We got sugar! 
So one of the sisters is baking peppernuts and the house smells so good. 
And my mom mixed up the dough for sugar cookies which we will be baking soon as well. We decided to send some cookies to the grandparents this year. 
SnowAngel
Christ is King.
Topic starter
Posted : December 15, 2023 12:08 pm
Sugar cookies batch #1 is gone, will have to make another batch next week to have a family cookie decorating party. Yesterday my sisters and I made three batches of cookies for Christmas Day, we baked two yesterday and the third was baked today. We made lemon spritz cookies, orange chocolate chip cookies, and double chocolate chip cookies. I still need to make at least two kinds of GF cookies for our Christmas cookie platter this week.
Christmas Eve lunch is going to be chili made with tomatoes from our garden, it's the perfect after church meal in the winter. Still need to pick a dessert for Christmas Eve, we're having the Christmas cookie platter on Christmas Day this year instead of Christmas Eve.
Prep for Christmas Day lunch is well under way. Meatballs and mashed potatoes are in the freezer, will go in the crockpots on Christmas morning. We'll have at least two kinds of BBQ sauce which are also in the freezer, a spinach salad, peaches (canned this summer), and bread.
Christmas is so close. 
SnowAngel
Christ is King.
Topic starter
Posted : December 20, 2023 8:02 pm
My Christmas is very different this year. I am acting in a show in England, and doing very few of the Christmassy things others are describing. Gift buying is limited to Secret Santa among the cast and crew. Christmas Dinner will be at the hotel where we are all staying. There is a church very close by, so I can attend services on Sunday and Christmas Day.
There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.
"...when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."
I'm dreaming of a brown Christmas...
Wait, that's not how the old song goes! 😉
Less than 72 hours to Christmas morning and it's raining outside...in a place known more for cold and white winters. Record high temperatures are expected Sunday and possibly Monday (Christmas Day).
It's definitely different driving around in the evening with Christmas music playing in the car and looking at lights without snow on the ground, but still enjoyable nevertheless.
(And it looks like a snowstorm is in the offing, just a few days late).
The Christmas shopping is done and the house smells like someone is baking gingerbread cookies (because someone is!)
(Break a leg, Auntie!)
But all night, Aslan and the Moon gazed upon each other with joyful and unblinking eyes.
Last night I rewatched Arthur Christmas which is one of my favorite Christmas movies and definitely one of my favorite modern ones. It's really fun and it's also one of the most emotional movies made by Aardman (they're the ones behind Wallace and Gromit), a studio specializing in comedies. (Their only one I can think of that's more emotional is Chicken Run and even that's a question mark.) It occurred to me that the 2008 Prince Caspian movie should have been more like Arthur Christmas, crazy as that sounds.
Spoiler
Big Arthur Christmas Spoilers-Sorry, No Way Around It
If the character of Caspian had been established at the beginning as a big fanboy of High King Peter/Old Narnia just as Arthur is established as a big fanboy of Santa Claus/Christmas, then it would have been really sad to see him be disappointed by his hero just as that is with Arthur, and it would have been heartwarming to see his faith by restored in him, after said hero was convicted/inspired by him to do better. Arthur Christmas also does a great job of making sure we sympathize with each Santa in the movie, past, present and future, while also showing their feet of clay, something the Prince Caspian movie struggled to do with Peter. I realize that if the 2008 PC had followed the Arthur Christmas template, it would still have been a big departure from the book, but I feel like it would be more emotionally compelling on its own terms (and I say that as someone who's a fan of the film.) As it is, the movie kind of feels like it's deconstructing and reconstructing something it hasn't actually constructed in the first place.
On a less depressing note, the movie reminds me of what 1 Corinthians describes God as doing in sending Jesus.
God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are
That's not what the filmmakers were thinking of when they made Arthur Christmas but it reminds me of that.
Tonight, if possible, I'm going to watch the 1984 movie, A Christmas Carol, another favorite of mine. The opening ("Old Marley was as dead as a doornail. This must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come of this story I am going to relate") gives me the chills every time.
For better or worse-for who knows what may unfold from a chrysalis?-hope was left behind.
-The God Beneath the Sea by Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen check out my new blog!
Does anyone here watch It’s A Wonderful Life during the holiday season? I am watching it again now. I rewatch that movie every year. It is one of the best Christmas movies I have ever seen. I have watched it many times and I never tire of it. Jimmy Stewart was such a great actor and that is one of his best films. I love it so much each time I watch it. The ending is so moving. The colorized version of the film is interesting, but the film may be better in its original black and white. 🙂
Posted : December 23, 2023 7:34 pm
Cleander liked
Does anyone here watch It’s A Wonderful Life during the holiday season?
Not yet this year, but it's still on the list to watch before Epiphany. We haven't watched very many Christmas movies this year. We did watch Fitzwilly, It Happened On 5th Avenue, and Battleground last week and A Christmas Carol (1938) this week.
In the past couple weeks I squeezed in reading One Shenandoah Winter by Davis Bunn and Pony Express Christmas by Sigmund Brouwer, first time in years I've read both books and I really enjoyed reading them both again.
Today the last Christmas presents were purchased and the final two batches of Christmas cookies were baked. We made six kinds of cookies for Christmas Day, two are GF. The last batch was a new gingerbread recipe and I'm very pleased with how they turned out.
Made a quick trip to a nearby bookstore and found a couple of Perry Mason novels to gift to Scarlet and that is definitely the end of the shopping for this Christmas. 
Tomorrow I'm planning to make coffeecake for Christmas morning, take the family picture with our Christmas Eve outfits, go to church, pull the prepped food from the freezer for Christmas Day, and play some games with the family.
SnowAngel
Christ is King.
Just briefly, before I go to church on Christmas Morning, Merry Christmas, to all of you! It is now 7.05 AM of 25th December in 2023. There are presents under the Christmas tree, and our youngest daughter will soon be joining us, for the Church service, at 8.30 AM.
Christmas Day has arrived in Australia! The morning is beautiful, neither too hot nor too cold. The rain has stopped, though it may return.
MERRY CHRISTMAS! 🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘🦘 🐨🐨🐨🐨🦄🐎🦢🐧🙆🌺🍁
Merry Christmas to my international Narniaweb family!
This morning I woke in a hotel room on the south coast of England, had breakfast with other guests, went to a nearby church (big family service, all-age), and am now relaxing before a big shared lunch at 1 pm, English style Christmas dinner, put on by the hotel. No snow, quite mild by the sea. Many people are wearing Christmas jumpers/sweaters, with funny or cute pictures, and many of them red or green.
There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.
"...when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."
Merry Christmas, NarniaWeb!
Yesterday (Christmas Eve) was the main celebration here this year. I was with Ryadian and her family, along with her niece and nephew. We had a nice Christmas dinner and went to the Christmas Eve service late in the afternoon. The candlelit "Silent Night" finish might be cliched at this point, but it gets me every time.
Upon exiting the church, we were met with rain! Rain in Minnesota in late December is almost inconceivable (but it was in the forecast, given yesterday's record high).
But all night, Aslan and the Moon gazed upon each other with joyful and unblinking eyes.
I enjoyed a nice family service in the nearby church, and found myself responding with wet-eyed emotion as we sang part of the final verse of O Come All Ye Faithful, a capella (without the accompaniment). It was the words, "Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing", which gave me a sudden mental picture of the baby who is God incarnate. He was there!
And He is still With Us.
There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.
"...when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."
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