Friday, December 25, 2020

The 12 Days of Christmas Quest for 2020 Begins Today!

 
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! Happy Chanukkah to all my Jewish friends! Feliz Navidad, Kwanzaa Blessings and Happy Holidays to everyone else!

Today marks the official start of the 12 Days of Christmas for 2020 and it is time for the 12 Days of Christmas Quest to begin!

This has been quite the year hasn't it?! A year like nothing else we've seen in our lifetimes up to this point unless one of you happens to be over 100! We have seen some of the worst that mankind can offer and we've seen some of the best that mankind can offer. It is certainly a year that we will never forget.
 
That is why this year, your tasks are going to be rather different. Each day over the next 12 days, I'll be asking you questions to find out what the impact of the last year has been on your life--how it has affected you, what things you've had to do differently, how you've had to adjust your life--that kind of idea. You will be able to leave your daily answer in a comment on the post for each respective day. If you follow the instructions for each day, you'll earn a free digital paper.

I know that this is a crazy busy time of year and hopefully the majority of you are off-line and spending quality time with the people within your household (and further extended if you are in an area doing well for the moment); so, be rest assured, that you will have plenty of time to complete each task. AS LONG AS all your TASKS are submitted, no later than January 12th, 2021, then you will qualify to receive the paper(s) for whichever day(s) you participate.

Here is the paper up for grabs today...
 

This paper is 3600 x 3600 pixels, in jpg format and published at 300 dpi. Credits include: Tiana Geo (via Creative Fabrica) and Pixaroma (DealJumbo). In the zip folder that will be emailed should you successfully complete the quest, you will find a copy of the paper, its preview sheet, the credit information and my terms of use which are standard to all my folders.

Play along each of the 12 days and you'll earn yourself the full set! So, how about we get started with today's task?!!


On the first day of Christmas,
it is time to earn paper number one,
So, I hope that you will all join in
and have yourself a little bit of fun!!!
 
Task:
Most of us have Christmas traditions that we incorporate into our lives each year. This year Christmas is very different for many people in the world unless you happen to be living in New Zealand or Australia or other countries that are doing so much better.

Are there any specific holiday traditions that you are relying on to help make this Christmas a special one? Obviously this is a different year in light of Covid-19, so are you creating any new traditions in light of the situation we find ourselves in? 
 
For myself, it is generally just hubby and me for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We call my parents and hubby calls some of his siblings but for the most part we just spend a quiet day with each other. Covid hasn't changed that for us. We have a tradition of cooking specific food items for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and we'll take comfort in those same traditions.

When you come up with a response for today's task, simply leave your response in a comment on THIS POST. Now for many of you, especially those who have played in previous years, the odds are that I should have your e-mail address in order to send out the free paper you earn. If you are new to the quest or are not sure whether I might have your email address, please be sure to also leave your email address in your comment.  Now if you are afraid of being spammed, you can write your address by adding {at} and {dot} in their respective spots (see sample below) so that robot spammers won't grab it from the comments when they are published. If you would prefer that no one else see your email address, then you can send it to me in an email to decossesdynamitedoodles {at} yahoo {dot} ca (be sure to replace 'at' and 'dot' with the appropriate symbols) or by clicking HERE to bring up my address in your email program, with the subject heading, "12 DoC 2020: Email Addy for DP Mail Out".

This is a busy time of year for me too and I also want to spend some time with my hubby as well; so, I ask that you please be patient with me. I generally wait until the entire quest is over so that way if someone has participated in all 12 Days, I can just save time and send out the full set at once. So I'll make a list (and check it twice 😉) throughout the 12 Days of Christmas Quest keeping track of who has participated and then work on sending out papers once the event has wrapped up. If someone has participated each day over the next 12 days and has managed to get all their answers in by Jan. 5th, then I'll start mailing as of then. If not, I'll be waiting until the 12th when the deadline is over.

Merry Christmas, my wonderful friends, followers and readers! See you all tomorrow for day number two!!!

