These are a few of my favorite (Christmas) things

This month I’m joining Kim and Tanya of Girlxoxo.com for their annual event A Month of Faves, at least for a few topics. Earlier this month, I posted “My End of Year Bookish Plans.” Earlier this week, I posted “These are a few of my favorite moments in 2020“ and “These are a few of my favorite things (at home) in 2020.” To learn more about the event, visit Kim and Tanya’s introductory post on the event.

Today’s topic is “Favorite Things [Holiday Edition]⁠
(Treats, Traditions, Books, Movies, Songs, Decorations, Activities, etc).” No treats really or decorations either for my wife Kim and me, thanks to one old cat, but we have got movies!

Our Christmas will begin this year on the eve of Christmas Eve after I get off work at the library at 6 p.m. We plan on watching two of our favorite Christmas movies, Christmas Vacation and Elf. We own both after discovering a few years ago streaming services never have Christmas movies available around Christmas.

We decided this past weekend that this year we’re having our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. Here’s what is planned so far:

That way, we can have leftovers Christmas Day.

On Christmas Eve, we’ll watch my favorite Christmas movie Diehard, which yes is a Christmas movie as science proves it.

Then sometime on Christmas Day, we’ll watch my wife’s favorite Christmas movie, and also my favorite version of A Christmas Carol too, the 1951 version with Alistair Sim.

I also have a Christmas tradition of listening to A Child’s Christmas in Wales as read by its author Dylan Thomas. So I’m sure I’ll do that again on Christmas itself too.

While we are not getting together with family in person, we are planning to get together with each side of our families virtually in one fashion or another. For my wife’s side of the family, that probably will entail Zoom; for my side of the family, Google Hangouts.

Last year on Christmas via Hangouts, Kim and I were able to hear my mother read the story of the birth of Jesus as recounted in the Book of Luke, Chapter 2. It is a tradition for one of my parents to read it every year before Christmas gift-giving for us to remember “the reason for the season” and we will look forward to hearing it again this year as read by one of them.

What are some of your favorite holiday treats, traditions, books, movies, songs, decorations, and/or activities?

Spending the Holidays with Mr. Potter

No, not that Mr. Potter.

My wife hates that movie.

And I’m not a huge fan either, for the record.

I mean this Mr. Potter:

On Black Friday, we picked up all eight Harry Potter movies for an offer we couldn’t refuse and we are going to rewatch them all from Christmas through New Year’s. We’ll end New Year’s Eve with the seventh movie and start 2020 with the eighth movie.

On Christmas Eve, we also will be watching my wife’s favorite Christmas movie, A Christmas Carol, the 1951 version with Alastair Sim.

Then I’ll watch my favorite Christmas movie, Die Hard, as my wife gets ready to work midnight to 8 p.m. Christmas Day and won’t be able to watch it all.

She is off the rest of the day, so later that evening, after our Christmas dinner, we’ll begin our Harry Potter marathon.

**Don’t you know we’re riding on the** **~~Marrakesh~~** **Hogwarts Express.**

So for those of you who celebrate Christmas and/or Hanukkah and/or New Year’s this time of year, what are YOU doing for the holidays?

All this month, I’ve been joining Tanya & Kimberly at Girlxoxo and Tamara at Traveling with T for their annual #AMonthofFaves blog event – a fun way to recap the year that was. Today’s topic is This is How We Holiday. To see the entire list of topics, visit #AMonthofFaves 2019 [Blog Event] Announcement.

#AMonthofFaves 2018: How We Holiday

Again today, I’m joining hosts Girlxoxo, Traveling with T and Estella’s Revenge for their annual #AMonthofFaves blog event – “a fun way to recap the year that was” with “every day of the event (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) planned out” and a link-up on all their blogs. Today’s topic is…

How We Holiday

Yep, it’s like that.

Well, minus the chicken and collard greens, rice and stuffing, macaroni and cheese…and no yule log or busting Christmas carols.

So yeah, nothing like that.

We do drink egg nog, not under mistletoe, though.

The prompt for today’s theme was “Rep your home’s holiday look, share pictures of your holiday decorations. Christmas tree, your favorite holiday traditions, holiday festivities, favorite ornaments, places to go, holiday drinks, holiday eats, holiday themed reads.”

Home’s holiday look, pictures of holiday’s decorations

My wife and I don’t do any of those, because of…well…cats. Really, one of our cats, Seamus, and the fact that we live in a small house so not a lot of room anyway. I usually take pictures of my father’s Christmas decorations at his and my mom’s house. He always does an amazing job.

Favorite holiday traditions

We watch a few Christmas movies regularly each year, including National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim as Scrooge.

Holiday festivities, favorite ornaments, places to go

This is all related to one place: my parents,’ where I get to see my childhood Christmas ornaments that my dad has placed on the tree. Depending on the year and my wife’s schedule (she is a 911 dispatcher and works midnight shifts), we both go over to spend Christmas with my parents, my sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and niece. Or I go by myself. This year, my wife is off for Christmas so we’ll go over to their house (about 60 miles away)on Christmas Day.

So if you celebrate any of the upcoming holidays, how do you holiday?

Joining in for #AMonthofFaves for December 2018

Starting tomorrow, I’m joining hosts Girlxoxo, Traveling with T and Estella’s Revenge for their annual #AMonthofFaves blog event – “a fun way to recap the year that was” with “every day of the event (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) planned out” and a link-up on all their blogs. Here are the days and topics:

MON. | Dec. 3 – #AMonthofFaves [The 2018 Favorites Edition]
WED. | Dec. 5 – #AMonthofFaves Popular Books Worth the Hype
FRI. Dec 7 – #AMonthofFaves [The Blogger Love Edition]
MON. Dec. 10 – A Day (or Weekend) in the Life
WED. | Dec 12 – #AMonthofFaves Routines, Habits and Changes. What Worked this Year and/or What Didn’t
Fri. | Dec. 14 – #AMonthofFaves On Our Holiday Wishlist
Mon. | Dec 17 – #AMonthofFaves Winter Reading
WED. Dec. 19 #AMOnthofFaves This is How We Holiday
FRI. Dec 21 – #AMonthofFaves On the Screen
MON. | Dec. 24 – #AMonthofFaves Challenges and Goals
WED. | Dec. 26 – Favorite Book Covers From Our Reads This Year #AMonthofFaves
FRI. | Dec. 28 – #AMonthofFaves This Is How We Read and Blogged This Year
Mon. | Dec. 31 – Favorite Books Read This Year #AMonthofFaves

Today, I planning on starting drafts for each since I already have ideas for many of the topics.

As for what I did this past week and last month, and what I have planned for this month in addition to this event, see my previous post Pushing Forward Back November/December 2018.

How was your past week? Your past month? Read, listened to, watched anything good?