Ash+Christmas=Love

Hello internet ether! Guess what? I exist again! So, its been rather a long time since I've posted, I recognize. This is due to a number of factors. They are as follows:

1. Work has been too busy to spend half an hour writing a blog post in the middle of the day (yeah, I do that sometimes).
2. Since I've moved into a new place with roommates (hooray!) I no longer feel the need to sit alone in my room and write. I have actual real live friends to hang out with every night!
3. I've been crocheting up a STORM with the impending winter and Christmas season.
4. I haven't had any batteries in my camera to take pictures of the awesome stuff I've made recently. And there's been lots!

Oh, which brings me to my reason for posting today: Christmas! I really love Christmas. I completely blame my parents, though my grandparents were definitely co-conspirators in the creation of my Christmas addiction. Its just such a happy/pretty/loving time of year. I'm not even a religious person, I just love everything about it. Ok! Its list time again! Here are my

favourite things about Christmas:

10. The smell of clementines. Mmmm... I love how

in November or so, people start buying boxes of

clementines, and bringing them into work, and they

just smell SO good when you peel one open. I also am very fond of trying to keep the peels all in one piece like my sis and I used to do when we were kids.

9. Kids in snowsuits. Man, I just love how kids look in snowsuits. They are just so ready for fun and excitement! They know what's going on. I also love that they can't really put their arms down completely. Its pretty funny. I frequently wis

h I had snow pants on so I could just bust out a random snow angel on the way home from work. Just sayin'. Perhaps I'm also just reminded of Ralphie in a Christmas story l... 'I can't put my arms down!!!!' Classic.

8. This segues quite nicely to Christmas movies! I adore a good Christmas movie. Its important to recognize, of course, that not all Christmas movies are created equal. You've got your classic Christmas, 'Its a Wonderful Life, and 'A Miracle on 34th St.', Then, there are the Christmas cartoons, Rudolph, Frosty, a Charlie Brown Christmas, and Polar Express. There is a special category for Christmas comedies, of which the ultimate #1 best is certainly 'Elf,' but National La

mpoon and A Christmas story get honourable mention for being classics. And of course, my favourite Christmas movie of all time, a special shout out to the 'Muppet's Christmas Carol'. When they sing 'It Feels Like Christmas...' my heart sings too. Incidentally, this was also my late grandpa's favourite movie ever. He had good taste.

7. The Christmas Miracle. Anyone who's ever watched 'The Days of Our Lives', know that Christmas is a special time for miracles! Magical things happen at Christmas. I recently

lost my brand new iPhone, and a random person found it on the street and returned it to me! She used my sim card to track me down and called my service provider who gave her my email address. Crazy. That is a Christmas miracle. But, there are better ones too! Chloe singing on Days and waking up her mom was pretty awesome! Ooh, and when it snowed in Sunnydale, so the sun couldn't rise and Angel couldn't kill himself, and Buffy and Angel could spend Christmas morning together hand in hand in the streets full of fake snow. Does anyone else ever wonder how fake snow on TV shows and movies looks so OBVIOUSLY fake? Aren't effects better than that these days?

Freshly fallen snow doesn't look like that. But it sure was a great Christmas episode!

6. This brings me to... Christmas TV episodes! I love a nice Christmas special, and there have been a few standouts in my mind over the years. The above Buffy ep is pretty great (and also introduces the first

storyline WAY back in season 3 which is only there for one ep and then becomes the main story for season 7. Brilliant. Gotta love Joss.) A wicked ep was on the super cheese show Roswell, when Max saved ALL the kids in the cancer ward because he was being haunted by the spirit of a man he killed. I also love 'Laurelai's sense of Snow' on the Gilmore Girls, when Luke has to help Laurelai reconcile with snow... But, my VERY favourite Christmas episode is the 'My So Called Life' Christmas ep, when Ricky was being abused *so sad* and Angela befriends a homeless girl who turns out to be an angel. SO SO SO great! I think I'll watch it tonight!!!!

5. Christmas Music! Man I love Christmas songs! I love singing them, I love hearing them in the mall, I love having them on my iPod accompanying me to work! I love the classic Christmas carols, like O Holy Night, Silent Night, Little Town of Bethlehem, Angels we Have Heard on High, and so many more... But, I also adore the Christmas cheese like 'Do They Know Its Christmas Time', and 'Last Christmas', which was recently voted the worst Christmas song of all time. I love it all. Every Christmas, my extended family used to get tog

ether and sing carols. Eventually this just became the 12 days of Christmas. In recent years we haven't sung at all. Maybe I'll rectify that this year!

4. Christmas traditions. I am known in my family as the Christmas traditionalist. I love the little traditions that go along with the big ones. In my family we always play 'Sesame Street Christmas' on the turntable (pretty much the only day of the year the turntable gets used), when we decorate the tree. I love that. I love that Michelle, Grandma and I always break the bread for the stuffing right after presents. I love that we open Pyjamas every Christmas eve, so that we can wear our new PJs for the pictures the next day. I love all the small rituals that make the whole.

3. Snow and twinkle lights/snow falling in the streetlight. I know I know its terrible to travel in, but snow is just SOOOO pretty. I really love it. I love when it falls, and I can see it coming down so peacefully in the streetlight. I love when people put twinkle lights on their trees or bushes,

and then snow falls on top of it, and it makes a little lit upsnow-dome. I love snow. It makes me happy, peaceful, and feels like magic. For me, the first day the snow stays on the ground is the official first day of Christmas. I'll never forget the first day of Christmas in first year, where we took the screen out of the window, and the snow fell into the room, and we sang Christmas carols with people who could actually sing in harmony. SO pretty.

2. Turkey dinner. You only ever are going to make turkey dinner when you're feeding a ton

of people. Its elaborate and delicious, and happens pretty much just twice a year. If you're doing a turkey dinner, it takes a whole day of preparations and effort. Everyone loves it, and everyone comes together for it. I've done turkey dinner for thanksgiving several times, but always as potluck. This was the first year I did the whole dinner myself. GO me! It was for my Christmas kick off tree decorating party, and every part of that was awesome.

And the number 1 reason I love Christmas...

1. Love. Christmas is all about love and generosity. Its about generosity to strangers and loved ones as well. People are more charitable, more forgiving, more willing to express how they feel about each other. My family always gets a little tipsy at Christmas which leads to 45 toasts about how much we all love each other. I love searching for the perfect gift for someone, and seeing them open it on Christmas morning. I loved all the Christmas stories that were read to us with love, and that when my grandfather could no longer see well, I read to him. I love the solidity of family at Christmas, and the knowledge that even when we're apart, we're together in our hearts. There is truly nothing better.

Merry Christmas, everyone! XOXO