festive cheer

Heavy rain set in yesterday and the 10 day forecast has grey clouds on every day except Monday

My festive lists and preparations for family celebrations are beckoning (with un traditional items such as Thai dipping sauce as well as traditional mince pies).

I’m guessing many of you will be in a similar situation so until we connect again on the other side of Christmas – fond wishes that your festivities are all that you hope they will be and this little haven of cheer - home made mince pies on my NZ Christmas plate with my Christmas mugs full of a hot beverage

[Apologies to the song writers for my change in the words]

[snow effects from a brush by K Pertiett]

Fabulous door decoration

Many of the doors in my neighbourhood are sporting colourful festive wreaths. The local greengrocer has a big pile of holly wreaths outside his shop and there were big piles of pine ones at the garden centre last week too so they are obviously widely popular.

On my Saturday walk I was impressed by the variety on show so I snapped some to create a collage.

These are not part of the festive tradition in New Zealand – I guess because it is summer in December and wreaths originate in mid winter celebrations.

Are door wreaths part of the festive decor in your neighbourhood?

a tradition?

Is intention and one repetition enough to create a tradition?  As someone who has been accused of counting ‘1,2, lots’ and ‘once, twice, always’ I tend to think that it is – so here is my new Santa tradition.

Last year when I was unpacking my decorations for the first time since moving back from New Zealand in 2009, I decided that I’d like a small tradition relating to ornaments.  With all of my decorations out on display I noticed that Santas dominated

so I decided to add to them each year.  Last year I bought the fellow on the top row, second from the right.

This year I bought another cheery Santa ornament with a Scandinavian feel

so is intention and one repeat enough to be called a ‘tradition’?  Do you have a festive ornament tradition?

on the bright side

one of the things that I find hard to re-adjust to back in Scotland after 20 years in New Zealand is the long hours of darkness in winter – at the moment it gets dark around 3.30pm and is still not fully light as I type this at 8.20am.

But in normal ‘Pollyanna’ mode I found a plus side now that the festive lights have been lit.  As well as the lit decorations down the high street, the council wraps several trees with small lights.  I love how these trees look and have even been tempted out for a short walk after dark to see them

When more of the houses in my neighbourhood have their house lights and trees up I intend to do another after dark photowalk to capture the magic.

November

The beginning of another month so time to summarise last month in numbers.  Thanks to Julie for this prompt which I’ve enjoyed all year.

[pattern strip by G Bursett]

And here is the advent calendar I made for my parents, inspired by an idea in a supermarket Festive magazine. The bowl is filled with 24 paper cones each of which contains a small festive treat.  I printed the labels and cut out with my tag punch.