I Will Honour Christmas In My Heart

I will honour Christmas in my heart,
and try to keep it all the year.
I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.
I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!

~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Friday, January 4, 2019

Looking Back on the 2018 Holiday Season

 Welcome to my Christmas Blog, A Debbie-Dabble Christmas!!

Well, the 2018 Holiday Season is now over and it has been put in the books........

Now I know that many of you take offense by the phrase Holiday Season and not Christmas Season......

For our family, The Holiday Season is not just Christmas.........

The 2018 Holidays Season for us started on November 18th, when Joe and I continued our Christmas Tradition of seeing Trans Siberian Orchestra in concert at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, 5 minutes from our home!!!!
We had the privilege of enjoying the show this year with my nephew John, his wife Renae and our Great Nieces Cortney, Caitlin and Carly!!!
It was the first time they had ever seen the show!!!
We then celebrated Thanksgiving with our family of 5.........
Enjoying a turkey that our oldest son, Joey, won in  raffle at work......
Next, on November 28th, our youngest son, Jim, and his long time Love of 10 years, Danielle, got married in a simple but lovely ceremony......
We had a simple dinner at home to celebrate.......
Joe made lobster and we also had shrimp, scallops and chicken tenders........
It was quite a few months for these 2........All I am at Liberty to say is that Danielle was very lucky when she bought a Pa Lottery scratch off ticket winning a significant amount of money!!

On December 5th, Joe and our oldest son Joe, attended a concert at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes Barre...
Ghost is the band that they saw which is a Grammy winning Swedish Heavy Metal band!!!
Joe will always be a Rocker!!!
They had a great time!!!

On December 7th, we celebrated our son Jim's 35th Birthday and I forgot to take pictures!!!!!

On December 16th, Joe had the pleasure of going to a Wilkes Barre Scranton Penguins Hockey game ( we have Season tickets) with our nephew John and his family!!!
Even though they were fans of the opposing team!!!!
This is little Carly!!
Joe even had his picture taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus.......
We then celebrated with a family Holiday party with my nieces and nephews!!!!

I am never good at remembering to take photos at a party!!!
Joe, my nieces Lisa, Renae, Heather and my Great nieces Caitlin and Carly on the other side of the table.....

Caitlin and Carly......
Danielle and Jim......
Joey, our oldest son, my nephew Dan and my Great niece Cortney......
Caitlin, my great niece, by my Craft Room Tree......
My nephew John.......
We also had some new friends and wonderful old friends visit........

We had a little luncheon for, what I call, our St. Maria Goretti Friends!!!!

These are the friends we made through our church who were always there to lend a helping hand when Joe and I ran our Church's Flea Market and Craft Fair......

Barb and I.......
Barb and Mary.....
Me and Carol......
Mary and Carol......
Mary, Carol, Patty and me.....
Carol, Mary, me, Patty and Barb.....
Carol, Mary, me and Patty.....
Me and Carol......
Joe coming home with pizza for all to enjoy!!
All of these photos were taken by our friend, Barb!!!
On December 22, I had the pleasure of checking something off my Christmas Bucket List!!!

As a Mom of 2 sons, I have never seen a production of The Nutcracker.........

Joe and I were thrilled to attend the production of the Nutcracker put on by The Conservatory of Dance, which my Great Niece Caitlin is a student of ballet......

Caitlin is in front of the Tree......
Caitlin is on the left.....
Caitlin is on the right!
 We were so proud of Caitlin and what an honor to see The Nutcracker for the first time with her performing in it!!!!!

I would have never been able to do that at the age of 13 years old!!!!

We then celebrated Christmas Eve at home with a semi-Traditional Polish Holy Supper......

Pierogies, shrimp, scallops, whole potatoes and mushrooms......
The non-traditional is chicken fingers as my oldest son does not like fish and Holy Supper is supposed to be a meatless meal......

On Christmas Day, I woke up with a fever of 102 and feeling like crap but I could not let my family down so I still managed to make kielbasi, ham and a 10 pound turkey breast of Christmas dinner along with sausage stuffing and mashed potatoes.....

Again, I forgot to take photos even though I did feel a bit better as the day went on......

Here is everyone having fun scratching off Lottery tickets that Santa gifted to everyone!!
Joe won $50, Joe won $23, Danielle won $10 and I won $3 and Jim won $2!!!
I ended up being sick for almost 2weeks after Christmas with a fever of 102 for 5-6 days and then the diarrhea started and that has lasted for 5-6 days causing me to be seen at an Urgent Care Center!!!

My son Jim was also sick with a fever of 102!!

Unfortunately, I was forced to cancel a visit with my good friend Anne Marie and also our traditional New Year's Eve and New Year's Day family dinners.......

We did manage to celebrate my oldest son Joe's 37th Birthday a few days after his actual Birthday!

I am finally feeling better and will be returning to work this weekend.

So up until the time when I got sick, we had had quite a great Holiday Season.....

Next week, I will start to take down my Christmas decorations and start to decorate for Winter and Valentine's Day.....

