20 days till Christmas

20 days till Christmas
December 5th
Movie of the day: Charlie Brown Christmas
This one was sandwiched between Charlie Brown goes to Europe and How the Grinch Stole Christmas on an old VHS when I was little. The Credits were cut off of this one to make room for the Grinch. My family and I would argue every year weather or not the ending of the movie was cut off. No one ever noticed when the movie change came on so the disagreement still stands today. I learned what commercialism was from this show but the meaning of Christmas didn't cement till I was much older.

Christmas Carol of the day:
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
http://www.christmas-carol-music.org/Lead_Sheets/HarkTheHerald.html
Now you can sing along at the end of Charlie Brown Christmas. I love how Pigpen stirs up a cloud of dust in the snow when ever he takes a breath.

Christmas Trivia
(brought to you by howstuffworks.com)
What are some of the Swedish Holiday Traditions?
On December 13, one of the darkest days of the year, St. Lucia Day, or the Festival of Lights, is celebrated throughout Sweden to symbolize the promise of the sun's return. In the past, a young girl would dress in a white gown with a red sash and a wreath of lit candles on her head. She would go from house to house offering baked goods.
Today, the tradition continues with the oldest girl in a family wearing the traditional dress with a wreath of (battery-powered) candles on her head, awakening everyone with a song and saffron buns and coffee.
According to legend, Lucia was a young girl that lived during the fourth century. She was blinded for her Christian beliefs. St. Lucia is the patron saint of the blind.
For a Swedish Christmas dinner, sit down to a table of:
Ham
Lutefisk (fish soaked in lye)
Boiled wheat (cuccidata)
Cabbage pudding
Baby potatoes
Sweet carrots
Medley of vegetables
Deviled eggs
Julglögg (a hot, mulled wine)
Fruit salad
Saffron buns with raisins
Rice pudding
Lingonberry pie
Broomstick cookies (a lacy cookie with almonds and butter)
Pepparkakor (sweet ginger)
http://christmas.howstuffworks.com/games/christmas-trivia3.htm

Lutefisk is also a traditional dish served in Norway. On my father's side of the family we used to have Lutefisk every year at Christmas served with lefsa (a sweet flat tortilla-like bread). My cousins and I liked to make holiday burritos putting mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, and turkey (if we had it) into our lefsa. One of the best ways to eat lefsa is simply with butter and sugar rolled up.
When Christmas was held at my grandparents house, my cousins and I used to have what we called “Camp Cousin”. We would build huge forts on the deck, play dress up with grandma's old dresses, and put on “light shows” (basically we played music while we danced on grandma's bed. The only light would be from everyone's flashlights. We thought we were rock stars).
We would see how far up the basement stairs we could jump down to the mattresses at the bottom. One year our eldest cousin had had a bit too much lutefisk, as we were going for another round on the stairs we found him lying on the mattresses groaning “too...much...lutefisk...”
We all miss those days.