Christmas Visions

While children have visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads on Christmas Eve, mothers have visions of children's faces lighting up as they open their long-wanted gifts, or visions of smiles erupting into laughter as the kids attempt to create the perfect gingerbread houses, which collapse from the weight of the gum drops (oh, well, more to eat) or visions of loved ones singing carols and eating and drinking good food with good cheer.

Those visions are what keep us moms going... through the crowds, through the flu, through the bills, through the mess, through the tears.  Christmas visions of happy children and a loving family always keep us going.

After the flu, we finally made it to see Santa

On this Christmas Eve, if you're tired from shopping and cooking or haven't recovered from the flu (like me) REMEMBER: if it takes a little imagination to embellish your reality - so be it.  Use it.  It's a gift from God, too.  Keep the happy visions.  Remember the smiles and forget the tears.  and always Love All. 

Author-Self-Portrait
(I always want to look like this at Christmas so
I'm pretending as my present this year.)

I end with one of my favorite Christmas poems by Roald Dahl... I hope it brings you a smile:

Where art thou, Mother Christmas?


Where are thou, Mother Christmas?
I only wish I knew
Why Father should get all the praise
And no-one mentions you.

I'll bet you buy the presents
And wrap them large and small
While all the time that rotten swine
Pretends he's done it all.

So Hail to Mother Christmas
Who shoulders all the work
And down with Father Christmas
That unmitigated jerk.

- Roald Dahl

Christmas Memories

Christmas is a celebration of family.  The birth of God's child and the promise of salvation for all His people.  When Jesus was born, He created a family: a family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus and a family of God's children.

As a mother, I feel my main responsibility at Christmas is to create memories for my family.  I prefer they be happy memories, but sometimes it doesn't work that way.

Two years ago in Canton, Georgia, a rare event occurred- we had a white Christmas.  Thick, fluffy flakes fell quietly all day creating an unforgettable winter wonderland in our own backyard.   Unfortunately, if you asked Anabel about that Christmas, she'd reply, "It was awful.  I was sick all week with pneumonia."  Many things are beyond a mother's control and occasionally, even Mother Nature fails to impress.

When I was a child, my brother desperately wanted a dirt bike.  Like Ralphie in A Christmas Story, he tried every way he could think of to obtain that bike. He left copies of Dirt Bike magazine in conspicuous places around the house.  He talked about places he could ride nearby- how helpful he would be taking the trails to the store to pick up milk or a loaf of bread.  Each mention triggered the same response: "No way, it's too dangerous," much like Ralphie's constantly heard refrain, "You'll shoot your eye out!"  My little brother's last ditch effort was to ask Santa and felt certain his request would be granted.  On Christmas morning, he opened his circa 1977 loot, which ironically contained an Evel Knevel doll and ramp, but no dirt bike appeared.  Opening the last present, he pulled out a silver spiraled coil and his face lit up.  Looking at this item, his nine-year-old-wishful-thinking mind saw shocks for a dirt bike.  The note on the bag said to look on the carport for the rest of the gift and sheer joy carried him across the room.  He flung open the door to reveal... a trampoline.  The coil was a spring not a shock.

Of the many cheerful Christmases I experienced as a child, this one I remember the most vividly.  Why?  Was it because all the others were the same with each of us children receiving all that we asked for?  Difference does make unique memories.

Thanks to our sabbatical journey last year, we experienced an unusual Christmas.  I loved decorating with our homemade ornaments and the few distinctive travel ornaments we had gathered in cities on our journeys during the year.  Since the kids had no friends on the island, I enjoyed creating special activities for them to do in preparation for Christmas Day.  We had no family to visit last year so we reveled in the quiet day by reading aloud to our children.  We baked without rush and cooked without agenda.  We walked on the beach and wrote wishes in the sand.  I will always treasure last Christmas, but if you asked the children, they would probably say, "Last Christmas was so boring!  It didn't feel like Christmas at all."  Oh well, not every Christmas is perfect, but I bet they'll always remember it.

