Holiday Chalkboards

Last year my friend Amber hosted the holiday luncheon for our school's teachers and staff at her beautiful home.  We had a really fun, creative committee and my friend Jenny of Bloom Designs (http://bloomdesignsonline.com) chose a fitting chalkboard theme for the party.  (Check out Jenny's website.  She's amazingly creative and inspired!)  Jenny brought me these cute vintage chalkboards for me to make our signs for the party.  To make the signs, I first typed up the words on the computer and messed around with the fonts until I found ones I liked.  This helps me with the layout, the different fonts and centering things.  It makes it a lot easier than just free-forming it.  I love doing things like this.  My grandfather was a sign maker by profession and, later in life, a calligrapher.  I felt like a piece of him was with me while I was making these signs.  And, even though they aren't perfect (his would have been!), I felt like he would have been proud.  

So in case you're already looking ahead to Christmas, here you are...

This one went above our coffee bar.

This one greeted our guests.

It wasn't.  It was in the 80's.  Not cold at all.

It was a joyous day, despite all sorts of debacles.  It turned out beautifully.

This one is my favorite.  It was displayed over the dessert table.

We've yet to decide the theme for this year's holiday party.  Maybe looking at these again will get me inspired!

It's Christmas Again!

It's Christmas again, my favorite time of the year. Like last year, we are doing things simply. The kids will get some gifts, of course, and even something off their list. But I am trying hard not to emphasize that aspect of Christmas. I am really trying to focus on what I think Christmas should be all about -- giving to others and spending time with the ones you love. Last year we LOVED having something special to do each day of advent. This year, the kids are into it even more. Every morning the first thing they do is run to see the day's activity. And with Zachary a year older, he is able to really participate and enjoy everything so much more. He was really involved in making the fudge for our neighbors this year, becoming "The stirring expert." Juliette "helped" by not asking me to hold her the whole time. She mostly ate (crackers, a banana, a few chocolate chips) and moved her chair around the kitchen. She only fell off three times! One night we put her to bed early and the four of us did a jigsaw puzzle. This was also great. Zachary was a reluctant participant at first. But we let him choose the puzzle and when he realized he could do it, he loved it. Now he's asking to do puzzles. We are having a wonderful time just being together, doing simple, Christmasy activities. It also forces us to have some calm, usually in the evenings after Jason comes home, before bed time. This time is calm for many people, but in our house, things are a little frantic. "Eat your dinner! Take a bath! Wash your hair! Brush your teeth! How many books? I want cuddles!" We are trying to sloooooow things down a bit. (We should probably do this all year!) So far it has been a very happy holiday!

Best Yet

Friday's advent activity was to drive around to look at Christmas lights. This seems so simple that it couldn't be so great, but it WAS! The kids got into their pajamas, we turned on a Van Morrison CD (perfect light-viewing music), and we drove around to look at lights. Pasadena and surrounds have some pretty great spots to look at lights. But even on the way to said spots, there was so much for the kids to enjoy. They rated which homes were their favorites and we heard, "Oh! Awesome!" over and over again. When we arrived at Christmas Tree Lane in Altadena, it was just as magical as I remembered it as a child. People turn off their car lights to drive slowly down the street and enjoy the splendor of all the colored lights on the tall trees. Even the kids were speechless, except for a few, "Whooooooaaaas." Majestic. And then we went over to the Hastings Ranch area, which is just the opposite -- tacky and gaudy and everything little kids love. They ooohed and aaahed over snowpeople and Mickey Mouse and penguins and all sorts of "holiday" animals. We ended the night with more tall trees on St. Albans in San Marino. They, too, were beautiful. On the way back home, Annalise fell asleep, Juliette woke up (and didn't fall back asleep until 11:00) and Zachary complained that we weren't getting home fast enough. But for almost two hours, we delighted together, as a family, in the magic of the season.

Advent

We have had the loveliest advent season this year. It seems like usually the advent season is filled with chaos: last minute shopping, running errands, big messes, lots of cooking, stressed out parents and sugared-up kids. Don't get me wrong, we still have a lot of all of that going on, but for some reason, this year, it all seems somewhat blissful. As I wrote before, this year for advent we are doing something special each day. I even found at the Bargain Box Thrift Store an advent calendar with little pockets for each day. It's made of felt and hangs on our wall. Each day the kids look in the pocket to see what the activity of the day is going to be. Truthfully, most of the activities are things that we do anyway this time of year. But for some reason, making that THE special event of the day really does make it special. So far we have, amongst other things, made fudge for the neighbors, watched the movie Elf (with popcorn and hot chocolate), read Christmas books, sung carols, decorated the tree and made a gingerbread house. Annalise, in particular, has really loved this time. The first thing she does when she wakes up is go to look in the pocket to see what special thing the day holds for us. It's really made the season magical for us.

