Sorry, but that always sings in my head when I’m cooking for Hanukkah dinner. We had it on Saturday, and it was a lovely gathering. Mmmm, brisket and latkes.
We celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas at our house, so there’s a little of everything going on. I haven’t had a big Christmas tree in several years. DH and the kids don’t care if we have one, so we don’t! I like my little music tree on top of the piano; I put up my favorite ornaments and I’m done. I guess I’m a minimalist at heart.
The stockings are up in their usual knitterly glory.
I like streamlining my decorating so I have more time for fun with friends and family, and for knitting. But not gift knitting; I abhor deadlines. That doesn’t mean there are no knitted gifts, just no gifts on deadline! The first knitted gift has gone out in the mail…(a Pippi hat, if you must know).
Yesterday I had a discussion group for new parents about keeping and making holiday traditions. I started with a story about CollegeGrad. He was 3 or 4 when we started talking about the Christmas story. One day he came to me, talking about how much he loved Little Baby Jesus. Yesss! He understood the Christmas story! Well, maybe yes, and maybe no. He was actually talking about little baby cheeses, which were one of his favorite things to eat. Indeed. I brought some of this cheese to class as a prop and a snack. Becky (fellow Day Old Pastry) decided she would use the wax wrappers to make a real Baby Cheeses creche.
The story has come full circle…
How’s your holiday preparation going?
PDXKnitterati 
“Baby Cheeses”! Too funny. Every morning when Daughter #1 and I drove to her day care, we would pass the St. Mary’s Retreat Center. There on the corner was Mary, holding Jesus. Every morning #1 would call out “Mewmew and cheeses!” I couldn’t figure out why she would talk about oatmeal and cheese at the corner every morning, even when we hadn’t had oatmeal for breakfast. (I have another story about “balloons” I’ll have to share later.)
And as far as the tree thing goes, would you get your DH to talk to my DH? I would appreciate a tree, but it just doesn’t have to be “Treezilla!”
Our tree is up, the stockings are hung with care. Now to analyze the budget for gifts. I just found something I want but it’s a little over the top! Now to figure what to do for Eric.
“Baby cheeses” remind me of my own Pretzel Jesus, who’s an ornament I made when I was, oh, maybe 5. It consists of half a pretzel, painted silver, with tissue paper stuck to the back, with eyes drawn on. It’s Pretzel Jesus. Somewhere along the way, I developed a tremendous attachment to Pretzel Jesus, and now he lives in his own little box inside the box of ornaments, to make sure he doesn’t get broken, and he goes on our tree, front and centre. And when we head over to my parents’ place for Christmas eve & day, he comes along, and if I have to move something to make sure he gets a good spot on their tree, so be it.
It’s just not Christmas until Pretzel Jesus comes out. Not too sure quite how that happened, but there it is.
The cheese story is a hoot! I also love the christmas stockings you made. I’ve been meaning to knit stockings for us for 4 years. Have the yarn, a pattern book and everything, just haven’t done it yet. 🙂
Just realized we will probably have to do a table tree this year because of puppies. Next year Tesla will be mobile. I guess it’s a good thing we have flexible traditions.
Lovely story and I love your musical Christmas tree too. Not decorated here yet. Still doing the pre-decoration cleaning. At the weekend we will head out as a family though, to go and cut our Christmas tree. It’s a tradition that we love and has created some hilarious photo ops over the years!
Beautiful. I am now going to have your post title in my head all day! 🙂
Happy Hanukkah!! Our Hanukkah is always so quiet as my parents are out of town this time of year and my mom’s the latke and brisket maker…I should really learn to cook something besides desserts!! LOL!!
I love all your holiday stockings!! 🙂
Decorating is nearly finished — the (artificial – boo) tree is up, and nearly done being decorated. I just have the “filler” balls/ornaments to put waaaay deep inside and on the window side. LOVE the term Treezilla! And then to put the stockings up, esp. since I forgot them last year. But today, the baking starts! 🙂 I meet with a lovely group of people on Fridays for Hardanger embroidery, at a Scandinavian gift shop, so I’m making Pepperkakor (Swedish spice cookies) to share this year. And must send out holiday cards/letters this year — it’s been an awfully long while since the extended family has gotten an update. And for all of that, since we don’t exchange a lot of presents, I still feel slightly ahead this year. 🙂 Happy Hanukkah and Christmas!
Because DS has finals until Dec. 23rd and DD is at college 800 miles away, we’re not doing Hanukkah until Dec. 26! It felt weird during the actual days, but I can’t imagine doing it without kids! (Even grown-up ones!)
Decorating is nearly finished — the (artificial – boo) tree is up, and nearly done being decorated. I just have the “filler” balls/ornaments to put waaaay deep inside and on the window side. LOVE the term Treezilla! And then to put the stockings up, esp. since I forgot them last year. But today, the baking starts! 🙂 I meet with a lovely group of people on Fridays for Hardanger embroidery, at a Scandinavian gift shop, so I’m making Pepperkakor (Swedish spice cookies) to share this year. And must send out holiday cards/letters this year — it’s been an awfully long while since the extended family has gotten an update. And for all of that, since we don’t exchange a lot of presents, I still feel slightly ahead this year. 🙂 Happy Hanukkah and Christmas!