holiday resolutions
Holiday Resolutions, 2007.
I will not make a holiday village out of gingerbread and royal icing.
I will make sugar cookies and let the kids decorate most of them.
I will not make my own, fabulous yard decorations out of dried grapevine and fairy lights.
I will let the boys hang the loud, multicolored lights they like.
I will not make all my gifts.
I will lay on the floor and watch "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "The Grinch" with the boys.
I will not take the boys to see "The Nutcracker".
I will play board games with them on the floor under the tree.
I will not organize a ski trip for friends and family.
I will sled with the boys in the backyard.
I will not take a special holiday portrait of the kids and send it out to friends and family with tasteful letterpress cards.
I will recycle a vacation picture and order 29-cent cards online. And I'll send half as many as last year.
I will not take tins of homemade cookies and fudge to our friends, neighbors, and service people.
I will invite my friends over to eat cookies and hang out.
I will not go to a different party every weekend.
I will stay home and make paper chains.
Lori
11 Comments
Reader Comments (11)
I make myself completely nuts every year, and this year, with a trip to Japan just weeks before Christmas, I've resolved to take all the short cuts and just have fun. I'm counting on you to remind me of that when I get it in my head to make stocking for everyone and try to learn to knit so that I can "whip up" 53 or so matching hat/scarf/mitten sets for friends, family, grocery clerk and mailman.
One fun thing, in leiu of gingerbread houses... we made a faux version last year with canned icing and cut up graham crackers (you can saw a pointy roof shape pretty easily with a butter knife), and it was really easy and fun.
Another cookie trick (for that party of yours :-)... regular old store bought sugar cookie dough, mixed with white chocolate chips, nuts, and dried cranberries. So yummy, and makes you feel like you stepped it up a little.
Bring on the spiked egg nog!
we once did that with 30 kids. i'm surprised my hair isn't completely white.
i have to say, i always make the sugar cookies from scratch. i mean, i will cut corners on just about everything but snacks. i have my priorities in order. i make homemade frosting, too, that would *curl your toes*.
i'm not above just making a zillion stars, though, instead of using all the cutters. ;^) and i don't care anything about many colors of icing and jimmies and etc., although of course i will let the boys destroy the kitchen with whatever they want.
(once i did make a gingerbread man with a plaid shirt woven of strands of different colors of icing .. but i didn't have children then.)
keep that resolution, stef! we can support each other. we'll form a 12-step relaxed holiday group. :^)
So, what I'm saying is... can we come eat your cookies?
i will cut corners. i know that in 20 years no one is going to remember the table decorations. but i will not -- i WILL. NOT. -- do without homemade cookies. lol.
thank you, kate! i hope you have a relaxing holiday. ;^)
great post.
re: putting the kids first, i would much rather they have great memories of the holidays than impress anyone else. (sorry, family. sorry, friends. ;^) they are so easy to please. they just want to eat ice cream in the living room while watching christmas cartoon specials, me to haul myself outside and play with them in the snow, messy craft projects, freedom to decorate the tree however they want ... giving up on the other stuff makes a better holiday for all of us!
Love this post...
Thanks for the inspiration. I struggle with my desire for a clean, organized house and a home that embraces my sons' energy and creativity.
it *is* so true .. their wants are really so small, but we somtimes get caught up in these ideas in our heads of what a perfect holiday would entail .. when it would be so easy to meet their simple desires, while everyone stayed loose and relaxed. ;^)
hope you have a wonderful holiday season!