Happy Friday! Earlier this week I was wishing for a white Christmas and it looks like all this snow may just stay around long enough for that to happen. Fingers crossed! I know there are so many people out there who don’t get snow at Christmas, but I just can’t picture the holidays without it. Of course there have been years that we didn’t get it, but there is something about all that white fluffy stuff that makes us want to huddle up with family indoors and celebrate!
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Can you believe there are only 12 days until Christmas?!? I feel like the last two weeks just happened in the blink of an eye. I’m trying to be more mindful of stopping to enjoy all the celebrations of this season and focus on being in the present. It’s so easy to get thinking about the next thing that’s coming up or the next thing I need to do, when there are so many good things happening NOW.
Last Saturday, Garrett and I went to the Main Street Christmas events in Schomberg. I drove through the town in the fall and loved it, so when we heard about all the festive activities they had lined up, we thought we’d stop by. This is the same house that I commented on how nice it was decorated for Halloween…and I’m glad to see they put up some lights and garlands for Christmas too. It seemed like just about every house in their downtown area was all dressed up!
We went to the craft market, sipped on hot peppermint tea and popped into a few of the shops on Main Street. The streets were backed with people everywhere and there was music live music playing all along the way.
They even had big fires in metal drums, to huddle around to keep warm while we waited for the parade.
The parade put on by the local farmers is all farming equipment covered in lights and displays.
Have you ever seen a John Deere in lights like this?
Complete with a plastic cow in the back!
It was a great evening that really got us in the Christmas spirit and I’d love to go back again next year.
After the parade we drove into downtown Toronto for our friend’s birthday party at SPIN. Have you heard of this place? It’s a bar with ping pong tables! We had such a blast. Of course we didn’t play the official ping pong rules (we had to google the basics, ha), but it was just fun seeing how many balls we could whack at each other. If you’re looking for a fun event with friends, put together a ping pong tournament with friends!
A trip into the city wouldn’t be complete without a late night stop at Krispy Kreme. We grabbed a box to share with friends and family. The snowman ones were my favourite : )
After our trip to Black Creek Pioneer Village on Sunday, we headed over to my parents’ place for a lovely Sunday night dinner and to trim the tree together.
Mom dug out all our favourite old Christmas records. I can remember her playing this one ALL THE TIME when I was a wee little thing. As soon as it started playing, it brought back memories of great childhood Christmases.
We also dug out my mom’s favourite childhood record. She can remember the year her aunt bought it and playing it over and over.
Garrett had fun playing around with the record player. As great as CDs and iPods are, there is something to be said for putting a record on.
Mom pulled out all the stops for our first dinner all home together since October. The whole house smelled like roast turkey when we got there, and she’d made homemade stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and mac & cheese….and she sent us home with leftovers!
…but very quickly he wasn’t having such a great time. We took him back inside, dried him off and bundled him up. This morning I could barely keep him outside long enough to do his business. It’s only been two days and he is already wishing for warmer weather I’m sure (me too, buddy!)
The one great thing about all this snow – it makes everything look so pretty. We grabbed hot chocolate and tea last night, and took a drive around town to look at the lights. They were glowing under all the snow and made the houses look so magical. This picture doesn’t even do this house justice. It was just mesmerizing in real life. Someday I want to have that house on the street – the one that makes people stop and feel the magic of Christmastime.
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I hope you all have a lovely weekend! I’ll be putting on my Christmas Simmer again later tonight and finishing up the Christmas cards. I just need think of a good movie to watch while I do it. Maybe White Christmas (seems appropriate today) or Holiday Inn?
So much Christmas happiness! I love it!