Kally's Cauldron

Blogging. Oh how I have missed you!!

I've survived the first trimester and am starting to feel slightly more normal again. I had my third midwife appointment yesterday and she commented on how exhausted I looked. I have to admit, it felt good to have someone notice. Apparently, since this is my third pregnancy, I have no excuse to need extra help because I've been there, done that. What people seem to forget is I also have a 3 year old and a 16 month old to look after on top of making a baby. I know, no one told me to get pregnant but, well, I am, so understanding that I may not have the energy to be here, there and everywhere would make things just a little easier. Ah well!!

I'm fighting off the urge to start decorating for Yule! The plan is to wait until we go to the Santa Clause parade on the 26th...our "unofficial" start to the holiday season. It's just so darn tempting, because I LOVE everything about December (even the snow!!) We've started our Christmas shopping (barely) but I'm hoping to be done by mid-December. I'm still collecting ideas for Yule gifts for the kids (our aim is only homemade gifts for Yule...now if only we could convince everyone to do that for Christmas as well!)

I'm also trying to catch up on all of the blogs that I haven't read in ages and hopefully join a Yule blog party (I see buttons for quite a few!!)

Lastly, we're working on collecting and painting toilet paper rolls for our Santa Countdown Calendar. I'm so tired of buying the cheap chocolate ones, bleah!!

Happy Hump Day!!

The word exhausted barely even begins to cover it!! I thoroughly enjoy the holidays but I can’t say I’m ever disappointed to see them leave. We have one more big family shin dig on New Year’s Day and then we can finally just hunker down for the winter.

I’ve missed you all. I finally sat down and started catching up a bit with the blogs I follow. I was so sorry to miss the Longest Night Masquerade Ball. Yule was very simple this year as I was too busy planning and preparing for Bean’s baptism (do you sense the irony???). We did enjoy ‘breakfast for dinner’ and performed a small family ritual. We also made Hot Buttered Rum (minus the rum so Munchkin could drink some). The days until Christmas were busy cooking and baking with a little last minute shopping and wrapping thrown in for good measure. We spent Christmas Eve day tracking Santa’s route and then spent Christmas Eve with my family. We were so excited to have my daddy home!! We came back to our place that evening and woke up in the morning to lots of lovely gifts under the tree. The boys enjoyed opening their presents and then we got dressed and headed to my in-laws for their family Christmas. We left Munchkin there overnight and came home to prepare for Bean’s baptism on Boxing Day. Bean was baptized Sunday afternoon and we went back to my parents for munchies and presents afterwards. We’ve been vegging ever since! This week will be a quiet one so we can recoup a little!!

How were all of your holidays?

Since the beginning of December, I’ve shrugged off countless Facebook status’ that all pretty much say the same darn thing. The essence is “I celebrate THIS, so you’d better wish me Merry/Happy THIS or else you must be some sort of illegal immigrant who should go bother someone else in your own country.” Ok so they aren’t ALL exactly like that but you get the jist. It irritates me beyond anything that people, of any religion or culture, can’t just accept well wishing from someone. For a season that’s supposed to be about love, giving and happiness, the amount of intolerance that looms over it makes me sick to my stomach.

To make myself feel better (and I suppose to give an underhanded “stick it to you”), I wrote my own status:

I’d like to wish you my best for the season. So if I say Happy Holidays and you’d rather hear Merry Christmas, or I wish you Happy Yule and you’d rather hear Happy Chanukah, please accept my wishes of happiness and health in whatever way makes the most sense to you, regardless of the words that come out of my mouth.

Apparently, I failed to impress people because no one likes it when you refuse to tolerate their intolerance. Do I care? No. I said what needed to be said and I feel darn good about it!

May your Chanukah be light, your Yule be blessed, your Christmas merry and your Holidays happy! :)

Here's a few fun websites for you to check out with them:

Decorate your own gingerbread house (minus the sugar high and mess!!)

Get the lates updates from the North Pole, play a new game each day of December and then track Santa's flight as he delivers gifts around the world with Norad.

Check out the Yule issue of the Pooka Pages.



Planning a Secret Santa exchange with friends this year? Use Elfster to sign up your group, pick your Secret Santa partner (without the organizer having to see who has who) and create a wishlist.

I believe in Jesus. That probably sounds a little weird coming from someone who’s a practicing Pagan, but it’s the truth. I don’t, however, believe everything that Christians, or even the Bible, say about him. I believe he existed. I believe he wanted the best for humanity and tried to share this view but as people so often do, we’ve taken his words out of context and thrown in our own interpretations.

As Christmas approaches, I find myself in the same awkward spot that I have for the past couple of years. As a family, Boo, the boys and I celebrate both Yule and Christmas. I grew up surrounded by the “magic” of Christmas and I hope to give my boys the same thing. Yule has become an extension of that and I hope over the years that we will create traditions that reflect my Pagan beliefs and we can flawlessly mould the two together. But right now, that just isn’t happening for me.

I’m not sure how to look at Christmas anymore. It feels like more than a commercial holiday, but since I no longer follow Christianity, I don’t feel entirely right celebrating the “true meaning of Christmas”. But since I believe Jesus existed, is it ok to celebrate it in a less “religious” way? Do any of you celebrate both holidays? How do you go about it? Is there a way of bringing the two together or must they be kept separate?