Millie writes:
Decorate your Christmas tree! This can mean something different to each family who celebrates Christmas: you might hop in the car and head out to a lot, bundle up and cut your own on a tree farm or go up to the attic and bring down your tree-in-a-box. Some people decorate an interesting "found" branch they've stuck in a bucket of sand, and others have a roll-up felt wall-hanging tree with felt ornaments.
Whatever "The Tree" means to you, its set-up, location and decoration are probably governed by long-standing family tradition. For example, we use a lot of lights on our tree - and I mean a lot, one year we had more than 25,000 twinkle lights on it and oh, what a tree that was! - so light placement usually takes place over the course of a day or two. When they're all on the silver-and-gold bead garlands are draped. Then the ornaments and candy canes - and, this year, tinsel!
Play Christmas music while you work. Serve eggnog when you're finished. Take lots of pictures. Don't worry if the red balls are all on one branch or the left side of the tree is bare - who cares? It will look beautiful anyway (and if it really bothers you, you can "fix" it after the kids are in bed).
About ornaments: we each make a new one every year (this year we stitched our own designs onto plastic canvas squares using yarn - the kids will take their homemade ornament "trousseaus" with them when they move out) and I buy a new one, too (this year I added to my Star Santa collection, but I'm hoping to find a red glass bird as well). There's also a glass pickle ornament that I hide in the tree while we're decorating; the first one to find the pickle wins!
I confess that since a) we have a houseful of kids who can't wait and b) we use a fake one, we put our Christmas tree up a day or two after Thanksgiving. Of course we don't decorate it until everyone can be here - something that gets more and more difficult to schedule each year, as people grow up and get jobs and lives - but it's one of my favorite parts of the whole season. If there is a gaudier piece of oversize jewelry than a Christmas tree, I don't know what it is; and its twinkling, shining presence in the house is a visible link to Christmases past, Christmas present, and Christmases yet to come.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Christmas Gifts 102: The Stockings
Mollie writes:
Over the years, our family has come up with a bunch of traditions that probably identifies us as a little weird. With little kids, it was always a struggle to get them to go to bed on Christmas Eve without opening just one present. As often as not, we'd break down and let them open one, just so they would close their eyes and let us get some sleep!
When they would roll out of bed Christmas morning, we'd start with their Christmas stockings. When they were in their Santa Claus years, we'd put little toys and candy in their stockings. But at some point, they just outgrew the cutsie stuff.
What's a Mollie to do? At some point, you have pre-teens who just eschew the toy and candy thing and want to go directly to the big stuff. But John and I always had the most fun with the stockings. You can stuff one of those with just about anything and a kid would be happy.
One year, once the boys were both in middle school, I was having a hard time keeping track of my pens. I'd buy a big bag of them in August, and by November they'd all be gone. So that Christmas, I put Bic pens in their stockings, and for good measure, I put an assortment of "Hello Kitty" pens in my stocking. Once I'd converted to pink pens, I never lost another; imagine a middle school boy showing up in class with a "Hello Kitty" pen - I think not!
But this set a precedent. We started putting goofy things in stockings and ended up having a blast. Imagine a 14 year old thanking his mother for the Odor Eaters in his stocking, and the 12 year old thanking the same mother for the bottles of Bean-o in his. Add cough drops, little boxes of raisins, warm socks, mittens and the occasional pink pearl eraser and you get my point. A mother could both entertain her kids AND make a statement with Christmas stockings. And it was cheap!
Of course my kids are grown now, one having made several deployments in the Middle East, the other married and buying a home of his own. But I'm still having the time of my life, coming up with tacky stocking stuffers.
The ground rules are easy. It has to be something that the kid needs (Odor-Eaters? a MUST for a teen boy), it must be something normally kept around the house anyway, and it must be cheap. If you stick to the big three, you'll all be laughing your heads off before they tear into the serious stuff. It's a good ice-breaker for families everywhere!
Over the years, our family has come up with a bunch of traditions that probably identifies us as a little weird. With little kids, it was always a struggle to get them to go to bed on Christmas Eve without opening just one present. As often as not, we'd break down and let them open one, just so they would close their eyes and let us get some sleep!
