Keeping Christmas

I hope that the first day of Christmas was great for everyone and you all got most of what you wanted.
I had simply the best time. Lunch with Spiritmother and family and dinner with my amazing daughters.
Family, friends and weather so warm that we dined outside for lunch while wearing short sleeves.
Honey, nothing could have been finer than to be in Carolina yesterday morning....

I really want to encourage everyone to keep the Christmas spirit going this year for the entire 12 days of Christmas.
It may help you have a happy elevated mood the whole year, if you start your New Year still singin' and swingin' and getting Mrry like Christmas, why what could be better?

I can now listen to ONLY the Christmas songs and hymns that I want to hear and
I have, as of tonight, 10 more days to get those cards and gifts mailed to people I did not get to before Dec 25th.
(I am thinking I will be able to get the rest of my gifts delivered by Jan 1st, the 6th day of Christmas and my friends will find me tres chic!)
The practice of celebrating the full 12 days of Christmas has fallen out of fashion in our country in the last 100 years or so...
I love the idea of almost 2 weeks in which to sit and breathe and enjoy all the planning, cooking, shooping and angst-ing of trying to pull of a perfect Christmas day.

Here is some info from Wikipedia.

The Twelve Days of Christmas, and the associated evenings of those twelve days (Twelve-tide), are the festive days beginning the evening of Christmas Day (December 25) through the morning of Epiphany (January 6). The associated evenings of the twelve days begin on the evening before the specified day. Thus, the first night of Christmas is December 25–26, and Twelfth Night is January 5–6. This period is also known as Christmastide.
Over the centuries, differing churches and sects of Christianity have changed the actual traditions, time frame, and their interpretations. St. Stephen's Day, for example, is December 26 in the Western Church and December 27 in the Eastern Church. Boxing Day the first weekday after Christmas observed as a legal holiday in parts of the Commonwealth of Nations and was traditionally marked by the giving of Christmas boxes to service workers (such as postal workers and trades people) in the United Kingdom; December 28 is Childermas or the Feast of the Innocents. Currently, the 12 days and nights are celebrated in widely varying ways around the world. For example, some give gifts only on Christmas night, some only on Twelfth Night, and some each of the 12 nights.

A really lovley lady used to live here in Charleston and she would have a great 12th night party on January 6th. I looked so forward to it. It was always the best party.
People who came were relaxed and at ease, there were small gifts made by the hostess for everyone. I know she got a great deal on Christams cookies on Dec 26th and froze them. They were great! I always left that party feeling really full of the true spirit of Christmas, instead of the way I felt on too many Christmas mornings; I would feel stressed and exhausted and worried that something either had gone wrong or would go terribly wrong.

It often did.

The lovely lady who gave that party has since moved away....


This year was a bit frenetic, but by the time I pulled up to Beki's house for lunch all was well t his year. I had been able to have a few quiet moments of meditation after a small turkey emergency.
But I have decided to keep the full 12 days of Christmas this year and hold on to my peace and joy.
Won't you join me?

Aim High,
Cookie