nearly Christmas!

So we had the party last night and it was really good. I think everyone had a good time, anyway. Joy made SO much food; I know she made rugelach which were vegan, sufganiyot filled with preserves she said she'd made last summer and had canned herself!!!, and she made a chocolate cake shaped like a yule log decorated with marzipan mushrooms, and the usual sugar cookies, though those she'd decorated with coloured sugar in the shape of pentacles (five pointed stars with the corners connected, you know, like teachers use to mark your papers) and she even brought out a FLAMING christmas pudding. I'm not going to lie, a lot of the Americans were kind of meh about how it tasted even though we were impressed that it was ON FIRE.

Xander, Song, Aedon, and Riley (who plays the piano) all played songs for us, and someone had brought a mixed tape of songs and we sang along and sorta danced to those. We played a bunch of games including pinning a nose on Rudolph where Trinity totally put it right on the butt! I had a great time.

We had a gift giving thing where we had to steal the gifts. I ended up stuck with the gift that I'd brought (drawing supplies since I tried to get something that the boys wouldn't mind ending up with) which wasn't so bad since I could use them, but Alejandro had glittery hairbands, so I swapped with him afterwards and that works out too since I had hairbands on my wish list!

Yesterday and today some people were traveling to see family. I'm trying to finish up and wrap the gifts that I'm giving. How are all of you? I hope you've a very good holiday season, whatever you celebrate!

a short wish list

Okay, Fin was on my butt to post a wish list because it's already December 6, and she said I have to consider mailing time, etc, so here it is:

- things for my head, like hats, headbands from LizzieBee (I really like the new silver, gold & white ones!), or flower clips

- some sort of rainbow decoration for my room, either like, six origami cranes (like, one each of roygbp) or maybe a pennant banner

- jewelry (I don't have my ears pierced yet but I like wearing necklaces & bracelets (& I hope to get my ears pierced soon))

- gauntlet/arm warmers (t-shirt type material)

- apples to apples (in my size)

- Elephant Calico Critters

- art books (like, drawing technique, or watercolor)

- a rainbow (roygbp) afghan

- a rainbow quilt (roygbp too)

- handmade things and art!

I think I'm doing something wrong: blogspot help?

While I've a little bit of time because I've finished my computer science assignment:

I follow a bunch of blogs, but only some show on the left hand nav bar. I know that I can read from the dashboard, but I remember to read and comment more if I can see that they've updated (also, it's nice, because I imagine it increases traffic for those blogs too). Does anyone know what I can do to make those other blogs come up in that nab bar?

tagged for Christmas meme

1) What is your favorite part of the holiday season?

Aurora: so many baked goods!
Aedon: time off school
Xander: getting to see family


2) Who do you celebrate Christmas with?

Aurora: my grandmother, and other family come over for dinner
Aedon: sometimes we stay in the states, sometimes we go to England, so it depends
Xander: my parents, my brother and I go visiting my grandparents.


3) What is your favorite gift you have ever received?

Aurora: my drafting table
Aedon: my american girl dolls
Xander: a racing video game


4) What are your favorite Christmas Carols?

Aurora: We Three Kings
Aedon: Partridge in a Pear Tree, particularly how silly people get with five goooooolden rings, and then they can't remember all the verses and start making things up
Xander: In The Bleak Mid-Winter


5) What is your favorite Christmas food?

Aurora: all the baked goods! and also jellied cranberry sauce
Aedon: ham!
Xander: Christmas cake


6) Can you sleep on Christmas Eve?

Aurora: My grandmother and I exchange gifts on Christmas Eve and stay up late wrapping everyone else's, so by the time I get into bed (in my new jammies) I'm normally really ready to sleep.
Aedon: I never believed in Santa, so it's not like I stay up trying to listen for him or anything. We don't even have a fireplace.
Xander: no, but I get up at 5am on Christmas Day!


7) When do you wake up on Christmas morning?

Aurora: I normally get up around 9 or 10 to carry the gifts down and put them under the tree, and to help Grandma start the cooking.
Aedon: Normally around 8 because the kitties never let me sleep much later because they want to be fed.
Xander: oh, I answered that already, whoops!


8) What is your most memorable memory?

Aurora: I once burned the rolls I was making and set off the fire alarm :(
Aedon: the one time it actually snowed on Christmas
Xander: opening presents at my grandmother's house


9) What are you Christmas traditions?

Aurora: we always make a bunch of these cookies that the recipe is from my grandma's grandma's cookbook. and like I sad, Grandma and me exchange gifts on Christmas Eve, after we get home from church services.
Aedon: my parents and I trade gifts on Christmas Eve too.
Xander: watching the Queen's Speech before we open our presents

10) Do you have a real tree or an artificial tree?

Aurora: a really fake tree, like, super fake silver tinsel
Aedon: a fake tree, but it looks real. we have to have a fake tree because otherwise the kitties climb and eat it.
Xander: a real tree. every year we get a real tree, and my father tries to plant it in the yard, and every year it dies.


Tagging:

Inky

Sabine

Taryn

Mekennah

cleaning for holiday party

With the holidays coming, we've been doing some spring cleaning sorts of things, except, you know, winter. We've all been cleaning up our individual rooms and getting rid of clutter. I went through all of my paints and got rid of the old dried up tubes, and made sure my containers of various crafts were neatly put away. Ember had a lot of stuffed animals, and decided to get rid of them, so Wednesday when we had a half day (teacher in-service) we took them to the laundromat so that we could use one of the enormous washers to give them a good bath before being donated to a local shelter for abused women and their children.

I know that in a lot of families, they put up the Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving, but in both my and Fin's family, it's traditional to put it up much closer to Christmas, because it has to stay up through out Epiphany. This year Yule, the Winter solstice and the holiday that Ember observes, is on the 22nd, and all of our schools have stopped for the winter break by the 21st, so Fin says that we can put the tree and decorations up on the 21st, so that things look festive for Ember's holiday too. I was worried that putting up a Christmas tree on her holiday would be bad form, but Ember says bringing greens inside the house is actually an old pagan custom that got co-opted anyway, so it's fine.

We're going to have a party on the 22nd for friends of ours to come over and exchange gifts, since most of us will be busy with family any closer to the holiday. Fin found these boxes online and printed them out for us for putting our presents into. I thought that you might like the link as well. Joy's over the moon planning all the cookies she's going to bake, I think that she actually likes that there's so many different religions and places of origin and stuff with all of us, because it gives her a fine excuse to make even more treats, and even try some new things! She was telling me some yesterday about how she can use substitutes to make some thing or other that normally isn't vegetarian so that Ember and Riley can have them too.

Fin's also encouraged us to make gift lists, but I haven't gotten to mine yet. Have you made a wish list? What have you asked for?