When they would roll out of bed Christmas morning, we'd start with their Christmas stockings. When they were in their Santa Claus years, we'd put little toys and candy in their stockings. But at some point, they just outgrew the cutsie stuff.
What's a Mollie to do? At some point, you have pre-teens who just eschew the toy and candy thing and want to go directly to the big stuff. But John and I always had the most fun with the stockings. You can stuff one of those with just about anything and a kid would be happy.
One year, once the boys were both in middle school, I was having a hard time keeping track of my pens. I'd buy a big bag of them in August, and by November they'd all be gone. So that Christmas, I put Bic pens in their stockings, and for good measure, I put an assortment of "Hello Kitty" pens in my stocking. Once I'd converted to pink pens, I never lost another; imagine a middle school boy showing up in class with a "Hello Kitty" pen - I think not!
But this set a precedent. We started putting goofy things in stockings and ended up having a blast. Imagine a 14 year old thanking his mother for the Odor Eaters in his stocking, and the 12 year old thanking the same mother for the bottles of Bean-o in his. Add cough drops, little boxes of raisins, warm socks, mittens and the occasional pink pearl eraser and you get my point. A mother could both entertain her kids AND make a statement with Christmas stockings. And it was cheap!
Of course my kids are grown now, one having made several deployments in the Middle East, the other married and buying a home of his own. But I'm still having the time of my life, coming up with tacky stocking stuffers.
The ground rules are easy. It has to be something that the kid needs (Odor-Eaters? a MUST for a teen boy), it must be something normally kept around the house anyway, and it must be cheap. If you stick to the big three, you'll all be laughing your heads off before they tear into the serious stuff. It's a good ice-breaker for families everywhere!
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Christmas Every Day: Day 4
Millie writes:
Make or buy Christmas cards and spend the evening addressing the envelopes and adding a message to each card. Send out hundreds or just a handful.
Set up an assembly line, if you like, with one person addressing the envelopes, one person stuffing them, somebody licking the flap and someone else adding a stamp. If you're feeling crafty, the post office sells special Christmas stamps for that finishing touch.
Make sure your mugs are full of hot chocolate, mint tea, eggnog or hot cider to keep you well-fortified for this task!
Make or buy Christmas cards and spend the evening addressing the envelopes and adding a message to each card. Send out hundreds or just a handful.
Set up an assembly line, if you like, with one person addressing the envelopes, one person stuffing them, somebody licking the flap and someone else adding a stamp. If you're feeling crafty, the post office sells special Christmas stamps for that finishing touch.
Make sure your mugs are full of hot chocolate, mint tea, eggnog or hot cider to keep you well-fortified for this task!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Christmas Every Day: Day 3
Millie writes:
Break out the Christmas CDs and fill your world with song! Add a little Christmas music to your day wherever you are by making a seasonal play list for your MP3 player or creating a "Christmas" station on Pandora. Don't forget to take a CD (or a cassette or an 8-track tape) out to the car!
If you have the time, go to the library or browse YouTube to see if you can dig up a few of the Christmas songs you loved as a child. You might also start the new custom of buying (or making) a new album each year.
'Tis the season to be jolly . . . fa la la la la, la la la la!
Break out the Christmas CDs and fill your world with song! Add a little Christmas music to your day wherever you are by making a seasonal play list for your MP3 player or creating a "Christmas" station on Pandora. Don't forget to take a CD (or a cassette or an 8-track tape) out to the car!
If you have the time, go to the library or browse YouTube to see if you can dig up a few of the Christmas songs you loved as a child. You might also start the new custom of buying (or making) a new album each year.
'Tis the season to be jolly . . . fa la la la la, la la la la!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Christmas Gifts 101: Buying for the Spouse
Mollie writes:
We've had great Christmases, hard Christmases, fun Christmases, quiet Christmases. Every year, John and I have learned a little more about each other during the holidays. One tidbit is think about the recipient before you buy.
