Christmas vs. Yule

Many years ago, I saw this cool documentary on the history of the holiday of Christmas, its' origins and transformation throughout the years. It was featured on The History Channel. Back then, I had recorded it from my VCR onto a tape, but recently I found it on YouTube and thought that I would share it with you. It is about 45 minutes in length, but I promise you it is well worth your time watching!  

I also included a bit of extra info regarding Yule traditions! I hope you enjoy!

 🎅🎄🎇🔔🎅🎄🎇🔔🎅🎄🎇🔔

                  (Excerpts shared from "Harvest Moon Enchancements" by The Good Witch)

The twelve days of Christmas originate with the Norse, beginning the night before the winter solstice and ending on the 6th of January when all decorations are removed.

Many of our modern traditions are rooted in the old pagan celebrations.

Mother Earth is asleep. It is a time of death, no crops grow, the earth is barren and food may be scarce.

Each day following the solstice grows longer with increasing sunshine and the promise of a rebirth of life.

Anthropologist E.W. Budge believed that this event was celebrated as long as 12,000 years ago.

• Yule is our celebration of the rebirth of the Sun. It is our rejoicing of the triumph of life over death.
• The theme of Yule is the return of light and the everlasting life of evergreens, representing continuing life.
• The earth has grown silent. It is the dark days, a time for contemplation of the year that has passed. It is a time of planning new beginnings, fresh starts, and the promise of blessings and things to come.
• It is a reaffirmation of life everlasting. We decorate with a focus on evergreens representing life – bay leaves, mistletoe, holly, vines, and holly berries. The trees of Yule are spruce, fir, and pine. Pine represents protection, healing, purification, wealth, rebirth, and immortality. We decorate with candles to welcome back the light.
• This is a day of feasting, dancing, and merry-making. No work is done on this day.
• The Norse believed that bells scared away bad fairies and scared away the dark. That is where the tradition of jingle bells originated.

Activities and Decorations:

Yule and the winter solstice are perhaps the busiest sabbats we have. It is combined with Christmas celebrations full of activities, parties, and family fun.

Yule is a celebration of the Sun.

Bonfires are lit, and a festival of lights represents the returning Sun. This is the origin of the tradition of hanging Christmas lights on our houses. This stems from the belief that “As above, so below.”

Light is the main theme of the winter solstice. Adorn your home with candles. The color white is for the returning light, green is for life everlasting, and red represents the sun.

The Yule Fire:

A Yule fire is a major feature to celebrate Yule and the winter solstice. Often, a piece of the Yule log from the prior winter will be saved to ignite this fire.

If you have no fireplace, an outdoor firepit or even a white candle placed in your cauldron can be used. Traditionally, the Yule fire remains burning till dawn

 🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔

FYI, this is a wonderful book written by Dorothy Morrison entitled, "Yule: A Celebration of Light & Warmth"!

 

Blessed Yule & Winter Solstice

 

Greetings, my friends and welcome to the first day of the Winter Solstice - ready or not! I took this pic just this morning although it actually began snowing on and off yesterday here in Berks County, PA ... ❆⛄🎄

I have been off from work since Tuesday and my husband was sick all week. Hence, I also now have a cold - sore throat, stuffy nose, and sneezing. At least I do not have to work all next week either because the company I work for is on holiday shutdown.

In the meantime, I stayed home and did a little organizing and such - very little. Hopefully, by next week I will feel better so that I can do more. Yesterday, I was cleaning out my makeup case. Getting rid of the old stuff as the blushes, eyeliners, and mascaras supposedly only have a six month shelf life. 

Okay, I was bored and decided to share a few more mascara swatches on my blog. These are color comparisons of the various shades I have purchased. As always, I used the L'oreal White Primer first before applying the colored mascaras. It helps to bring out the brightness and pigment of each color. So, here goes.

Lime Crime Astronomical mascara "Nebula" (above) and Chanel Noir Allure "Lilas" ...

On the left the "Lime Crime"  (Nebula) and on the right "Chanel Noir Allure" (Lilas). I much prefer the lighter Chanel Lilas to the deeper lavender in color of Nebula ... 

Next, two different shades of pink colored mascaras. Maybelline Sky High (Pink Air) mascara ...

and, ColourPop BFF mascara (Pink, Inc.) ...

Other than the obvious difference between the two brushes (the Maybelline, like the Chanel Noir Allure brushes, is flexible and helps separate your lashes well as opposed to the ColourPop brush which is soft, but the formula is somewhat thicker and so it tends to get rather clumpy), Maybelline Sky High is a bit lighter in pigment than the ColourPop. If you are going for a more subtle look, Pink Air is perfect. I love both colors; however, I am partial to the Pink, Inc. because I like the fact that it shows up a bit better ...

On the left Maybelline Sky High Mascara (Pink Air) and on the right ColourPop (Pink Inc,)

Since I liked the Maybelline Sky High Pink Air color so much, I decided to try the Blue Mist color with my ColourPop Super Shock eyeshadow called "Dream Much". The color is very vibrant and pretty! ...

