Unfolding Advent November 27, 2005

"One day God sent the angel Gabriel to a young woman. Her name was Mary."

Tonight we began one of our favorite Christmas traditions with these words. Every year at the start of Advent, we make an Advent Chain that allows us to tell the story of Christmas bit by bit each night. This looks like a traditional construction paper chain, except on the
inside of each loop, a portion of the Christmas story is told. Each night you cut a loop and the story progressively unfolds. By the end of the season, Ben pretty much has the whole story memorized. 

Here’s how it works…You print out the story on the colored paper of your choice. You can use the traditional Advent color of purple or go Christmas-y red and green. Then you cut horizontally between the chunks of story, leaving you with 28 strips of paper (since there are 28 days in Advent this year). Glue the strips together in a chain, making sure to keep the story in order. Then you tape/tack up the last loop of the story, leaving the first loop dangling at the bottom. On the first night you cut that loop and read it aloud, and then post it somewhere where you’ll be able to add all the cut strips beneath it – for us that’s the fridge. Then each night, you read all the strips you’ve previously cut, adding the newest bit of story at the end. It’s fun to watch the chain get shorter and shorter until the big finale on Christmas Eve.

When Ben was four, one of my parenting mentors passed this tradition on to our family. During the first few years, I read each night, but as Ben’s reading skills progressed he took over. It’s such a sweet moment during our evenings to hear his voice tell the story of a young woman, a young man, their journey and the birth of our savior.

I’m attaching the file in case you want to give it a try. The story gets longer each day, so make sure you choose a time when everyone can enjoy it.

Counting Our Blessings November 24, 2005

Thanksgiving is lovely in its uncomplicated purity – food and gratitude. And that was pretty much our agenda today. I spent about 5 hours cooking the traditional spread, enjoying the contrast from my usual dinner-in-30-minutes routine. Concentrated time in the kitchen without the need to cut corners for time’s sake felt like a luxury.

As we sat down to eat, we each listed five things we’re particularly thankful for this year:

Ben

• Family
• Holidays
• His school
• Our home
• Vacations

Brian

• Family
• Church (work and worship)
• Our home
• Sharing movies and TV together
• The opportunity to write a book

Lori

• Family
• Our friends
• Our town
• Reading
• My job

Back when I was a SAHM and Ben took long, late afternoon naps, I was an Oprah junkie and I followed her instructions to keep a daily gratitude journal. I kept it up for quite some time and it’s fun to look back and see what struck me. These days my gratitudes are part of my morning prayer time while I’m walking, though some weeks I’m less focused on that part than others. When I slack in my thankfulness, it’s funny how there seem to be fewer things to be thankful for. It’s like gratitude is a muscle that can turn to flab with just a few missed workouts. But the cool thing is that the more I use that muscle, the more it stretches and expands and heightens my awareness of things to be grateful for.

Like…the sound of the garage door going up when Brian comes home…the delicious feeling of turning off my alarm on Friday night…soft cushy socks…the way Ben runs down the hallway most of the time because of his sense of urgency…blessings at every corner.

Gathering Mission November 15, 2005

Today’s prep tip for the holidays is one of my favorite kinds: gathering, inventory and shopping. Easy tasks when you’ve still got time and then you get to give your self a gold star for the day for very little effort.

Do you have all the supplies you’ll need to make your life easier this season? Boxes to ship things in, packing tape, mailing labels, scotch tape, tissue paper, etc.? Go through your Christmas to do list and think of all those things you use in the process. This is to avoid the last minute trips to the grocery to pay double the price for scotch tape. I remember the year I ran out of packing tape and had to make a rushed stop at Target, tape up boxes in the back of our VW wagon on a particularly windy day and then rush to the post office at prime time for waiting in line. These days you can always find plenty of packing tape at our house

The Coolest Stocking Stuffers November 14, 2005

One of the best shopping stops I made last year during the Christmas season was the Container Store. I found some of the most unique and useful stocking stuffers and small gifts I’ve seen. For example, this is a small, but oh-so-helpful item for the people in your life who wear glasses. As a gift to our family, I got the best to-do list pad, divided into tasks, errands, correspondence and notes, which has really helped us on busy weekends. When we run out of lines, we know it’s time to eliminate! I can’t seem to find it online, but this looks pretty handy as well.

Ben and I have already planned to take a trip to the Container Store together, but if you don’t have a location near you, you can order online or from their catalogs.

Old School Cool November 13, 2005

Eloy had a fun post about earning your stripes as old school. According to him, I’m not a bona fide member (even though I am older…NObody said yes sir or ma’am growing up in Michigan). I started thinking about his list as I was brushing my teeth tonight, and had to jot down a few of my own criteria. In my camp, you can’t count yourself as old school if you:

• Have never used a card catalog with actual drawers
• Have never taped your favorite tv show with a tape recorder
• Have never enjoyed a Chunky candy bar (before it was in the Retro candy section at Target)
• Have never seen a "Battle of the Network Stars"
• Have never used a microwave that kept going while the door was open
• Have never seen a movie in the theater more than once because you didn’t want to wait for years hoping it would air on tv
• Have never taken a typing class that was taught on a typewriter (even if the class was called keyboarding)
• Have never watched the Cosby Show on NBC
• Don’t know what these are

Morning Mulligan November 13, 2005

As I was getting out of the shower the other morning, the phone rang before I could get to it. When the answering machine picked up, Ben started talking, telling me that he forgot his lunch at home and would I please bring it to the school. For a split second I started to get peevish since this was a work-at-home morning that should not require me to leave our cozy home. And in the next instant, thankfully, I was reminded what an itty-bitty inconvenience this was. And that it had never happened before. And that I am given grace regularly for much larger slipups. And that in 10 years I will miss these kinds of phone calls.

