Holiday Traditions: Proof that I'm Sentimental

As if anyone needed proof that I'm sentimental.

I'm a firm believer in giving Thanksgiving it's due, and waiting until afterward to begin the Christmas season. However, I also don't waste any time.

The Day After Thanksgiving is Christmas Decorating Day.

I sometimes get up early to shop, though this year I didn't. Then I make a yummy breakfast, and the fun begins. First we undecorate from fall, dust and vacuum, and then out come the Christmas goodies. Daddy hauls the boxes up from the basement while the girls and I open them and the fond memories start coming back to us.

For the girls, the memories are from last Christmas, or a couple of years ago. For me, some of these decorations spark memories from my own childhood. Christmas has always been such a happy season, and my memory bank is filled with wonderful rememberings from sweet times we shared at Christmas when I was young.

I remember when my mom would finally get sick of a decoration and would let me have it for my own room. There were these little cardboard houses, a cardboard glittery sleigh and some plastic reindeer that I would proudly display on my dresser each year. Oh man, were they ugly. But I didn't realize that at the time.

I remember one year my dad brought me home a teeny little wooden nativity. I'm not sure what happened to most of the pieces, though a few are still floating around here somewhere. As a kid though, I treasured that little set. It made me feel so darn grown up to have my own decorations in my room, and it meant even more because it was my dad that had given it to me.

And I remember the really ugly decoration, the elf sitting in a little holly-covered ball that was to be hung dangling from somewhere or another. I loved him. And I remember pulling him out, hanging him up, and my mother wrinkling her nose and shaking her head. He certainly wasn't her favorite, but I thought he was adorable and I remember insisting that we still display him even after he'd outgrown her fondness.

A lot of the decorations in my house are the same ones my mom would pull out year after year when I was a girl. She finally got so tired of them (and I was no longer there to insist that she use them) so she handed them over to me. Some aren't real pretty, but I don't care, and my girls don't care. Each one is special, each one sparks a different memory. And now it's all back in style, anyway: it's called "Vintage Christmas Decor." :o)

Here's a train (I think) my aunt made. I'm not sure how old it is. Each year a wheel or a little piece of candy has to be hot-glued back on. When I was little, it went up on the mantel over the brick fireplace every year.



And these embroidery hoops. Seeing them takes me back to the living room where I grew up, and that's a happy place to remember.



I remember being five? or six years old, amazed at how heavy this Santa was. Cora did the same thing this year, picked him up and said, "Whoa, he's a really heavy Santa."


And the stockings - one with reindeer, one with santas, one with ornaments, and two checkered ones, all lined up on hooks along the mantel of the brick fireplace from that wonderful living room. I picked the ornament one each year. This year, Cora claimed it.


To my girls: don't give away the decorations that have fallen out of style. Some day, you'll latch on to the memories they bring back to you, and you'll be glad you still have them. And I promise, they'll be 'cool' again some day, anyway.

And to my mom: thanks for all the wonderful Christmas memories you've given me. I don't think you even know how many sweet things I remember, but they are all centered around the amazing job you did making the whole Christmas season a special one for us.

Thoughts on Gift Giving - for the kids

The holidays are coming. We're being bombarded with even more marketing than usual, the toy aisles at Wal Mart are full and spilling into the walkways, and the newspaper advertisements include actual books of pictures of toys intended to make our children beg for all the things they don't even actually want.

Over the past several years, I've become completely jaded when it comes to Christmas gift giving, especially to my kids. It's exhausting, it's irritating, it's wasteful and expensive. I want to make a change this year. I want to give them less, but not have them feel like they're missing out. But how to do it? When you set the standard for eight years, how do you suddenly turn around and just stop?

Honestly, I've always tried to keep it fairly simple. At least, compared to the insane barrage of gifts I was presented with each year as a child. The rule has always been six gifts - each month through the year, I would purchase a gift (something I found on sale usually) and stash it away in The Christmas Closet. (The six remaining gifts were for birthdays.) Doing it that way avoided feeling that extra pinch at Christmastime, and kept me from buying stupid things at full price during the holiday season. And until my oldest was about six, it was a really good system. But around that time, her interests became more specific - and on top of that, they changed more frequently. You can buy a three year old girl a Barbie in February and know she's going to love it come December. Not always so much with a six, seven or eight year old, who is fascinated with dinosaurs in February, but by December is over the dinosaurs and on to an obsession with horses.