Cheers!

19 comments:

Suze said...

For the most part Christmas is the same as other years for my family as we have had no community transmission for several weeks and what there has been has been contained reasonably quickly. We rotate hosting Christmas lunch and this year that involved travelling to another city which were able to do.

Edwina said...

Well, no really, but our meal was very different. We went with French recipes for Christmas dinner which we had at lunch then soup and a baked Brie for supper. It was very different food for our Christmas day as it was just the three of us. Edwina Brown

Four11Lady said...

Lisa,

Since I have not been well for quite awhile, I have not been able to go to church like I used to on Christmas Eve, but since Covid has been around there are a couple of churches that I like that have put services online, so I still was able to view Christmas services on Christmas Eve. My grown kids still came over on Christmas Day, but since I am high risk, we maintained social distancing which was different, but still nice to have them here. Hubby cooked dinner, which he also did at Thanksgiving, so THAT was very different, but was wonderful. I just feel blessed that I was able to still celebrate my Lord and Savior and also enjoy 3 of my local children today.
Thank you for this fun once again! Glad this is still the same...........LOL

Marilyn said...

usually for Christmas Eve, My Brothers and Sister take turns having Christmas eve at our houses. This year it was my turn and we did get together, but not everyone that usually comes didn't this year. Christmas Day, my kids and grandkids come to eat at our house. Hopefully next year will be a better year for everyone.
Have a great day!
Marilyn💖
mimicaro9650 at yahoo dot com

Lori m said...

Hi Lisa, beautiful digi papers this year, you are so creative. Belated Christmas and Holiday wishes and Happy New Year early.

This year was a sad Christmas, no Christmas caroling, no visits or getting together with family and friends. No enjoying our favorite holiday movies together and eating or traditional holiday foods.

So...instead, I baked again this year and decorated my sugar cookies which was new for me lol, I made larger cookie trays for family and friends, sent my Mom flowers and dropped off gifts, waving to folks through windows.

Better safe and we will all get together and celebrate when things are better.

For folks that I knew, could not, or didn't put up a Christmas tree, I made them a miniature sewn Christmas tree so they would have something at least.

Guess this sums up Christmas and soon to be New Years in my household. Hugs, Lori m

Mandy said...

Happy Christmas to you Lisa and your hubby.

As you know this year is definitely different. We are limited in what we can do and where we can travel in the UK depending on the tiers we are in. This has definitely curtailed the festivities but it is what it is. We had MIL over for dinner so she wasn't alone. Grateful that we could Facetime other family members, especially our nephew who was born on Christmas Day 24 years ago. This is only 1 of 2 years that we have not spent Christmas Day and his birthday with him :(

My tree finally went up on the 22nd December. I have a tradition that I watch Elf (and possibly other Christmas films) whilst putting up my tree and decorations. It puts me in the Christmas mood and ever fails to make me smile.

ScrappyHorses said...

The one tradition COVID has NOT changed is the act of giving extra feed to the barn animals on Christmas Eve and sharing the story of the manger animals. This year our little grand-girl was here and participated in the act. She also found a Christmas sock with horse treats! A new, and hopefully not a tradition, act was to see my dad through the window at the nursing home where they currently have cases of COVID. He seemed happy to have us there even though it was hard to hear and such.

Carole J said...


Lisa, I hope you and your husband had a wonderful Christmas. The elf paper you are showcasing today is delightful!
I was grateful that the Covid Restrictions were lifted for Christmas Day in my region in the UK. I was able to see my sister and niece and nephew for our traditional Christmas dinner and exchange gifts as usual. I definitely missed the usual run up to Christmas, traditions such as the Carol Services and Light for Lives charity evening at the local hospice which cared for my mum and the Carol Singing my husband leads on Christmas Eve at my MIL's rest home. I missed Christmas markets and the street entertainment too. I missed mince pies, coffee and cozy chats with my friends. I have, however, started to meet friends in the town park to have a walk and a take away hot drink. This is a tradition I will certainly be keeping. xx

Twórcze pasje Danki said...