Visit my posts on our unusual Christmas last year:

A Very Santa Weekend

Going Coastal for Christmas

Keeping the Kids Busy While Waiting for the Big Guy

Which Christmas do you remember the most?  Why? (This is not part of a psychological study.  I'm just curious...)

Happy Holiday Wishes!

Our Family Story Christmas Card

Visit Shutterfly.com for classic photo Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Keeping the Kids Busy While Waiting for the Big Guy

We've made gingerbread houses.  Now what?

Two Days before Christmas and all through the house 
The kids shook with excitement the parents could not douse. 


The stockings have been hung and are ready for stuffing
But the kids won't leave Mommy alone and her anger is puffing.


"Get out of the house and do something creative,"
She exclaimed to all a bit too berate -tive.


But she was tired and needed to be baking
and wrapping and cleaning and making.


When what to her wonderful mind appears?
A game to entertain her three little dears.


"Here's a scavenger hunt guaranteed to enthrall
Now dash away, dash away, dash away all!


From the top of the porch to the top of the hall,
Find the 12 signs of Christmas while having a ball.


Bring back some pictures to show you're on board,
The kid who finds the most will get a reward."


And She heard them exclaim as they tore out of sight,
"Let's find all we can! Santa comes tomorrow night!"


If you are looking for something to entertain the kids and give you some space, here's our 12 Signs of Christmas Scavenger Hunt:


(Kids should search with a camera to capture each object with a picture and not mess up your or your neighbor's decorations.  If you have a large number of kids hanging out at your house, I suggest forming teams for the hunt.)

12 Christmas Wreaths

11 Red Bows
10 Wrapped Presents
 9  Santa Clauses
 8  Tiny Reindeer
 7  Snowmen
 6  Christmas Trees
 5  Golden Ornaments
 4  Glittery Stars
 3  Christmas Stockings
 2  Shiny Angels

AND
 1  Nativity Scene


My kids rode around on their bikes for a couple of hours looking for all the items, but kids could find many things inside the house if the weather isn't cooperating.  I hope this occupies their minds and bodies for a while and gives the mommies and daddies some much needed breathing room!

Happy Holidays!

Going Coastal for Christmas

If I'd packed the Christmas decorations, Greg would have killed me.  Moving from 5000 square feet to 1600 square feet doesn't allow for 50 yards of lighted garland, 15 wreaths for the windows, three fully decorated Christmas trees and two holiday deer. You can forget about the life-size partridge in a pear tree.

So here we are, December, and we have no decorations.

My Bucket Advent Calendar

Well, almost no decorations.  I snuck the handmade Advent calendar of buckets into the back of the car while Greg was recording music and thus, distracted, when we were home in November.  I made the Advent buckets three years ago to help our family keep up with the traditions of Christmas.  Busy with school, dance, chorus, band, work, and volunteering, we missed the little things that make Christmastime special: baking cookies, drinking hot chocolate while watching It's a Wonderful Life, making peppermint milk in a fruit jar like my great-grandfather did, caroling our relatives (the only ones kind enough to take it) or even just riding around eating fast food burgers and looking at tacky Christmas lights.  The buckets solved everything.  Over Thanksgiving break, I wrote down a special holiday treat, tradition or activity for each of the 24 days leading up to Christmas and placed one in each bucket.  I tried to vary each day between a family outing like seeing the latest Christmas movie at the theater or a family tradition like baking sugar cookies to silly treats like holiday pens, pencils, socks or candy.   I also scheduled into the bucket activities the essential holiday preparations of getting the Christmas tree, decorating and special church services.  The kids loved getting up in the morning and checking out the surprise for that day.  Obviously, I had to bring this to Fripp. (I'll post some of these special holiday activities from this year.)