So we need a new system.

My goals for this system: to discourage excessive want and materialism, and instead encourage appreciation and value; to provide toys and other gifts that will provide a full year's worth of enjoyment; to avoid adding to the already significant amount of Kid Clutter in our home; to not go broke.

I want to go down to four meaningful gifts for each kid (and by meaningful, I don't mean expensive.) Four is still probably an excessive number, but we better take this slow or we might all have a panic attack. One of those gifts will be hand made, all the better if it's made from recycled materials. One will be educational, something that will be used during school time to make learning a bit more fun. One will be something I find used - clothing or toys. (Is giving used items as a gift tacky? Eh, not to kids. Read Money Secrets of the Amish for a great view of this.) And the last will be a toy or something else they're really wanting.

This seems totally doable, right? I distinctly remember the year I was twelve, and when the presents under the tree were all opened and tossed aside, I looked one more time to make sure there was nothing else, and I was really disappointed. I'd already made out like... well, like a spoiled adopted kid whose parents wanted her to know how much they loved her. And I wanted more? Disgraceful. The let down was awful - going from the huge high of More Stuff to... done. I think a lot of people from my generation have a similar memory. We want to avoid that for our own children... so we've decided the best way to avoid it is to give them even more stuff! How much sense does that make?

So how to inform my kids - especially the oldest - that we're going to help build character by giving them fewer gifts? This can't go over well. They've got strong characters, but only Christ himself could accept that bit of news without feeling any disappointment.

My hope is to replace that huge pile of gifts with a huge pile of family traditions and togetherness. Remember in my last post, when I talked about quality time together as a family being the most important demonstration of love for my oldest daughter? Well, I'm gonna take that and run with it. I'm not sure just how yet, but we'll figure it out. I'm pretty good at coming up with hokey traditions that Two Little Girls love. I'll let you know how it all turns out.

Have you downsized your Christmas gift giving yet? How did it go over? If you've got any tips on how to make this less traumatizing for my kids, please do share!

An Early Christmas Present

"...Nellie asked, 'Don't you wish you had a fur cape, Laura? But your Pa couldn't buy you one. Your Pa's not a store keeper.'"


But on Christmas at the church...

Laura was too excited to speak. She squeezed Mary's hand tighter and tighter, and she looked up at Ma, wanting so much to know what that was. Ma smiled down at her and answered, 'That is a Christmas tree, girls. Do you think it is pretty?'...

...Just then, Laura saw the most wonderful thing of all. From a far branch of that tree hung a little fur cape, and a muff to match!...

The little fur cape and muff still hung on the tree, and Laura wanted them. She wanted to look at them as long as she could. She wanted to know who got them. They could not be for Nellie Oleson, who already had a fur cape...

...And suddenly someone said, 'These are for you, Laura.' Mrs. Tower stood smiling, holding out the little fur cape and muff...

...Laura could not speak. The golden-brown fur cuddled her neck and softly hugged her shoulders.



"'Merry Christmas, Nellie,' Laura said. Nellie stared, while Laura walked quietly on, with her hands snuggled deep in the soft muff. Her cape was prettier than Nellie's, and Nellie had no muff."

from On The Banks of Plum Creek
by Laura Ingalls Wilder

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When we read that part a couple of months ago, Chloe's eyes were shining as she said, "Oh, I bet they were so beautiful." When she opened these, she knew exactly what they were: "It's a fur cape! And a muff! Just like Laura's!"



Details on the cape and muff:

I used a pattern for the cape: McCalls 4703. It was terribly easy, just about anyone could do it. I lined the fur with a matching satin on the inside so it's nice and soft and not itchy around her neck. Fur is - of course - misery to sew on. But worth it. I never did get my machine to make the buttonhole through like five layers of fur - I just made it by hand.

The muff I didn't use a pattern for. It's just two rectangles sewn facing one another then turned so it's fully lined with fur. I did put in a satin ribbon so that it will hang for her neck - because little girls tend to forget they're wearing such things and muffs and pull their hands right out. With the ribbon, it'll stay put even when her hands don't.