And finally, Clinque's Chubby Lash Flattening mascara line. There were three colors other than black available when they introduced this product -   "Two Ton Teal", "Portly Plum", and "Massive Midnight" ... 

I was only able to purchase the "Portly Plum" and the "Massive Midnight", but the Portly Plum was far too dark and it, as with almost all burgundy, darker green, and dark purple colored mascaras, looked more black in color than anything and so I decided to get rid of it.

In compassion to Maybelline's Sky High "Blue Mist" (on left) the Clinique's "Massive Midnight" (on right) is a much darker shade of blue (too much like Navy Blue) and not one I will be wearing very often, if at all ...

The problem with most colored mascaras is that regardless of the brand, they come and go. The main reason for this is that they are considered trends and therefore it comes down to a matter of whether or not the cosmetic company will profit enough from it - which unfortunately is very rarely. One of the few colored mascaras which has stood the test of time is L'oreal Voluminous Cobalt Blue which can be found in almost any store for a lot less than the high end brands. Which is why when I like a colored mascara I buy as  much as I can while I can before it is discontinued. Brands such as Lime Crime, Urban Decay, and some of the ColourPop colored mascaras are no longer available for purchase unless you are lucky enough to find them on Amazon or Ebay.

I have included some cool videos of the brands that are still available ...

💚💜💙💗💛💚💜💙💗💛💚💜💙💗💛💚💜💙💗💛

In Loving Memory of My Mom: Skating Fever

Ever since I was a small child, my entire family had always been avid fans of figure skating. As far back as I can remember, I used to sit around the living room television with my folks ~ my eyes glued while watching the Winter Olympic Games. My oldest memory is from 1976 (I was in sixth grade then) when  Dorothy Hamill won her Gold Metal and, of course, I also remember the British Ice Dance pair of Torvil and Dean as they awed everyone with their legendary 6.0 Free Skate to the music of "Bolero."

My mom and I always watch Figure Skating every chance we get and always wished that someday we could actually see a skating competition live ~ holding our breath as our favorite skaters performed their athletic jumps and spins. And so in October of 2007, we had finally gotten that opportunity as Skate America (an important International Skating competition) was held in our home town of Reading, PA.

I bought tickets for both my mom and myself and my mother-in-law who also really enjoys Figure Skating. It was sort of a "girls night out" kinda thing.  It was far cooler than I had ever imaged as we walked through the stadium hallways listening to people speak their native languages of Japanese, Chinese, Russian, etc. It was like having the United Nations right here in the City of Reading!  Very cool!!

As we took our seats, to the left of us was Scotty Hamilton and Sandra Bezic commentating as we watched the skaters take their practice runs before taking the ice. We saw some really great performances from skaters such as American Champion Kimmie Meissner, Evan Lysacek who later went on to become the 2010 Oympic Men's Gold Metalist, Emily Hughes, World Champion Daisuke Takahashi from Japan, Canadian Ice Pair Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, American Olympic Ice Dance Silver Metalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White, Olympic American Ice Dance Champions Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, and so on ...

Kimmie Meissner had a flawless performance

Chinese Pair Team of Xiaoyang & Chen Wang

But I think the most exciting part of our evening was when Evan Lysacek landed his Quad Toe-Loop and continued to have a perfectly flawless performance as we all stood up and screamed at the top of our lungs, "YEAH! WHOO HOO! YEAH!!!

Of course, I had to pick up a little souvenir of this memorable occasion ...

I bought a Skate America Bear with commemorating pin and a huge color program for each of us. I remember my mom was so ecstatic to be there that at one point she looked over at me and said, "Kim, you did good!!!"

Afterwards, we all went out for a late dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and had a great time doing a bit of "family bonding."

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Both my mother and I adored the late Christopher Bowman. And so,  have included these videos as well ...

"California Dreaming" Skate America Exhibition performance.

"Bad Boy" Skate America Encore Exhibition performance.

Have a Blessed day everyone ... and stay warm!

Finishing touches

Greetings, friends! I decided to add a few finishing touches to the house. This tiny Yule wreath was handmade by my dear friend, Lady Sabrina Rhiannon a few years ago ...

I added some small bows to my plant hanger in my kitchen ...

The Christmas Cat bathroom towel set ...

One of my favorites - my Yule bunny ...

Holiday coasters ...

You have heard of "Where's Waldo"? Well, this is "Can you find the 6 kitties?" ...

This and That

Well, I finally had some time to do a bit of holiday decorating today. It is far from my usual annual Yule adornments, but it will have to do ...

My small ceramic tree ...

A few Christmas and Yule cards from lovely friends! ...

.

This will be Charlie's first Yule and Christmas with all of us ...

The boys just chillin' with their dad ...

 My screen saver pic from my very old 17.3" screen laptop ...

Just playing around with my colored mascara for the holidays ...

I still have to put out my holiday cat bathroom towels, but for the most part, my decorating is done until February 2nd (Imbolg and Groundhog Day). 🎄🎅🔔