Our Christmas tree skirt has a light back so we can trace hands on it each Christmas. It works well to trace it in pencil and then re-trace it with your favorite permanent marker. We only had 'liquid embroidery' but it worked! It's not perfect back there by any means. But you just love looking at it - again and again!
Start with the adults handprints and then add the kid's handprints each year. If you want to add pets ... wet their feet, make their paw print on a piece of paper, draw around it with a pencil before it dries, then approximate it on the skirt! You can cut around the paper and then draw around it on the skirt ... but it's easier than you think to just free-hand it! After a few years, you have a wonderful circle of hands expanding out. I'm now fitting in grandkids' hands around the edges!!
When the kids were small, at Christmas we had 'bedtime' 10 minutes earlier. They ran to get into their pjs, brushed their teeth and then came back down to the tree, turning off all the lights as they came. We sat around the lit tree and each child (I only had 2!) picked a Christmas song for us to sing. It was magical and we parents didn't mind [much] missing the first 15 minutes of our 9 o'clock tv shows!
When I was growing up, my mom and dad would wrap one present without a box and on occasion we would get to sit supervised, 'feel' it and try to guess what it was. I had a hard stuffed poodle one year ... never did figure it out - too many parts sticking out!! Tail, nose, top of head, those weird legs ...But boy, did I rip into it first thing Christmas morning!
There are certain Christmas movies that we watch every year: White Christmas; Miracle on 34th St; and Love Actually. I'd like to find a copy of the "Best Christmas Pageant Ever" cheap. It was a made for TV special and we loved it!!
I still love receiving Christmas cards [nice segue, don't you think??!] I love opening cards from friends and families far away. And I even love Christmas letters!! Short ones with pictures are my favorites, but I'd rather have a really long one that none at all!
Here's our letter this year! Short and sweet as always. And the names have been taken out to protect the 'not so innocent!'
Happy Holidays from the Boyds
Oh, my - another year just sped by! And a new grandchild joined our family! A&J2 had Mr D in April and he is a true camera hound! He sees that little red ‘focus’ light headed his way and he is all smiles!
Miss P started pre-school this year and loves it – she just missed the cut-off date for kindergarten. Mr M is so busy being 3 that you need an appointment for a hug! Although he is always available for ‘crash cars’.
We had snow and sleet on the coast, and saw our first tsunami up close and personal. We went down to Palm Springs for some fun ‘n sun in February. We came back too early and were surprised by twenty inches of rain in the month of March! Webbed feet were all the fashion!
There was lots of golf, lots of quilting, time spent with good friends - it was another wonderful year on the Oregon coast with kids and grandkids close by.
Wishing you and yours the best in 2012