That message is still saved on the answering machine, Brian and I both in unspoken agreement to keep it for a while.

Thank God for small problems.

Christmas Prep 101 November 11, 2005

This is a really easy one and goes in the "work smarter not harder" category. Get stamps for your Christmas cards today. I like to have holiday stamps for our cards, so I ordered mine online. It takes about 5 minutes (if you don’t already have an account, quicker if you do), they only charge $1 for processing, and you don’t even have to leave your chair to do it.

If you venture to the USPS site, be sure to check out their shipping options that you can do right from home. I ordered a bunch of their flat-rate boxes and envelopes so that if I have something to ship out, I can pay for and print labels from our home computer (without having to weigh them), set them outside and be done. Don’t miss this option if you are one of the poor souls who waits in a winding line at the PO every year doing the two-steps-forward-package-shuffle! While there’s a certain bonding with your fellow man that occurs during hour plus waits (and plenty of opportunities to check out the latest trends in footwear), surely we all have better ways to spend our time. If you’re going this route, order supplies now so they will get to you in time for your holiday shipping.

Man! I sound like a PSA for the US Post Office! But I’ll plug anyone who makes my life easier.

Toys for Boys of the 10-ish age November 7, 2005

This weekend, a friend of mine asked what exactly a 10-ish year old boy would want for Christmas. This is a tricky age, a fact confirmed by most of the parents I know. Brian did a great job of listing some recent favorites from Ben’s birthday, but I thought I’d add a few more.

• 20 Questions: This is a freakishly smart, fun little game. Available at Target or Walmart.
• Games: Card games or board games, classic or new. Some of our favorites include Rat-a-Tat Cat, Clue, Uno, Ziggity (by Cranium), Sorry, and Milles Bornes. Most of these are available at Target or Walmart.
• Spy gear: Whereas our generation had to settle for the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, today’s super sleuths go high-tech. Fair warning – these toys seem to break/die quickly and easily, even in careful hands.
• A bank/safe. So much loot to protect! You can go electronic, retro or organized.
• Magnets: We have a bit of a magnet obsession in our family, but magnetic toys seem to go over pretty well with this age group. We especially like Magz, but Target also sells a knockoff version by RoseArt that is cheaper.
• Dart board: Ben has a magnetic version (see above) that often gets played with when friends are over.
• Rockets: Boys and rockets – how can you miss. There are stomp rockets, hand-held air rockets, air hogs, etc. which are all basically air-propelled rockets that go really far/high, so much so that you don’t want to use them in a subdivision backyard unless you feel like paying your neighbors a visit.
• National Geographic Kids: We’ve tried several subscriptions for Ben, but this is the only one that he sits down and reads on the day it arrives.

And finally, two general shopping tips: 1) my favorite catalog/website – HearthSong, and 2) a surprisingly good place to find old-fashioned toys – Cracker Barrel.

Yuletide Addiction and Accountability November 4, 2005

The same thing happens every year. As the air gets cooler and the Christmas catalogs start arriving in the mail, I have visions of a blissful holiday season with my family. Cozy moments by the glow of a warm fire drinking hot chocolate, decorating the tree with our favorite Christmas music in the background, baking cookies together…and of course all the shopping, shipping and card-sending will be done already.

With a naivete only comparable to Charlie Brown and the football, I resolutely determine that this year will be Different. Because, honestly, in seasons past I’ve had very scary shrew-like moments, induced by a mad frenzy of preparations that carry on into the 1 and 2 am time range. This was especially prevalent during my Martha-Stewart-homemade-everything days (candles, wrapping paper, chocolate truffles…). Other people loved it, but my family could care less. A turning point came during a fall driving trip one year when I asked what their favorite holiday moments were. None of them were the things that drove me to the edge. Basically, they just wanted me to be relaxed and happy enough to enjoy the sweet, simple times together. And since then, I’ve been doing my best to honor that. Each year, I try to make improvements, whether incremental or substantial – working smarter, not harder, starting earlier, and letting go of unrealistic expectations.

So in the spirit of accountability, I’m outing myself as a Christmas-overdoer-addict. And during the next seven weeks or so, I’ll be sharing what I’m doing (and not doing) to make things easier and more meaningful for our family during this season.

Coolness Shared November 1, 2005

I was tempted to keep this gem to myself – a secret backdoor to coolness (and I need all the help I can get!). But, I just can’t be that selfish! Subscribe to this blog and you will get the inside track on all kinds of hip/tasteful/unusual items:

http://www.mightygoods.com/

Just in time for to get ideas for your hard-to-buy for friends!