ADVENTure
I was invited this month by the wonderful Roxana of Illuminated Perfume to participate in a little Blog-a-rama called ADVENTure. Every day since Nov. 29, a different blogger has written a post about how scents are wrapped up in our holiday celebrations.
I'll tell you, reading through the other posts through the last weeks, I've been a little horrified about putting words down! Some of these posts are so beautifully written, so poignant, so heartfelt, I wondered how I would ever come up with anything meaningful. See, I barely have any memories of Christmas as a kid, and none of them have to do with any scents. Nothing to do with my parents lack of putting on wonderful holiday celebrations, mind you. I just have a weird memory that brings up strange bits, such as unwrapping about a hundred different tiny Barbie accessories that my mom wrapped separately (6 Barbie hangers, a pair of Barbie shoes, a Barbie purse... you get the idea). The Christmas dinner that we ate in the Army mess hall because we had just moved (with a Christmas tree, decorated, in our van, traveling from Alabama to Texas).
Then I realized that the scents that I think of as holiday smells are from the traditions that I've created with my husband and family. The bottle of perfume my husband buys me, because it's the scent I wore when we were dating 15 years ago. The cocoa we drink while we drive around and look at all the decorations and lights on the solstice. The smell of the real Charlie Brown tree that we go and pick our every year. The chocolate chip cookie "pizza" I make every year for Christmas morning breakfast (Yes, we eat cookies for breakfast on Christmas. Sue me.).
Though my memories of childhood Christmases past might be a little hazy, I hope, through annual traditions, that I'll be able to create childhood memories for my children that they will remember far into adulthood. Ones that they will treasure and maybe even recreate with their own children. Or maybe they'll only remember the year that Tanner threw up all over the Christmas tree skirt....
Tune into Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom later today for the winners of the last two giveaways, and a the start of a new one!!
I'll tell you, reading through the other posts through the last weeks, I've been a little horrified about putting words down! Some of these posts are so beautifully written, so poignant, so heartfelt, I wondered how I would ever come up with anything meaningful. See, I barely have any memories of Christmas as a kid, and none of them have to do with any scents. Nothing to do with my parents lack of putting on wonderful holiday celebrations, mind you. I just have a weird memory that brings up strange bits, such as unwrapping about a hundred different tiny Barbie accessories that my mom wrapped separately (6 Barbie hangers, a pair of Barbie shoes, a Barbie purse... you get the idea). The Christmas dinner that we ate in the Army mess hall because we had just moved (with a Christmas tree, decorated, in our van, traveling from Alabama to Texas).
Then I realized that the scents that I think of as holiday smells are from the traditions that I've created with my husband and family. The bottle of perfume my husband buys me, because it's the scent I wore when we were dating 15 years ago. The cocoa we drink while we drive around and look at all the decorations and lights on the solstice. The smell of the real Charlie Brown tree that we go and pick our every year. The chocolate chip cookie "pizza" I make every year for Christmas morning breakfast (Yes, we eat cookies for breakfast on Christmas. Sue me.).
Though my memories of childhood Christmases past might be a little hazy, I hope, through annual traditions, that I'll be able to create childhood memories for my children that they will remember far into adulthood. Ones that they will treasure and maybe even recreate with their own children. Or maybe they'll only remember the year that Tanner threw up all over the Christmas tree skirt....
Tune into Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom later today for the winners of the last two giveaways, and a the start of a new one!!