Five Blondes » Christmas

Merry Christmas to my favourite sisters!

Micaela — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:23:19 +0000

A Christmas Survey

Kate — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:18:44 +0000

A little nap time blogging for your enjoyment.

Mic just posted this survey, which Lauren completed 2 years ago. Since I finally have some down time with 2 kids sleeping I’m going to give it a go, and waste precious nap time.

1)Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I love Hot Chocolate (especially specialty kinds like Rolo hot chocolate and white hot chocolate)

2)Does Santa Wrap Presents or Just Sit Them Under The Tree? They are wrapped (unless they are oversized), but the presents in the stockings are not wrapped.

3)Colored Lights or White Lights. We have warm white on the tree and cool white (look blueish) outside. I think multi-coloured are really pretty as well though, as long as they are perfect multi-coloured.

4)Do you hang Mistletoe? Nope.

5)When Do You Put Your Christmas Decorations Up? End of November, whenever my Christmas spirit starts to kick in.

6) What is Your Favorite Holiday Dish? Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes (with Oma’s gravy, although since we normally make it now I guess I can’t call it that anymore) and ceaser salad. 7) Favorite Holiday Memory as a Child. Running downstairs to open our stockings and looking at all the presents wrapped under the tree and wondering what they are! I also remember taking things from our stockings and going to show mom and dad. 8)When and How Did You Learn The Truth About Santa? Like Mic, I really don’t remember.

9) Do You Open a Gift on Christmas Eve? We used to open our sister gifts on Christmas eve, but this year we are doing that on boxing day. We have one side of the family Christmas on Christmas eve and we have a Christmas exchange at it.

10)How Do You Decorate Your Christmas Tree? First lights, Second any ribbon or garlands, third everything else. I keep the nice ornaments at the top away from Hailey’s hands. Good thing too because she decided she loves to take off ornaments and throw them behind the tv stand. I have no clue where she got that crazy idea.

11)Snow! Love it or Dread it? Oh my goodness love it. But hate driving in it.

12)Can You Ice Skate? Yup, not too hot at stopping though.

13)Do You Remember Your Favorite Gift? My engagement ring! But that shouldn’t count as a Christmas present since any other time of the year it would just be an engagement present. So I guess I totally got jipped that year and all I got was a picture frame. I remember getting skiis and lessons when we were young, I loved that gift because it got us addicted to the ski hill!

14)What’s The Most Important Thing About The Holidays For You? Getting to see my family.

15)What is Your Favorite Holiday Dessert? I love any and all holiday desserts.

16)What is Your Favorite Holiday Tradition? Parades, Christmas mass, singing Christmas carols, watching Christmas specials on tv, new Christmas outfits and now getting to come up with my own holiday tradition for my family.

17) What Tops Your tree? Nothing, because I can’t find a star I like enough to put up there.

18) Which Do You Prefer: Giving or Receiving? I like giving them, especially when I know they will love the gift.

19)What is Your Favorite Christmas Song? O Holy Night

20)Candy Canes…good or bad? Good!

21)Favorite Christmas Show? Elf. So funny!

22) Saddest Christmas Song? Christmas Shoes.

Christmas 2010

Christmas Bags

Kate — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:45:29 +0000

My mom is the craftiest person I know. Other then making us 5 beautiful girls, she sews the most beautiful things (she made our wedding dresses, in case you didn’t know) and sends me home with new clothes that she made for the girls all the time. I’ve always wanted to follow in her footsteps by creating things, but often fail to come up the measure I want to be at.

I told Mic a few weeks ago that she’s becoming mom, she has a cute craft nook in her house and her house is filled with pieces of her. Now it seems I should also strive to be Mic.

I’m trying my darnedest, in the little time that I have for myself, when I get a break from being the mom to the cutest girls ever, to be crafty.

For Christmas we always received our presents in Christmas fabric bags. Mom made the bags and I always thought it was much nicer then wrapping paper, not to mention MUCH less waste (ie. like none). So a few years ago mom picked up some Christmas fabric for me and it sat with my craft stuff, waiting and waiting.

Two days ago I lugged my heavy sewing machine up out of the basement and started sewing. It’s not really hard to sew a bag. Sew a hem at the top and sew up both sides and you are done, but I’m pretty proud of them! I’ll probably need more, and it’s hard to judge what sizes you will need, but for now I think these will do.
The fabric:

Pretty velvet ribbon I found to tie up the bags:

One present all wrapped and ready to be given:

Step 1 on my way to be crafty = CHECK!

Christmas season has arrived

Kate — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 00:39:49 +0000

This morning I took advantage of Hailey’s nap time (1 hour that goes way too fast) and put up and decorated our Christmas tree. We decided to put it up in the same spot that my grandparents put the tree when they lived here, a nice bay window in the living room (the room we never use or the cat’s lair). Putting the tree in the living room keeps Hailey out of trouble so there is no chance of her pulling the tree down/all the ornaments down but we can still see it while we have our family in the family room. One negative is the cats have full rein over the tree.

