Let's Talk About the Holidays

Whatever holiday you celebrate, I hope you're having a good one. We had a quiet socially-distanced family get together on Thursday. We exchanged gifts, sat outside, and wore masks. And yesterday we put up a Christmas backdrop, had my mom over for our traditional dinner and played some games. This is not the year for us to have a big party. 

This year we've been able to see people one-on-one in front of houses or in backyards. We've exchanged gifts by mailing them or dropping them at people's doors. While it's not conventional, for the most part it has been pretty nice, because we've had the chance to engage with people in different ways than usual.

We had our weekly Zoom brunch last weekend and did a white elephant gift exchange. We've also done our annual Die Hard viewing. While we're sitting around chilling this Covid Christmas, we've been catching up on what everyone's doing and learning some new things.

The tropics have awesome holiday traditions that we don't have, like Junkanoo and Parranda. 

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Drive-thru light shows are becoming increasingly popular this year. Our zoo has a drive through zoo lights. we haven't been yet, but we still might check it out. Above are some pics of our visit last year.

We've received a lot of cookies this season. Here are some of the best holiday desserts from around the world. One of my favorite things is a ginger cookie called Lebkuchen from Germany. They aren't on this list, but they should be.

I love a good myth and/or horror story. You've probably heard of Krampus, but have you heard of Yule Cat or Frau Perchta? If not, check out these scary legends of Christmas lore from around the world. 

This is the background I purchased for Christmas.

If you're like me, you've always wanted to go on vacation to visit the many Christmas markets of Europe, but we have family obligations and it's always more expensive to travel then. Well now you can check out these beautiful markets virtually and save money by not getting to buy anything.

New Year's Eve is going to be super weird this year for a lot of people. We don't normally go anywhere, but we enjoy watching celebrations online. This year we've decided we will celebrate in "Thailand" and then have a virtual Zoom party where friends and family can drop in and play games and share good wishes and stories from the previous year. If you want to feel like part of the action, check out these virtual celebrations around the globe.

You'll be seeing pics of my New Years Eve partying, especially if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook.

What are YOU doing for December 31?

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Going Back to Hogwarts

December is always a very busy month for us, with my birthday, and parties, and Christmas brunch and Yule Ball. This year has been different, but no less busy. In fact, we even still had our White Elephant brunch (via Zoom) and attended Yule Ball (virtually) for charity. We went back to Hogwarts...with friends...from home.

If you've missed my previous Yule Ball posts, check out 2019's pictures, 2018's, and 2017's. This is always a great event that raises a large amount of money for charity. This year was much smaller, and all online, with cheaper tickets, but we were still able to raise a ton of money for TransActive Gender Project. The Portland chapter of Harry Potter Alliance is trying it's hardest to combat the negativity from JK Rowling over the last year or so regarding trans people, because we actually believe in equality for all people and recognize trans women as women and trans men as men. We feel that donating to causes that she is against, but are wonderful and valid, we're doing our part as Book 8 to take back our fandom.

While everyone couldn't be at a ball with everyone else, we made it a weekend-long event, which included two dance parties by DJ Switch on Twitch, a Triwizard Tournament where champions did a list of tasks for points - just some of the tasks were making an owl out of a toilet paper roll, making a picture frame and pretending to be a moving portrait, doing the Beauxbaton's ribbon dance, and imagining a new Hogwarts class - competitive book trivia via an app on Twitch, a story time on our YouTube channel, a bookmark competition, an online raffle, and even a pick-up, take-home feast from a local bakery that created a special menu for this event.

On Friday we dressed up, went to pick up our feast from Hungry Heart Bakery, then came home to our decorated house and set out our food and got ready to rock out. Then we ate and had a mini dance party in our living room. 

On Saturday, I watched people post amazing Triwizard task entries on the event page, then tuned in for story time with a witch reading tales from Beedle the Bard. We reheated some leftover feast food (you don't think we actually ate all that, did you?) and then tried our hand at book trivia. 

On Sunday, I helped tally points for the tournament to choose our winners. Then later we got back on Twitch to rock out again, with our closing party, featuring nerd wrock music. We all learned about some great bands we hadn't heard before. This is also when all our tournament and trivia winners were announced, and all the raffle winners were pulled.

On Monday, we still had some of our feast leftover, so we had an unofficial 4th night of Yule Ball. While untraditional, like everything else this year, this was a fun and creative weekend that was low stress and a great way to end this year on a high note.  

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season, regardless of what you celebrate or don't. If you're looking for something to do this weekend, one of our local theaters is streaming their 2019 recorded showing of Die Hard: the Musical Parody. If you want to help keep a great venue alive and have a blast at the same time, this is definitely a good place to spend your money. This is a annual tradition for us now, and I'm glad we have the opportunity to still do keep that up.

How's everyone celebrating the end of 2020?

How to Prep for A Trip to Italy

Last week I spent my birthday in "Italy". This week, I'm deep in the midst of Yule Ball (planning, prepping and virtual partying), so I thought you'd like a little more info on where to go and how to prep for a trip to Italy, when we can finally go.

In the meantime, you can take tours, including gondola rides, online via YouTube, and you can even learn how to cook and more through Airbnb Experiences. 

What's next on your travel list?