Our first Christmas was a harbinger of our future. John gave me an engagement ring with cubic zirconia instead of diamonds, with a promise of real diamonds when we had a home and some money. He delivered four years later when I delivered Peter.
I loved the ring and keep it under lock and key just as if it was the real thing, because, it WAS the real thing. But some of the other gifts promised an interesting future. One of them was a port-a-potty for hikers and campers. A throne of my own with unstable legs and a less than sturdy seat, wow! I used it once and then promptly 'lost' it. It isn't that I didn't appreciate the thought, it was just that there was nothing romantic about toting it on my back as we hiked through the Cascades. So a word to the wise, avoid any Christmas gift that involves relieving oneself.
Another poor choice of Christmas gifts was the pair of Bigfoot slippers. What can I say, they were ugly! John, Peter and Roger bought them at some discount warehouse where only the unsellables are featured at extreme discount. There was a reason for the discount: nobody wanted them. But we have a picture of a very annoyed Mollie that Christmas with her feet furry and her toenails long. Yuck!
It's not to say that I didn't give John some real turkeys, not at all! I understand his love of all things electronic, and when we were young, I'd give John something electronic. The problem was that I just didn't know what he would like, so the day after Christmas, John would take the offending piece of crud back to the store and then race over to another electronics store to buy something much more functional. My feelings were always hurt.
When I finally got the message that my choosing an electronic gift just wasn't working, I switched over to clothes. Another mistake since John detests anything remotely resembling wardrobe additions. Giving the man a sweater for Christmas was tantamount to giving me a port-a-potty.
So, after at least 10 years of marriage, we finally figured out what the other person wanted. One year I gave John a ticket to attend a Stephen Hawking lecture. I'd have purchased two, and gone myself, but they were expensive and I couldn't justify the expense of my ticket with our pitiful budget. Another year, I gave him kayaking lessons, and another year I gave him didjeridoo lessons. It turns out that if it involved learning, John loved it.
He also likes tools, so, since moving to Whidbey Island, I go to the local tool store and buy another tool. As it happens, John LOVES tools, even weird, useless tools. And it's fun to go meet up with the folks there and joke about what John's getting this year - frankly, it's a tradition.
John has learned that if it involves gardening or cooking, it's a keeper. I have more odd gardening tools than anyone ever needed, and I love them all. And I have every conceivable kitchen do-hickey, some of them are in boxed storage, but I never know when I might need a cherry pitter! These gifts are usually inexpensive and the best things under the tree.
We've been married so long that we now shop together for each other's Christmas. This year, we gave each other an I-Pad and an electric foot massager. There will be no surprises under the Christmas tree, no port-a-potties, but there will be two happy campers. It takes the guilt out of spending a lot of money on ourselves when we include it in the Christmas gifting!
I'll write later about how we handle the kids and Christmas gifting. And we have a family tradition that we call "Babette's Feast" where I go crazy in the kitchen. More on that later. But for now, enjoy spoiling your significant other creatively. It doesn't have to cost a lot to indulge the other person, just be sure the gift represents the gifted!
We've had great Christmases, hard Christmases, fun Christmases, quiet Christmases. Every year, John and I have learned a little more about each other during the holidays. One tidbit is think about the recipient before you buy.
Our first Christmas was a harbinger of our future. John gave me an engagement ring with cubic zirconia instead of diamonds, with a promise of real diamonds when we had a home and some money. He delivered four years later when I delivered Peter.
I loved the ring and keep it under lock and key just as if it was the real thing, because, it WAS the real thing. But some of the other gifts promised an interesting future. One of them was a port-a-potty for hikers and campers. A throne of my own with unstable legs and a less than sturdy seat, wow! I used it once and then promptly 'lost' it. It isn't that I didn't appreciate the thought, it was just that there was nothing romantic about toting it on my back as we hiked through the Cascades. So a word to the wise, avoid any Christmas gift that involves relieving oneself.
Another poor choice of Christmas gifts was the pair of Bigfoot slippers. What can I say, they were ugly! John, Peter and Roger bought them at some discount warehouse where only the unsellables are featured at extreme discount. There was a reason for the discount: nobody wanted them. But we have a picture of a very annoyed Mollie that Christmas with her feet furry and her toenails long. Yuck!
