Cozy (Non Mystery!) Christmas Tips
(***I know this is a mystery blog. I will get back to the mystery side of it soon.***)
One of the activities I enjoy each Christmas season is decorating our home. While I miss our son’s and daughter’s help positioning each ornament on the tree, in a way, I feel like they are still with me decorating the tree. My husband and I have replaced our full-branched artificial Christmas tree with a thin but tall artificial tree that takes many fewer ornaments.
When we switched to a skinny (almost anorexic!) tree, I decided to limit the ornaments to just those to which we have sentimental attachments. So, gone are our shiny store-bought baubles. Instead, we have ornaments lovingly made by our son and daughter. Some of these decorations go back to a time when their little hands were barely able to manipulate the safety scissors or hold the glue sticks.
As I unwrap each of these priceless ornaments (including a toilet paper tube little drummer boy!) I am taken right back to those days. It’s funny, I remember wondering why those elementary school teachers thought we’d want toilet paper roll tubes hanging on our Christmas trees for may future years. And yet, now every year as I pack them away I treat them like precious family heirlooms.
OK, enough of my sentimental journey! To get back to the point of this blog entry!
I mentioned a tip a few years ago for families with young children. Please bear with me as I repeat it:
When my children were young, my son’s very favorite toys of all time were his Transformers. My daughter loved her tiny Sesame Street characters and, itty, bitty My Little Ponies and dolls. As they both got a little older and stopped playing with these small toys, I had the idea to save some of their beloved toys by turning them into small Christmas ornaments using festive holiday ribbons to attach them to the tree.
So now, amongst our third grade pipe cleaner-with-red-and-white Pony bead candy canes, and our fifth grade sequined styrofoam pin-cushion ornaments, we have tiny Transformers and itty, bitty My Little Ponies. All of these things make our Christmas tree special to us.
How about you? Do you have any holiday decorating tips? If you do, please share them with us by posting a comment below. Thank you!
Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas Movie – A Terrific Holiday Movie for Everyone
My husband and I recently watched this fun, short Christmas (43 minutes long) movie, and we both enjoyed it immensely. Although both of our children are now grown, we are sure they would have loved this movie when they were little. This of course means that this movie would have been played over and over (and over again!) in our home during the Christmas holidays.
The movie is done in an amalgamation of animation styles. All through the movie I was fascinated by the different details used in its production. I especially liked the different textures used, for example, Holly’s hair, the costumes, and the quirky facial expressions.
The story is a heart-warming Christmas tale about the importance of family. The music is catchy, fun, and up-beat. The movie uses the vocal talents of The Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons (who is terrific!), Star Wars‘ Mark Hamill, and Ed Asner, among others.
I’ve told both of my (now grown) children they should definitely watch this fun, cute Christmas movie. It truly is lots of fun for everyone.
P.S. In the past we have discussed favorite Christmas movies, and compiled quite a few on these lists:
Christmas : Favorite Classic Holiday Movies: Old, Black & White… and a Few In Color (not mysteries)
Christmas : Favorite Holiday Movies – More Recent, In Color (not mysteries)
What are your favorite Christmas movies that you find yourself watching every year during the holiday season. Please post a comment below and let us know! Thank you!
***This movie is available on Netflix in disc format.**
I’m Ready for My Christmas Cozy Mystery Audios…
You will never guess what I’m doing right now! By the time this entry posts, I should be on my way to Washington, DC. Yep! My husband and I are driving our daughter’s car out to DC for Thanksgiving. She left her car in our garage when she moved out there >>> thinking she wouldn’t want it. Now that she’s been living there for a few months, she has decided she’d rather not rely solely on the metro for everything. And, since we enjoy visiting her, we’re on our way!
We felt a little bad about leaving our son in San Antonio to “hold down the fort” for us, but we see him so often we decided to take advantage of our daughter’s holiday off from work. Not that this makes up for leaving our son during the Thanksgiving holiday, but I stocked the freezer with some of his favorite things. I have to admit I always feel a whole lot better with someone staying at the house when we travel.
I have downloaded the Cozy Mysteries that we will be listening to on our drive east. I decided that Tied Up in Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh and Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie are definite musts for a trip during the Thanksgiving holiday. Hopefully we’ll be able to finish them before we fly home.
I’ll continue to update the site while we are gone >>> I’m taking my laptop and my “tech guy” (husband) with me, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to check in almost every day.
