It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like....

Well this is it. The true beginning of the holiday season. As I mentioned here, we're trying to focus on a homemade component to what we do this holiday season. It gives us an opportunity to give more of ourselves as well as gives me another arty outlet to kid time.

I've always been a bit of a type A about the whole Christmas card thing. I always mail them December 1st. So above you see what the kids and I have been working on the last few weeks in preparation for my fanatical mail drop.

Now this evening I begin the most despised part of my fanaticism, the addressing of envelopes. Grrr. Well with a glass of wine in hand, I'm off.

**Aside: In wanting to share ideas for homemade gifts, I do have a dilemma. I've photographed a lot of the gifts we've been working on and as much as I want to share what we've been up to, I don't want to spoil the gifts for those recipients who read the blog. Posting after the holiday's is ridiculous. As much as I love them, the cathartic cleaning and take down afterwards that helps me to focus on the new year would directly conflict with wanting to think about next years festivities. Hmmm. Maybe I'll see if I can do a wordle-like photo collage that show's bits and pieces without giving it all away. Thoughts?

Little Kindnesses

Norman Rockwell's Thanksgiving

On this Thanksgiving while thinking about what I'm thankful for, so many things began spinning in my mind. As one thought led to another, I began to think about how we live our lives and what small actions that we take may be what someone else is thankful for.

There are examples that illustrate this through the ages in books and movies. Touching holiday films such as A Miracle on 34th Street. Or Dickens' A Christmas Carol whose premises, though written in 1843 hold as true today as they did then. Or a book like The Five People You Meet In Heaven.

While we were at the Chili's inside O'Hare last week eating our supper, a businessman sitting next to us stopped by before he left and thanked us. You see, he has two kids about the age of our kids and misses his family very much. We made his night, just by being able to simply watch our family sit, eat and banter.

I've written here about how choices that people make can so quickly effect others. But in contrast to the above mentioned post, so many of these choices are simple kindnesses that can change the course of someone else's day or life. A friend of mine posted this morning a simple quote from John Fitzgerald Kennedy that I think fits here perfectly: "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

This Thanksgiving, take a moment to not only think about what you're thankful for, but how you live and what little things you can do to make those around you thankful.

Complete Frivolity

Yesterday I found, and made a purchase of a much needed item. Last winter was very hard on my gloves. I learned the important lesson that one should never spread ice melt while wearing leather gloves. By the time my task was done, the gloves looked as though they would fit perfectly on a gnome. As a punishment for my stupidity poor choice, I squeezed my hands into the elf gloves for the remainder of the winter.

On an excursion yesterday with my mother and daughter, I came across the perfect pair of wool winter gloves. Where better a place, you might think, to find this item than in Southern California? I assure you these beauties will be the perfect warmth for me in our sub-zero temperatures.

Here's the part that completely excited me...they are Echo Touch gloves. They have a little patch on each thumb and forefinger so that I will have no need to take off my warm stylish gloves to access the touch screen on my iPhone! This was exciting not only to me, but the salesperson as well. We huddled around the display and played with my phone accessing applications with the touch patch and then without it, and giggling at how cool this was! Quite a funny sight, I'm thinking now, in retrospect, but one that I'm sure has played out many times with this item.

So while we use today to prepare for the real things to be thankful for, I leave you with this little bit of frivolity that made me happy yesterday.

First Tooth

Amazing how much a blueberry flower looks like a lost tooth!

It has been a time of great excitement and angst for my little boy. Yes he's had his first wiggly tooth. Charlie's been trying to get his teeth to wiggle since his sister lost her first tooth, very early I might add, three years ago.

He's been working on this first tooth for a few weeks now and in the last week it's gotten so loose and he'd started taking the boo boo bear to bed with him because it was painful. He would fight sleep for fear that he'd lose it in the middle of the night and swallow it. We assured him that he'd know when he'd lose it and to relax.

He was so conscious of this tooth, that it never occurred to me he'd miss his big moment. We're at grandma and papa's this week in California and yesterday morning his tooth was hanging by a thread. How could it not? There is this monster mutant adult tooth right behind it! The morning progresses, I'm at the table talking to him and I say, wait a minute Charlie, where's your tooth??

The search then begins, he's played basketball outside, been all over the house and had his Flintstones vitamins. Goodness. He's broken hearted. We assured him that the long awaited tooth fairy knows when all children lose their teeth. This doesn't console him much, he just wanted to relish this long awaited moment and to hold this little bit of himself in his hand.

The Carrot!

Check out this Carrot!!

Charlie, our resident carrot farmer picked this beautiful root in honor of my birthday this week and it tasted wonderful roasted. Yum! (As you can see he takes his carrot farming very seriously).

I'm preparing to head to California tomorrow for Thanksgiving. I'm taking my journal and both camera's. I'm sure the holiday, vacation time and a family wedding will be fodder posts. Maybe one or two while I'm there ;) I'm bringing all of my plugs!