Five on Friday: Christmas Edition

 It's the eve of Christmas eve and it's raining cats and dogs. Awfully glad this isn't snow! It's still dark outside even though it's almost 7am. When Steve took Rosie down to the bus this morning, I heard a giant thud in our side yard. Here's hoping another inconvenient tree hasn't fallen, like what happened to us a few months ago! Onward...

Five on Friday: Christmas Edition

1. Tonight we'll be watching our last Christmas movie of the season: "It's a Wonderful Life". While we don't mind taking a year or two off from other holiday movies, this is a must watch for us annually. The kids have been old enough to join us the last few years, and they like it too. I like to save it to the very end of the Christmas season because it just embodies everything that the holiday is about. Time to make sure I have enough tissues nearby to dry my eyes...

2. My Christmas playlist on Amazon currently has 72 songs and runs 3 hours and 21 minutes! I know I'm late to the party, but this was my year of discovering Pentatonix and they are delightful! My favorite of theirs is probably "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". 

3. Just as I had my rotation for fall, you can bet that my December Yankee Candles are in full swing! Just finished Red Berry & Cedar (no longer made, found it at a flea market!) and now onto the classic Balsam & Cedar.

4. Last Friday Steve and the kids had their first snow day of the year (a joint one- very unusual!), and we took the opportunity to make our favorite seasonal M&M, Hershey Kiss, Pretzel treats: Chocolate Pretzel Treats Recipe (allrecipes.com) Side note: We melt ours at 200 degrees for 4 minutes. Every oven is different! We're going to make more this weekend. Shout out to SIL Erin, who first introduced me to them over 12 years ago!

5. A simple pleasure I look forward to every evening is getting cozy on our recliner couch with the family next to the twinkling Christmas tree with a throw blanket tucked around me, and my feet up on the footrest. These blankets from Target, in twin size, have become our favorite. We have three of them for the living room, and one as a blanket on each of our beds: Full/queen Microplush Bed Blanket Gray - Threshold™ : Target They remain soft and luxurious after many washings.

This Five on Friday has been brought to you by the five senses. Hope you, too, are enjoying the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of the holiday season!