December Daily 12 and 13: Handmade Holidays and the Great Christmas FAIL of 2009

The Great Christmas FAIL of 2009

Remember our not-so-perfect Chrism tree? It's now our non-existant Chrism tree.

After tightening bulbs, replacing fuses, and having another set of lights go out on us, we sucked it up and took the tree back to the store, hoping to replace it with a non-pre-lit tree. We hit all five stores in town that sell artificial trees, and they were All. Cleaned. Out.

Last year, the stores were trying to pay their patrons to take the extra trees off their hands weeks after Christmas. This year? Apparently each store stocked only two trees.

Handmade Holidays

My holiday is not completely handmade, as I would have liked. In fact, it's probably only about 30% so. The gifts that are handmade, though, I'm extremely excited about. Some were made by me; others were great Etsy finds.

I got hair clips from Two Florida Girls as stocking stuffers for my nieces, and I was thrilled with the pendants I found for my step-nieces at Purple Cactus Studios.

I made this frame for one of my girlfriends. I'm going to put pics in it of our Mary Poppins Broadway extravaganza.

**Diane, stop reading here... I'm going to talk about your prezzie next.**

(The rest of you, scroll down.)

My MIL's gifts are 100% handmade. In addition to these and a scarf I have yet to finish knitting, I'm super excited about this gift, which I finished making for her today. My MIL went to Scotland a few months ago and has all these wonderful pictures. She has often commented that she would like to scrapbook, and she even dabbled in it a bit when her first grandchild was born. Not having seen her pictures yet (or being able to get duplicates of them), I decided to make a PAS (photo album scrapbook) for her. I have to say, I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, and I hope my MIL will enjoy showing her pictures off with it.

(click on the pictures to enlarge)

Products used: photo album, Target; paper, Deja Views Home Collection; rub-ons and gems, K & Company Blue Awning; journaling stickers, American Crafts Remarks Journaling Book 1 (black); chipboard, Heidi Swapp; journaling blocks, Colorbok Vintage Sticky Journal Stax; stickers, EK Success Travel Signs; letter stickers, American Crafts Thickers Giggles; embellishments, Making Memories Neutral Jigsaw Shapes; brads, Making Memories; plastic flowers, American Crafts Greenhouse

December Daily 11: Put on your yarmulke, here comes Hanukkah!

Happy Chanukah!

...and may this Festival of Lights bring blessings

upon you and all all your loved ones for happiness,

for health, and for spiritual and material wealth,

and may the lights of Chanukah usher in the Light of Moshiach

and a better world for all of humankind.

-Chanukah blessing

December Daily 10: These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

With all the bah-humbuging I've been doing around here as of late, I decided to focus today not on the 20,000 "to dos" I still have left to complete in the next seven days, but instead on the countless things I'm looking forward to once the holidays "officially" start.

Voice over of Julie Andrews: These are a few of my fav-o-rite things (about the holidays).

my nieces

wearing (and being) crackers with my family

having a sister to girl talk with

and a brother to tease

spending time with my sweetie

This is what the holidays are really about.

December Daily 9: My New Favorite Christmas Carol

As sung by my five-year-old niece:

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Oh, what fun it is to ride

Slutty, slutty sleigh. Hey!

Fortunately, there IS a video of this that I guarantee will make an appearance during her pre-wedding slide show. ☺

It's moments like this that remind me why I battle the mobs at the mall and put up with all the other holiday-related stress: to bring a little bit of joy to those who bring me so much happiness the whole year through.

December Daily 8: A Very Nail Chrismukkah

If you are family (looking at you: Mom, Mike, Diane, Celeste), STOP READING. It will ruin our holiday card surprise. Close your window. Right. Now.

After reading some really bad (we're talking B. A. D.) holiday newsletters that were sent to my MIL, Hubby and I took it upon ourselves a few years ago to write and send funny ones. It honestly started as a joke, but the first one was so well received, we were encouraged to see how far we could push the envelope. Each year, there is pressure to top what we did the previous year. I'm pretty sure this one will never be topped. I present to you: A Very Nail Chrismukkah.

(click to enlarge)

December Daily 7: The Ghost of Chanukah Past

I've had a lot of memorable holidays, but one that stands out as among the best occurred somewhere between upper elementary and early middle school.

My parents had bought me a small keyboard a few years prior with these great fake books that helped me learn to read treble clef on my own. I wasn't great at playing, but I absolutely loved it.

On the last night of this particular Chanukah (my parents always saved the best gift for last), my mom came into my bedroom and asked me to play the keyboard for her to distract me from whatever my dad was setting up in the living room. When I was eventually invited to see what was going on, a full-sized keyboard was waiting for me. I still remember the feeling of awe when I laid eyes on it.

