Magical Holiday Home - April Rudolph Day

Here's the April plan:

• It’s Christmas Dishes Month!  Do you have Christmas dishes, serving trays, and other items that are tucked here and there? Do you have trouble finding them when it’s time for a party or dinner? Well, this is Christmas Dishes Month and it’s time to de-clutter and organize the Christmas dishes. Find a storage area. move your dishes there, and inventory what you have. Later you may discover a random piece stuck here or there, when you do, add it to your Christmas Cupboard, so when the holiday season arrives, you’ll have everything at your fingertips!  This is also a good time to organize holiday linens.
• Christmas Magic: Do you do 24 Days of Christmas activities? Do you give the 12 Days of Christmas gifts? Or perhaps you do a little St Nicholas Day gift. If so, this is the month to plan the “magic”. Make a list, pick out some items, or just get your ideas into the notebook!

I have wanted these Christmas dishes for as long as I can remember.  So far, I have one piece, a votive candle holder!  Perhaps this year, I will add another piece or two to what I hope is one day an amazing collection of Christmas dishes.

I need to come up with a plan for 24 Days of Christmas activities - it's going to be a bit of a challenge since Vic is at work all day and most likely won't want to head out each evening to do something Christmas-y.  I might amend it to 12 Weekends (the last weekend of November and the three weekends in December before Christmas) of Christmas activities - Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays - and see what I can come up with.  I know our church's Christmas program will be on the calendar, as well as a trip to the symphony or theatre, and then there is Busch Gardens' ChristmasTown.  I hope to finally make it up to Colonial Williamsburg at Christmas - we've been a dozen times but never at Christmas - and we went to an amazing Christmas market about six years ago, when we lived here before, that I'd like to find again.  Ah, the ideas are flowing, must grab a calendar page and do some planning.

How's your April Rudolph Day shaping up?

April Rudolph Day

April Rudolph Day

Something led me to the Magical Holiday Home Forums this morning after a long, long, long absence and what do you know - it's April Rudolph Day! I don't seem to see a Rudy Day movie list - well, there's a list but no-one seems to have signed up so I'll be watching a few episodes from this - BBC Holiday Comedy & Drama Gift Set - that I got last Christmas. Anyone else a fan of the BBC?

Our daughter, Sophia, is graduating from high school in June so we will be swamped with family and friends and all the festivities, closely followed by three of her girlfriends descending on us from up north (they are in Rhode Island, we are in Virginia). I am sure these girls are going to end up as Sophia's bridesmaids one day. A few weeks later, Sophia heads off to Oregon for the rest of the summer and then starts at Oregon State University in the autumn. Before she goes, I hope to have a little Christmas in July with her as she won't be with us this holiday season. We do, however, have a big family Christmas to look forward to in 2014. We are moving to the West Coast, just six hours away from Sophia and my sister, brother-in-law and two nephews. We will all be together next year and I love a family Christmas celebration. So tough to achieve in a military family when you are often a coast or an ocean away from the rest of the family.

Anyway, back to April Rudolph Day. It's my goal to get my Christmas albums caught up today. I make an annual Christmas Card Album - I've saved every card since Sophia was born in 1994 and I also include announcements of special events - births, graduation, marriages, even obituaries. I recently found a stack of announcements and photos from 2006 to the present so I have go back and put them all in their respective albums. Along with a little Pinterest surfing for Christmas in July ideas, that's my goal for the day...oh, and to keep more current with the Forums.

Happy Rudolph Day everyone!