Hello everybody!
Now, I know that Christmas is still a month away, but I’m really starting to get into that Christmas spirit. Aren’t you? If you’re not, go to your nearest department store. All those decoration could get anyone pumped about Christmas.
Anyways, we are back at it again with a whole new edition of the weekly blogging challenge. This week’s challenge was all about holidays. You could talk about holidays that you and your family celebrate, or just do anything relating to holidays. Here’s the criteria:
I’ve decided that I’m going to do numbers 1, 2 and 5.
My family celebrates most of the traditional “Canadian” holidays. Things like Easter, Canadian Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas, etc. You get the idea.
My favourite holiday personally is Christmas. Every year around Christmas time I’m usually always in a good mood. The snow, songs and general Christmas spirit really gets me happy.
My family celebrates Christmas every year. Starting about December 10th, our family really starts to ramp up for Christmas. We always get a tree. I love the smell of a Christmas tree around the house. Presents are put under it, and it really gives you some anticipation for Christmas Day.
After that, school gets out. This is when I really feel start to feel it. You start to celebrate with your family and friends.
On Christmas Eve, which is December 24th, we always have a couple relatives over. We have a pretty big family, so a few uncles and my grandparents always drop by. My dad always cooks up a big Christmas ham and other good things.
My dad is from Finland, so some of the food is Finnish-themed. You probably won’t see food like carrot casserole and beet salad on other people dinner plates for Christmas, but surprisingly enough it tastes quite good.
Another Finnish based celebration of Christmas is that most of the presents our opened of Christmas Eve. I know this sounds kinda weird, but that’s how most Europeans do it. Presents from family and friends are opened on Christmas Eve. Generally, these are smaller gifts. My siblings and I receive one big present from the big man Santa on Christmas morning. To be honest, I kinda like the way the Finns do it.
So now that we’ve covered a Finnish Christmas, let’s move on. I have a few photos from Christmas seasons over the years that bring back some good memories.
I think this one is pretty funny. This photo was from last year. We went to a display of Christmas lights and along the way we ran into Santa Claus. Obviously I was extremely hyped to meet my idol.
Some context to this photo. My little siblings (I have 4) were teasing me about being too old to appreciate the Christmas lights, Santa Claus and the reindeers. After we ran into Santa, I told them I was going to get a individual photo with hi and they didn’t believe me. I had to prove them wrong and it’s safe to say I did with that beauty of a photo.
This photo was from the same night. It was right before the sun set and the Christmas lights were pretty amazing. Just past the fence was a frozen lake and the surrounding trees were draped in Christmas lights. It was quite the scene. I edited this photo a little bit by adding the lens blur effect.
Now, moving on to a more light-hearted topic. There’s lots of Christmas themed video games out there, so you have to be careful when using them. Don’t go overboard downloading them. One of my favourite seasonal apps to download is called Elf Yourself. With this app, you take photos of yourself and your friends. After that, the app takes your face and puts it into the body of an elf. The elf then does some crazy dance moves. It’s good for a couple laughs. Here’s a funny example.
App review:
It’s pretty funny to “elf” yourself and your friends. However, the app is kind of a money grabber. Your elves can only dance at one “location” for free and if you want them to dance at different places (the beach, the mall, etc) it’ll cost about a dollar a location. For me, I just use the app occasionally to have a laugh so I don’t really need too much. Overall, pretty good app.
Well, that’ll wrap up today’s Christmas post. I really enjoyed making this.
Hope y’all have a good holiday season,
Nik
