It's Christmas Soon

At my house, we celebrate sort of a cross between Yule and Christmas, with aspects of Saturnalia thrown in.

I've already started my Yule ritual, which will finish up on the night of December 21 (the sun moves into Capricorn, and the official start of winter, at 1:30 am local time on December 22). I won't go into a lot of detail about my ritual, but just say that it's a very special thing to me.

I have some vacation days to use up, so I'm off work for the week of December 19 to 23, plus the weekend and stats, so I end up with 11 days off in a row. My husband is off for some of that as well, which will be nice... it's been a long time since we've had vacation time together. We're not going away, but will just spend the time at home together... lots of booze, music and movies will be involved, I suspect!

The tree will be put up on December 22, and I do quite a bit of decorating around the house as well. I try not to go overboard with the plastic-y things, and keep it more natural-looking... berries, pinecones, greenery, etc. I bake quite a bit as well, all the old traditional cookie recipes that my mother and grandmother always made. I'd like to try making a fruit-cake some time, but it's quite expensive to buy all the specialty ingredients, and neither my husband or I really like it, so it seems a bit silly to make it.

I've already got all my cards mailed, which is my least-favourite part of the holidays... my hand writing is terrible, so writing out cards is always a chore! Presents are all bought, although not wrapped yet... but wrapping is the easy part. My husband and I set a budget, so as not to go overboard on spending. I've stuck to it pretty well, while still finding a couple of treasures that I know he'll love. I'm not really focussed on what I'll get, although I have given him a rather extensive Alchemy wishlist... but I'm more interested in his reactions to the things I've got for him.

I do hope we have snow for Christmas... and that's the only time of year I would wish for that! We've had a green Christmas the last several years though, and this year doesn't look like it will be any different... but you never know, there are stil 2 weeks to go, so anything could happen.

We already have snow here. Not a lot but still enough to make it look like Winter. I'm sure there'll be snow for Christmas.

I love Christmas time! On vacation til after New Years. Gonna prepare all the rest of the week. Family coming over. Gonna be lots of food and partying all week long til sunday.

Stumbled across this on the net: www.deadlounge.com/xmas/gothicnight.html

firensia wrote:

Stumbled across this on the net: www.deadlounge.com/xmas/gothicnight.html

Awww! That's brilliant!

black_magnolia wrote:

firensia wrote:

Stumbled across this on the net: www.deadlounge.com/xmas/gothicnight.html

Awww! That's brilliant!

Love it!! I know quite a few who would appreciate this too..Hehe. ^.^