As many of you know, every December I make a calendar for the coming year. Each month features a couple photos from that month the previous year. The girls and I enjoy reminiscing about “remember last year when….” each time we turn the calendar page. Since most of you won’t be at our house every month to reminisce with us, I thought I’d share them all at once here on my blog so that you too can enjoy Alethea & Lydia 2013: A Year in Review…
Happy New Year!
Hi everyone! Hope you all had a very merry Christmas and are gearing up for a fantastic New Year! Around here, we’re also gearing up for a very special birthday party, because someone in our family is turning THREE YEARS OLD in just over a week.
But before we get too far past Christmas, I thought I’d share about some of our family’s Christmas traditions, because I love Christmas, and I love traditions, and I love hearing about other people’s traditions so I can steal adopt them for our family! So many good ideas out there. Here are a few of ours:
THE TREE
Every year our family, including my parents and sometimes other members from my side of the family, goes to a cut-your-own Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree. Sometimes it’s great fun, sometimes it’s freezing cold and the kids are miserable, but whatever the case, we always take a photo in front of our selected tree.
THE ORNAMENTS
When I was little my parents would buy me a Christmas ornament every year. Peter’s parents did the same thing, so it only seemed fitting that we carry on the family tradition from both sides. Every year the girls each get a new ornament for the tree that will go with them when they move out into their own houses. Some years I pick them out. Other times we let them choose their own. When it’s my turn, I try to find things that remind me of them in some way. This year Alethea got a Clifford ornament I scored on eBay. And since both girls are currently obsessed with ducks, Lydia got this cutie:
Our second ornament tradition is that whenever Peter and I take a vacation (with or without the girls), we buy three souvenirs: something small for the house, a charm for my charm bracelet and an ornament for the Christmas tree. We actually managed to start this tradition on our honeymoon with a blown glass Canadian flag and have continued it ever since. This year we went to San Francisco and after much searching, located this one:
I love our ornaments because very year decorating the tree is like unpacking a box of memories. A bit of our childhoods, mixed with great travel, and a dose of “oh my goodness, our children are growing up too fast”!
THE ADVENT CALENDAR
Two years ago I was trying to figure out how to make Jesus’ birth more central to our Christmas celebration when I stumbled on this magnetic advent calendar. It was a bit more than I was hoping to spend, but it’s been totally worth it. The girls look forward to pulling out a new character every day leading up to Christmas. Truth be told, I think they were just as disappointed to find out on December 26th that there wasn’t a door to open on the calendar as they were when I told them there wouldn’t be any more presents that day either. Most importantly, it has inspired conversations, both spiritual and otherwise, about the nativity and Jesus’ birth.
Favorite advent calendar moments from 2013:
Lydia rearranging the figures, when Alethea looks over and says, “Lydia, you have to leave ONE of the angels in the stable because SOMEONE has to say, ‘Do not be afraid’!”
Alethea constantly calling the “innkeeper” the “lightkeeper”. Thank you summer camping trip in Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.
CHINESE ON CHINA
This is one of our more unique traditions, so it deserves a brief explanation of its origins. Many years ago, Peter’s grandfather and his siblings owned and ran a hardware store and by the time they closed up shop on Christmas Eve, nobody wanted to cook and the only place open to eat was the Chinese restaurant. Although the hardware store has long been out of business, the family tradition continued and evolved in Peter’s father’s generation to become a formal sit-down chow mein dinner. In keeping with Peter’s heritage, every year on Christmas Eve, we go to church and then come home to eat Chinese take-out with our friends and family. And because family traditions should evolve, we order a variety of other dishes in addition to the usual chow mein.
This tradition is a favorite with me because it combines everything I love about entertaining… the decorating, the formality, using my china and crystal, and having good conversations over a meal, while eliminating the thing I dislike most… cooking for a crowd.
THE JAMMIES
Here’s a tradition that came along as a bit of a practicality. We are very fortunate that we get a lot of gently used hand-me-down clothes for the girls from some of our church friends. For whatever reason though, we always seem to still need more pajamas. Thus the beginnings of our “wear new pajamas to bed on Christmas Eve” tradition. Here’s Alethea modeling hers Christmas morning 2009:
THE STAIRS PHOTO
Alright, I know this is getting long, so last one… a tradition I stole from one of the designers on HGTV. (I think it was Genevieve Gorder, but don’t quote me on that.) Every Christmas morning the kiddos are required to stop on their way down the stairs and let me take their picture before they get to open presents.