This whole project cost about $15 between the fur, satin (30% off), and pattern ($1 pattern sale.) With my goal for not giving my kids a bunch of plastic toys made in China this year for Christmas, homemade things fit right in. The fur is American made, and so is the pattern. I couldn't find any info on the bolt for the satin, but even if it's not American, two out of three isn't bad. Overall, a wonderful little project.

And now I get to be the mother of the little girl who goes to the grocery store wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a fur cape and muff. Because we Miller girls are fashion-forward like that.

Christmas bits & photos

Every year on the day after Christmas, while I'm putting away the dozens of toys, I remind myself not to go overboard the next year because we just don't have space for all the wonderful new goodies.

And by December of the following year, I forget that reminder.

(Those aren't all from us. We spoil our kids, but not that badly! Some of those are from family, too.)


The girls had a great time, and got lots of wonderful presents. I love this part - watching them open things and getting excited. I'm glad to be a Momma.

The girls set out cookies and milk for Santa, and a carrot for Rudolph, with a note.



In return, Santa brought Chloe a Fur Real Friends yellow duckling (barely - he almost didn't get it to her in time!) It is indeed her very favorite gift.




He brought Cora (and Daddy) a wooden train set.



Among other things, I gave my husband a set of duck decoys, hoping to encourage him to keep bringin' home good things to eat. (And to smoke, in the smoker my parents bought us!! Oh, we are spoiled!)

Chloe is a present-opening pro. She ripped right into them, no holds barred. The shot gun was a big hit.

Cora was much slower and more systematic about it all, but did eventually get everything unwrapped. I'm happy to report that she didn't end up getting buried alive in gifts, as we were worried she might.


I think the cat was happy when we finally got all the presents out from under his tree, freeing up his favorite place to nap. It got pretty crowded under there on Christmas Eve, but he managed to find room to curl up and get cozy.

My husband gave me a beautiful diamond necklace (on Christmas Eve, he couldn't wait.) I need to photograph it, it's gorgeous and I feel truly loved (and spoiled rotten.) He also gave me (us) feather pillows, some books I'd wanted, and lots of other great stuff! I'm so lucky to have such a great guy for a husband.

Christmas is a whole season long at our house, but it's nice when it all culminates with lots of fun new things to enjoy.

I hope everyone else had a fantastic Christmas, too!

Yum!

Simple treats that kids can make nearly all by themselves, and they make great gifts!

Chocolate-kissed pretzels

1 bag Hershey's kisses
1 bag M&M's
1 bag mini-pretzels

Step 1: Unwrap all the Kisses. Employ the children, telling them they are each allowed to eat just one, but only after every single Kiss is unwrapped. This should get you at least 30 minutes of quiet time. Even the two year old was very diligent about her work.



Step 2: Lay pretzels out on a cookie sheet.



Step 3: Put a kiss on top of each pretzel.



Step 4: Mom's job - put the cookie sheet in a 275 degree oven for about 5 minutes, till the chocolate is soft but still holding it's shape.

Step 5: Big kid's job - push an M&M into the center of each kiss, pressing down to fill the pretzel with chocolate.



Step 6: Refrigerate until chocolate is hardened, then remove to a plate or plastic bag.



Not extra fancy or anything, but even the Littlest One got to do a lot of it, and that makes it a new staple in our Christmas baking. :o)

Snow Balls - 5 cents! (a crafty tutorial)

After being stuck in the house for three days because of snow and finally getting to go out, I decided to celebrate by getting some craft supplies and making these cute little ornaments:

I got the inspiration from a Gooseberry Patch Christmas book - they had a full-sized bucket like this on a front porch. I thought tiny versions might be cute for ornaments.

Supplies:
small galvanized buckets (I had to look for awhile, but I found them in the containers section of Hobby Lobby for .77 each.)
Giant white pom poms (one for each bucket)
Small white pom poms (about 12 per bucket)
Toothpicks
Red paint
Christmas printed scrapbooking paper
Fine point black marker
White sticky-backed craft foam
Red satin ribbon
Decorative red and white ribbon
Hot glue and glue gun
Spray adhesive
Crystalline glitter

Step 1: Paint red stripes on the toothpick (I had a six year old helper for this step. Your stripes will probably be neater.)



