have yourself a merry little christmas!

At Christmas play and make good cheer

For Christmas comes but once a year

(Thomas Tusser)

The time has come - Christmas is upon us! The little ladybugs are home for the holidays, so it's time for me to unplug for a while and decompress ... I'm really excited to start wearing jammies late into the morning, making hot breakfasts, enjoying lazy days, and spending time with my favorite bugs in all the world! I'm going to turn down the volume, slow down the pace, clear my mind, clean the house, take a breath or two, and start the new year refreshed ... that's the plan anyway ...

(image from etsy seller brushstrokeornaments)

In the meantime, I hope all of my bloggy pals enjoy a very Merry Christmas ...

my everyday joys ...

I've been really excited for Dana's link-up party to finally arrive ... she announced it via this post a little over a week ago ... when I read that post about Dana's pledge to find the real joy of Christmas through all of the stress and to-do's, it really spoke to me. Since then, I have really looked forward to reading her posts to see what she chose as her daily joy with each day that passed. It inspired me to find my own joys each day because, just like Dana, I too feel like I am barely squeaking by with a C- each Christmas. It's so easy to grumble and groan and get buried underneath the endless to-do's and chores that lead up to Christmas. Ba-humbug ...

But of course there are joys at Christmastime - plenty of them. It goes without saying that I find my greatest joy in my two little ladybugs ... seeing the magic in my little one's eyes each morning as she finds Toddy the elf, hearing them laugh together, seeing them be thoughtful with one another, hearing their voices when they sing carols ... those two girls bring me more joy than I ever thought possible.

But there are also less profound joys - yet still joys nonetheless - that can be found right under your nose if you just open your eyes to see ... at this time of year, I have found great joy in simply driving around town and seeing all of the cheerful homes and businesses all dressed up for Christmas. So I thought I'd take you for a drive so you can see what I'm talking about ...

First of all, as you're leaving out the side door of my house, we'll pass by this happy little pinecone wreath ... then as you step out onto the porch, you'll see this pepperberry wreath that cheerfully faces the street - I added a starfish this year since we're seaside ... next year, I think I'll change the red ribbon on the pinecone wreath that same starfish and leave the pepperberry wreath plain ...

As we pull away from the house, you'll see the eucalyptus wreath on my front door (that never ever gets used) ...

And as we keep driving we'll see several other cheerful houses on our way out of the neighborhood, each with their own unique joy ...

Isn't it fun to see all those different personalities that live at each home? I especially love this house - each and every street-facing window has not only a wreath, but also a bright red ribbon and lights ...

This house is on the corner at the 4-way stop just down the street - so this is your view out the passenger window as we turn left to head out ...

This beautiful home is your next noteworthy sight - it's the view out your window as we head down the hill to the next stop sign ...

Since I don't know this family, I was too chicken to get any closer than the curb ... they completely re-did this house a few years ago from a very plain 70's brick-front box and transformed it into this beauty you see here. Each wreath is covered in starfish and red velvet and the wreath on the front door has a sailboat in the center ... I also love the way they've placed the kids paper snowflakes in the 2 large windows ... dreamy house, isn't it? ... * swoon* ...

Once we get to the stop sign at the bottom of the hill, we'll turn left onto a busy street that'll take us out to our first stop light, where we'll turn right and head into the downtown area of my little seaside New England town - first we'll pass the church, then a few local businesses to run our errands ...

As you can see, the daylight is starting to get dim ... the sun sets shortly after 4pm here at this time of year ... and although the early darkness is difficult for me, fortunately there is still joy to be found in the incredible beauty of a winter sunset ...

Now who could possibly overlook the joy in all of that? Each and every one of these photos are everyday sights for me ... the things I pass every day in my car as I slug back and forth to schools, grocery stores, post office, mall, etc ... it can be so easy to stress out over the crush of holiday errands and chores and completely miss what's right under my nose. Lately I have tried to make an effort to relax and take a breath when I'm in the car, to try to calm my racing mind and really see the things around me. After all, there is so much joy right outside my window ... you just have to open your eyes to see it ...

christmas card reveal!!

OK, so I've been dying to join Cathy's linky-lovefest with all the Christmas card reveals, but alas, since I don't send my cards out until the mid-December, I'm about a week late to her party ... so yesterday was my big day - a big transition in my "no rest for the weary" to-do's - I moved on from the gifting/shipping phase into the Christmas Card phase ... and as of this morning, I have both of those tasks behind me - "all" that remains (which is still a lot!) is the baking of Christmas cookies and packaging them up for a Friday distribution to teachers, coaches, etc ... and of course, I still need to wrap up the gifts for all the bugs in the house, both lady type and manly type ...

