Are you preparing for X-mas?

Since I live in a country where we have shorter and darker days in winter and usually snow on Christmas, I guess it comes naturally to love the season. :) I've always loved this holiday - and not because I'm Christian, because I'm not, so that's not my reason for celebrating. No, I love it because of the atmosphere. <3

I love it when the days get shorter, and people set up chandeliers in their windows and decorate the bushes and trees with just enough holiday lights for them to resemble the starlit skies, but not bright enough to light up. It looks as if the stars have fallen down into the gardens, and it's so pretty. <3
I love getting up in the morning, drink a hot cup of chocolate and revel in the scent of cinnamon, ginger and saffron. When people sing carols and every store is bustling with life, of people tenderly wrapping presents the best they can. When white snow covers everything, and as the first rays of sunlight strike the trees; they resemble crystal trees from a faraway magical land.
I love the many tiny, porcelain santas sitting in every corner of the house, and all the curtains and table cloths go in the classic colors; red, green and snowy white. I love lighting candles, drinking milk and eat gingerbread cookies while preparing for the great Christmas feast - just as in the old times. :)
The great feast is typical Swedish I think (I don't know). We don't have any turkey-dinner like many other countries, Sweden has no such tradition. No, we make a Christmas smorgasbord equivalent (do you recognise that word? :) It's originally Swedish!) with so much food it lasts for days and days, with all the dishes we love. Every Christmas table looks essentially the same, give or take a few dishes for every family.
I love building up for that feast, stuffing away food in the freezer until it's so full nothing else can go in there... *laugh*

But I've derailed a bit. :) What I was going to talk about was embroidery. I've found an old magazine with really old, Victorian cross stitch patterns! <3 They're really pretty, and they represent that old, beautiful Christmas we don't have anymore - with handmade toys, rocking horses, porcelain dolls, snow globes and toy trains, far away from cheap plastic toys and awful, singing plastic trees or santas.
I'm going to embroider every pattern in there, and I'm going to be very, very happy. <3