2010
2011
2012
2013
Our stairwell is completely devoid of natural light, so I know this will never be the world’s best photograph, but it does mean I get at least one shot of the kids together in their jammies on Christmas morning.
So there you go. A few of our family Christmas traditions. Now it’s your turn. What is your favorite Christmas tradition? Any that our family should try out? Please do share!
Lots of love from our home to yours!
As has become our annual tradition, I, along with my mother and mother-in-law, carved the kiddos’ pumpkins in their requested designs.
As you might have guessed, this one is for Alethea, who asked for another Clifford the Big Red Dog pumpkin “just like last year“. This one was tricky since unlike last year, I didn’t have an actual pumpkin pattern to follow and our printer is broken so I couldn’t even work with a computer print-out. So, I hope you’ll forgive me, but I’m rather proud of myself for doing a pencil and paper sketch and then transferring it to the pumpkin.
As predicted, Alethea (and her stuffed Clifford) were both quite pleased with the end result.
This pumpkin is for Lydia. When I asked her what she wanted on her pumpkin, she said, “Candy!” I have a feeling she was imagining something she could actually eat, but she seemed to like the candy carvings pretty well too.
So that’s the tale of two punkins and their pumpkins…
And one punkin yet to come…
Surprise! Happy Halloween!
I can’t believe it’s October already. Where did the warm weather go? Just today Alethea asked if we could go back to the beginning of the summer and start over. I told her that no, unfortunately we’ve got to wait for summer to come back around again. I can’t blame her though, because while there were plenty of unexciting days, we squeezed in quite a bit of fun too, including:
A petting zoo and pony rides…
Attending three weddings…
Visiting Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Jim in Iowa and going to their local waterpark….
The county fair and what I think was the girls’ first ever carousel ride…
A whole weekend of boating, jetskiing, swimming and fishing…
As well as several days at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park for camping, hiking, lighthouse touring and hanging out with my side of the family…
Nope, we can’t go back and do it all again, but nothing to stop us from enjoying the photos and memories.
So long summer!
Alright, I admit, it’s still a tad early to be making final decisions on Halloween costumes given that my girls change their minds about every other minute, but as of this second, I’m pretty sure they are both going to be fairy princesses.
While we have tried in general to avoid too much “princess” in the girls’ lives (especially when it comes to the Disney ones), there is something about putting on a sparkly dress that just makes a little girl feel special. And I get that, since I sort of feel especially wonderful in something sparkly too.
So lately I’ve given in just a tad, because the girls are, quite frankly, very into playing “fairy princess”. And well, they just are soooo cute when they do it!
Who says a princess can’t be goofy?
Allow me to introduce you to Princess Lullaby…
A true fairy princess always enjoys a stroll through her flower garden…
A shy fairy, a pink Zinnia and an impressive Sleeping Beauty imitation…
And that is why I think I may end up escorting two lovely princesses around the neighborhood come October 31st.
This is the post that I have been meaning to write for about a month now. I haven’t written anything else because I knew that this was the next post that I needed to write. But I haven’t written it sooner because, well, saying goodbye is hard, and I wanted to do it right…
Y’all. I wish you could have known my grandmother Frances. You would have liked her. Don’t think I ever met anyone who didn’t like her. She had a quiet personality, seemingly unruffled by circumstances around her. And patient. She was very patient, just like my mother, who is the fourth of Frances’ five daughters. I so admired her patience with my grandfather when his mental health was failing in his last years. It’s the kind of deep inner calm that I doubt I’ll ever have, but it made me admire it in her all the more.
Three GenerationsHer inner calm often translated to an outer reserve. She was never one to heap on praise or cover her grandchildren with hugs and kisses, but just the same, I always knew she loved us deeply, because she always showed up. At least once a summer while I was growing up, she and my grandfather would make the trek north to Minnesota to watch myself, my brother and my sister all “play ball”. Grandpa would enthusiastically record our games with his gigantic camcorder sitting up on his shoulder (you know the kind that actually held an entire VHS tape on the inside). Grandma, on the other hand, would sit in the stands and just take it all in.
Music was one of the things that Grandma and I had in common. Being an organ and piano player herself, she found little ways to encourage me in my musical pursuits. Like buying me a Little Mermaid music book for Christmas and always listening to me play when I was at her house. She didn’t usually say much after my little recitals, but one time she went over to a cabinet and pulled out a much worn piece of music, carefully preserved in plastic sheet protectors. “This was my favorite piece of music to play when I was younger,” she told me. “You’re probably not ready for it yet, but you keep practicing and someday you will be.” Then she actually let me take that precious piece of music home with me. It was called “The Storm King” and the cover page is now hanging framed in my piano studio.
