It's open Season

I'm all happy and singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer.

Why is that? It's because in mylife I always begin Christmas time on the 28 of October.

I will tell you why. In October we have four birthays: first my nephew, then one of my girls, then mine and in the end, on the 27, it's my uncle's.

So, till his birthday, it's not time for Christmas - well, officially, because I don't tell anyone that in September I'm already strolling in all the shopping sites I can looking for signs of that blessed season.

Anyway, now we arrived at Christmas time !! 🎄

So, what am I doing now?

Besides singing Rudolph on top of my lungs, I will make a list of presents - that I have already some bought since September it's a thing that nobody needs to know. 😄

I will go fetch all the wrapping papers left over from last year - oh joy  - and the ribbons and tags also. 

That way I can begin wrapping the already bought presents, which is an activity that I like so much, while listening on youtube to all the Christmas songs I can find, mainly the more vintage ones.

This one is my favourite for the wrapping activity: 

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas 

Then I will beging thinking about the food for Christmas, the Eve and the Day. 

I will make a  list of the groceries, the cod, the meat, the potatoes, cabbage and pumpkin for the soups, the flour, sugar and all the trimmings for desserts - lots of them! 😀

(no, I never made these ones but who knows?)

And I will make a list too for the non perishables and non food related, like nice Christmassy napkins and some more little decorations that I can't resist to buy every year. And I say little ones because I think I have enough decorations.

And another thing that I want to do is a good overall cleaning and I will make a list for it too.

What's more? Oh so many things to think and do. I feel like dancing.

Partying at:

Grace Filled Moments

Christmas at my home - how we do it

This is how usually we do Christmas Day at my home and I hope to do the same way this year.

After a all day cooking Christmas Eve and a happy and a blessed dinner we go to bed quite late. In many houses there are the tradition to go to Midnight Mass but it was never a custom in my house, not even when we were children.

Now I'll tell you how it is Christmas morning in my home.

When is still night and everybody is sleeping - and if they are not they pretend to be - I carry a lot of bags full of presents downstairs and fill the sofas with presents. Each person has his sofa and on it they will find their presents.

Now that I haven't little children anymore, the number of presents diminished a lot but even so all the room is filled with happy colours from the wrapping papers and the bows. It's such a joy to see all that !

Then I go up again and fill the stockings already hanged on the door knobs of their rooms and I do something that is a tradition in my corner of the world, at least for some: I put a present on a pair of shoes that each of them leaves at their bedroom door. When we were children we used to believe that Jesus left the present there and in a way He did it, because it was Him who helped my family to have money to buy so many presents.

Once my eldest daughter, who were begining to grow and thinking on some things, asked me if it was really Jesus who gave the present. I explained to her that that present was not Jesus who gave directely but He gave me the possiblity to give her and most of all, Jesus indeed gives us things that we need, and that so many times in life we ask, as He directed us to do and He gives us: "Ask and it will be given to you".

After having all the presents in order, which was not difficult because they were all sorted in bags by name, it was only to put them on the sofas, etc, I will go from door to door saying Ho Ho Ho Ho, a sign that everybody can come downstairs, bringing the presents they found in the stocking and on the shoes. Then they go to the fireplace where they take the present Santa left and comment if Rudolph ate his biscuits and if Santa drunk his Port.

All this happens since they were all little children and it's a tradition that we still keep.

So in the livingroom, after unwrapping our presents amidst a lot of laughing and joy we ran to make us ready for Mass, usually with some new piece of clothes, this after picking up all the torn papers and bows which we will take to the reciclying bin on our way to Mass.

After Mass the children set the table and the lunch, which is half done, is finished and almost ready to go to the table.

While some are in the kitchen, others set the table, others put the apetizers ready for the guests - my extended family - who were almost arriving - now we don't do it anymore as my grandmother, mother and father are not among us anymore, so brother and sister do in their own homes for themselves. 

Then the work at the kitchen is almost done and after a drink and eating some little things, we all go to the table. Lunch goes all the afternoon and when it's time to have dinner nobody is ready for more food and what everybody want is to go to their own home and rest watching a little tv or something like that - I  mean, when they were alive and they and my simblings came to have lunch with us. 

Now it's only us what is not bad anyway, as times goes by and life changes but we must accept it and give thanks.

We will not have the gattering of all the family at my home but it's ok, Christmas is more than that. We have all our children, now grown up, around the table and that is so good.

At that time once again I thank God for such happy and blessed days.

May Our Lord grant us again this year a blessed, peaceful and happy Christmas to us and you all.

Sweet things for Christmas

Christmas is a time for good things, and also the ones to eat. So now I'll post about the desserts and all non savoury things for Christmas that we are used to have.

In my home, rather, in my family since I know myself, we have some things on Christmas that we can't fail making. They are portuguese things like Rabanadas, slices of fried bread, Sonhos and Bolo Vicente (Vincent cake).

About this cake I must tell you that is a tradition developed by my grandmother as she always made it at Christmas time - and only then, only at Christmas time!