One thing I love about putting up the Christmas tree is remembering all the special ornaments I have gathered over the years. Most years my Oma sews ornaments for each grandchild as keepsakes, my aunts like to give different ornaments for Christmas each year, and I love the special dated ornaments that mark years.

2005- A personalized Christmas ornament from Oma.

2007- Our first married Christmas

2009- Pregnant with Hailey

I think we got this ornament last year from the aunts. We also have gotten other ones like skates, silver skiiers, knitted mini sweaters, and a pretty red bird.

Growing up we were given silver ornaments with our name and year engraved on it. I think this would be a great tradition to continue with Hailey. Now I just need to find where to get them, possibly an engraving store. The ones we got were similar to the snowman one I found with google. Hey mom, where did you find them?

Do you collect meaningful ornaments?

Warm Feet

Lauren — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:57:00 +0000

Yesterdays post was about warm hands, so I’m going to make this one about warm feet! You might remember last year I was having a dilemma about which winter boots to buy. Funnily enough, that post was called Cold Feet, and it is very fitting that this post is called warm feet, because since buying my boots my feet have been toasty warm!

I ended up getting these Mephistos in black. Although they kind of look like a sleeping bag, my feet have never looked smaller (well, as small as a size 11 can look), and have never been warmer in the snow and slush. They fit like a comfortable running shoe, because that is what they used to be. Mephisto’s Allrounder running shoe was so popular, they decided to add onto it and make it a boot. Best decision they ever made.

This year for christmas I decided that I wanted nice leather boots, that were also waterproof and comfortable. The search started, and I started to get irritated. If the foot fit, my calf was too big for the boot. If all I needed was one size up and they didn’t have it, my calf fit perfectly. I have size 11 feet with larger than normal sized calves, which doesn’t translate well to buying a nice pair of boots in Rideau Centre. On Monday I decided that I was going to buy boots that day, and went into a store I wouldn’t regularly go into- Aerosoles. I’d never even gone in that store before, but my first time in there I found the perfect boot. They had size 10 AND 11, and these boots have a calf extension zipper. And you know what? The circumference around the calf is so large without it, I don’t even need it! It is nice if I am wearing a pair of pants that don’t tuck in with it zipped normally though. So to sum all of this up. I love my boots!

Kate and Hailey are coming to Ottawa this weekend with 2 of our aunts and I couldn’t be more excited to see them and show them Ottawa! Kate hasn’t been to visit since I’ve been in school here, and I think that a visit with Hailey is the best way to make the first visit memorable.

Merry Christmas

Leah — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:40:29 +0000

Merry Christmas everybody! I filmed a Christmas vlog, because it was 7:00am, I was all alone, and had nothing better to do. If it does not work below, then go to my (new) youTube user page and watch the video from there.

Blog Swap: The Spirit of Christmas

Leah — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 06:04:17 +0000

I chose to participate in another creative writing blog swap. For full details see Pam’s blog. I was fortunately paired up with a great friend of mine, Mich. (It was her birthday yesterday! We went out on Saturday and had a blast.)

I did this previously in September and was paired with Dutch Being Me – see her post here and my poem here. Thanks for hanging out with the Blondes today, Mich!

What is the spirit of Christmas?

It’s not something you can buy at a store. Or put in a box under the tree with a pretty bow on it. It’s not something you put on your plate. And it’s not something you say.

Its something you feel.

It’s how you feel when you hug the ones you love and say “Merry Christmas”.

It’s how you feel when you are writing a Christmas card to those in places far away from you, wondering when they will open it and imagining the smile on their face when they do.

It’s the magical feeling you get when you see the giant Christmas tree lit up at the mall, covered in lights and shiny ornaments.

It’s the feeling you get when you hear your favorite Christmas song, and hum along to it.

It’s the fresh snow on the ground and watching the twinkling lights reflect off the snowflakes on the trees.

It’s decorating the tree and pulling out your favorite ornaments from when you were a child, and remembering….

It’s shoveling the walk, with a nose that is rosy from the cold, knowing that family and friends are on their way to visit.

For me, its hearing my grandmother sing “We wish you a merry Christmas” every year in her German accent, and laughing as she makes a brooch or a hat out of the bows and ribbons instead of opening her gifts.

For me it’s the drive home from my grandparent’s house on Christmas Eve, stuffed full from the turkey dinner and chocolates, staring out the window, watching the lights, singing to the Christmas songs on the radio.

For me, it’s the magic.

Nationals Part 2

Lauren — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:53:41 +0000

1 Exam down, 4 more to go, and 1 essay to edit before I’m home in 10 days! I promised more pictures from Nationals, so here goes! I thought there was a professional photographer, so I was going to wait for those pictures to come out, but it turns out that there wasn’t one, so I’ll put up some of Kate’s pictures!

Me and my driving partners for the weekend Erika and Elisa. These girls saw me at my worst those couple of days.

Me and mom!

Part of the team at awards

One of our pyramids

haha the BEST part of our dance!

First partner stunt

The pyramid from Katelyn’s view

The second pyramid!

My side of the pyramid

Part of my large entourage. Erica, Katelyn, Oma and me!

First partner stunt again!

The first pyramid with all of our awesome tumblers!

Aand our dance again!