It's not to say that I didn't give John some real turkeys, not at all! I understand his love of all things electronic, and when we were young, I'd give John something electronic. The problem was that I just didn't know what he would like, so the day after Christmas, John would take the offending piece of crud back to the store and then race over to another electronics store to buy something much more functional. My feelings were always hurt.
When I finally got the message that my choosing an electronic gift just wasn't working, I switched over to clothes. Another mistake since John detests anything remotely resembling wardrobe additions. Giving the man a sweater for Christmas was tantamount to giving me a port-a-potty.
So, after at least 10 years of marriage, we finally figured out what the other person wanted. One year I gave John a ticket to attend a Stephen Hawking lecture. I'd have purchased two, and gone myself, but they were expensive and I couldn't justify the expense of my ticket with our pitiful budget. Another year, I gave him kayaking lessons, and another year I gave him didjeridoo lessons. It turns out that if it involved learning, John loved it.
He also likes tools, so, since moving to Whidbey Island, I go to the local tool store and buy another tool. As it happens, John LOVES tools, even weird, useless tools. And it's fun to go meet up with the folks there and joke about what John's getting this year - frankly, it's a tradition.
John has learned that if it involves gardening or cooking, it's a keeper. I have more odd gardening tools than anyone ever needed, and I love them all. And I have every conceivable kitchen do-hickey, some of them are in boxed storage, but I never know when I might need a cherry pitter! These gifts are usually inexpensive and the best things under the tree.
We've been married so long that we now shop together for each other's Christmas. This year, we gave each other an I-Pad and an electric foot massager. There will be no surprises under the Christmas tree, no port-a-potties, but there will be two happy campers. It takes the guilt out of spending a lot of money on ourselves when we include it in the Christmas gifting!
I'll write later about how we handle the kids and Christmas gifting. And we have a family tradition that we call "Babette's Feast" where I go crazy in the kitchen. More on that later. But for now, enjoy spoiling your significant other creatively. It doesn't have to cost a lot to indulge the other person, just be sure the gift represents the gifted!
Christmas Every Day - Day 2
Millie writes:
Fill your home with the smell of Christmas. Burn pine-scented incense, light peppermint-scented candles, or set out a bowl of fresh balsam potpourri. Bring in a pot of blooming narcissus. If someone in your home is allergic to strong fragrances, simmer apple juice or cider on the stove and add a stick of cinnamon and a sprinkling of cloves.
In short, do whatever it is that makes your home smell like the holiday to you and your family!
Fill your home with the smell of Christmas. Burn pine-scented incense, light peppermint-scented candles, or set out a bowl of fresh balsam potpourri. Bring in a pot of blooming narcissus. If someone in your home is allergic to strong fragrances, simmer apple juice or cider on the stove and add a stick of cinnamon and a sprinkling of cloves.
In short, do whatever it is that makes your home smell like the holiday to you and your family!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Christmas Every Day - Day 1
Millie writes:
Designate a small elf figurine, stuffed animal or ornament as a “magic Christmas elf” (or reindeer or whatever you have on hand). These are the rules: Starting sometime after everyone has gone to bed on December 1st, the magic elf moves to a different location each night. It must be in plain sight in a public room (not hidden inside something else, or out in the garage), and once it's found no one can play with it or it can't move the next night. This busy little elf will hop to a different spot each day until, on the morning of December 24, it is found on the Christmas tree. When the elf is on the tree, you know it's Christmas Eve!
Designate a small elf figurine, stuffed animal or ornament as a “magic Christmas elf” (or reindeer or whatever you have on hand). These are the rules: Starting sometime after everyone has gone to bed on December 1st, the magic elf moves to a different location each night. It must be in plain sight in a public room (not hidden inside something else, or out in the garage), and once it's found no one can play with it or it can't move the next night. This busy little elf will hop to a different spot each day until, on the morning of December 24, it is found on the Christmas tree. When the elf is on the tree, you know it's Christmas Eve!
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