I love Jan Karon's books so much that I wish Father Tim and Cynthia lived in our neighborhood. This is the story of how Father Tim who has found love and married at 60 makes a present of a beautiful nativity scene for his new wife by restoring an antique. I read this last year as well.. if you have moment to read it.. or even better listen while you wrap your gifts up (because the reader is fabulous!) I know you'll really enjoy it.
In my mind, the key to good wrapping is goop. More is more to a Christmas freak and so the more goopy goop you can slop on there the better. The only thing is I get a little boring because I purchase bulk paper from Xpedx and bulk ribbon from Costco so those items last through several Christmases. It does save quite a bit of money to do it this way, but I get paper envy walking through every craft store. I love pretty papers.
We admit to being Christmas Freaks at our house. We love Christmas and almost everything about it. Last night we went to hear our neighbors play at a Christmas concert (they were amazing) and then drove around a few different neighborhoods to see all the twinkle lights. We'd had about a foot of snow during the day and so it was truly lovely.
You can pick out the other Christmas Freaks fairly easily looking at twinkle lights.
Little c sometimes gets an aversion to Halloween. She only likes the fun part, but grosses out on some of the more ghoulish aspects of that holiday. This year was one of those years and so the Christmas music started on Halloween Night. Yep. c was ready to put the tree up the next day. Sadly, we didn't get it finished until last Friday, but she did most of the decorating this year and I thought she did a great job!
To Simplify... is not something I believe in. It's more to go full speed at all the traditions and plans that make the season fun and skip what has become a burden. I used to always make homemade candy... then, that wasn't as fun anymore so I stopped, however it's starting to sound fun again so I might make a batch.
I love to fill the house with Christmas flowers, which isn't expensive if you go to the right place. We paid less than $50 for the 7 poinsettias I purchased this year. That is much less than a nice flower arrangement goes for these days. Grocery stores over-charge for Christmas flowers and the quality is usually not very good so go to a greenhouse to get them. Mine usually last until Valentine's Day.
I love to paint Christmas boxes and listen to Christmas books on tape. Right now I am listening to Shepherd's abiding by Jan Karon. Father Tim is restoring a Christmas angel with a broken wing. Lovely.
I didn't paint any snow guys this year. Next year maybe. I did have to slow down a bit this year, but come January. I will start making big plans for next year. Christmas freaks celebrate all year long.
I hope you are merrier and merrier everyday. 
I always get a few holiday recordings to add to our collection of Christmas stuff. I haven't heard this entire CD, but I love the song God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen that is performed with Sarah McLachlan. In fact, figuring out who was singing this song on the radio has been bugging me for days. I should have asked some of you music aficionados. Anyway, I hope the rest of the titles will be as much fun.
Alexandra has just announced that her new book will be available February 15th. I am so thrilled! If you haven't been reading her books... don't miss Happiness For Two. Every couple should read it I think.
For as long as I can remember Mary Hamilton has been one of my very favorite artists. I wish that I could show you more of her work, but it seems to be disappearing. Mary Hamilton has been an artist for Hallmark Cards for over 50 years and all her practice with a paint brush shows. Best of all, I love her little angels, fairies and nativity scenes. When I was about 10, I started getting her Psalms calendar every year for Christmas. Hallmark no longer puts those out, but I sure wish they would. They were wonderful in every way. The art of Mary Hamilton is sweet and inspiring in it's delicate beauty with a touch of glitter here and there... I still look for her work every time I pass a Hallmark store. What an amazing career and to have spent all that time creating such loveliness... is just what I aspire to as an artist. With 40 years more practice.. who knows! Thank you Mary... it's all so beautiful!
This is some of my favorite Christmas music. Music is something that I'm the last to know about, but I love the cheerful style of this group. This is happy music... I love it!
Next to painting, I really enjoy making jewelry although the things I make are pretty basic. That's what I spent yesterday doing. It's good activity if you are in a situation where couch time is something you need quite a lot of. Anywho... my friend Michelle who has a darling shop as well... (check it here) introduced me to MissFickleMedia who makes these little clay pendants. I love them especially the little chickadee. Right now she is running a special... buy anything in the shop and get a chickadee for free... What a deal! Anyway, I'm waiting for another chickadee because c has 2 bffs and she loves it when they all have the same of anything so I need to make one more necklace unless I decide that I need one too. 
Normally this is not something I would share, but it was such a great experience and I promised my neighbor that I would spread the word. My Sunday school teacher is a veteran of the Korean War and 2 Sundays ago he mentioned that he is a volunteer at the Veteran's Hospital. I had never been there and I asked him if he would take little c and I to the hospital and show us around. We were not allowed back into the rooms because the hospital is very protective of our soldiers. There were more than a dozen police officers around. I think that is a good thing. However, little c and I had made these thank you notes that have Pancake and Mints on the front waving the flag and on the back they said, "Our liberty is our most precious gift. We are eternally grateful to those who have provided it to us and to those who have maintained it for us. May God bless and keep those who have fought to preserve our freedom. Thank you!"
I made this little box for a lovely dark haired baby named Lily.
... and put together these little favor bags for little c's b-day party. Do you see Pancake peeking out of there. c and I collaborated on that one. She didn't realize how difficult it is to get to the final design. I think she had to draw a simple sketch 9-10 times before we got the exact shape we needed. I was proud of her for sticking it out with me. There are a few Pancakes in the shop.. but no blue lilies I'm afraid although there are yellow and pink.
This film about the song writer/musician Woody Guthrie was an interesting history lesson and well filmed. However, it was not an inspiring film to me. While the man Woody Guthrie often had his heart in the right place... he was no angel. His story reminded me of the quote by David O. McKay, "No success can compensate for failure in the home." No matter who you try to help or how magnanimous your intent.. if you fail your family all your victories may seem as hollow as this film.
I enjoyed this book immensely. It is a chronological biography of the life of Christ carefully researched and referenced and based on events recorded in ancient and modern scripture. Everyone should read this once. I thought it would be a challenging book, but it was not and I really enjoyed how Talmage compares the different gospels when they reference the same event.
Pretty funny. There are more penguins and more of the Lemur King... so it's funnier. I have to admit that I did fall asleep during 20 minutes of the middle... but my 4 year old nephew sitting next to me was glued through the entire film.
I love Children's picture books. The best art in the world is found in the children's lit. section at the library. We collect Christmas everything around here and this is newest book in our collection thanks to Circe! Thank you Circe!
I love the message in this book. It reminds me of some advice that I got from a friend one day who said, "Life is short. Don't make your life about taking care of stuff. Make your life about experiences." Circe does that better than anyone I know as well as gifting great experiences that become treasured memories to her family, especially her children, and all her friends. Getting and having lovely things is wonderful, but memories of great times last forever.
I enjoy so much the work of what little c calls the "HOLIDAY BOOM!" Making the chocolate chip pecan pies for Thanksgiving is coming right up.. The trick is to skip the parts you don't like as much in favor of the fun part. For example.. I don't enjoy making the pie crust usually... so I skip that part... buy the crust and just make and bake the filling inside. I love the smell from the oven.
What are the parts you'd skip and the parts you enjoy the most?
I love it when designers take the time to make common things a delight...
We had such a fun family day today. We went to see the Reflections of Christ exhibit at the Joseph Smith Building... it was quite beautiful. We had lunch at the Lion House Pantry.
We walked around Temple Square's beautiful Autumn gardens and rode the Trax train around town. It was like a mini vacation. I just loved it all.
