It's my most favouritest time to blog!! {Advent Blog-Along #1}

Yep!! It's that time again. When I join Carrose Creations aka Car and do the annual Advent Blog Along.  I seriously love this! It takes a small amount of time out of the crazy-busy time of the approach of the end of the year and sit down and talk about the approaching "Big Day"

There is no secret that I just LOVE Christmas. I have NEVER been called a Grinch. I look forward to the shopping, baking, wrapping, decorating and everything that goes with it. So for the next 25 days you are going to see glimpses of how I prepare for Christmas and the things that I make and do for the people I love.

This year will be a bit different. Sure, there will be the old traditions, but there will also be new ones. My parents decided that for their own reasons, they were no longer celebrating Christmas at all. I was really upset about this and it took me a while to come to terms with it. Since I can remember, Christmas has always involved family. Grandparents, parents, brothers, sisters, cousins etc. I remember spending the morning/early afternoon at Nanna and Pops' place. Then on Boxing Day is was spent at Granny and Grandad's. There has always been people around and family to celebrate it with. But not this year.

I have always enjoyed preparing for Christmas with my Mum, doing the shopping, getting really excited about the day and all that. I loved cooking the Christmas feast knowing that my Dad would eat until he would nearly pop and rave about my cooking. This year will be the first that they won't be involved in the day. (And secretly I hope they are flippin miserable with their decision and change their minds! LOL) My brothers rarely spend Christmas day with us, their wives want to be with their own families - which is fair enough. So for a time it looked like it was going to be just us. The idea of spending Christmas alone seemed crazy!!

Then a dear friend of mine suggested that we spend Christmas together. One of her brothers doesn't speak to her and her other brother spends his day with his wife's family (similar situation to us) and she wasn't looking forward to the day either. What a fantastic idea!!! Spending it with people you actually like and want to spend time with, and want to spend time with you! So we are going to do that. We are sharing the cooking responsibility which is just awesome. She is bringing her mother in law, who only has one child. The more the merrier!! :)

As I have processed the lack of family for Christmas - I have decided that from next year onwards, if I know of a family who are family-less for Christmas Day, we will invite them to share the day with us. A new tradition has been born from the dissolving of an old one. But it still shines with one of the essences of Christmas: peace on earth, goodwill to all people.

And on that note.... and after this very long blog post, I am going to leave you with a picture of another tradition. For the last 8 years or so, we have taken a family photo and make Christmas cards with them. It's a simple design this year - but after the year that was, simplicity was a must.