This week’s Christmas mani is a base coat of Holo Taco’s almost-white “Sugar Rush,” toped with polka dots in “Red Licorice” and “Green Taffy” and a thin coat of “Shooting Star Taco” over all.
Mani Monday
Christmas
Celebrating 20 Years of Jack Frost
Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year…we drove west to St. Charles, MO, for Christmas Traditions!
This year was extra special, because our favorite Christmas legend, Jack Frost, is celebrating his 20th anniversary at the event. Coincidentally, that’s just about the same number of years we’ve been attending! I was really glad we got to be there for him at this momentous occasion!
Yes, Jack is the star of the festival to us. But there were still plenty of other things going on, starting with the Santa parade:
It was COLD (thanks Jack…I’m guessing the coldest it’s ever been when we’ve attended!), but no matter the temperature, historic Main Street is beautiful and full of Christmas cheer!
We saw plenty of other Christmas Legends while we were there:
And of course we visited with my personal favorite, the first legend I remember encountering at our very first visit all those years ago, the Lord of Misrule and Abbott of Unreason himself, the Master of Revels!
We also encountered a new musical group, The Confectionettes, who represent Edwardian candy makers, and also a new (to us at least…I know we’ve never met him before, but I’m not certain he’s new to the event this year) Santa, Viejito Pascuero from Chile:
This is truly one of my favorite events of the whole year, and I really cherish each time all five of the children are able to attend together!
Chickadee Thursday
We’re in the full swing of Christmas spirit…Chickadee had fun at the Boar’s Head Festival and at Christmas on The Hill!
She’s also been really excited to get a chance to acolyte at our midweek Advent services, and I delight in her joy at serving in the House of the Lord!
Mani Monday
For this week’s Christmas mani, I used Holo Taco “Wicked Potion” and “Sacrificial Lacquer” (neither magnetized) topped with “Shooting Star Taco.” I love how festive and sparkly it is!
Nikolaustag 2025
Today is one of my favorite days of the entire Christmas season…Nikolaustag!
We tend to celebrate this holiday in a German way, so of course our main activity today was…Christmas on The Hill?
Yes, some of us spent the afternoon in the Italian neighborhood of St. Louis to attend a fun local event. It wasn’t our normal Nikolaustag, but it was fun to switch things up a bit! And we still had our traditional dinner of chicken Döner Kebab this evening:
This year’s gingerbread dessert was a tiramisu:
And we had our traditional wassail while decorating the tree (I didn’t get a picture of the drink, but I did get a shot of one of this year’s ornaments…the theme was Pokémon). I realized this year that the Fab Five fall into two camps about decorating the tree…three of them want to hang their personal ornaments near each other in a collection, and two of them want to scatter their personal ornaments all throughout the tree. These two methods of decorating are pretty incompatible when five people are trying to hang ornaments, and that results in some hilarious conversations!
It wasn’t quite our regular Nikolaustag, especially since Bunny had to work today, and Turkey was at school taking a scary national math exam, but it was fun!
Sartorial Saturday–Winter Florals
Getting a new Christmas apron from Rare Dirndl has become one of my favorite holiday traditions, and this year is no exception! The winter floral apron was made in very limited quantities, and I almost missed out on it…I’m so glad there a small second run, because this is one gorgeous apron!
To really lean into the Christmas theme, I paired it with my red Everyday Dirndl:
Here’s a closer look at the beautiful embroidery. There are so many beautiful colors in the flowers, and even though it’s called a “winter” floral apron, I know I’ll be wearing it all year!
I accessorized with a flower crown and a pair of necklaces from Rare Dirndl, plus an Erstwilder brooch (and a bonus mini brooch worn as a zipper pull!), a pair of Splendette Duchess Bangles, and sparkly hoop earrings from Lane Bryant in red, green, and white:
Instead of a dirndl blouse, I styled it with the green Clarisse-Gia blouse from Miss Candyfloss, which is the perfect Christmasy addition to the look!
It doesn’t get much more festive than this!
I’m already thinking of how I might style this apron slightly differently for Christmas Day!
Chickadee Thursday
At our town’s Santa Parade the day after Thanksgiving:
And Chickadee got to see Santa again this year at the tree lighting…that whole Santa thing is pretty fun now that all of the children are old enough for us not to have to avoid it!
Tasty Tuesday–Festive Feasts and Holiday Baking
Now that Epiphany has come and gone, I guess the holiday season is officially over (I’m still not taking my Christmas tree down yet, though!). Let’s take a look back at the festive feasts and holiday baking we enjoyed during the holidays!