I live in Poland and we have a very bad political situation. But for me, Covid didn't change anything. As usual, the three of us sat down to Christmas Eve dinner with my husband and my mother who lives with us. This year, my daughter went to visit her husband's family and she visited us on the eve eve of Christmas Eve. And our son visited us on the second day of Christmas. Traditionally, there were 12 dishes and gifts for dinner.

Donna said...

How did I get three days behind with this already? LOL! Never a dull moment around here. Usually we travel for Christmas. This is the first Christmas that we've ever been at home in the entire 43 years of our marriage. So this was very different for us. We are usually surrounded by family during the holidays. So Christmas eve it was just my DH and I. Late Christmas afternoon my DD, SIL and the twins showed up to unwrap presents and have dinner with us. We Zoomed with our sons and wives in Boston so they could watch the twins unwrap the gifts they sent. And after they went home it was a quiet Christmas evening. Christmas is usually pretty chaotic. It was much milder this year.

Marie Bingaman said...

No new traditions here. We have been watching A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott for years each Christmas Eve. We made lasagna roll ups and stuffed shells for Christmas day, and hubby's brother came over with his girlfriend. That's about it! :)

Karen Page said...

All our family is in FL and we're in GA, so for the last 10 years we've had Christmas here with just me, hubby, and our son. We usually make a big dinner even for just 3 of us, so we have lots of leftovers. We did this year as well, but we decided after years of going low carb and still be overweight that 2020 showed us life was too short to live without bread and pasta!!! I made flaky dinner rolls for Christmas dinner, which was far better than the ham or all of the other sides put together!!! LOL And while we will still be watching what we eat in the new year, I am learning how to make sourdough starter because bread will be a norm in 2021. I'll consider breaking the carb addiction AFTER the pandemic is gone for good. Thanks for continuing this tradition, Lisa! I look forward to it every year!!! ~Karen Page karenpagedave at yahoo dot com

Tiggerscraps said...

Nothing new, but thankfully we were able to still come up to KY to be with our family!!

Julie Odil said...

Hi Lisa,I'm so glad to see the 12 day of Christmas papers again this year! No new Christmas traditions for us, except a couple of Zoom calls that we didn't even know how to do last year!

Christine Harrop said...

Generally travel north to visit my family on Boxing Day - a definite No NO this year. Instead come the spring, when hopefully the vaccination programme will be in full swing,we will be celebrating Christmas again with members of my family travelling south to spend it with us - Christmas tree will be definitely re-erected! Take care. Christine x

Cara said...

We have several movies that we watch ... the first one is A muppet Christmas Carol, which was something we started watching on Thanksgiving evening when our kids were young. It still continues today but we also added a new movie this year called The man who invented Christmas. It is about Charles Dickens and the writing of The Christmas Carol.

Aimeslee Winans said...

Hi Lisa, gonna try doing this. Well, it's just my Honey and me at home now, so with the lockdown and me self-isolating due to auto-immune issues, we decided to not adhere to any of our usual traditions, instead try new. We did not decorate the front yard or put our tree up inside. Instead, we enjoyed my homemade decorations and displayed cards sent us over the years. We did not have traditional food on Christmas Day, we had steak and baked potato. And then it turned out that I had a health setback and was not able to send out a zillion Christmas cards like I've usually done, so that was ironically fitting, ha! It was a totally different Christmas with just us and we enjoyed it just fine, but we actually wanted it to be different. XOX

dorsetdawndesigns said...

Just found your quest good job you had extended to the 12th or I would have missed it completly. On Christmas morning we like to open our stockings together - great fun, then we get the Christmas lunch ready before my aunt arrives and causes chaos!

Vivian Foo said...

It was hard last Christmas as my country only limited to 5 house guest and dinning out. So I have to do it in a few separate groups. But No tradition for us.