Christmastime is here

It's Christmas Eve, and the holidays are in full swing. 

My brother's family arrived on Monday to spend almost two weeks with us for the festive season. It's great to have them here.

The week started with the season finale of Holiday Baking Championship. And now we have to wait two months for Spring Baking Championship.

I am sad it hasn't been a very snowy December. The other day I was doing some yardwork when I heard a little bell. Soon I looked up and saw our neighbors' cat on top of our fence (the cat has a bell on its collar). It hopped off the fence and came up to me, so I got to pet it, and it even let me pick it up for a moment. So cute!

I love the nose.

This year, I decided not to use wrapping paper for my gifts, in part to avoid waste and in part because I don't like wrapping. Since my mom was a teacher, we have an abundance of used gift bags. And for those that didn't fit in gift bags, I used Christmas pillowcases.

I was happy that we managed to get a small snowstorm yesterday, and there was just enough snow that I was able to take my niblings sledding. I like sledding too, but it's not fun all by myself, so I usually only go when they're here. We go to the Eaglewood golf course, which isn't technically allowed, but it's one of those unenforced rules. I found dozens of golf balls. Seeing them peek through the snow felt like finding Easter eggs. 

We have tried to do Christmas activities with my niblings, and they have participated somewhat, but they also are always eager to get back online to play games with their friends. But we want them to enjoy coming here, so we will take what we can get. One of our activities was making sugar cookies, because they wanted to, though they lost interest by the time the decorating came around.

Franklin (15) made the face. Preston (19) made the bicep.

These are the ones I decorated. I will never be on Holiday Baking Championship.

Of course, I love to do these Christmas activities while listening to my Christmas playlist. I was underwhelmed by the new Christmas offerings this year, and I thought that this obscure song by Greg Laswell was the best of the new 2023 Christmas songs. 

 

But then, a Christmas miracle happened! (And no, I'm not talking about the new Mat Kearney song, though that was a pleasant surprise.) You might know that I love the old sunshine pop band the Free Design. Back in 1968, they recorded a Christmas album with the United States Air Force with three original Christmas songs. Two of those songs, "Close Your Mouth (It's Christmas)" and "Christmas Is the Day," were rerecorded and released as singles. But the third, "Shepherds and Wisemen," never was, and the Air Force album has not been rereleased since it originally came out. Thanks to YouTube, I've heard "Shepherds and Wisemen" and loved it, but it was never an official release. But! This week, they released a new version of "Shepherds and Wisemen"! It has the original vocals with a new backing track.

 

There was a lot of fuss about the new Beatles song, "Now and Then," released last month. But for me, this is much more exciting—a "new" Free Design song finally released fifty-five years later! I know this is very niche, but it makes me so happy, and this is my blog, so I can geek out about weird things like that.

I'm soaking in the Christmas season, and I'm just enjoying it for what it is, not having unrealistic expectations about what it should be like. I thought about talking about some more serious things, but I decided to keep it lighthearted.

Merry Christmas!