Step 2: Write "Snow Balls 5c" on small squares of craft foam with marker. (I actually wrote first, and then cut out the words.)



Step 3: Make signs. Cut squares of scrapbook paper slightly larger than craft foam squares. Sandwich a toothpick between the foam and the paper. Set signs aside.



Step 4: Liberally apply hot glue to bottom of inside of bucket. Stuff a giant pom pom in the bucket. This is just to fill up the bucket.




Step 4: Use hot glue to attach small pom poms all over the top of the bucket. Use a dab of hot glue to hold the sign in place when you stick it down inside.



Step 5: Spray adhesive on pom poms. Sprinkle with glitter.



Step 6: Tie a bow around the bucket and knot it in the front. Tie a loop of red satin ribbon on the bucket handle to hang the ornament.



Cute stuff, eh?
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In looking at the supply list, I realize the list looks long. The good news is you probably have most of it lying around already, and the supplies you do have to buy are cheap. My six year old helped with some parts, but definitely required a lot of help. The two year old just threw pom poms at us while we worked. :o)

Christmas 08

Goodness, long time, no blog!

How was everyone's Christmas? I hope you all had a wonderful day. And thank you to Dani and Kim for the great Christmas cards! Your kids are all adorable. :o)

I figured I better post at least a few pictures... I'm just never in the mood these days to sit and upload pictures, it seems to take so long.

We had a wonderful Christmas. We're all horribly spoiled, and I love it. LOL The girls each got a gift from Santa that Chloe had asked for - she got her Baby Alive (I found it for $20 on Amazon, w00t!) and Cora got twin baby dolls. Santa left them unwrapped under the tree, with big bows on them. I need to upload the video of Chloe seeing Baby Alive - she's wanted that doll for the past year, and is SO happy to have her. And Cora didn't see any reason to open any other presents, she was perfectly happy with her new babies.

My husband gave me the string of pearls I had mentioned I'd like to have - they are so beautiful. And a digital picture frame, some perfume, fur boots, Bath & Body works goodies... see? He spoils me. :o)

He got an iPod, a Swiss tool, some other things he'd said he wanted. And I got him a guitar book of the 100 top country songs of all time, which I've enjoyed tremendously already.

It was a good Christmas. I'm glad it's over, but it was really, really fun.


Love this pic: she's waiting for Baby Alive to finish going potty. LOL

My Daddy :o)

I sent some videos out recently via email to my list of family and friends. My Daddy replied "Great video. You are a good mom to your girls." Quick, to the point, but enough to make me feel really good inside. I'm glad he thinks so. 10 years ago, you couldn't have convinced me I'd ever care what my parents think, but now, it means so much. I'm glad he thinks I'm a good mom.

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Mark picked Chloe up a little earlier than I was expecting yesterday, which gave Cora and I the afternoon to ourselves. What do we do when we get bored? That's right, we went shopping. LOL We went to the mall looking for Christmas presents. I usually buy one Christmas/birthday gift each month but I've been slacking off since January and only had one for Chloe and two for Cora. I was feeling a bit stressed about it, but I also don't have as much time without Chloe now so it's been harder. Anyway, at Claire's they had all their clearance items clearanced even more, down to $1 each. So I bought a bunch of girly stuff for Chloe - head bands, hair ties, bracelets and rings, fun stuff. At Target I got the Disney Scene It game for $7, two computer games - one where you have a virtual kitten, the other is a kindergarten learning thing - for $9.99 each. All that was 1/2 off. And I got Cora a couple of board books, a Baby Einstein one and one called Butterfly Kisses that comes with a little butterfly finger puppet. Too cute. I'm really happy with myself. Christmas is much cheaper when you spread it out over the year. It's so hard to buy anything for Cora though, compared to Chloe who loves everything. I'm not sure what all she's getting. I really wanna get Chloe a sewing machine and a digital camera, but I think it might be one or the other. Ahhhh kids are fun!

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Yesterday I was a busy momma. I grocery shopped, cleaned out my van, vacuumed it and washed it, finished all the laundry (in addition to normal household stuff.) The girls and I spent a couple hours at the park. Cora got a little pink - gotta start remembering to put sunscreen on her! Chloe rode her scooter around the park while we walked, and then we all camped out on a blanket for awhile and just enjoyed the pretty weather.