That’s it for the Nationals pictures for now! Back to watching my Christmas movies- first The Santa Clause 2, and now Christmas With The Kranks! Yep, tons of Tim Allen on my TV tonight!

Christmas Christmas Christmas!

Lauren — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:10:12 +0000

This time of year always makes me the most antsy. This time of year obviously being EXAMS! This year the exam season brings many things: Cheerleading Nationals, the end of cheerleading season, snow (!!), Christmas music in stores, seeing all my cheer friends around school 24/7, because now that Nationals are over we all have to start studying again, going home for Christmas, and my most favourite thing about this season- going home to see family! This year it also brings packing my things up and moving to a different place, which was decided a couple of days ago, and we’ve (Kaylee and I) started looking for places asap, just to get out of all this sketchiness and drama.

I got this Christmas survey from Rachel, who is also going through a move of her own right now, and you can read all about her funny moving stories at her blog (which include losing a dresser along the way? haha)

1)Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate definitely! I don’t like the sound of Egg Nog. Plus I am in love with white hot chocolate!

2)Does Santa Wrap Presents or Just Sit Them Under The Tree? Wrapped! Well..kind of. He puts our presents in homemade bags that we’ve been using for years and years.

3)Colored Lights or White Lights. White! But last year we had 2 different sets of lights on our tree, so the top half was white, and the bottom half was off white…

4)Do you hang Mistletoe? Not that I know of

5)When Do You Put Your Christmas Decorations Up? I haven’t been home to put up decorations in years, but as far as I remember around the beginning of December? Or, you know, whenever mom has time, and whenever a daughter is there to help!

6) What is Your Favorite Holiday Dish? hmm…I don’t think we quite have specific dishes that we eat on Christmas. But at Oma Close’s house we usually have turkey, mashed potatoes and caesar salad, and I like gravy over everything, even my salad Mix it all together and it’s even better!

7) Favorite Holiday Memory as a Child. When mom or dad got a new lazy boy recliner, and it was just put in the family room, and dad was sitting in the family room all morning and didn’t notice it was there. And another one, One year mom and dad made us go to church BEFORE opening presents, so every time someone asked us what we got for Christmas we would sadly say “I don’t know”. Cruel, cruel parents, haha.

8)When and How Did You Learn The Truth About Santa? I don’t remember at all…probably wasn’t that traumatic.

9) Do You Open a Gift on Christmas Eve? Usually on Christmas Eve we go to Oma Far’s house and open presents with all of our cousins there, then go to midnight mass with them.

10)How Do You Decorate Your Christmas Tree? We recently started using a fake (the horror!) Christmas tree, and we put up the lights as we put the tree together, then put every ornament we can find on it! Especially the ones from when we were kids.

11)Snow! Love it or Dread it? Seriously? This isn’t even a question for me. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

12)Can You Ice Skate? Of course! I DO live in Ottawa, and we have the Rideau Canal!

13)Do You Remember Your Favorite Gift? Nope, they are all great!

14)What’s The Most Important Thing About The Holidays For You? Getting to see family and spend time at home!

15)What is Your Favorite Holiday Dessert? Pavlova…? Not necessarily a “holiday dessert”, but still an awesome dessert.

16)What is Your Favorite Holiday Tradition? Waking up super early, even though I might be the only blonde at home, I’ll still go downstairs early and open my stocking.

17) What Tops Your tree? An angel that connects to the lights and lights up!

18) Which Do You Prefer: Giving or Receiving? I get so excited when people are opening my presents! I just eek so much!

19)What is Your Favorite Christmas Song? I don’t really have a favourite, but I love Christmas songs that celebrities sing, and they usually stay on my Ipod year round.

20)Candy Canes…good or bad? amazing.

21)Favorite Christmas Show? the. the. the. THE GRINCH! I watched it on tv Monday night!

22) Saddest Christmas Song? Silent night

Christmas Spirit

Kate — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:27:15 +0000

Christmas is only 32 days away! Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?

I started my shopping on Saturday, and I have every intention of getting all my shopping done early this year (like that will really happen…). I know what I am going to get for a few people, it’s just a matter of going out and getting it, but since the stores are so busy already it makes me dread going. I’m planning a trip to the One of a Kind Show and Sale in Toronto next weekend. I don’t know how much I’ll get there, because items are usually pretty pricey at events like that, and I’m mostly just hoping to get myself more into the Christmas spirit and maybe get a gift idea for the people on my list who are hard to buy for.

Christmas decorating has begun in my house. I took down my Happy Halloween banner from the fireplace and put up the new one I made reading Merry Christmas. Next will be the tree and garlands. I have plans to decorate outside the house as well this year, but we’ll see if it happens. I took the photo below on November 22nd 2008, so I’m behind where I was last year!

This year I’m also sending out Christmas cards! I still have the same box that I bought about 4 years ago, which were the prettiest cards ever, and this year I found some that are similar so I bought those as well. I spent Saturday writing Christmas cards and eating candy canes.

I figure since Christmas seems to arrive and leave so quickly it doesn’t hurt to start decorating or shopping early (not that it’s really that early anymore, being only 32 days away!)