As Christmas comes ever closer, I wanted to share a story about Christmas three years ago that has been on my mind a lot recently. It doesn’t necessarily fit with any of my themes for this year, but I figure since it’s about Christmas and I’m transitioning blog focuses anyway I’d just go for it. It’s about a small act of kindness that made enough of an impression that years later here I am writing about it… Continue reading
christmas
FAVORITES: Non-material gifts for the holidays
OK, one more round of favorites before the holidays are in full swing and I start my year end wrap up…
The thought of adding any more STUFF to our already very full house makes me feel a little anxious. We are about to cram five people into our fairly small home. So today I’m writing about a few things that have been or currently are on our holiday gift list in case anyone else out there is trying to be “minimalish” for the holidays and focus on gifts that don’t take up space! Bonus- this also means you don’t have to dust them/tell your kids to pick them up… Continue reading
A Favorite Christmas Tradition…
There are so many things I love about the Christmas and Advent season. The marvel of lights, the gorgeous music, the specifically Catholic traditions (I’ve been slowly adding to our nativity scene each Sunday, and when we have a little more space one of my first wish list items is an advent wreath!) Then there are the family traditions which are some of my favorites Continue reading
Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017…
I can’t believe the year is coming to a close… where did November go?! Continue reading
Cultivating Memories
As we head into the holiday season, I’ve been reflecting how best to intentionally spend my time. It feels like there’s extra pressure this year to make it special as it’s the last Christmas my son will be an only child and that makes it tempting to try and do ALL THE THINGS. But I don’t want to do all the things and feel the consequences of an already difficult pregnancy under the added stress of exhaustion. And for that matter, I don’t just want the holidays to be the time we’re consciously choosing ways to make memories with our kids. Continue reading
To those whose holidays aren’t feeling merry or bright:
Sometimes I worry that my blog gets a little schmaltzy. I’m a passionate person and I have always had intense feelings- both on the positive and negative spectrum. I just do a whole lot of feeling. I’m sensitive to joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain. That being said, I don’t think I’m alone in LOVING this time of year and all the Christmas traditions and merriment. It is truly a magical time of refocusing and rejoicing. I want to talk about a Christmas where things felt neither calm nor bright. Continue reading
Baking #22: Do you wanna bake a snowman?
My nephew came to visit us yesterday and surprised us by asking for a
blanket, some hot chocolate, and to watch the movie Elf. We live in Phoenix so this seemed a little crazy, but he told us he wanted to pretend it was Christmas so we decided to theme our whole day around Christmas in June. (Since we won’t be watching him in July this made perfect sense.) We were more than happy to accommodate with the movie because Elf is one of our all-time favorites. In fact, I watched Elf while I was in the hospital in labor. That’s how much we love it (and how much I wanted to laugh through my nerves about giving birth…) So we had hot chocolate (or a mocha in my case) and watched the movie and turned on the fans so that bundling up in blankets wouldn’t lead to heat exhaustion and had a great day. Continue reading
Alphabet Resolutions 