So everybody waited for that glorious moment.

When I got married I replaced my grandmother on that task and started baking  the aforementioned cake for several households in various sizes, depending on the number of persons in each house.

My grandmother is in Heaven now and I never stopped baking the Bolo Vicente because everybody likes it so much and to honour her too.

So another thing she always did were the Rabanadas, also called Fatias Douradas (Golden Slices) and the Sonhos and, as with the cake, I replaced her doing for us and for them, my Grandmother and Parents. To the other homes I din't make it but as we all used to get together for Christmas Eve and Day, they  always eat them in my house.

For the Rabanadas we always mix sugar and cinnamon and put on top of them while they are still warm. My uncle likes to eat them with honey. It's very good too.

Never mind the food that appears first in the picture, this is sausage rolls, I mean the other one, it's Arroz Doce, a thing similar to Rice Pudding but much. much better.

A Christmas Log made by my sister. Oh I do like it but mainly the Fios de Ovos, on top of it.

The Bolo Rei, a must in every Christmas in this corner of the world - here half eaten because it's very good.

And we can't forget the Mince Pies

and the Christmas Pudding.

And something that I always make for Christmas but that we begin eating since the first falling leaves: Apple Crumble. 

These pictures I'm posting here are from past Christmases but I will try hard to not forget to take some pictures of the ones I will make this year and post them after Christmas.

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Partying at 

A Stroll Thru Life  

Slices of Life

My Wee Abode

It's Christmas time !

I have longing for writing a post about Christmas. Each year, as Summer ends, when I think of Christmas, I don't allow myself to develop much, only on the 27 or 28 of October I go in Christmas mode. 

So, this year, it was not even midday of the 27, I decided that the season was open and began singing Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, first in my mind, as I was at work, but then when I arrived at home, I began singing at the top of my lungs.

It was Christmas in my soul!

And since then I have been thinking about it and planning and dreaming. Things that I will buy for my children and others, things I will buy for me and for the home, which improvements I will do in the house, which wrapping papers I still have and which ones I will buy. And strings and bows. 

And what about the food, what will I make ?

Will it be very cold in  the Christmas day or warmer ? Will it rain ?

And my mind flies, happy, dreaming of all those nice things.

I must clarify that, in this corner of the world, we haven't Thanksgiving and Halloween is a foreigner idea which has nothing to do with our culture, even if the shops explore the idea to their own profit, with lots of people embarking in celebration of witches day.

Anyway, from the middle of the Autumn I begin living the pre-Christmas days. And what joy that is.

I will keep posting about that happiness till we arrive at the day.

The Christmas Planner

It's all right, you don't need a fancy or expensive planner. Let it to the perfectionists out there, what you need is to have a place where you will plan your Christmas time, with all it has, in a calm way and early so you will not be overwhelmed.

Notice that I didn't name this post: How to make a Christmas Planner.

I really don't like when people, just posting about something they managed to make, name the post in a pompous way as if they were an authority about anything. It would be nicer just to say like that: How I did...(something) and not How to do... (something). Usually I don't read posts that begin that way. But that it's probably just me who does that and who doesn't mind to say it, not minding if I am stepping on some one's toes.

So, let's begin.

We just need a notepad or exercise book to write our plans on. And a pen or pencil. And maybe a rubber. And if you want to make it prettier you may want to have a ruler and nice colour pencils or pens. But that it's just if you want, not that you have to do it. It all depends on the personality of who is doing it, the time she has to spend on it and so on. So, don't be a perfectionist, which is never good, and be practical.

I will tell you how I do it and you will decide how you will do yours. Maybe you would like to take some ideas from mine or all or none. Each one of you are in charge of your own Planner.

I take an exercise book or some loose sheets and put it in a dossier, it depends on each year, I don't do always the same way. This year I didn't decide yet which way I will go but I think it will be the exercise book that I will have.

Anyway, in a place or in another, the most important is the content.

So let's think that it will be the exercise book that I will choose.

On the first page I will write, very proud of myself, Christmas Planner.

Then I will write the names of each one of my darlings to whom I will buy gifts, on the top of each page. Then I will write, in each line, real or imaginary one, what I have bought or what I will. Many times I have ideas in my mind, I write them and as I buy each one I put a tick in front of it.
Don't forget we must write the sizes of each person, either on the page of each person or on another where you put all together with the title Sizes.

On the back of each page I will write the amount I spent on each thing and I will keep adding each time I buy something.

When I bought already everything for that person I see how much I spent with her. Obviously I know, beforehand, which amount I plan to spend on that person. I always spend more with my girls than with any other person.

I count how many people I will buy presents for and, let's imagine, if I have twelve people, I count the same amount of pages, I write the names on top of each and I move to another section.

Now there is a page where I write what I'm spending in the whole, no matter with whom. I write : Spent in Presents.

Then on another page I write: Spent on Food. 

