Thanks, Chelle, for the reminder to get on here and post something before Christmas. We’re hangin’ with my Mom & family for a couple of weeks and are so busy that I don’t have much time to think about blogging. (The other place is all pre-scheduled so there are still daily giveaways there! Hey – I just realized that ‘the other place’ is another T.O.P.!)

Chelle awarded me with the Christmas Spirit Award, and I think I totally deserve it. (Hah!) I do, indeed, have a great Christmas spirit. This year is our first without my Dad, and he loved Christmas and it totally sucks but we totally feel him here. We hope somebody’s making him Acadian tortiere, ham with raisin sauce and lots of treats in heaven. If I had any poetic ability whatsoever, I’d write a song or poem for him called “Meatpie in Heaven.”

Christmas Spirit Award rules:
You must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award. The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas. You must link back to the person who gave you the award. You must list 5 things that you love about Christmas. If you can’t limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space! Pass the award along to as many people as you like.That can be 1 or 45; it’s up to you. But, you must pass it on to at least one person in order to keep the Christmas cheer going! Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment.

Things I Love About Christmas:

*Getting to my parents’ house my Mom’s house and knowing we’ll be here for a while.
*Checking the mail to find a stack of Christmas cards! I love opening them, reading every word and I especially love when people send letters and pictures.
*Decorating our house. Now that Primo can help, it’s even more fun!
*Creating new traditions for my family, such as Elf on the Shelf and the family Advent calendar that contains notes for activities to do & gifts to search for – and never crappy chocolate.
*Carrying on traditions from my childhood. Decorating a gingerbread house, opening a gift on Christmas Eve. (We’ve started the tradition that it’s always freshly washed new pajamas from Grandma Betty to sleep in and open stockings in.)
*Baking for friends & neighbours. I love to share the love!
*Buying gifts – I love to shop for other people & love watching people open presents! (The wrapping; not so much.)
*The food. Oh yeah, the food. We have the same Christmas dinner every year and have since I was a kid – and it’s awesome enough to totally be worth the ten pounds I gain and the purchasing of new stretchy pants. Now everyone from both sides of our family is welcome and we generally have a houseful. The more the merrier. This was something my Dad really loved – he loved to talk and having more people around gave him more people to talk to!
*The normal, chaotic, random craziness of everyday that is the Christmas season with kids. It’s loud, it’s insane, it’s awesome.
*Visiting Santa, writing to Santa, emailing Santa, getting a phone call from Santa…believing is an awesome thing.
*Seeing the lights reflected in the eyes of my children.
*Taking Christmas pictures – of my family and for clients of my photography business.
*People dropping by with gifts for my kids & for us – not because I care about the gifts but it’s just so great that there are thoughtful people in the world and it makes me all warm & cozy inside my guts.
*The music. I’ve always loved it but this year Primo is really in to it and we sing carols all.day.long. Every day. A few other songs mixed in would be nice, but it’s so cute!
*The lights. I love to drive around and look at people’s houses all decorated & fancied up.
*The smells. Gingerbread, hot apple cider, turkey roasting…my mouth is watering just thinking of the scents of Christmas.
*Phone calls from and to friends & family that I don’t get to talk to very often. It’s nice to reconnect.

I could go on, but I just noticed that I might have reached five a little while ago.

I’d like to give this award to my great friend Kris, who is sharing the Christmas spirit with her newly-cohabiting boyfriend up north this year! Tomorrow is her birthday – 25 – so head over and wish her a good one, won’t you?

Also I award Deb, who’s home I would love to invade at Christmas time, for the food, the funny stories and a great visit over red wine.

What do you love about this awesome season?