So are you ready for the big card reveal?!

This was a really big step outside the lines for me this year ... I went with a card printing service, which I have never done before ... believe it or not, for the last 12 years I've stuffed an assembly line of cards with 4x6 photos and written a note on each and every one of them - all 4 of our names accompanied by anything from a quick "ho ho ho" and/or the kids' ages all the way to a detailed update about the year - it's been a lot of work. When the number of cards we send climbed up to 135 last year I realized I was in over my head ... this year, not only is our photo printed on the card, but our names are also on the card in the lower left, all lower case, in green. I used tiny prints thanks to a generous 20% off coupon for early birds (had them done mid-November) and will probably never do my cards any other way again - I love them!!

Something that a couple of other bloggers have done recently was to show the last several years of cards and/or photos ... I keep an album like that on my Facebook page, I love to scroll through the years and see how quickly it all goes by ... so I'm going to join the informal "walk down memory lane" party as well ... here are my last 11 christmas card photos, starting 10 years ago...

(2000 - our first year with a digital camera - big ladybug was just 2 years old!)

(2001 - welcome to the world, little ladybug!)

(2002 - ages 4 and 1)

(2003 - ages 5 and 2 ... silly little monkeys!)

(2004 - ages 6 and 3 ... big ladybug is holding the 10 inches of hair she had just cut for Locks of Love - and little ladybug is still being a monkey!)

(2005 - ages 7 and 4 ... converted from digital point-n-shoot to a digital SLR)

(2006 - ages 8 and 5)

(2007 - ages 9 and 6)

(2008 - ages 10 and 7)

(2009 - ages 11 and 8 ... the year I upgraded my SLR camera and realized the power of a good lens)

(2010 - ages 12 and 9 ... *sigh* ... where on earth has the time gone?)

no rest for the weary ...

One of my favorites - I hope you'll listen to it while you're here (there's no video, it's just a pretty Christmas song) ...

I have definitely gone underground over the last week - it's the point in the holiday season where I need to dig deep and develop superhuman focus in order to power through my overwhelming to-do list. This is the point where my bedtime is at least an hour or two late each night and I'm generally in motion for a good 14 hours a day. Front and center on my list? Gifts. I finished the brainstorming and the purchasing last week, then over the weekend I powered through the wrapping of all the gifts that need to be shipped, and today I was actually able to package them all up ...

Tomorrow, they'll all get shipped out and I can start the next huge task on my list - the cards ... they arrived 3 weeks ago, but I just didn't have the energy to face it. Problem is, I'm one of the last holdouts I know who still addresses each envelope by hand. Did I mention that we send out about 135 each year? The idea of all those envelopes is pretty scary ... but I've always said that if you have too many cards to handwrite them all, then you're sending too many cards - problem is, I can't cut my list enough to make a difference! I'm really stuck on this one, friends ... I just don't know if I can make the move to the dark side and convert to labels ... what are your thoughts on handwritten vs. label on your envelopes? Please be honest, I'm really struggling with this one ...

Anyway, regardless of the envelope, I really love our card this year - so once the cards are sent out, I can link up with Cathy's 'card reveal' linkfest as well as share with all of you - should be by Thursday, and I can't wait! But of course, it won't be over that point ... because then .... I'll need to start the final projects on the to-do list: the baking of Christmas cookies and the wrapping of all the gifts that don't require shipping - the ones for all of our local friends and family, our teachers and coaches, and of course, the ones for my favorite little ladybugs!

I have to admit, once I reach the point where I'm baking and wrapping my own kids' gifts ... that's when I start to get pretty excited - that's always my homestretch - the point where I can stop stressing about the to-do's and start enjoying all the joys of the season ... look out, Christmas, I'm closing in!

angels we have heard on high ...

So 2 days ago, Jen had another link-up party ... and guess who's late - again?! I had just finished writing that huge weekend update about our conversion to Christmas mode and just couldn't spare another minute of time. I took the next 48 hours off to focus on other things, but it was nagging me that I didn't join in ... I've really loved learning about everyone else's Christmas decorating traditions - advent trees, gift-wrapped books for each day, tiny ceramic villages, lots of elves like ours. But we really do have a great tradition that's worth sharing - so by golly, I'm linking up late - who cares about punctuality?!

Anyway, you already know about our beloved tradition of our Elf on the Shelf, Toddy - btw, today he's on top of the grandfather clock, his briefcase tucked to the side ...

