Jo of Serendipitous Stitching has organized us to count down the days to Christmas.
Since I have definitely underperformed in the stitching area this year, I chose to share an ornament that I stitched a while ago and finished two years ago. I love this finish, and I thought I'd give it a better show than it got back then. This is monsterbubbles Joyeux Noel from the 2007 JCS Ornament IssuesJo asks, How do you plan to spend Boxing Day? Do you have any traditions associated with this day?
As you've learned from the Americans who've answered before me, we don't traditionally celebrate Boxing Day. When I was young, we used to either head to Boston to spend our Christmas loot at the sales or to the Carroll Reed sale closer to home.
Then, I married a Brit. We didn't develop any specific Boxing Day celebrations right away, not until my parents moved to Florida, and we started celebrating Christmas in Pennsylvania. My cousin hosted Christmas Eve, my sister Christmas Day, so we started hosting a Boxing Day celebration filled with...Polish food! I don't know how we landed on that idea, but we went to the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia and bought pierogies of various flavors, and kielbasi, and cvikla (a beet puree), and I made bigos. My family is of Polish (and French Canadian) origin, but we in our forty years of celebrating, we never ate pierogies on Wigilia (the Christmas eve celebration that is our tradition). But because we do celebrate Wigilia with my mother's family, and then Christmas Day with our family, having another weighty dinner is getting to be a lot.
I'm not sure about this year. My father isn't coming to Pennsylvania for Christmas, and my mother is returning to Florida (and him) on Christmas Day without us this year. The dude and I are looking forward to a quiet homey Christmas Day with no obligations (we'll see) but I don't know whether or not we'll want to gather the remnants of our family on Boxing Day. Partly because my aunt's birthday is on December 27th. That's a whole lot of togetherness + big meals.
This is probably a lot more detail than you were hoping for, but I think I may have needed to think some of this through. Thank you for indulging me!
I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a relaxing Boxing Day wherever you celebrate!
I love the finishing on your ornament.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful ornament! Hope you have a fun Christmas whatever you end up doing.
ReplyDeleteSounds like wonderful traditions Nikki. Beautiful ornament.
ReplyDeleteLinda
Pretty design. The beaded edging is gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteLove this Eiffel tower, I can see her lights twinkling. Thanks for sharing your family stories with us, always great to feel closer to blogging friends (and to hear about Pa I had the great luck to visit in the 80's). Joyeuses fêtes de Noël ! Hugs and kisses.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking part in the Advent Calendar Blog Hop this year. I love that beaded finish, it was worth every hour that it took to make all the beaded pins!
ReplyDeleteI also love the idea of just choosing a country and saying "that's the theme for Boxing Day", it's nice to have an interesting heritage to choose from.
Gorgeous ornament! I love the "beaded" edging. I enjoyed reading about your Christmas and Boxing Day traditions.
ReplyDeleteHi Anna i love your ornament ,lovely post xx
ReplyDeleteI'm visiting with the blog hop. Your beautiful finish is definitely worth giving it a better show. I love the finish for it too. Thanks for sharing your tradition and I hope you can figure out what to do. Sometimes it's nice to just relax and have a calm celebration instead of the big ones.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Paris in the Roaring Twenties!
ReplyDeleteI'm here with the blog hop~ The beaded edging on your stitch is great; it looks like Christmas lights! :D We eat pierogi whenever and neither my husband nor I are Polish haha. A quiet day after all the hubbub is always welcome.
ReplyDeleteOh my, I like this finish, all the beads around the Eiffel tower. They seem appropriate to me :)))
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely ornament and the finishing is fabulous! Your family sounds lovely!! It's nice to hear that families still celebrate all the big events together...I'm jealous in a way, our families live so far away. Enjoy all your gatherings!
ReplyDeleteI love the finish on your ornament! The beads sort of look like Christmas lights, perfect.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you had fun celebrating with family for Boxing Day, such variety!
Happy Christmas, Anna!
Merry Christmas! I stitched that ornament, too, a few years ago; too bad Monsterbubbles is no longer designing charts.
ReplyDeleteI love your ornament, that beaded edging is gorgeous! Merry Christmas and I hope you have a wonderfully stitchy boxing day.
ReplyDeleteI love your stitched ornament.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful finishing!!
ReplyDelete