Day 10

So I am really tired tonight so this post will probably be short. Sorry :(


Tonight my church had its annual women to women Christmas meeting. It was nice to have a night that was a slower pace and relaxing while being able to talk with a lot of my girl friends from the church.


We sang some Christmas carols, and did a short table discussion while eating some Christmas goodies. We also made some tags for gifts etc that were really cool. We used either heat applied fabric adhesive, the cuddlebug, and some stamps. They were fun to make especially since I do not do them that often.

It was a good night being able to fellowship with some other Christian ladies. But now it is time for bed. Good night world. And A Merry Christmas

Day 9 - Popular Christmas Hymns

I always find it interesting to have the story behind the hymn or carol. Sometimes they were written for amazing reasons. So I thought I would share with you the story behind some of the more popular Christmas carols.

P.S. I am just going to apologise now for the small history lesson, I absolutely love history and find this kind of stuff fascinating but I know that not everyone does.

Silent Night

Silent night! Holy Night! 

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon virgin mother and Child

Holy Infant, so tender and mild

Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.

This hymn was written by Joseph Mohr in 1818 high up in the Alps. After learning that the church organ was broken Mohr decided that he needed to write a Christmas hymn that could be sung without the organ. After writing the lyrics, Franz Gruber the village schoolmaster and organist wrote the music that would be played on the guitar. So a little song written in the Alps went on to become one of the most well known Christmas carols of all time. 

Hark! The Herald Angel Sings!

Hark! The herald angels sing, 

"Glory to the newborn King;

Peace on earth, and mercy mild

God and sinners reconciled"

Joyful, all ye nations, rise

Join the triumph of the skies;

With th'angelic host proclaim,

"Christ is born in Bethlehem"

Hark! The herald angels sing,

"Glory to the newborn King."

This hymn comes from two very well known hymn writer and composer. Charles Wesley, who wrote more than 6 500 hymns, and is also said to be one of the four most popular hymns in the English language. The five verses teach such spiritual truths as the virgin birth, Christ's deity, immortality of the soul, the new birth, and a concern for Christ-like living. As Eric Routley (an English hymnist said) "These hymns were composed in order that men and women might sing their way, not only into experience, but also into knowledge; that the cultured might have their culture baptised and the ignorant might be led into truth by the gentle hand of melody and rhyme." 

Joy to the World!

Joy to the world! The Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let ev'ry heart prepare Him room

And heav'n and nature sing

And heav'n and nature sing 

And heav'n and heav'n and nature sing

This carol was also written by another prolific hymn writer: Isaac Watts. A lot of the hymns that he wrote were to combat the mediocre lyrics and songs that were being sung in his day. This hymn was inspired by Psalm 98 which talks about rejoicing at the marvellous ways in which God had protected and restored the Israelites. 

Day 8 - December 1st Here We are :)

Well it is officially the first day of December....and there is so much happening in this month.


(And we have at least a good foot of snow on the ground which for me doesn't hurt at all.)


Beyond the fact that it is Christmas in less than 26 days, I am going to be able to meet my little niece sometime this month, and I am going to see the Hobbit, and go to the Crystal Buffet (I love Chinese food)...and sing Christmas carols really loudly all the time and no one will look at me as strangely as they do in November.


Speaking of music in public:

I think this is absolutely amazing, even if Ode to Joy isn't exactly Christmas music. 

And there we go a little bit more of Christmas for you. 

Day 7 - Yummy Cracker Snacks

This year we decided to add another recipe to our collection of Christmas goodies. We found this recipe online while looking for something fun to try this year.


Recipe for Yummy Cracker Snacks



This actually worked a lot better than I thought it would. We used Ritz crackers and bought Milk Chocolate and White Chocolate candy coating at Bulk Barn.

If we decide to do them again next year we would probably not add the marshmallow cream. You can't taste it very well and it gets messy to work with. But other than that these snacks work really well.


If you decide to make them, you will want to store them in the fridge or freezer depending how long it takes for you to eat them. The chocolate can melt if they are kept out at room temperature.

Day 6 - Christmas Movies

Sometimes it is just nice to sit downstairs during the evening and watch a movie that you haven't seen in a really long time. This is how I feel about our Christmas movies.


In my family, Christmas movie season officially starts on Halloween and I know that it strange. We were never that big into doing anything for Halloween so my parents started some traditions that we could do at home every year. So we always have a chip and dip meal and watch "It's A Wonderful Life." That is our official start to Christmas movies.


Tonight we decided to watch A White Christmas, which is another one of my favourite classics for Christmas. So here are my top 5 Christmas movies of all time :)


1. It's A Wonderful Life.
2. White Christmas
3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
4. A Christmas Story
5. Charlie Brown's Christmas


Christmas movies are great. It is always so much fun to watch them snuggled in a blanket with some candy cane hot chocolate and my cat.


Well Merry Christmas Everybody :)

Day 5 - Decorating Part 1

       Because I have Friday (tomorrow) off, my mom and I decided that it would be a good day to decorate the house for Christmas. Typically, my family does it on the first weekend in December, and since Sunday is December 1st this counts. 

        The last couple of years I have only been around for three weeks or so around Christmas so I haven't bothered to decorate my own room. But this year as I am already home I decided that I should add a little bit more Christmas cheer to my own room. 

     It also hasn't hurt that we have had a couple days of nasty snow squalls (not fun to drive in but so pretty to look at). It is totally a Winder Wonderland out there and that has put me in the mood for Hot Chocolate, Christmas music and Christmas decorating. Too bad the snow is too fluffy for me to build a snowman. 

So first step to decorating my room is to actually clean it. I can be a bit of a slob so this is always my biggest challenge but hey I got it done. 

Is it a little sad that I am a little proud of the fact that I cleaned my room. I don't know.

So the next step was to get out my wee box of Christmas decor (see red box in above picture) and start placing around the room. I think my cat on the bed was excited to see some more of her cuddle buddies coming out of the box. She loves sleeping on the bed with the other stuffed animals. 

So in these before and after photos you can sort of see a little of what I did with the desk. I am not that creative with Christmas decorations but I love little nicknacks for Christmas. I will sometimes re purpose Christmas ornaments that don't fit in with the tree downstairs and just set them around the room as well. 

Finally, in my mind Christmas is not complete without a little winter scene somewhere in my room. I have always enjoyed my wee Christmas tree and put it up in my room every year. I just used polyester craft stuffing to make the snow and there you go. Snow inside that won't melt. 

What are some of your favourite Christmas decorations? More to come tomorrow as we finish decorating the rest of the house. 

Day 4 - Christmas Albums

One thing that I enjoy doing every Christmas is getting or listening to a new Christmas album that I have never heard before. Because I was in N. Ireland last Christmas, I had yet to hear the Getty's Christmas album that my family got last year.  So that is my Christmas album for this year.


All in all I really like it. There are a lot of catchy tunes. It is also not full of the secular Santa Clause songs (which I enjoy in moderation) but has a lot of meaningful songs.


I really enjoy their version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"

Probably my favourite song on the album is this one though:

Do you have any suggestions for great Christmas songs? I would love to have more to listen too.  Please comment below :)