Category: Holidays

Holiday Wreaths

Remember the photos from our mama-only wreath making night? Making wreaths ourselves was a new experience for me and I found it to be incredibly simple, creative, gratifying, and such fun, especially when surrounded by friends! We used materials gathered from our properties: eucalyptus, pine, and redwood branches, rosemary, seed pods, redwood cones, and berries.

What an inexpensive, home-made and heartfelt holiday activity!

We’ve hung all our wreaths outside our entryway, greeting and bringing us holiday cheer each time we walk inside. I find myself smiling each and every time I come home.

(Corn angels, above and below, created by our friend, New Mexican artist Harry Benjamin.)

(My aunt made and gave us this beautiful wreath, below, featuring rose hips, pine cones, and bay leaves from her home in Oregon.)

Love all of them!

The experience has inspired me to start a tradition of seasonal wreath making — one for each season! I think the spring one needs grape vines, bird feathers, and eggs. It sounds so good, but we’ll see if it actually happens. Who’s with me?!

Hot Chocolate and Ginger Snaps

When I think of David’s grandma, I immediately remember her love of dessert. Strawberry desserts, chocolate desserts, pretty much any type of dessert.

When eating out, she would purposefully order a small meal in order to leave plenty of room for dessert. We love this about her.

When he was a child, my husband remembers occasionally stopping at his grandma’s house after school during the holiday season and indulging in hot chocolate and gingersnap cookies. To him, chocolate and ginger smell of Christmas.

In her memory, we brought the tradition of hot chocolate and gingersnaps alive this weekend.

Our daughter, who inherited the dessert-loving gene, savored every moment of our special snack.

Cheers to Grandma! We love and miss you.

Ornament Roundup

Another post in our First on Friday series where we share a new activity from the week season.

We’re not quite finished decorating the tree, but will we every be? I am starting to think the answer is no. We could always sew more, dehydrate more, craft more.







I look forward to many more years of ornament making. We’ve had such a wonderful time decorating our first full-sized holiday tree. This experience has bought us such joy and peace.

More pictures, instructions and inspiration for our ornaments:
+ Bird ornaments (from Skip to my Lou)
+ Beaded wreath ornaments
+ Felted stars, wooden stars, and felt hearts
+ Dehydrated orange slices (try dehydrating ruby red grapefruit for a beautiful pink color!)

Holiday Tunes

We’ve been listening to all sorts of holiday tunes this month. Here’s a sampling of what’s playing in our house:

1. Erran Baron Cohen Presents: Songs In The Key Of Hanukkah
2. The 99 Most Essential Christmas Masterpieces
3. Wintersong (Sarah McLachlan)

4. Midwinter Graces (Tori Amos)
5. Christmas (Rebecca St. James) (note: this is a very Jesus intensive album!)
6. Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Other great holiday songs:

– One Little Hanukah Candle (Susan Salidor) (for the kids!)
– Miracle (Matisyahu)
– Candlelight (Maccabeats) (see their video here)
– Peace (Norah Jones)
– Winter Song (Sara Bareilles with Ingrid Michaelson)
– Silent Night (Jewel)
– Sleigh Ride (KT Tunstall)
– It’s Almost Christmas (Elmo and Sheryl Crow)

Albums I haven’t heard yet, but intend to request from the library:
– The Hotel Café presents… Winter Songs
– And Winter Came (Enya)
– December (George Winston)
– Christmas Classics

What are some of your holiday favorites?

Celebrating the Light

We’re cherishing these moments of light brightening up the darkness in our rainy, cool California winter.

Each night, we eat dinner to candlelight. We sing holiday songs, such as this emphatic rendition of “I have a little dreidel!”

Each morning, we wake up in the dark. Now we tiptoe downstairs and turn on our tree. Suddenly the early morning wake-up routine feels so much more bearable (for Mama!) with a beautifully lit tree welcoming us downstairs each day, as we watch the sunrise.