And on another: Spent On Other Things - meaning: not presents or food, just wrapping paper, bows, napkins and everything connected with Christmas.

Then it comes another part that I like very much: the list of things I will cook and bake and the ingredients I will buy. Each kind has a different page, one for food I will cook, another for the things I will bake. Another for the ingredients.

Then I make a calendar with days and hours of what I will need to do to have everything bought and done on time.

I began with One Month Before. Then I have another with Three Weeks Before. And so on. I will have one with 23 December. Another will have 24 December and another with 25 December. Also with the 26. If you are British or in any way related with them, you will have one with the 26: Boxing Day. If you are Portuguese you will have the 24 as a very special day too. It all depends on the culture of each person. 

On the pages for the days 24 and 25, I plan with times for each thing, like 7 o'clock or 6.30, depends, wake up to put the presents ready for being opened before Mass. At a certain time: get ready for Mass. And so on. This for the 25. For the 24 I write at what time I will begin peeling the potatoes for dinner, at what time I will make the soup and so on.

Each person knows what she has to do and must plan what time she begins to do each thing that will be eaten and when.

Another thing is that you may want to plan what you and the children will dress for Christmas and what needs to be done with that.

If you are traveling that time you need to plan the steps you will need to do for that.

And what about your self care ? To book the threading for your eyebrows ? Or the beautician who will wax your legs. The hairdresser ? That kind of things. And don't forget to write what you will pay for it in the section Spent On Other Things. Be careful, those are dangerous fields, plan ahead what you will spend on it and what are the prices before doing it.

I think by now you know the idea. 

The first step is to have your materials ready and to think what you will need to do for Christmas and to write all of that. Never mind if it doesn't end as a work of art, the important is to get organized so you will have peace all this time till Christmas - and after.

It's very important that you keep track of your expenses ! Be careful with that.

Add also a page in the end of everything to write anything about Christmas after it is gone, maybe it will be useful on the next one. Maybe something you will want to improve or just something like: thanks God, it all went so well. Praise the Lord!

And now let's begin with the first step: to think what to do, which materials to choose and what needs to be done. Just as thoughts, let your mind wonder. 

Next step is to take action. Don't procrastinate, please take action, you will feel so much better, you will feel happy with yourself. You can do it, just begin and everything will be in the right place.

Take something to write your ideas and plans. And write. Just do it. 

You will be really happy with it.

Christmas food

Every part of the earth has it's own food for Christmas and even in each country there are differences depending on each home.
Well, in my family, as in all families in this corner of the world, on the Christmas Eve dinner, we eat cod with boiled potatoes and "grelos".

Some people prefer cabbage. We always must have cabbage soup that we call Caldo Verde. This it's a must have.

In some parts of the North of the country people also eat  octopus rice. Oh, that is good too. Sometimes I make it for lunch. Maybe this year I will have it for diner. Uhm, good idea.

For Christmas lunch many people have turkey but it's not mandatory, not like the cod for Christmas Eve dinner, together with the Caldo Verde.

And desserts...

I haven't any pictures of past Christmas Eve dinners, I wonder why.
This year I will be more careful about dinner pictures.

..

All the pictures, except the first one, were found searching the internet, they are not mine and I found them after looking for some free photos.
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Partying at:
Home and Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life

Bolo Rei

Bolo Rei means King Cake. We eat it at Christmas times in big quantities. No Christmas is Christmas without Bolo Rei. It's like Christmas Cake and Christmas Pudding in England.

It's made with yeast, like bread, and it takes candied fruit and nuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, raisins and that kind of stuff.
Many times, as the tradition says to do, it has a little present inside and a broadbean. That means that the person who gets the slice with the bean inside must buy the cake next time.
Well, that was some time ago. Now, with safety measures, most times the cake hasn't the bean or the present.
Even so, we keep eating it a lot.
When I was a little girl, in our home, it was my grandmother who made ours. It was an adventure to me to see the whole process. The smell, then my grandmother putting a cloth on top of it and leaving to raise, later on tending the dough and putting in the oven...
And then the smell of freshly baked Bolo Rei...
Now we buy it.
That's ok, it's still good anyway.

Baking and Such - Show and Tell Friday

We had a quite a fair amount of baking.
My husband made that turkey pie I told before and also another with minced meat for another day and made sausage rolls, the best ones I ever ate.

And I made Bolo Vicente or Vincent Cake, a must in all Christmas because my grandmother used to make it always.
It's the one in the picture above and the same here too.

I also made rabanadas, or golden slices.

They are made with bread, sliced. We put each slice in milk, take it off, put in egg and fry it.

Then, we mix sugar and cinnamon on both sides while it's still warm. My uncle likes to eat them with honey.

Another must on Christmas time at our house - and since the begining of Autumn - is apple pie. Two big ones I made and it's already almost in the end.
Then it came the end of the year with a batch of new baking.
The amazing this is the more I bake the more I like it.
Let's see what this year bring us on baking inspiration. And I will keep you updated.

For Show and Tell Friday, at Kelli's.