I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving filled with love, connection, gratitude, and great food. It’s been an intense couple of weeks. My dad is not doing great and has had a very long month. Our house inspection is tomorrow morning and we are ready. We have lots of little things left, but we hope to be moved in two weeks from now. I am watching the holiday season all around us, but it feels like I’m on the outside of it this year. I’ll catch up to it, but I feel a minimalist Christmas on the horizon. I have vowed to purchase gifts from small businesses and artisans. I urge you to shop around your town and check out Etsy for some unique finds.
I have always loved Christmas and here are some ramblings related to Christmas.
I’ve visited the Biltmore Estate a couple of times growing up and my favorite was at Christmas. Here is an article that has history about the Vanderbilt’s Christmas traditions. I’m a little obsessed with the life at the turn of the 20th century, so this fits right in. I love the pickle ornament. We had one growing up and it makes me want to order one this year.
One of my favorite yearly traditions is the “Hater’s Guide to the William Sonoma Catalog”. It cracks me up and I’ve been reading it for nearly a decade. I’m going to link a classic one for you, and excuse the profanity Drew uses if you’re sensitive in that department. Please enjoy it here.
I don’t know that I ever was really a kid in my mind. I remember in 1989 when the book “Martha Stewart’s Christmas” was released. My mom obliged my 10 year old adult self and bought it for me. There was a gingerbread mansion in it that I wanted to make so badly. It had the templates, step by step directions, and the recipes to pull off the biggest gingerbread house I had ever seen. I never made it but maybe one day.
Your assignment for the week is to watch one of these classic Christmas movies.
Miracle on 34th St (the 1947 version with Maureen O’Hara and Natalie Wood)
White Christmas
Meet me in St Louis (just for Judy Garland singing “Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
My favorite classic Christmas movie is It’s a Wonderful Life, but it’s too early for that. I watch it right before I go to bed on Christmas Eve every year.
Everett loves Christmas so much and has declared that it WILL snow in December on Christmas. Not a likelihood in Mississippi, but we can hold out for a Christmas miracle. This is from last year looking into the window display that my boss, Chris, had last year. It’s even bigger and better this year, so if you’re in the Iuka area stop by downtown and see it!
