Wednesday Hodgepodge~ December 10, 2025

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Hello friends!  I'm joining Joyce over at From This Side of the Pond for Wednesday's Hodgepodge. Each week, she hosts a weekly link-up that is a collection of questions for bloggers to answer. It's to help bloggers get to know each other better and have a little bit of fun! It's a great way to hang out with friends. So, grab a cup of coffee or tea if you prefer and join in on the fun. 

So, what is a hodgepodge? A hodgepodge is an unorganized mixture of various things, a jumble of items that don't belong together. 

Here are this week's questions and my answers for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge~ 

1. Do you struggle with the commercialization of the holiday season? What helps you keep your focus when the season’s busyness and commercialism start to take over? 

I hate the craziness of the holiday season. As someone who used to work in retail, I know firsthand how rude and crazy people can get during the holiday season. I hate the hustle and bustle. I actually try to avoid all the stores during this time. When I do go out it's usually on a Monday morning before the rest of the people are out and about. My goal is always to be done by 12! The concept of buy, buy, buy annoys me. SO often, we are buying gifts for people who really don't need them and many of them don't actually appreciate them. It can be rather stressful trying to find the perfect gift for some people. I would much rather have an old fashion Christmas with family and love. A cozy dinner surrounded by those I love. 

2. What's one small thing you want to savor before the year ends? 

Honestly, the peace and quiet of the house. We are expecting our first grandchild this February, and I will be watching him, so life is going to change drastically around here. We will have a sweet baby to love, but it will be a lot of work. The quiet will disappear but in a good way. I'm very excited and can't wait for those baby cuddles. 

3. December 9th is National Christmas Card Day. Do you still send Christmas cards? If so does yours include a photo or is it a more traditional card, or maybe homemade? How do you feel about the tradition of exchanging cards at the holidays? If Hanukkah is the holiday you celebrate in December, do you send cards to mark the occasion? 

I still send out Christmas cards, especially to my older relatives. I always feel sad when I open up my address book and realize that another relative has passed and is now in heaven. I actually worked on this past Saturday. I need to get some stamps to mail them out. When the kids were little, we did the photo card. Now that they are older, I've been doing just the good, old fashion Christmas cards. I like getting Christmas cards in the mail. It's part of the Christmas traditions that I grew up with. Sadly, I think less and less people are sending them out, now. I'm sure the cost of the stamp is part of that. 

4. What's your least favorite holiday related task? What's your favorite? 

My favorite activity is to bake cookies. I love baking. I miss the days of when the kids and I baked tons and tons of cookies together. We'd bake chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, and sugar cookies every year. We would also add a few extra kinds each year depending on what the kids wanted that year.  I'm looking forward to doing it when my grandson in a few years.

I hate cleaning for the holidays! I love everything else about the Christmas season...decorating, shopping (I try to get this done early), baking, cooking, etc. A close second to my least favorite activity is wrapping. I used to love it. I'd do ribbon and bows. I'd go all out. Now, I dread it. I don't do bows, ribbons, or tags anymore. I have a wrapping paper for each member of the family. They look for their paper and get to it. 

5. Let's do a little holiday this or that. 

• shopping or wrapping
• baking or decorating
• eggnog or wassail
• real tree or artificial
• turkey or ham
• white lights or colored lights 
• ugly sweaters or matching pjs
• peppermint or cinnamon 
• presents Christmas Eve or presents Christmas Day 

Shopping, I hate wrapping

Baking or Decorating... I can't decide, I love both!

Eggnog or wassail...neither I'm more of a hot chocolate girl

Fake tree, we have a pine allergy in our family. If we put up a real tree, my daughter would die

Turkey, I don't eat any pork 

white lights or colored, Both. I have white lights outside and around the nativity. I have colored lights on the Christmas tree. 

Matching pajamas

Peppermint, I don't like cinnamon, too spicey for me

Presents on Christmas morning

6. I love Christmas lights! I hate testing them and putting them on, but I love seeing all the lights around town. The colors fill the night with holiday cheer. They add a warmth to the holiday season. This year, we are heading to Pigeon Forge to see the lights there. I'm very excited. 

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Till Next Time,

Monique