As I am reading my Facebook feed I am instantly reminded by Countdown to Christmas that we are 208 days away from Christmas and so I am going to keep this short and sweet.. I am so excited and overwhelmed at the same time!

It has been very hot and humid here on the East Coast so it the worst month for focusing on Christmas… I have had to really move into the “spirit”.  I’ve been organizing my decorations (getting more of those Martha Stewart organizing labels), watching Christmas movies, chatting with my friends on Facebook that love Christmas as much as I do, and listening to Christmas music.  I am excited though, I just got another coupon mailer from the Hallmark Store for Father’s Day and I KNOW that the next one will be for the Hallmark Ornament Premiere in July.   I also just finished going through the Hallmark Ornament Dreambook for 2012;  I picked out  some adorable ornaments; some will be released in July but most won’t be available until the unveiling in October; here is the link for the book so you can pick yours!

As of today, we are 64 days away from our Christmas in July celebration, 186 days until Halloween and ONLY 241 days until Christmas.  Now I am starting to feel like we’re getting closer to the most wonderful time of the year.

With Easter behind us, we are done with “gift holidays” until the fall.  I have been asking and observing how lovers of the Christmas season have been “feeling Christmas” in the springtime…

Recently, I delivered some gourmet cookies to a friend and she (also a lover of Christmas) had her life-size Santa in her dining room but it was very festive since Santa was wearing “bunny ears”.   Another friend was sharing the Christmas spirit by placing ONLY the green and red jelly beans in candy bowls for visitors; she also left out a carrot & carrot juice for the Easter Bunny!  Traditionally, my family goes out to eat for Easter, but I still make a festive dinner after the holiday; I made a spiral honey ham, macaroni & cheese, fresh string beans and candied sweet potatoes…  it smelled of Christmas all day!  Cooking foods with cinnamon, nutmeg and other holiday seasonings will definitely have you thinking about the most wonderful time of the year.  In fact, a neighbor of mine made these decorative Easter baskets that were loaded with Starlight Mints, Candy Canes, Hot Cocoa, and Christmas DVD’s.  I would even add a CD, like my favorite, The Michael Buble Christmas album.

This weekend, I noticed that it was Feb 25^th which means that in ten short months Christmas will be here again!  I celebrated by listening to Christmas music (more than usual).   This is the time when I begin to feel overwhelmed… wondering if I have all my planning done, but the truth is that I haven’t even finished packing away all the ornaments and other fragile décor.   All throughout January I was purchasing those nifty storage containers (in red and green of course) that were 75% off at Lowe’s.   Then I would print storage labels, reorganize my basement (this time adding craft tables around the entire basement so that I don’t have to freak out of we get any flooding), and then stack all the boxes strategically.

As I mentioned in my post ” Christmas in January“, I have finally put up my winter tree.   As I was putting away ornaments from the family tree, the foyer tree, the tree in my son’s room (yes we have ten trees), I collected some of the blue, silver, white pieces along with a few embellishments, including blue snowflakes to make the winter tree.  This tree is only 3 ft; if I had decorated a larger tree (which I may do next year) I would add some snowmen and perhaps decorate the base with artificial snow, or even flock the tree with snow.  Does anyone else have a winter tree up?  Are you putting one up?

In keeping the Christmas spirit we also mark the 25th of each month on the calendar and celebrate by watching a movie, do some holiday planning and listen to Christmas music.  I listen to Christmas music all year.  How do you keep the Christmas spirit throughout the year?  Please share your thoughts, ideas and photos of your tree(s).

Stay merry!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIENDS!

It’s Monday, just after a bittersweet weekend.   It was the last weekend of blasting my exterior house lights and we just completed celebration of “Little Christmas”, the Epiphany.  This is the final day of Christmas if you’re counting the Twelve Days of Christmas, the festive days beginning Christmas Day (December 25th).   This period is also known as Christmastide and Twelvetide.  The Twelfth Night of Christmas is always on the evening of 5 January, but the Twelfth Day can either precede or follow the Twelfth Night according to which Christian tradition is followed.  Twelfth Night is followed by the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th.  For most people this ends the Christmas season and they will begin packing away their decorations.  Last weekend, a Twitter friend said “There is nothing more depressing than the dying Christmas trees lining the streets of Soho” – THAT is the truth.  I am so saddened that the most wonderful time of the year is on “pause”, but instead of falling into depression I intend to keep the spirit alive all year!

I love my Father in Heaven, the Lord, Jesus Christ.  I love church.   I love gold, silver, green and red (are my favorite colors) and I love everything shiny.  I love the fall weather; maybe because I was born in October.  I love shopping and wrapping gifts; and I am drawn to my local Hallmark store because I adore the Christmas scent that lingers throughout the year.  I love making big dinners and I LOVE cookies.  I love the smell of Christmas; the pine, cinnamon and spice.  I am prone to listening to Christmas music all year long and if you ask me what color sweater or bathing suit I want, I say “red”!  I have to admit that I will definitely be playing that new Michael Buble Christmas CD all year long for sure.  I love the trees and Oh my goodness — I LOVE decorating and sparkling lights.   But is all that I love the spirit of Christmas?  One friend recently said the SPIRIT is Jesus.  Christmas is a blessed holiday and the season is full of love and miracles… that MUST be what it is.

One of the most important things I do every single year — without fail — is put on a particular Christmas album.  I’ve been doing this every year since 1997 and I’ve been known to do it at any given time between the months of January and December.  There’s no time frame limit when it comes to this album.

Yes, it’s true. The thing Ryan Gosling’s mother and I have in common is — it’s just not Christmas without “Snowed In” by Hanson (@HansonMusic).

You can usually tell how filled with the holiday spirit a performer is by their Christmas record. Sometimes an album just sounds like every other song by the artist but with Christmas-related lyrics.

This is not the case with the Hanson brothers.

Even at the young ages they were at the time of the recording of this album (17, 14 & 12), their holiday joy was apparent in every track.  From the jingling opening keyboard taps by Taylor in the cover of Lou Baxter and Johnny Moore’s classic “Merry Christmas Baby” to the joyous “What Christmas Means to Me” and “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)“.  Let’s not forget the slow or upbeat melodies in their original songs “At Christmas“, “Christmas Time“, and “Everybody Knows the Claus” right down to the closing spiritual tracks like a brilliant melody of “O Holy Night/Silent Night/O Come All Ye Faithful” and “White Christmas“.