Today we need to go down to Main Street to pick up a gift for Andrew's mom for mother's day, and so I can see if I can find some pink and black yarn because my baby girl needs a punk rock striped soaker to match her pirate leggings. :oP Other things on the to-do list are washing diapers and sheets, cleaning my room, and hopefully arranging a play date for Chloe with one of her friends this afternoon. Poor kid hasn't had any interaction with friends lately. I'm so anti-social. :o\

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Alright, that's enough rambling for now. I better get moving!

Yay for Christmas!

I love Christmas. I really do. I love giving people things, and I love getting new things. LOL

Overall, we had a wonderful and fun Christmas. Chloe, at almost 5 years old, makes it so much fun. Here are some of the better pics:








Yes, that is a playhouse. My mom got this playhouse for Chloe on the day after Thanksgiving. Andrew put it together a few weeks ago, and it's been covered with tarps in the back yard since then. She saw it - we told her it was a dog house for Izzy but that it wasn't finished yet. She never questioned it again. Once she saw that it was a play house, she came up with all kinds of ideas - it needs a heater, a fan, a stove and sink and table and chairs and a globe. LOL And we will be painting it pink as soon as the weather warms up enough for painting.

Cora's sitting next to me in her bouncer watching her new Baby Einstein DVD - Chloe likes it as much as the baby does. Andrew got all kinds of hunting and camo gear - everything I bought him was something my dad suggested. He seemed pretty happy.

My wonderful husband gave me a pair of sapphire earrings that match his wedding ring - they're so beautiful. And the robe that I'm wearing right now - one from bath & body works, it feels like I'm wearing a plush blanket. I love it. :o) I'm on this sign kick right now - all the cool signs with fun sayings you see everywhere. He got me one that says "life's a dance, you learn as you go" and "To have and to hold". I love them. And we mustn't forget the wine - that was his gift to us. LOL A case of wine from my personal favorite local winery, plus two extra bottles of their Sangiovese, the best wine I've ever tasted.

And then after we had Christmas at our house, we went to my parents' house where there were just as many presents to open all over again. My dad gave me a scrapbooking kit that's got all kinds of cool stuff in it, and Handknit Holidays, a knitting pattern book with some awesome patterns in it. He picked them out all by himself - he doesn't do that often. I was very touched. It shows he knows me better than he used to! Cora got lots of clothes from different relatives, she ought to be a very well dressed baby (as if she's not already.) Chloe got some more Littlest Pet Shop, and plenty of other things to entertain her.

All this stuff! We're very spoiled. :o)

Here's hoping that all of my readers had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Time spent waiting

The average person spends at least 3 years of their life waiting. That ends up being about 62 minutes a day in a 70 year life.

That seems like a really low estimate.

I spend all day waiting for my husband to get home. I spend about 30 minutes most days waiting for my perpetually late ex-husband to show up with my daughter. I wait in grocery store lines. I wait at red lights. I wait for the mail man. I wait for Chloe to get dressed, to go to the bathroom, to eat her dinner. I wait for the baby to wake up. I wait for the baby to go to sleep. I wait for paint to dry, or glue to dry. I wait in stores to check out. I wait for dinner to cook.

I think nearly all of my life is spent waiting, in one way or another. Isn't that terrible?

And waiting makes me irritable.

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Today is Sunday. Andrew is working yet again. The only good part of that is that it might get us out of going to his parents' house this evening if he's out late. I'll spend a good portion of the day at my parents' house, having breakfast and just hanging out.

I need to get another ball of yarn for my Monkey socks. I have about 20 flippin' rows left of knitting, and I'm out of yarn. Oooh, that irks me! I made these socks to use up the taupe Paton's Grace I had. Now I'll be left with about the same amount when the socks are finished. How annoying! In the meantime, I've started the "leafy lace scarf" out of a silk/wool blend for my sister in law. It's pretty. I hope she likes it.

Have I gone off about my ex mother in law and Santa yet? Forgive me if this is a repeat vent, I'm so mad about it! Chloe told me the other day, "Santa isn't coming to our house." I asked her what on earth she meant and she said "Santa goes to Silver Grammy's house. She told me." Silver Grammy is Mark's mother - the psychotic drunken bitch. (ahem. Please pardon the language.) She told my daughter that Santa Claus will not come to our house, but that he will come to her house the night BEFORE Christmas Eve. Why the hell would she tell my little girl that, other than to try to take away Christmas from us?

