So, I have these A D O R A B L E holiday gnomes I got a few years ago. They bring me a lot of joy during the holiday season because this is the only time they get to come out and hang...out...on the tree. Mostly, these gnomes are what stem my quest for a pocket gnome to give me hints like: "good idea," or, "bad idea." If you don't know what I'm talking about, read this.
Anyway, I love the holidays. I love waiting until the last minute to do my shopping because I like the challenge. I LOVE LOVE LOVE L O V E wrapping my Christmas presents--I pick a different theme every year. I will forever think giving is always greater than receiving.
I love celebrating Jesus with my family and celebrating the birth of my favorite version of Jesus
--Sweet Baby Jesus.
I love to sing to the best of the worst Christmas songs and share my love for them with friends and family. I also love to bake. One Christmas season I made 180 ginger bread cookies and had to call my cousin in as a decorating reinforcement, as I was running out of ideas. She's quite creative.
Here's Grandma with her doppelgänger cookie--complete with her blood donation pin.
So this year--in addition to shopping last minute to give my loved ones rad-wrapped gifts, baking Christmas cookies and boogy-ing to the best of the worst...I am excitedly skipping down this maker path and making a few of my gifts rather than purchasing them. I will say, giving a gift brings me joy, but making AND giving a gift pushes me over the cliff of joy. As a maker of things--there's no greater compliment than seeing something you made for a gift being used or displayed in the recipient's home.
Last year I made blankets. It took me the whole Christmas weekend, but it got done. It really fills my bucket when I see those blankets being used to snuggle or as a soft landing in case a tiny human were to take a tumble. This year I'm doing a blanket for the caboose-kiddo in my brother's family and making signs so that others can give them as gifts...
(Helping create something for others brings lots of joy too...regardless of the season)
Above all the gifts and the cookies (yes, even the cookies), above the Christmas songs and my love for wrapping all the gifts--above it all is spending time with my family.
I think like most people--I'll go ahead and argue that I have the best family ever. Yes, sometimes we fight and yes, sometimes we disagree with one another, who doesn't?! -BUT- I will argue that my family loves the biggest. My mom comes from a family of all girls--so we're all naturally chatty. On my dad's side, it's just he and his sister--and each of their families, so we're all very close--I think my whole family is close. I usually tell people that when I say, "My family," I mean my WHOLE family. To the outsider walking in--it can be a lot. I think each of my cousins/family members that has brought 'new blood' into the circle, each new person gets a fair warning.
Like I said, my Mother comes from a family of all girls. They're all planners and each one of them likes to and is an excellent cook--minus my Mother--she isn't a fan of the cooking and baking. So when we do Christmas with this side of my family--there's always food and plenty of treats. Every Christmas as far back as I can remember, was always planned months in advance as was the menu--and as we "kids" got older--the gifts were planned as well. Now we do a gift exchange much like kiddos do in school. We draw numbers and each take our turn drawing gifts. Each year there's a new theme to the gifts.
On my Dad's side there aren't as many of us as there are on my Mother's side. My Grandma (as featured above) has 5-grands. I'm #3 in that line-up. Because there aren't as many of us, and the tinies are still tiny enough--we grands and our dads (sometimes our moms) play games. In previous years we've played Balderdash--that was until the Wii. Since the birth of the Wii, we've done it all--Wii Sports, Wii Karaoke, and my favorite--Wii Michael Jackson: The Experience.
We always have prime rib and scalloped corn. The gals always do the dishes while my brothers make gift piles for our parents and Grandma. Then at the end of the day--into the night, we do fireworks.
Each Christmas celebration holds such a special place in my heart (like most people, I assume). I have so many fun memories from Christmases with both sides of my family. These are the memories I hope to pass on and share with a family of my own [eventually]--including some tiny people...hopefully.
What's your favorite memory from the Holiday Season?
HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON and MERRY CHRISTMAS
...and HAPPY MAKING/WRAPPING/COOKING/BAKING
From my gnome(s) to your gnome(s)