the family gift swap

Both JR and I come from large families (there are six children in my family and five in his) so buying Christmas gifts for each and every sibling (and their spouses, and their children) has never quite worked for us.

The past few years in JR's family we have had a theme for our gifts, which has worked out really well. Two years ago we all gave each other board games (some of our family favorites are Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne and Settlers of Cattan). Last year we were inspired by the Favorite Things party I had just attended, where each person brings their "favorite" thing. Each family was to gather some of their favorite things and send it to their assigned family. You can see our gift from JR's older sister in the photo above. Each little package included some favorite thing from each person in their family (minty M&M's are a favorite of Dad's, mom loves scented candles, etc.) The kids had a great time unwrapping each one and learning about their cousin's and aunt's and uncle's favorites.

For our Favorite Thing, we shared our ritual of Tea Time, something JR and I were trying to do every few nights. We had gotten into a bad habit of putting the kids to bed and then retreating to our computers, to finish up emails and catch up on work. Some nights we would watch a show, but we both felt like we weren't really spending time together in the evenings (even if we were both in the same room). Tea Time was our solution.

The note read: After the children are tucked in bed and fast asleep, we take turns boiling the water on the stove and getting out the tea bags. We fill our mugs with hot water and let the tea steep, then stir in a little sugar. Tea takes some time to cool, so we sit and talk at the table while we sip our tea and discuss the business of our family. Sometimes we take the time to play a game. After a busy day, it's just nice to sit down together and talk for a minute. We hope you'll think so too.

We included two nice shaped mugs from Pottery Barn (perfect for sipping tea) and a pack of our favorite tea (our new favorite is Tazo's Wild Sweet Orange Tea.. it is delicious!) and our favorite card game (Coloretto).

How do you handle gift swaps in your family? Do siblings buy for each other? What about cousins? Because we now have about 18 children between us, we have the cousins do a swap too. We've tried different things, like the year we had everyone make cards for each other (not as big a thrill for the kids as we had hoped!). But the past few years we have done a book swap, each child picking out a book they think their assigned cousin would enjoy. So far, so good.

inchmark holiday cards

I know I'm late to the party, and you're probably one of those people who has already written, addressed, stamped, and mailed your cards off. (I aspire to be you one of these days, but alas, it hasn't happened yet!) But if you are a procrastinator like I am, I wanted to share the holiday cards I designed for Tiny Prints this year... there's still plenty of time to mail out some cards to your loved ones.

I feel pretty strongly about sending out cards. I know that they cost money, and it's just one more thing to do when you're already so busy. And in this digital age, I know you can just say "Happy Holidays" on your Facebook page and consider yourself good (though I consider that cheating). I don't write family letters (like the funny ones my dad used to write), and we don't always include a picture (sometimes that's the hardest part of getting a card together) but we send out SOMETHING each year. Some are more elaborate than others. And some years they get there a little after Christmas (whoops!). But I think my friends and family understand.

Those few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite of the whole year. I love getting cards in the mail each day, I love seeing how my friends have changed and how their kids look so much like them. I love reading the sometimes cheesy letters that detail each big event of the past year. I love cards in every form: letterpressed, foil stamped, homemade, or bedazzled. I just love that someone took the time to send me a card in the mail.

Do you agree? Or do you think cards are an aniquated tradition? Are emails and digital PDFs the new way to go? What will you be sending out to your friends and family this year? I'd love to hear. 

Links to my cards on Tiny Prints:

Silent night, Holy night card

Joy (4 child option)

Christmas Tree family

Joy (3 child option)

name that kid

Last weekend my husband and I were in charge of putting on our church Christmas party. We usually have a family party, with a visit from Santa Claus, but this year we decided to have an adult only sit down dinner. We hoped it would give people a chance to mingle and get to know one another, more so than when we are busy running after our children.

We knew we needed a game of some sort to kind of bring the party together. So we asked everyone to email a Christmas photo from their childhood, and we used a projector to project the pictures on the wall. They were numbered, so everyone had a card numbered 1-50, and you had to write down who you thought each kid was. We laughed at how easy we could recognize certain people because their children look exactly like them when they were kids. A box of Trader Joes peppermint Jo-Jos was our prize for the winner.

I think this would work well for a Christmas party at home, and you wouldn't need a projector. Just have people bring a photo with them in an envelope (so people don't see who brought which photo), then arrange them on a wall or table along with numbers and have everyone write down who they think is who.

We loved seeing so many photos from Christmases past.. sitting on Santa's lap, acting out the nativity, decorating the Christmas tree, leaving cookies for Santa. It made me realize the importance of documenting these moments with my own kids... to help them remember what Christmas was like when they were a kid.

A special thank you to my friends who let me post their photos here!

the christmas toys

This is how I find Bee most mornings.. downstairs in the family room playing with our Christmas toys, still in her pajamas. Breaking out the Christmas boxes is always fun, the kids love to see the ornaments and the lights and our growing collection of Christmas books (we add one new book each year). But the most anticipated boxes are the ones which hold our Christmas toys.

My sister-in-law has started a lovely tradition, which I believe was started in her family a while back. Each year, around the first week in December she sends our family a package that reads "Do not wait until Christmas! Open immediately!". And inside is some sort of Christmas toy. When my children were smaller she gave us a new Little People set each year, first the nativity.. then Santa and his reindeer, next the Christmas village. (Word to the wise: Most of these play music of some sort, so we have an Only-One-Toy-Has-Batteries-at-a-Time Rule. Trust me, you'll want to do likewise.) This year she sent the Playmobil nativity set (which I have had my eye on for quite a while.. it is awesome!).

