Sunday, December 5, 2010

It's my Birthday - but Christmas is just around the corner.

As I sit and write this at 2am in the morning - it's my birthday. But what really gets me thinking on my birthday is how close Christmas is.

Here in Australia, we have Christmas in summer (same time of the year – just reversed season due to being in the southern hemisphere. I’ve never known a truly cold Christmas let alone one with snow. It would be nice to experience that one day.

Right now this is a busy time of the year for most, especially for a writer. We are short in time at the best of times, but Christmas just adds another level of things to do. So today I am going to be lazy and post a couple of fun things.



And for something that really rocks.



What is your favorite thing about the holidays? What is your best memory of Christmas?

15 comments:

Claire Dawn said...

Happy Birthday!

December ROCKS!

Tegan said...

Happy Birthday!

Best part of christmas is the lights.

Also my birthday is in december too, little closer to christmas, so my favorite part is all the family you see on christmas, My Birthday is on the 17th (week before christmas eve) so we have partys for my birthday until christmas eve. and then christmas-eve eve, christmas eve christmas day, boxing day, brake then we do stalkings, 31st. then its new years eve and we party.

So family and friends, best part of the season.

Buffy said...

Happy Birthday!!

Every year (even now when my sister and I are grown) my family decorates the tree together. Mom puts the hooks on the ornaments and hands them to us. Dad helps but mostly we all just talk and laugh. Peppermint hot cocoa has become a recent but well loved addition to our evening. It's one of my favorite parts of the holiday, the other being the tacky lights tour.

We pick a night close to Christmas so we know everyone has put up their lights and we drive for 2 hours or so. We go to the best and richest neighborhoods to ooh and ahh over the pretty tasteful lights and then we go to the not to fancy places. This is where the tacky lights come in. Driving around and making fun of peoples houses for a few hours will help you lose some calories. I mean, have you seen the houses that decorate all of their roof with colored lights, until they ran out and were one strand short so they use white? You wonder why they couldn't spend the $2.50 on a colored one to match. It's terrible to laugh at but good times. Another part of this is when you are laughing at other people and their decorations, you can't fight or talk about recent going ons, politics, etc. You may bring up stories of what you did when for Christmas when you were with friends or reminisce about the houses you saw years ago. It's the little things, really.

Unknown said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACEY!
Wishing you all the best,
Rob
xoxo

Patricia JL said...

Wow, I'm not sure what to think about those two videos. Anyways, Have a happy birthday with lots of cake!

Melissa (Books and Things) said...

Happy Birthday! Those holiday lights can be lots of fun.

Helen Lowe said...

Happy Birthday, Tracey. :)

When I was a kid, I loved the "magic" of Christmas Eve--the lights and decorations on the tree, the resiny scent of pine needles and presents appearing on Xmas morning. And then of course there was all the wonderful Xmas food! I still love all those things, but now I think I also like to reflect a bit more on what Xmas is meant to be really all about: a sense of hope and renewal and wonder, and trying to morph the gift buying and food consumption into more action of sharing with and giving to others.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday! I'm a Christmas babe too. Mines on the 18th.

We've already had snow this year. Brrrr :)

Cylver said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACEY!!

I work in retail, so for me, sadly, Christmas has lost some of it's appeal. But one of my favorite childhood Christmas memories was waking up to the lovely pine fragrance of the Christmas tree. And of course all the yummy Christmas cookies and candy!

Nicole Murphy said...

Happy birthday :)

I love the creativity in those clips - the people who live in that house are quite frankly AWESOME!!!!

Jessica @ a GREAT read said...

Happy Birthday!

My fave thing about December is that my birthday is also this month! I love practically all our Xmas decorations! Especially our overload of ornaments! And Xmas lights are still a huge fave of mine and I'm almost 23!

And I also love Xmas cookies! We bake a variety and my fave are the sugar cutouts! And I also like to shop! I LOOOOOVE buying gifts for my friends and family even though I'm short of funds this year, I still love buying things for them and then seeing their reactions when they open them! That's another part of its appeal!

While there is still tons of chaos at the stores when I want to just run a regular non holiday errand, I still enjoy this time of year!

Jeaniene Frost said...

Happy Birthday! Hope you have a great one. My favorite thing about the holidays is throwing my diet out the window until January ;-).

Sara Creasy said...

I live in Australia now but grew up in England. The best part of Christmas was looking out the window on Christmas morning to see if it had snowed. I think that happened twice my entire childhood. Then again, it wouldn't have felt so magical had it happened every year.

Sharon S. said...

Happy Birthday Tracey! :)

my daughter and husband have December birthdays I love decorating for Christmas. Lots and lots of colored lights! I love shopping for presents and making gingerbread cookies, listening to Christmas music, wrapping presents and watching all the old Christmas shows.

Bella@BeguileThySorrow said...

Happy Birthday!

My favorites are the multitudes of yummy cookies:)