The other thing that has been so magical this season is the gift-giving of my children. Annalise has been working like mad to make her Christmas gifts. She has been picking out projects and taking a lot of time to work on them. Right now she is at Grandma's, learning to cross-stitch, because she really wanted to cross-stitch a bookmark for her daddy. I'm anxious to see how she does! And today, Zachary couldn't wait to go to the toy store to choose gifts for his sisters. (He really thought we should get a babysitter for Juliette because he wanted her to be surprised. I promised him that I would face her in in the carrier so she wouldn't see what he picked.) We spent quite a long time in the store, looking up and down every row until he found just the right thing for each girl. A LOT of thought went into his choices.

It's going to be a wonderful Christmas this year, even though Annalise is not getting a Wii and Zachary is not getting every set of Star Wars Legos ever made. It will be wonderful because they will truly understand the magic of giving. How lucky they are to learn how great that can feel.

Free Time

Things have been busy at the Evans house. Between sick kids (and adults), no more nap time for a young boy and our crazy schedule, I haven't had time to write in my blog for over a month! Things are busy, but good. Soccer season has wrapped up for both Annalise and Zachary. They both had a great time and really improved a lot. School and activities have been in full force. But this week we have the joy of having a whole week off of school. Instead of throwing the kids in the car or on a plane, as we often do, we have opted to stay at home for a blissful week of nothingness! Aside from a birthday party this afternoon and a visit from good friends tomorrow, we have nothing on the calendar! We are going to try to take this time to just BE. With all our crazy schedules, we often forget that the most important thing for children is this self-directed play. Right now the kids are outside playing with a friend. I can hear them, but I am ignoring them -- letting them resolve any problems, letting them make up the rules to their games, letting them make a mess. I feel like we haven't had this kind of time since summer. What a blessing it is to have this time.

We have another goal for this week, and that is to start planning our Christmas. Last year, we decided to have a very minimal Christmas. The adults did not exchange gifts with one another, opting instead to give to our favorite charities. The kids made all their gifts, which were a HUGE hit. And, though the kids did get some toys, books and clothes, we also gave the gift of experiences. My parents have really loved this idea. My mom came up with this idea two years ago when she gave Annalise a trip to San Francisco! (How cool is that!? -- a trip with just Grandma to stay at Uncle David's house.) Last year, Annalise loved taking a hike with her Papa and Zachary loved going with him to see the Rose Parade float being built. They also each got to do something special with Grandma and got time with Jason and me as well. It was such a wonderful Christmas... The first one where we spent more on giving to charity than we did on our family and friends, and the first one where we all really embraced the idea of the gift of time. We are hoping to do much of the same this year. I just read an idea in Mothering magazine about making an advent calendar. Instead of a picture or toy or candy, in this advent calendar, each day holds a slip of paper with an activity on it. They can be something simple, like take a walk to look at Christmas lights or play a board game. Some will take some special planning, like go ice skating or get a Christmas tree. I loved this idea. I am hoping to make one of these advent calendars this year.

Annalise and I have also already been scheming about what to give the grandparents. (It will be hard to beat the hand-painted linen napkins she made last year.) We already have a plan and have started to accumulate the materials we need to make her presents. Today we went for a walk on the horse trail to gather pinecones. We had such a great time finding the perfect ones for our project. Zachary loved finding huge ones as well. We decided we'll have to make birdfeeders with those. As we were walking, I just couldn't help but feeling that this was what Christmas was really about. We were having a wonderful time with the process of the present (not stressed out in a mall or typing our credit card information into a computer). Her gifts will be thoughtful, beautiful and heatfelt. I know she will have so much pride in giving and her grandparents will have so much pride in receiving. Last year, as she and I snuggled after a busy Christmas day, I asked her if she had a good Christmas. She said yes, she did, but her favorite part of the day was watching people open the presents she had made for them. As a six year old, she understood the joy in giving. It doesn't get any better than that.