With our calendar proudly hung, we decided to get creative for the rest of our decorations instead of spending more money.  As part of their PE assignments, the kids scoured the beach each day looking for seashells, sand dollars and starfish.  Greg contributed by going clamming, happily eating the clams and donating the shells for the new tree garland.  I golf carted around the island in the rain searching for the beautiful Atlantic White Cedar trees in full berry and snuck a few limbs here and there for our mantel and mirror.  We only purchased burlap for stockings, jute and hemp roping for the shell garland and two strands of blue lights for the tree.

After pulling all the ingredients together, we spent one whole day sitting around the living room, watching football and creating our decorations.

The kids strung popcorn while Greg drilled the holes in the seashells and I created the garland.  We made individual ornaments with the sand dollars and whelk shells.  After layering it all on the tree and adding our travel ornaments, our lone starfish topped the tree.

Greg's drilled shells

Our Coastal Christmas Tree

Not a professional pattern

The mantel, decked out with the cedar and berries, looked complete when we added our personally sewn stockings.  Emma and I cut a rough pattern out of newspaper and I gave the kids their first sewing lesson on my handy Baby Lock sewing machine (I insisted on bringing this on sabbatical and it finally paid off!)  Wyatt and Emma sewed their stockings without hesitation, but Anabel froze when it came her turn.  Trying not to lose my patience, I asked her what on earth was the matter.  Leave it to Anabel and her love of movies to paralyze her at a tiny sewing machine.  Seems in the American Girl movie about Samantha, there was a scene in a sweatshop factory where a boy got his hand caught in a machine and the giant needle went through his hand.  Ouch!  After showing Anabel that it was impossible to sew your hand on this machine she proceeded without any problems.  Kids... you never know what they're thinking.

I added a shell initial for each child's stocking... Thank you, Hot Glue Gun!

With the stockings hung by the chimney with care, I proceeded to make a holiday wreath for our center mirror.  I wired a few cedar branches together and "Voila!" A Christmas wreath!

Our homemade decorations may pale in comparison to their store bought brethren back home, but I love these coastal decorations we made together and will treasure them always (or at least until they start to smell.)

A Very Santa Weekend

Not the real Santa, but a very nice alternative.

Much to the delight of kids and grownups alike, Santa arrived via fire engine (not sleigh) on Fripp to kick off the island's holiday season.  This small town, old fashioned and homespun frivolity made Christmas memories for all.  With hot chocolate and cookies in hand, children danced around the alligator statue or waited patiently in line to sit in the Big Man's lap and tell their Christmas wishes.

Our three lined up for more treats instead of Santa choosing to wait till our scheduled breakfast with him the following day.  Wyatt downed three and a half cups of scalding hot chocolate in record time only spilling a few well placed drops on our return home in the golf cart.  By the way, traveling by golf cart to see Santa Claus arrive is the only way to go!  Greg can handle the chill in the air without care while on a golf cart.  No weather related depression this year.

The next morning, Anabel, Wyatt and Emma told Santa their Christmas lists each modestly reduced to match our change in situation this year.  Gone were the elaborate requests from the American Girl store and Toys R Us.  They understood that this sabbatical is a gift in itself, but Wyatt couldn't resist putting a plug in for a dirt bike like he has done for the past 2 years.  (Sorry Wyatt.  Santa acts on parents' permission.  Sabbatical or no sabbatical, the answer is NO dirt bike.)

Breakfast with Santa

Elves' (not Elvis's) Workshop

The Fripp Island Resort's traditional Christmas kick-off weekend included a Local Artists Craft Sale, an Elves' Workshop for kids to purchase inexpensive gifts, Santa's Evening Arrival Party, and Breakfast Buffet with Santa the next day.  Like many things on the island, the organization needed work and the wait staff was stretched a little thin, but it's Christmas so who would complain?



We know we only have a few (if any) of these "Santa's lap" Christmases left.  In the end, I hope our kids enjoyed the weekend as much as we did.