So I told her the truth. I said, "Honey, Silver Grammy is just crazy. Santa won't go to her house. She's just an old lady, and Santa only visits kids and their homes. And this is your home." And then I reiterated the crazy part. She said that she has a stocking at her grandmother's house that Santa will fill. I said, "no, honey. She's going to put things in that stocking. Santa is too busy the night before Christmas Eve, he won't go anywhere until Christmas Eve. Your grammy just doesn't know what she's talking about."

:oX

That woman makes me crazy. I go from the psychotic drunken mother in law that needs a little bit of religion in her life to the psychotically religious mother in law who could stand to have a drink or two.

It's Saturday already!

Going to the Nutcracker turned out to be a wonderful idea. Chloe really enjoyed it. She kept asking "Where's the fairy?" :o) It was a great performance, a little different from the traditional ballet, but we all enjoyed it. Cora sat quietly through the whole thing - not one little peep out of her. She has gone from a rather difficult baby to the easiest baby in the whole world. She just likes attention and company, and gets bored rather easily.

After the Nutcracker we drove through a couple neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights. We let the girls sit up in the front seat with us while we were going about 5 miles an hour, and they both seemed pretty happy about it.

I love all the fun things there are to do around the holidays.

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So Andrew has worked so much the past week we've hardly seen him. Last night was the first time all week we actually spent any time together. In the first 48 hours of the week, he worked 42 of them. It didn't get much better all week. He's supposed to have 10 hours off between shifts, but he hasn't always been getting that. It's frustrating not to have him around more. But come Monday, he'll be off for a week, so we'll enjoy that. I like that he ended up with Christmas week off. We'll have all kinds of fun new toys to put together and play with, and he'll get to help!

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Crafty stuff - I'm almost finished with the second Monkey sock. I'm so terrible about finishing the second sock or mitten when I make them. I already have several projects lined up after the socks are done - a lace scarf for my sister in law, a couple of baby sweaters for babies that are coming, a cardigan for my own baby, one for the bigger baby, and then I'd like to do another big project, a sweater for myself or something. Should keep me busy through February at least.

I recently got my invitation to Ravelry. It's the coolest flippin' site on the internet! Well, it is if you knit or crochet. I'm totally sucked in and fascinated with it. If any of you out there are knitters or crocheters, go join! it takes awhile to get added since they're still in Beta and ramping up their bandwidth, but it's worth the wait. Check out my ravelry page here: http://www.ravelry.com/people/itdoesntsck2bme

I guess that's about all I'll write for now. Gosh, I feel so behind, there's so much I want to talk about from the last couple weeks!

I have Blogger back!

For whatever reason, my computer decided I shouldn't be allowed to have Blogger for awhile. Andrew fixed it though, so I'm back. :o)

I'm not even gonna bother trying to back-blog. We'll just start with today.

We went this morning to drop off some little goodies to some of Chloe's friends. I picked up these little Foamies craft kits at Michael's for .50 each on sale. They make little 3-D Christmas decorations. Chloe and I each did one, then put one in each gift bag with a few cookies and gave them out to her friends. It made her happy to give them gifts, and her friends were happy to get something. It was cute.

After that Chloe had a play date with Elizabeth, then we came home and took a nap, all three of us. We're going out tonight to see the Nutracker production by the college and then to drive around and look at Christmas lights, so we're guaranteed to be up pretty late. I thought a nap would do Chloe good so she doesn't get all crabby later.

I totally spaced dinner this morning - oops. Not sure what we'll have. Maybe I can convince my husband to take us out. :o) LOL

And there goes the baby fussing already. Guess I'll have to cut this short. More tomorrow!

2007 Holiday Pics

Note to self: Never bother trying to get two kids smiling in the same picture. Heck, or even looking at the camera at the same time!

Also, never wear glasses when pictures are being taken. Ugh. I think we might re-take some without my glasses, all the pictures had the worse glare!

I'm gonna take some more of Cora by herself too. She was kind of fed up by the time we got done with everything.