new years eve kit

I always have big plans for christmas deliveries.. something nice to take around as a family to all our friends and neighbors. So many of our friends have great traditions they make each year. My friend Gwen bakes delicious Challah braids. Our old friend Valerie has mastered homemade caramels. My mom and dad make wonderful candied pecans. We haven't quite figured out one thing we want to make each year.

JR sometimes reminds me of the year I decided to make gingerbread cookie families for about twenty of our nearest and dearest (a big gingerbread dad and mom and small gingerbread children to represent each member of the family we were delivering it to). I was about 8 months pregnant at the time and spent about three days working on my gingerbread dough, rolling out the cookies, cutting and baking and then painstakingly decorating each gingerbread person, and packing them into boxes. It was a little crazy and added much to the holiday stress at our house.

Since then I have tried to think of things we can give that are thoughtful, but maybe don't demand quite as much time and effort as those gingerbread cookies did. This year we made New Years Eve Kits. Most of our friends have small children and won't be out partying too hard. We know most of them will be home watching movies and playing games and trying to make the night feel festive (while still tucking their kids in by 10!).

We bought a few 4-packs of sparkling apple cider, then hit the local party store for noisemakers, balloons, blowers, poppers and some sparkly confetti. We packed everything up in a clear party bag and delivered it with a bottle of Martinelli's.

Happy New Year!

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.