As I did last year, I kicked off Thanksgiving week by making pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies:
Speaking of Thanksgiving, we enjoyed our traditional feast:
And TEN pies (the bonus cookie butter pie was still in the freezer)!
We had chicken döner and gingerbread whoopie pies for our postponed St. Nicholas Day dinner:
And for Santa Lucia Day, we had lussekattes, potato pancakes and kielbasa (a day late), and white-chocolate cranberry cupcakes:
We didn’t have a fancy dinner on Christmas Eve, but we did have a carrot cake filled with gingerbread mousse:
For Christmas Day breakfast we had our favorite coffee cake:
And the best meal of the year, the pick-out dinner!
I think our M*A*S*H Day dinner counts as a festive feast, because Tony Packo’s was a Christmas gift.
On New Year’s Eve, we had fondue:
And the hot chocolate bar:
New Year’s Day was a full German feast of schnitzel and spaetzle and red cabbage:
With a Black Forest cake for dessert:
We had one more turkey dinner while we waited for the first snowstorm of the year:
And our traditional snow day dinner of French toast the next day:
Our festive feasts always end with Ryan’s birthday dinner…this year, we had chili and fry bread:
And a Frango Mint cake for dessert!
Of course there was plenty of cookie baking, starting with the French Christmas cookies we made in school:
And all of our favorite Christmas cookies!
It made for a beautiful Bunter Teller!
We also enjoyed Christmas Tree Cake treats all season long, including both standard and big cakes, donuts, and ice cream:
And a few festive drinks along the way…wassail and eggnog:
This has been a great season of feasting…now it’s time to give the kitchen a break! (Who am I kidding…I’m already planning the next cake I’m going to bake!)
Chickadee Thursday
One more picture from Christmas!
Christmas 2024
Advent went by so quickly, and here we are at Christmas already! Let’s take a look at this year’s celebration, starting with a Christmas lights walk Moose and I took Christmas Eve Eve…we think this should be our neighborhood’s official Christmas tree
Christmas Eve always starts with the Captain:
Chickadee finished our Lego Advent project, and Turkey and Moose played the first game of chess:
The Christmas Eve church service is my second favorite of the year…I think it’s interesting that my two favorite services both involve candlelight.
After church, we stopped by the city of St. Louis Christmas tree. It was rainy, which is unfortunate (so much for my dreams of a white Christmas), but at least that kept it from being too bright out, because it was still pretty early and should have been pretty light.
And then we drove through the Way of Lights.
When we got home, it was picture time. It’s the second year we’ve had LED lights on our Christmas tree, but I’m still not used to them…I can’t help but feel that they make the pictures look like they were taken in an aquarium!
Bunny came up with the idea for this year’s cake (carrot with a gingerbread mousse filling and cream cheese frosting), and we made it together…it was so delicious!
Of course I had to play Animal Crossing and check in with all my neighbors (especially Roald!).
We played a couple of games of Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries while watching our traditional Christmas Eve shows (the San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker and Rick Steves’ European Christmas)…I was the winner of the game I played with 152 points, and completed every route in my hand (11 in total, I believe), plus used every train car and every card I had. I think that’s the Ticket to Ride equivalent of a complete game?
I filled the stockings, tracked Santa with NORAD (I made sure he got to both St. Louis and Chicago) and set up the nativity before bed.
Christmas Day always begins with our favorite coffee cake:
Since I wasn’t entirely happy with my very blue photos from Christmas Eve, I took some more pictures at church:
Christmas morning is such a beautiful service!
We got a very nice family photo afterwards:
After we got home and opened presents, I got to work on dinner. I decided to do things a little bit different this year. Instead of making a fancy dinner, which we all enjoy, but isn’t the highlight of the holiday for us, I focused all of my energy on the best meal of the year, the Pick Out Dinner. Since that was our main Christmas dinner, I set the table with the china, folded napkins like Christmas trees, and discovered that a Stammtisch sign I’ve been wanting for a while magically appeared on the table while I was working on the dinner.
Our dinner was our usual favorites, including an extended cheese board, jalapeño popper and Rotel dips, a shrimp ring, several kinds of sandwiches, mozzarella sticks, and buffalo Chex mix.
I love making salame roses!
It’s our favorite meal of the whole year!
After dinner, we watched White Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the Disney World Christmas parade. And then Ryan and I played Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries (using the new anniversary train cars we got for Christmas!), to determine who the house’s Ticket to Ride: Christmas champion is. Spoilers…not me! I scored almost 100 points less than I did in yesterday’s game (only 54!!!) and Ryan is the undisputed champion.
And so another Christmas has come and gone…but the 12 Days of Christmas is just beginning, and we still have some more fun planned! Merry Christmas!