At least 20 years later (ouch), there is always a special place in my house for this gift, and it's one that I enjoy frequently.

December Daily 6: The Finishing Touches

A high of 28 degrees. A new peacoat. A wintery, picture postcard drive. The start of Chrismukkah shopping. And a few finishing touches around the house.

I opted for a door hanging instead of a wreath this year.

Jenny inspired me to gather all of my holiday books and display them in a basket.

And, of course, no house is complete without a sleeping Chrismukkah kitty. ☺

While I was driving today, I heard this song, The 12 Pains of Christmas, and immediately knew I had to share it with you guys. Even better, this person illustrated the song with Sims2 characters. Enjoy!

lyrics

December Daily 5: What December Means

These days, living in the North, December means snow.

Today was our first real snowfall that accumulated.

December also means me vacillating between stress (see December Daily 3), hypersensitivity, and total mania that prompts me to decorate like the Energizer bunny.

Today, I added a second (Charlie Brown) Chrism tree and another set of stockings to our family room downstairs.

Perhaps not a traditional notion, December also means SEC football championships.

While most of us Gators watched the game tonight like Aaron Hernandez, head in our hands -

image source

- I still feel nothing but pride for my boys, who had a great season, and for Tebow, who had a great career.

image source

No matter what the score, it's always great to be a FL Gator!

December Daily 4: Not Just Decorations

Today's December Daily is derived from my friend Jenny's post. Thanks for the inspiration, girlfriend!

I'm a sucker for "pretty things." I can often be heard in the aisles of Pier 1 saying embarrassing things like, "Ooh, it's so shiny!" and "Look at all the glitter!" And you wonder why I like Twilight so much, ha! But as much as I like to fill my house with "pretty things," I also like to make sure we're surrounded by meaningful items during the holidays.

The ornaments on our tree tell a story, albeit a very short one.

Boy & girl meet.

Boy & girl get engaged (boy's dad doesn't know how to spell girl's - or cat's - name yet).

Boy & girl get married.

Boy & girl buy their first house.

There are also personal reflections hanging on the branches.

memories of teaching

memories of trips with friends to Islands of Adventure

ornaments to reflect one of my favorite movies

And the memories are not limited to the tree.

These were centerpieces at our wedding (we had a winter wedding). Hubby hated them because he thought they looked too FSU. ☺

This menorah resides in our china cabinet throughout the year and never gets lit. It's not the most expensive or even the prettiest, but I haggled for it and brought it home from Jerusalem, so it's incredibly meaningful.

Ignore the menorah in this picture. It's a cheapy. ☺ What's meaningful is the tray underneath it. It's a wedding present from relatives we never expected to give a Jewish-themed gift. It was extremely thoughtful of them, especially since it's not something we registered for, and thus very meaningful to us.

I love that when people come over during the holidays, a lot of our decorations have a story behind them that we can share.

After writing this post, I'm thinking that a mini-book about our holiday decorations is in order. ☺

December Daily 3: The One Where I Complain

So maybe the December Daily isn't the best project for me. For one, my day-to-day life isn't nearly interesting enough to document. I work from home, need I say more? Also, with everything else I've got piled up around here, it's one more thing "to do."

Which brings me to today's reflection. When did the holidays turn into one giant chore list?

Somewhere between my adolescence and adulthood, the holiday season went from bringing pure joy to bringing a mixture of some joy and pure stress. I mean, you know you're in trouble when you have to write a list of all the lists you still have to write.

And yes, it really says "check it twice" next to the gift list because I always unintentionally leave a name off my list the first time.

I know that if I started the holiday insanity before December rolled around, I would reduce my stress level. But I also blame societal expectations. I understand that people like to give gifts because I do, too. At the risk of sounding like a Scrooge or "one of those liberals," though, I have to admit that my social consciousness flares up when I think of all the money our family collectively spends on us at the holidays. As many things as Hubby and I decide we "want" for the holidays, the truth is, we don't need any of it. I would love to convince our family that instead of buying gifts for everyone (kids excluded, of course), we should take that money and donate it to a different charity every year. Think of the great lesson we would be teaching our kids as we all nominate charities and discuss why we should help them. And if the idea of not giving a tangible gift is too foreign, then maybe we could at least agree to have a handmade-only holiday. A mix-CD of my FIL's favorite Christmas music is much more meaningful than any store-bought item he can find. And nothing can top the cookies that my niece and nephew make with their mom.

I guess what I'm trying to say (none-too-eloquently) is that as I get older and I think about the values I want to pass down to my imaginary kids, I don't want to lose the true meaning of the holidays amidst all the consumerism.