Last Updated on January 21, 2021 by Brie
So, looking back apparently it is a thing right before Christmas for me to compare myself to the year before’s Christmas…in my candy platers, in our gifts, trees, Christmas photos, Ornaments, etc. Well…in 2020 I kinda just chucked everything out the window and it all went to mayhem.
Elf on the shelf:
We had the most chill shelf elf in the entire world. It was litteraly that, a shelf elf. It found a new shelf spot every day and pretty much did nothing elaborate the entire month. Last year (incase you are looking for a comparison) it took over the blog, went to a parade with us in a jar, covered out trees with toilet paper, our mirror with toothpaste, and so on. Check out the December 2019 posts for more, festive activities! This elf has been very much debating making a comeback in 2021 or simply staying at the north pole…may speak more on that later. Lol
Annual Christmas Card!
Merry Christmas everyone! This year our virtual Christmas card is anything but traditional, but it is absolutely fitting for the year! We have an annual Christmas card for 2018, and 2019 as well if you want to check those out by clicking the year!
I have to show you my Christmas ornament, which was the inspiration for my card this year, it is like a toilet paper snowman theme!
The Gingerbread House!
Our gingerbread house is an amazing yearly tradition that we have been doing each year since my daughter was born! I have been posting them in the blog, since I started the blog a few years ago. I am so excited to get to share the third annual gingerbread house this year! This year’s theme was Santa’s village! We did the castle, his workshop, and some little tents for the elves to live in. We usually use graham crackers frosting, sprinkles and parade candy. But this year since we didn’t have any parade candy (no parade due to the pandemic) we used some odds and ends candy we found around the house as well as sprinkles and candy canes we got off Walmart pick up. You can see our previous years here: 2019, 2018.
The Treats Platter:
We had a really LOW key meal this year and our only treat was fudge that my mom made…so our treats platter was very, very basic. My daughter and I didn’t make any. We did snag some of our other glutino brand chocolate chip cookies for Santa’s plate though, so we will consider this year a win. Since we didn’t have any carrots in the house, we left out a rice cake for Rudolph .
Elsa Ornament!
This year my daughter chose the Elsa Christmas ornament off Amazon! We made the cutest home video for her scrapbook while Decorating the tree and making gingerbread houses about 4 or 5 days before Christmas, but hey it still counts! Come along with us on a walk through the years since we started the blog to see some of her past ornaments!
Wrapping Gifts:
We ended up with about three or four more presents than this for my daughter at the end for a total of around 12 or so this year. It was by far not her biggest year, but not one of our downsized years from the past. It just felt like a different year because the shopping was so different. Nothing really felt “personal” I guess you could say. My daughter and I didn’t go shopping for anyone this year. We didn’t wrap any gifts together, for me there was no real giving aspect of it. It was sad, but I honestly didn’t know what to get anyway. But that is a quarantine year for you. Anyway, present lineup, because this year to year line up thing is interesting…
The Star of Bethlehem
We went out after the sun went down to see the star of bethlehem viewing on Monday! It was really pretty, and just a really fun night. We don’t get out much now with all the covid, so I brought out my laptop and shot a short home video while we were all bundled up and could see the Christmas lights on the front of the house and the moon . There was a star by the moon and then a star out on the horizon. They were both very bright out tonight, so where we were located it was kinda hard to tell which one was the star of bethlehem for us. But it was still a really lovely night gearing up for Christmas that way. I can imagine what we saw as the star of bethlehem tonight, was probably shockingly different than what the wise men of the bible saw though. As they were called by this star to the newborn king. Where our star now, was simply just a little light.
I use the term star loosely as this time around it was the alignment of two planets. It is like a little blessing, getting to see even a faint glimmer of a window into the world of what it was like when Jesus was born. It’s crazy how only the wise men came, and not everyone flocked to the star of Bethlehem. It is so powerful, how God can call certain people like that. It made for a very nice night for us though, and later when I looked up the bible passages, even in older language translations, it still translates a star. It is truely fascinating.
Christmas Eve Stocking Tradition:
We spend Christmas even in a very interesting way of opening up stockings far flung through the house. Much farther for the most part than six feet even. The stocking goodies are such a fun time each year and we usually listen to Christmas music, and open them up. It was nice to keep some of the traditions even though there were some MAJOR differences this year and the sent of lysol was heavy in the air.
The NORAD Santa Tracker:
Now this is truly our “Stalking” Tradition”, to go along with our stocking tradition, too funny. But we watched on the NORAD Santa tracker as Santa went around the world delivering presents on Christmas eve and over zoom announced where he was. My daughter had a super fun time and when he reached the United States We started grabbing our cookie plate and heading to bed. She actually went to sleep far faster than I ever thought she would.
Thanks for stopping by today to see how we prepared for Christmas after this very trying year, as well as a little glimpse into how we spent our Christmas eve! I hope you all have a very merry Christmas this year, and stay safe as you head into the new one.
Brie
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