Four GenerationsQuilting is something that anyone who knew Grandma will remember her for. She made quilts for every occasion. Every family wedding, every high school graduation, every grandchild and great grandchild arriving in the world, each celebration called for a quilt. A beautiful, one-of-a-kind work of art. She even gave me one for Christmas one year to match my new bedroom wallpaper. It was the 80s folks, your bedspread was SUPPOSED to match your wallpaper. I was probably only eight or nine years old and even I knew that! Although, it must be confessed that I was slightly disappointed that the quilt was not a Malibu Barbie, I was still incredibly pleased to be the proud owner of a bedroom where everything MATCHED!
Baby Alethea with Great Grandma FrancesFamily was incredibly important to Grandma. My grandfather was Danish, so she bought me an aebleskiver pan and made sure I knew how to use it. She also spent countless hours researching our family’s genealogy, tracing our roots back hundreds of years and across the Atlantic Ocean. She formed family traditions, like the fact that at Christmas everyone in the family had the exact same homemade red cotton stocking with their name on it in white cursive script.
That’s why when Lydia was born I knew we had to go visit her. Even though she was living with my aunt in Seattle. Even though her mind was not as clear as it used to be and I wasn’t sure if she would even know who we were. We packed up the two girls and flew across the country to see Great Grandma Frances.
Alethea and Lydia with Great Grandma FrancesIt must be acknowledged that the trip was a disaster in nearly every respect. I won’t go into the details, but stomach flu and unseasonably cold weather played a major role. However, I will never regret going, since it is the only time Lydia ever met her Great Grandmother and it was the last time I saw her alive.
On July 26, 2013, my grandmother Frances went home to be with Jesus. For me at least, I’m not sure that it’s fully sunk in yet. How odd it will be not to have her at family gatherings quietly sitting back and taking it all in. She was deeply loved and will be missed by all of us who were fortunate enough to be part of her family.
Bye Grandma. I love you so much and I’ll miss you!
It’s been a month since my last post. A very up and down month. At the end of July my grandmother Frances passed away. Definitely a down. I feel like I’m still processing it. On the up side though, we just got back from a five day vacation that we really needed. So up, and down, and busy, but I’m back. I do hope you’ll all forgive me for disappearing for a while.
A cute picture of the girls might smooth things over, right?
So what do you say? Still friends?
Last summer it felt like we spent nearly every weekend working on our front porch remodel. I was so hoping that by paying professionals to install our fence and sprinkler system that we would avoid spending so many Saturday mornings toiling away this summer. Turns out that building raised beds, starting a garden, landscaping a fire pit area, sprucing up around the mailbox, and spreading 14 yards of black dirt in preparation for growing grass still take a lot of time. Lots of Saturday mornings.
This past weekend, however, we headed up to Bayfield, WI to spend some time camping, exploring, and berry picking in the great outdoors. Outside time with no improvement projects… what a novel concept…
Turns out tree stumps make excellent performance stages
Our camp site had two, one for each little girl…
Alethea told us she was giving a speech
We’ve been saying she just might be the lawyer of the family
Giving ‘stump speeches’ might indicate a different career path though
Who loves camping?
This girl!
Took a hike down to the shore along the campground
Both girls came back with a ‘fishing pole’ which doubled nicely as a walking stick
Peter and I sure enjoyed picking strawberries
Can you guess what Alethea and Lydia liked most about the farm?
Lake Superior is, in my opinion, far too cold for wading
The girls thought otherwise
Alethea took in every detail of our ferry ride to Madeline Island for dinner Saturday night
She asked a boatload of questions
We all thought our after dinner ice cream was a great treat
However, I think Lydia enjoyed hers the most
We stopped at a playground in Duluth on our way home to let the girls take a car break
1000 Daddy points to Peter for coming up with the idea
So that was our landscaping free weekend. We all needed it and the girls are already asking when we can go camping again, so I’d say it was a success. Gotta love family togetherness that doesn’t end with wailing and tears.
Hope you all had a great weekend too!
Some links for your Monday…
If you only click on one of these, make it this one.
What every mom needs to hear today (and what I need to remind myself of every day!)
This may or may not happen at our house whenever we contemplate going out to eat.
Anyone in the mood for a corn dog?
An interesting way to think about the world population.
If you are a Pinterest addict like me, you might appreciate this.
Happy Monday!