Dear Readers,
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas holiday, I sure did. Currently, I am curled up on the couch in front of my Christmas tree enjoying the last touch of Christmas. Like most people, I love the holiday season. My December was quite busy with work, but also consisted of various holiday celebrations!
December kicked off with Uptown Sparkles which was put on my Uptown Saint John. This year Sparkles was a three day event. I only made it to the night market Thursday night, and then I worked the Friday night at Urban Shoe Myth. Nutcracker was also the same weekend as Sparkles. The Nutcracker has always been my favourite ballet, and a performance that always puts me in the Christmas spirit. I also started my Christmas shopping, which even consisted of snagging a few doughnuts along the way from The Doughnut Bar when they held their pop up event at Lordon.
On December 13th my family celebrated the Feast of St Lucia. Even before I lived in Sweden, my family celebrated this Swedish holiday, since our family was originally from Sweden way back when. “Saint Lucia is a Christian feast day observed on 13 December, commemorating Lucia of Syracuse, an early-4th-century martyr under the Diocletianic Persecution, who according to legend brought food and aid to Christians hiding in the Roman catacombs, wearing a candlelit wreath on her head to light her way and leave her hands free to carry as much food as possible.” To celebrate St Lucia Swedes eat Lucia buns by candle light on the morning of the December 13th. My grandmother makes them every year for us!
A small detail about Christmas that has started to make me feel like a “real” adult is attending work holiday parties. I attended three separate events this year. First, for Urban Shoe we had a bachelorette themed murder mystery party which was hilarious! Second, the annual board and member holiday reception at the New Brunswick Museum. And, thirdly, the New Brunswick Museum holiday staff party.
The detail I love most about the holiday is spending time with family and friends. I was so lucky to have both my brothers come home for Christmas, a few of my cousins and most of my closest friends. As soon as my brothers came home we decorated our Christmas tree. Each year it is a battle between my parents for what sort of tree we get. My father likes big trees, and my mother would rather take home the smallest tree she can find. However, in the end our tree always looks perfect!
In addition to my brothers being home, I love being able to spend time with my friends, family friends and my family. Over the holidays we always tend to have a few gatherings that are filled with people, great food, and excellent drinks! I even got to make a couple of gingerbread houses with family friends this year too.
On the days counting down to Christmas my entire family has always followed a few traditions. Starting with December 21st. December 21st was my grandfather’s birthday, and in my father’s house growing up this was always the day the Christmas celebrations would start. Since my grandfather passed away, we have continued to celebrate his birthday, and we always order Chinese food for this celebration and have a birthday party at my parents house. Then my grandmother’s birthday is on Christmas Eve, December 24th. So another birthday party is thrown! This has always been one of my favourite traditions, having my grandmother’s birthday on Christmas Eve, makes the evening even more special.
In my house Christmas Day is a relaxing day spent mostly in my pyjamas lounging around the house and eating WAY too much food. It’s funny how when we were little we would wait and wait and wait for what seemed liked forever for our parents to wake up to go down to open our gifts. Now, my mom goes around with a set of bells to wake us up in the morning. Our morning starts with opening gifts, eating brunch, lounging, eating a light lunch of charcuterie, lounging (usually watching The Holiday or Love Actually in this time frame), having Christmas dinner, followed by watching a movie together (this year we watched Yesterday). It is always simple, yet perfect.
Once again, I hope all you reading my blog had a wonderful Christmas! We might not have had a white Christmas in New Brunswick this year, but it was still lovely nevertheless.
Merry Christmas!
lauraalyreblog.wordpress.com 
Sounds perfect Laura! I wish we had the energy to have come to have Christmas dinner with you!! We just finished ours and I’m stuffed!! It may be better that I had just one dinner instead of two!! Merry Christmas!!
LikeLiked by 1 person