Favourites on Christmas Eve

Christmas is a together sort of holiday.

Winnie the Pooh

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Hello Friend,

I wonder if you are spending this evening with friends and family. If you are, how blessed are you! If you’re alone this evening, you’re welcome by my fire. Please, come in!

Leave your snowy boots by the door and let’s hang your coat right here. Here’s a basket of cozy slippers, please help yourself to whatever suits your fancy. Would you like the easy chair by the Christmas tree or the wing chair by the fireplace? Feel free to wrap up in the cozy Christmas quilt too.

Now, I’ve got hot apple cider, or the punch I make every Christmas; either one in a festive cup. Which would you prefer with your Christmas cookies?

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The tree is lit and decorated with my favourite ornaments, gifts wrapped and arranged under it. Flameless candles and twinkle lights flicker here and there, and soft music plays.

I thought I’d share a few of my Christmas favourites this evening, things I love or keep returning to.

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Favourite Punch Recipe …

THE BEST PUNCH
2-1/2 cups pineapple juice
1 qt. lime sherbet (I can't seem to find lime anymore, so I just use whatever flavour available)
1 qt. softened vanilla ice cream

Put in punch bowl and fill with 1 large bottle gingerale or 7-up
Makes 20 8-oz. servings.

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Favourite Ornaments …

I have six pairs of booties on my tree, one to represent each grandchild. Every year when I hang them on the tree, my mind goes back to each of their births, and the years that have followed. Little Man, our eldest, is now eleven. How time flies!

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Grandchildren are living reminders of what we’re really here for.

Janet Lanese

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Favourite Christmas Books …

The fact that I’ve read each of these before, and am now reading them again, is testament to how much I love them, especially at Christmas time.

Shepherds Abiding is from Jan Karon’s Mitford series. If you’re familiar with Father Tim and the delightful, quirky citizens of Mitford you’ll understand why this is such a cozy Christmassy read.

Christmas Bells jumps between two eras: present-day Boston where a dedicated music teacher faces struggles with her music program, and 1860’s Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow faces his own deeply personal grief during the civil war. The two stories become entwined around Longfellow’s poem, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. The novel reminds us why “we must continue to hear glad tidings even as we are tested by strife.”

Once Upon a Wardrobe tells the fictional story of Megs, a brilliant Oxford physics student who becomes acquainted with C.S. Lewis because her young dying brother is enamoured with the new book, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and has questions for the author. In the end, “the gift she thought she was giving to her brother–the story behind Narnia–turns out to be his gift to her, instead: hope.”

I recommend any and all of them.

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… humanity’s most precious commodity [is] time–Not love, … not because it’s less important, but because you can run out of time, while love can be endlessly replenished.

Jennifer Chiaverini, Christmas Bells

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Favourite Christmas Puzzle:

We have done this puzzle every Christmas for almost thirty years. Amazingly, it’s not missing any pieces, although one piece was once glued together but now isn’t anymore, and another piece bears the teeth marks of one of our cats from years ago. In our house, A Charlie Brown Christmas was a staple Christmas show, and we waited every year with anticipation for a night when everyone was home to watch it. It didn’t quite feel like Christmas until Charlie Brown and his friends had sung Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

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And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’

[Luke 2:8-14]
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That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

[A Charlie Brown Christmas]

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Favourite Christmas Carol …

Most Christmas Carols are my favourites, but this year I keep returning to this one. It has become my favourite rendition of Away in a Manger.

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Thank you for this special Christmas Eve visit. It’s been wonderful to have your company. Merry Christmas! Stay safe out there, and see you next time.

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