I am now posting back over on my regular Blog, Debbie-Dabble Blog...

Click HERE if you missed my post on My One Little Word for 2019 and find out why 2018 became the year of "Unexpected Occurrences"......
I wasn't able to even get out to do any Christmas Clearance shopping this year so I really will not have anything else to post on this blog for quite some time....

So I hope you will visit me over on my regular Blog, Debbie-Dabble Blog!!!


And thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

However, if you are a vendor and insist upon leaving a comment with a link back to a website, You have forced me to now moderate ALL comments so do NOT even try it!

Hugs,
Debbie
  I am linking up to these parties:

 SATURDAY
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 MONDAY 
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Inspiration Mondays
 Dishing It and Digging It Link Party
Busy Monday
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Cooking and Crafting with J & J
Metamorphosis Monday
Project Inspired Weekly Link Party
 Celebrate Your Story Monday Night Link Party! 
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THURSDAY
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FRIDAY
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Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!

18 comments:

  1. It looks like a wonderful holiday season. I hope you are completely well. Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really enjoyed this post and the last one, you seem to have a really nice family and friends. I’m Catholic too. I didn’t know that Polish Christmas Eve tradition, it looks yum.
    It is a coincidence, that I started looking for nutcracker ballet Christmas decorations after I got over Christmas/New Year. I want to decorate with that theme next Christmas. I wanted to use up some white tulle that was trimmed off the hem of my daughter’s debut dress (coming up in March.) So far havn’t found any Nutcracker ballet ornaments in Australia but there is still time! Love Cath

    ReplyDelete
  3. Loved all the family pictures,especially the sweet ones of
    The Nutcracker (such a precious memory!) and those with your friends.
    Plus learning about your Christmas Eve tradition was so interesting. (I even googled it!) Thanks so much for sharing!
















    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Linda,
      Thanks so much for stopping by and for your sweet comment!! Traditionally, The Christmas gifts are opened on Christmas Eve and my parents did it that way when I was a kid. We opened gifts on Christmas Day morning when the boys were young but when they got older, we went back to opening gifts on Christmas Eve....
      Hugs,
      Debbie

      Delete
  4. Looks like you had an awesome holiday celebration ~ except for the illness. You have a beautiful family and I love seeing your home decorations throughout the year. Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Teddie,
      Thanks so much for stopping by and for your sweet comments!!! Happy New Year!!
      Hugs,
      Debbie

      Delete
  5. Looks like you had a good holiday season, well except for getting sick, glad that you are feeling better

    ReplyDelete
  6. You had a very beautiful December time. No doubt the nutcracker show was spectacular.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks Debbie for sharing a recap of your holidays. I do hope you are feeling better and off to a good start for 2019. Thanks for sharing at Cooking and Crafting with J&J

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's always such fun to look back. Such a great year for you and your lovely family. So glad you're feeling better too!

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  9. Hi Debbie, So very sorry you've been sick ! I thoroughly enjoyed "spending Christmas" with your friends and family. And, how nice of you to invite us to the wedding ! Congratulations to all of you ! I love your blog and always enjoy your decorations - from January to December. Feel better soon. Happiest of New Year's to you and Joe. Martha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Martha,
      Thanks so much for stopping by ad for your kind words!! I am finally starting to feel more like myself again. I can not remember being so sick before.....Happy Healthy New Year to you!!
      Hugs,
      Debbie

      Delete
  10. Good morning Debbie. I love seeing your family and friends enjoying your lovely home. I decided I was going to leave a comment on the blogger's post who posted right before in the parties. How lucky for me you posted right before me. Happy New Year, Kippi #kippiathome

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  11. Happy New Year. Your tablescape is beautiful. Hugs.

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  12. What an amazing family get together, it is wonderful to see you all together and to remember your son's wedding with his love for the past ten years.
    Your table is lovely and I wish I had been there, but having you as a blog close friend I feel "almost" there, lol..
    Thank you for enlightening me about Epiphany in Russia and how wonderful a celeb it is. Thanks for popping in to see me this new year.
    I wish you a terrific, healthy and happy year dear friend.
    Fabby

    ReplyDelete
  13. It's so nice to be able to watch your family make such lovely memories! And it's so nice to see you so happy! I'm thrilled that you had such a wonderful holiday season with your family. Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm. xo Kathleen

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  14. I enjoyed seeing all the festivities you and family and friends have enjoyed. Congratulations to your son and his wife. How great. So sorry to hear you got so sick and on Christmas day! And then your son! Bless your heart. Glad you are better. Hugs and blessings, Cindy

    ReplyDelete
  15. Even though you became sick on Christmas, most of the season was filled with family celebrations and spending time with them and friends which was wonderful. It also looks like you kept traditions and maybe added some new ones! I always have pierogi and no meat on Christmas eve too. xoxo Su

    ReplyDelete

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However if you are a vendor and insist upon leaving a comment with a link back to a website, You have forced me to now moderate ALL comments so do NOT even try it!

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