Bringing the Xmas

You know, I never was a sucker for Christmas. It was not that I actively disliked the season, just that it ranked well below Halloween and Summer vacation. This is something that has changed in the last few years, most of the change can be attributed to children. It brought back some sparkle to the holiday, that little touch of magic it lacked in the years since I had to go and grow up.


The first two years with the boys were fun, but I still felt in the hazy place of new parenthood. This year they are little people with an instant recognition of the man named Santa (Sandy Claws, due to our obsession with Nightmare Before Christmas) and an even quicker ability to spot candy canes and Christmas lights. And they give me the energy I was hoping to have during the season.

I think I have mentioned before that we are a family of makers, not very good shoppers at all. This year we decided to make it a really Slow Year and consciously avoid the acting of buying. I am trying to make little bits out of my stash and collected bits from nature and other people's craft rooms. We are making lots of quick ornaments for the fresh tree we brought down from our Cabin trip, fast projects that can engage the wandering mind of a two year old. Lately Owen has wanted to cut things (he got to the collar of his home sewn pajamas and did some 'refashioning', let's call it...but Tim caught him before total damage was done). So now he has a hank of yarn, scissors and places to put the snippets to keep him busy.


And we are making cookies.





I always loved sugar cookies, so that was the first flavor of the season. I used the Martha recipe, it was really dry and tough to roll out so I cannot say I recommend it. We actually had to call in Tim to start the roll out process. Once it was rolled out there was the fun process of cookie cutting and I was pretty impressed with their focus, we kept at it for about 2 dozen cookies. The part that made them extra happy was the fact that they got to eat them after baking. (When we made our Cinnamon Ornament cookies they were perplexed as to why we kept telling them they could not eat the finished product, we kept saying "Glue, you cannot eat glue," and then they would ask again and we would explain again etc etc).

The weekend also offered up some moments for sewing, little projects taking shape behind the scenes.




I am feeling inspired by all the great Christmas crafting posts out in the ether, but I am also trying to stay realistic and focus on one thing at a time. I just want to keep the good feeling and avoid the frantic. It seems like a good recipe for enjoying the season, right?

Speaking of recipes, anyone have a winner of a sugar cookie recipe they want to share? I would love to hear it.

Happy Holidays, friends. Hope it is shaping up bright, light and lovely.