The kids love their Christmas toys, perhaps because they are only out for a few weeks each December and are then packed away with the other decorations. (And I love that the kids are happily occupied for a bit so I can get a few items crossed off my To Do list!)

on keeping calm

It's December! And somehow that makes my heart beat a little bit faster. The list in my head is growing longer and longer each day (get the Christmas tree, put up the decorations, design the Christmas cards, finish the shopping, frost the christmas cookies, mail the presents, etc. etc. etc.)

I love Christmas. I always have. But Christmas as a mother of three is leaving me a little breathless. There is a fine line between making Christmas a special time filled with fun activities and family events, and making Christmas a harried season that's too busy and filled with stress.

So my mantra this Christmas season is to keep things calm. I am trying to be more intentional about how we celebrate this year. Choosing carefully the things we will take on as a family, skipping things I feel will add stress to the holidays and focusing on the simple things that we can do together.

My list is looking like this now: Hang the advent calendar. Trim the tree. Find some small acts of service for those in need. Read the Christmas story as a family. Mail our packages early. Enjoy our week of being still.

I will still want to make Christmas cookies with the kids, and hand sew a doll for Bee, and sew pajamas for the kids (all those years at Martha Stewart are still with me). But I will choose carefully the projects I take on, and if I feel the stress rising, I will put things aside. I don't want my children to look back at holidays and remember a mother who was stressed and crazed and taking on way too much.

If anything, I want the days surrounding Christmas to have a special feeling. Calm. Peaceful. Loving. And that is how I would like my children to remember their mother at Christmas too. (Why is this harder than it sounds?)

fa la la #4

I love the idea of kids growing up on a farm (maybe even my own kids someday... there's still time!). Having to get up early and milk the cows, seeing the vegetables grow and ripen, the whole family having to pitch in together to make it all work.

So that could be why I fell in love with this book, Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl Buck (and oh so beautifully illustrated by Mark Buehner.) 

A teenage son overhears his parents talking, and realizes for the first time, that his father loves him. "Neither his father nor his mother talked about loving their children—they had no time for such things. There was always so much to do on a farm."

He wants to get his father a special gift for Christmas. He has little money, but he needs to show his father that he loves him... so he comes up with a plan. "He could get up early, earlier than four o'clock, and he could creep into the barn and get all the milking done. He'd do it alone.. and then when his father went in to start the milking, he'd see it all done. And he would know who had done it."

(I have high hopes that if I read this story to my children enough times, I will one day come downstairs Christmas morning to see the house spotless and all the laundry washed and folded.)

fa la la #3

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry tells the story of a big, grand tree delivered to Mr. Willowby, by special delivery. But the tree is just a bit too tall, so they trim off a few feet. The top is perfect for Miss Adelaide, the upstairs maid, but she also must trim the top of her tree.

The little tree is then passed on to the gardener, who trims a bit (snatched by the Bear family), and on and on to the Fox family, the Rabbits, and even to the little mice who live in Mr. Willowby's house.

"Oh isn't it grand to have a tree - exactly like Mr. Willowby!"

fa la la #2

I sometimes have a hard time knowing if a book is truly great.. or if I just remember loving it as a little girl, and so it has become wonderful only to me. The Night Before Christmas (illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa) is one of those books I can recall vividly from my childhood... page by page. 

Whenever I hear Clement Moore's poem, it is always these images I see in my head. I love everything about it. The title page with the wooden stick letters and the cutaway view of the house as everyone gets ready for bed.

And the amazing sugarplum dreams of the sleeping children.. (which I especially loved because we had six children in our family.. three boys, three girls)

And I love the little jolly Santa, a bit on the petite side. Oh, I adore this book.. but my son has had a few questions: "Where's Rudolph, mom?" "And are these the mean reindeer that were calling him names?"

fa la la #1

Each year I try to pick up a few additions to our Christmas library, special books that are tucked away in the Christmas box with the ornaments and the lights and only read in December. This week I'll be sharing some of our favorites.

I have a soft spot for The Nutcracker. I remember seeing it with my mother as a child, how I dreamed of taking ballet class and dancing as one of the little mice. I've seen it in San Francisco, I've seen it in New York City. And I love it, each and every time.

There are several book versions of the Nutcracker story, but I love this one by Susan Jeffers, because it stays true to the story as you see it unfold in the ballet.

And did I mention the illustrations are magical? Perfect with a mug of hot cocoa.

advent: part one

I know I'm one day late to the party, but I finally finished my little advent calendar last night, just in the nick of time. Nothing like a deadline to get me moving.

When I was little, we had a similar advent calendar. Made of felt, with snaps.. I think. I've combed through the attic at my parent's house on several occasions looking for it, but no luck. So I had to improvise and make my own. 

I love felt, especially the good stuff. I hope this calendar will be used for quite some time, pulled out year after year, so I didn't mind taking the time to stitch it by hand. (It also gave me a good excuse to watch a little TV and still feel productive.) Bee and C have been watching me make it, and are thrilled it is finally December at last! 

The pockets were stitched using the number template I made for the Purl Bee (and Page's advent calendar is so bright and lovely). The buttons on the tree are a mixed bunch, all from a big bag of antique buttons I splurged on at Quilt Market. Here are the ornaments for week 1, more to come!