Christmas

My Christmas festivities this year (technically last year, I suppose) started early and went late.

Beginning on the day after Thanksgiving, when S and I were in Phoenix, we helped decorate my in-laws' house and watched Love Actually, one of my must-sees.  

Back at the ranch but still before Christmas, we decorated our own house and watched a mess of additional movies -- some new, some old, some new to me, some previously seen: Four Christmases; National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation; The Shop Around the Corner (the early inspiration for You've Got Mail); Christmas as Usual; A Christmas Story; Miracle on 34th Street; and EXmas.

My father-in-law sent us a advent-calendar-style whiskey tasting box tasting box as a Christmas present, and that really gave us the spirit of the season in the run-up to the holiday proper, with a new whiskey to taste each evening.  Great idea!

My sister-in-law and I were treated to the Ambassadors of Harmony's holiday show at UMSL, which -- as it was last year -- was delightful.  I love any Christmas concert, but I especially love an a cappella Christmas concert.

For the holiday itself, we headed off to Ireland.  It was S's first trip there (besides one prior flight layover in the Dublin airport), so we did a driving tour to take in as much as we could.  More on that in a separate post, perhaps.  But specifically as it relates to Christmas, there was lots of Christmas music on the radio and compliments of streaming services as we cruised around the country.  Though every shop in town except the kebab shop was closed, we saw the Christmas lights of Galway on the day, which were lovely.  I especially liked the decorated sailboats.  All of the hotels we stayed in had some sort of holiday decorations up, and the Canal Court Hotel in Newry was dressed to the nines for the occasion.  They win the decorating prize!

I still had one of my must-see movies to watch when we returned from Ireland, so prior to taking down my decorations, I snuggled in to watch Little Women as the weather in St. Louis takes a turn towards the very cold for a while.

Now that that's done, I suppose it's time to begin the wintertime activities in earnest.  I've been saving up many, many "inside projects" since the first warm day of spring last year.  Time to get started on them!