since the roots of Catholicism lie there.
Sounds like you had a great week! And congrats on hosting!
I’m fully Christmas-a-fied now, too. I got all the presents wrapped and under the tree yesterday. Woot!
It has been a very good week and it’s great to be back hosting!
I have yet to wrap anything…my least favorite part. I think I dislike it because I’m always forced into a place where I have to rush. Perhaps since I dictate my own schedule now I will find it more enjoyable.
My first question is how old is Kidzilla? I’m trying to figure out the best age to start taking my eldest (5) to the Nutcracker. I figured this year she is still too young, but maybe next year… or I wait until both are old enough? Not sure there. Either way, I hope Zilla loved it.
You are definitely Christmas-a-fied. Lovely tree! I wish we had lights – we have them, somewhere in storage, but they never seem to get put up. Maybe next year! But our tree is out, the stockings are out, and kids are getting excited! It’s a fun time of year with little ones!
Kidzilla is six and a half. She has been going to children’s plays since she’s about three, but this is her first ballet. She did really well – she loved it. Was she a bit too talkative and a bit wiggly? Yes. But so were the middle school age children in front of us. And Zilla also has ADHD so sitting still and quiet for two hours is a huge challenge for her. But overall I was really proud of how she handled herself. Maybe try showing yours some clips on YouTube? Then you’ll get an idea whether they’re interested at all or not. We have done that with both Swan Lake and The Nutcracker and Zilla was very interested. We told her the story of The Nutcracker before we went, too, so she had an idea of what was happening.
Our lights are NOT hung yet! The outdoor lights are the Hub’s job and I’m sorry to say he has not completed the task. This is why I’m SHOUTING about the lights in my post. Also, our pre-lit tree is down a few bulbs…also his job. Hopefully we’ll get to that today.
Having a little one really does make this time of year a very different and special experience! Although I kind of think that’s true of any part of the year. But Christmas has a particular magic.
and here the kid is completely christmasfied as well. Also… The kid is also obsessed with The nutcracker.
I can think of worse thing with which a child could be obsessed! Wait until Kidzilla finds the surprise Nutcracker gift on Christmas morning, too!
Congrats on co-hosting again, Lisa! This is so exciting!! I love your tree, so beautiful! And the pink nutcracker is awesome! I hope you all had fun at the Nutcracker performance! We celebrate our very own thing as well, being Atheists. And I enjoy working up the details about it every year.
Have a great new week, Lisa!
Thanks, Stephanie. I really hated not to in the first place, but it was just not the right time.
Isn’t that pink Nutcracker fantastic?? Who knew? We had a lovely time.
I hope you’ll post about your celebration – I’d love to know more!
There, that wasn’t too bad, was it? We could hardly have you dancing your way out of posting, in your first week back, now could we? 😉
Nice to have you here (wish I knew what was going on with your code though! Acckkkkk! I have discovered no more fondness for those little HTML suckers since you left…
Well done for getting Christmasified. We’ve got my MIL and FIL coming at the end of the week. And the cleaner coming Wednesday. So we need to be tidied before then *sigh* it’s a BIG job!
Glad SO much that Zilla enjoyed the Nutcracker. It’s such a gorgeous suite.
Wait – what’s wrong with my code? Do you mean the bard button? Or the weird stuff below the TToT button? I have no idea.
I did manage to get out lots of good things and not have to dance. It wasn’t really that I didn’t have any…just so busy doing them all that there was hardly a moment to sit and DO it?
We still have a few little things to do as we go along as far as Christmas prep, but I’m OK with where we’re at for the most part.
I think we’ll probably do Nutcracker again and again since she loved it. It will be a great thing to do together.
What a wonderful week you’ve had! First of all, I am THRILLED you are back as a co-host! I’m still a million ways behind in all my reading, but I will get to your guest posts, and OF COURSE, you should self-promote!
I love the pink nutcracker! I’ve never seen one like it before. My daughter danced in the Nutcracker two years when the Moscow Ballet came to town and performed it with local dance students included. It was fascinating to her to see those “real” ballerinas. She was in late elementary school and noticed the women were all skinny and all smoked.
Your tree looks so pretty, as do your floors underneath it 🙂
It’s been a great week, Dyanne, and an absolutely wonderful weekend. I feel so Christmas spirit-y it’s not even funny.
I’m delighted to be back as co-host! And of course you’ll get to my stuff because you know I always value what you think.
When we passed the gift and souvenir table, of course Zilla zeroed in on the pink ones. There were three, actually, but this guy was the best. And that part of his cost goes to breast cancer research? Even better. Right off the top of my head I thought of you, my aunt, and my father’s mother – all touched by it, all survivors. Woot!
