Holiday Reflections

I've been thinking a lot about what went well this year, and also what needs to be improved for next year's holiday celebrations.

The co-worker gifts definitely need improvement. Why in the world this recipe had a 5-star rating at allrecipes.com I'll NEVER know!
I do like that I've decided to give little loaves of quick breads every year, but this recipe was definitely NOT quick, when you count the oven clean up, airing out the house, trying to get the smoke alarms to quit screaming at us, "Fire, Fire, Fire." The Coconut Bread (thanks Stacie J.), the Chocolate Tea Bread (thanks Taste of Home), and the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread (thanks Young family through Kendra H) were all very delicious. And after the failure noted above, I got Jesse's Mom's recipe for Carrot Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting, which turned out much better than the "5-star" recipe above (thanks Harriet M.). So I think next year will be a breeze, and I think I'll actually make the loaves in November and freeze them until December! I'm also going to buy new loaf pans so I don't have to use the cheap aluminum disposable pans.

I like everything hand made that I did this year, which wasn't much, really:

• I helped Jaret make a beautiful woven scarf for a friend. I did the crocheting, and he did the "weaving" with an eyelash yarn, also known as "fun fur." I liked it so much I made one for myself to go with the new coat I got for Christmas!
• I helped my wonderfully fun sister-in-law make aprons for her family. The fabrics were just delightful, and every apron turned out fantastic!

Projects I hope to complete soon:

• I had intentions of modge-podging sports material on wood block letters to spell out "Play Ball," for Kaysen's room. We've started sanding the letter blocks, so maybe we'll have them done in a few months.
• I also had intentions of making a beautiful table-setting by adding wreaths to the back of each dining chair, with a primitive-embroidered gift tag hanging from each wreath with such words as Hope, Believe, Faith, Wish, Joy, etc. I'll be working on these over the next few days and then I'll be able to store them away for next year!

I absolutely love hand made gifts, and I would like to start earlier to make rather than purchase more of the gifts I give. I came across this FABULOUS blog, Sew Mama Sew, with 30 days of ideas! I liked so many of the ideas, I decided to just link you to the blog, because I couldn't pick just a few to list here.

And, finally, I read up on lots of ideas on how to SIMPLIFY Christmas that I'd like to try next year:

• One mother told her family she just couldn't "do" Christmas anymore. The kids just couldn't have a holiday without certain traditions, so they took over the traditions that were most important to them. While I don't feel like totally quitting, I would like to have my family members more involved in the holiday preparations. So if neighbor gift-giving is important to Kaysen (he just loves delivering the gifts), then he should also be involved in preparing the gifts. I think my kids (and husband) are old enough to each take over and carry out their favorite holiday tradition to simplify and lessen my stress throughout the holiday season.
• A good friend of mine celebrates Christmas very simply. Each person receives only three gifts -- wrapped in paper symbolizing gold, frankincense, and myrrh (of course, this doesn't count the extended family gifts from Grandma, etc.). When Santa comes, he simply fills the stockings. They use the stockings throughout the month to write and deliver nice notes to each other, which is far more priceless than gifts from Santa you can't remember years later. This year, she ordered almost everything online and rather than stress about whether she was getting what the child wanted, she actually had the children make lists and look online with her at several different options, although the children were never aware of the final decision that was made until Christmas morning when they opened their gifts. I really would like to try something like this next year without being seen as a "scrooge."
• My sister frequently celebrates Christmas morning by making a double-batch of cinnamon rolls, one for her family, and the other batch for the local fire-fighters who are on duty. I would love to add something like this to our celebrations to focus more on giving and others, rather than our gifts and receiving. But our fire-fighters are volunteer, so they don't stay at the station. But we could take cinnamon rolls to the missionaries!
  

Any ideas you would like to add to my list? Please comment and let's start a discussion!