But Toddy is a relatively new tradition, he came in '07 ... so this post is dedicated to one of the most treasured traditions in our family - our Christmas angels:

The girls have a Great Aunt, now in her early 60's, who was never married and lives about an hour from here. She's my father-in-law's sister (Manbug's aunt), and she was a big part of Manbug's life growing up - just as she is now a big part of our girl's lives. On each girl's first Christmas, she started an angel collection for them ... the earliest angels in the collection were cherubs to represent those first years of their lives ...

As the girls started growing up, Auntie would really try to select an angel that would best represent the year that they had (sort of like Kerri's tradition with the ornaments for Brady each year) ... for example, after a particularly successful year of accomplishments for my big ladybug, she was given an angel with arms stretched high above, fists clenched as though she were saying "yes!" ...

... and in 2004, the year she cut 10 inches of hair for Locks of Love, big ladybug's angel had long long flowing brown hair like hers ...

As the girls grew, so did their collections ... last year, I got the ornament stands that you see pictured so that each girl could display her collection all together. Each ornament has their name written on the bottom as well as the year it was received - and each collection is stored in it's own container through the other seasons (god forbid we mingle the collections!). They LOVE to unwrap these beautiful treasures each year and lovingly inspect each one to be reminded of how old they were at that time. I'll often hear an excited "Oh, I remember when I got this one ..." followed by the full story. Big bug's collection is obviously the larger one - it now has 12 angels ...

Little ladybug's collection is the smaller one with just 9 right now. We display them in the one and only formal area of the house - the dining room. The girls felt this was a place of honor for such a grand collection, so they each get one end of the side table. It's one of the happiest sights around the house at Christmastime and the girls will frequently visit them and even talk to them or play with them. With so much the focus on "the big gifts" (the wiis, the xboxes, and the other "it" toys), it really warms my heart that one of the girls' true highlights of each Christmas Day is to see what their newest angel will be and to introduce her to the collection right away ...

O Angels of God, from heaven so bright,
watching beside my children to lead them aright;
Fold your wings round them,
and guard them with love;
Softly sing songs to them of heaven above.
Amen

welcome christmas, bring your cheer ...

(photo via Erik Symes)

We spent the weekend switching gears from this ...

To this ...

It all started after school on Friday - little bug had a friend over and they made a gingerbread house ... yum!

We hit the ground running on Saturday morning - it went something like this: parkas, mittens, hats, ice skating lessons, fresh bagels, extra ice time, tree selection at the local nursery, quick wave to the local "Christmas Walk" parade (Santa arrives via lobster boat - see first picture - to greet the locals followed by a parade thru town), hot lunch at home, tree setup, hot chocolate and warm ginger snaps, tree trimming, college football, then a table for four at Fen Yang - chopsticks and all - delicious! We all fell into bed that night, full and happy ...

Sunday brought even more good things: pancake breakfast, the girls set up their Christmas angels (see above photo - the girls' great aunt gives them each a special angel each year for their collection - the one above is the big ladybug's collection, which now has 12 angels since her first Christmas in 1998 ... note Toddy the elf curiously looking on from above), Starbucks run, lunch at home, headed up to my father-in-law's house to set up and trim his tree ... the 4 grandchildren love to do this for him and he happily rewards them with heaping bowls of ice cream afterwards. Then we ended the weekend with what will surely be one of the most special memories of all ... Boston Ballet's Nutcracker ...

Seeing the Nutcracker is a very important part of our holidays each year, we had to miss it one year due to heavy snow on the day of our show and it left a big hole in my heart, the holidays just aren't complete without it! For the last 4 years this tradition has become even more special because my little ladybug has had a close friend and classmate who dances with the Boston Ballet - this year, her friend was a Polichinelle who ran out from under Mother Ginger's skirt. Our seats were only 12 rows back, so we got a wonderful view of her friend, who did an amazing job in a much more demanding role than previous years ... as usual, the Boston Ballet put on a spectacular show from end to end. But for us, the night got even more special when her parents invited us backstage to pick up little ladybug's friend ... what a view ...

And as if the view from the stage wasn't enough of a thrill, we also got to meet the stars of the show and thank them personally for such an amazing evening ... here's my sweet little ladybug with the Sugar Plum Fairy and Prince ...

Definitely couldn't have asked for a more amazing weekend ... lucky as a ladybug, I am ... amazingly blessed ...

Welcome Christmas,

Bring your cheer -

Cheer to all Whos far and near.

Christmas Day is in our grasp,

So long as we have hands to clasp.

Christmas Day will always be -

Just as long as we have we.

Welcome Christmas while we stand,

Heart to heart and

Hand in hand.