All the ballerinas skinny and smokers, eh? Kind of pushes me more into the corner of “do I really want my daughter caught up in the dance world”? So hard to make these decisions. So far she hasn’t really asked about it. We shall see.
The tree will be even prettier when the Hub figures out how to fix the burned-out sections of our pre-lit tree. What a pain! We actually have about three sections that aren’t lit right now – drives me crazy. But the floors do indeed look awesome. And we even took care of the kitties – they have a nice cushy blanket under there which does double duty as comfort for them and keeping the tree base from scratching the floor. Those boys love their cave!
Awwww. The nutcracker! What a way to start the holiday season. And I’ve always wondered when one person in the house believes one way and the other, another–how do you blend this particular holiday? I do love your beautiful Christmas tree. Merry Christmas to you!
It was a wonderful thing to do together, Linda – me, Kidzilla, and my Mom. I asked Kidzilla if she would like to do it again next year and she was all for it!
Regarding our multi-faith household and holidays, it’s really just life as usual for us. We don’t really blend the two holidays, per se, as they are two very separate and different things. We each observe our own faith traditions, but we celebrate with one another. As a Catholic, it’s easy for me to respect and embrace the beliefs and traditions of the Jewish faith as the root of my own – Jesus was, after all, a Jewish man for all of His life on earth. I think probably best to have the Hub weigh in specifically on his perspective rather than try to word it for him. It works for us – always has. We’ve had some great discussions over the years, too!
That is some list!!!
Christmas-afied is my new favorite Word of the Week…Now if I can just find a way to use it in casual conversation.
Yes, I’m working on that, too! 😀
Welcome back as a co-host!
What a wonderful time of year, and how nice to enjoy so many good things with family!
Thanks, Kristi! It’s good to be back, too.
It is truly a wonderful season for so many reasons and I am having the best time this year!
I’m thankful for the last paycheck before Christmas.
I’m thankful for a good job and a great team.
I’m thankful I found you in 2014, and that you have been part of my 6 words posts!
A paycheck right before Christmas is a good thing indeed – as is a job.
I am also glad to have found you, Eli – the six words have been great fun and I’ve found a coupe of other great new bloggers to read, too!
I’m thankful for a beautiful piano recital yesterday – it was wonderful to see how all of the kids have progress with their playing, from one hand Jingle Bells to complicated arrangements of Angels We Have Heard On High.
Thanks for the reminder to be thankful- so important, especially in this jam packed season of the year.
OH, a recital is always a wonderful thing, Julia!
What a great week! And welcome back cohost!!! YAY to you being back (boo to Sandy being gone but it sounds like she’ll be around). I love that we both braved the crowds at light shows this weekend – they are seriously one of my very favorite things. And the Nutcracker! I love that KZ loved it!!! (not sure Tucker would) and here’s to being Christmasfied (and to outdoor lights!!!).
The fact that I went to the lights at the peak of visitor traffic after an already-full day must say something about how much this little girl has changed me. I would never have done that pre-Zilla. Ne-ver.
Yes, here’s to Christmasified and lights!
2x the holiday spirit! Nothing can beat that! Welcome back as co-host. And about self-promotion? This is your “house”…self-promote as much and as often as you want!! Unfortunately, I’ve never been to a live performance of the Nutcracker. I bet your daughter will never forget you taking her to see it.
Happiness and health this holiday season Lisa:)
Well I know I will never forget watching her little face light up and seeing her clap like crazy after the different dances. It was terrific!
Happy and healthy right back at you! Enjoy!
Yay Christmas! It’s that great time of year and it’s great to see that you’re all set for it. What I”m thankful for this week hasn’t changed much – I’m still thankful that my wife and I are expecting. Speaking of which, I’ve mentioned this in your comment section several times now and I haven’t even announced it on my own blog yet – I’m planning on announcing it during the year wrap-up post. I’m also thankful that I’m going to Turkey in January. it’s all set and I’m very excited.
Wow, Steve – Turkey sounds awesome! Looking forward to hearing about that.
Merry Christmas to you and your wife and the little one on the way – health and happiness to all!
Sounds like you’re having an all out Christmassy & Hannukkahy kinda week! So festive. I love it. Hooray for the pink nutcracker helping fight cancer 🙂
We are absolutely knee-deep in festivities, Bianca!
Kidzilla is a funny name. I can only imagine how crazy with kids so it is fitting. 🙂 Eli is awesome. I just did his most recent 6 words post, too and I have a guest post that is going live over there next week. Glad to have you back as a co-host at TToT. You seem to be having a wonderful time with family. I do have to say there is nothing quite like it. Family is so special!
I am thrilled to be back as TToT co-host. And yes, we are definitely having a wonderful time here.
Kidzilla is kind of a holdover from when our Daughter was small and we called her Babyzilla because she stomped around and made noise like a little Godzilla! It fits, believe me!
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