Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas :))

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year! We have quite a slew of annual traditions that we've built over the past few years. We saw the Snow World at SeaWorld back in November. We watched the Bay of Lights boat parade at SeaPort Village here in San Diego. We went to Christmas Card Lane up in Rancho Penasquitos with Blue's friend. We saw the Living Nativity at the local church, and Blue was an angel this year! For decorations, we added a crochet and felt fireplace to our crafty wall - which I will hopefully one day get the pattern written up. We made ornaments, baked cookies, had way too much sugar, hung up our lights, and sang a ton of Christmas songs.

Mr. River had to work on Christmas day this year, but we did get to have a nice, quiet dinner together on Christmas Eve since they gave him the 24th off. Truthfully, he would rather have Christmas Eve off than Christmas since he does get to spend Christmas morning with us before going to work. 

This Christmas, we aimed to do more handmade items to give to the girls. First, we have been trying to minimize the quantity of toys that the girls have and focus on quality instead. Blue is four now, and it's easy to see that a quality, open-ended toy can invite and sustain years of play.  It grows with them and becomes more cherished as the adventures grow. We've also been trying to declutter, a lot. When Blue was a baby and toddler, she was our only kid so it was easy and tempting to want to add more toys whenever we found something that looked fun or was decently priced. And since I shop at a consignment store mostly, it was easy to buy since items rarely cost more than $5.  But as Blue got older and we added Baby Bear to our family... soon we just had so much stuff.  And although the girls played with pretty much everything, the open ended toys definitely saw a lot more play. Things like miniature animals, dolls, role-play items (kitchen, dress-up), blocks, art supplies.  We decluttered at least half of the girls' items and it actually enhanced their play since they now had more room to do it. 

So now when we add toys... it's a lot of hemming and hawwing over whether it'll add enough in fun to be worth the amount of space it takes up.  

On another level, we are deeply uncomfortable with the materialist, toss-away path of us as a culture, and we as adults are definitely not innocent of our role in it but are trying to get better. 

One thing that has definitely helped is that our girls don't really "want" much. If you ask Blue what she wants, she'll likely surprise you with a very simple answer - like "I don't know." If you pry, she may say "paint" or "a leash for my dog." Without cable/TV networks, the girls aren't exposed to commercials or product pushing. They don't really know what's out there unless we are in a store, at which point Blue transforms into a normal four year old and wants one of everything. But as soon as we say bye to the toy aisle, thoughts and wants of the toys leave her mind. So that makes it easy :)

So all of this led to Christmas and our desire for more handmade. Our original plan was for Mr. River to build the girls a Waldorf-inspired playstand, where they could play house, host a market, use it as a fort, whatever! But as Christmas drew near and I grew possessive over the "real estate" of our apartment that I so painstakingly cleared over the last year.. we realized the playstand wouldn't happen this year. Maybe when we have a house or at least more room we can look at it again. So then the plan was for a dress-up tower that would also function as a puppet theater, and I would make the girls a stuffed animal and quilt each. I already have the fabric, so it was just a matter of making amends with my sewing machine - which has been banished to the closet for the past three years.

Me and the sewing machine are still not speaking. 

So the quilts didn't happen.

And then Blue asked Santa for a little house for her little people. So our energies shifted to thoughts of dollhouses and what we could make. Mr. River became quite realistic and admitted he would not be able to finish a dollhouse in time for Christmas, so I searched online for one that looked open-ended, large enough for multiple kids to play, and was well made. I came across the Maine Natural Dollhouse from Elves and Angels and was immediately in love. I really loved the size of it, that the first floor was easily visible and accessible even when it was on the ground, the natural wood and lack of "assignment" of rooms, the design, the open-ness of it to all sides, and that it was handmade in a family-owned woodshop in Maine. More hemming and hawwing over the price of it, but eventually we decided to get it as the big gift to both girls.

I am so so so so glad we did! The quality and craftsmanship is just astounding on this and we know it will easily last through our girls' children. The size is perfect - all FOUR of us can sit around it and play. And I love the design! I was originally looking at a three story "treehouse" kind of design, but realized after looking at other pictures that you can't really see the first floor in most dollhouses.... unless they're on a table or you're laying on the floor. This one is perfectly designed. 

So that was the girls' big gift. And Mr. River and I have spent quite a bit of time making the dolls and furniture for it. 

I made the girls their stuffed animals - Blue got a purple dog (using Little Owl's Hut's pattern) that she said she wanted for Christmas over the summer (and then forgot she asked for it haha). Baby Bear got a blue unicorn (using Dawn Touissant's pattern), which she isn't quite sure what to make of it. The pressing question we all don't know the answer to: do unicorns say "neigh"?

Mr. River made the girls a wooden puzzle each, which they love!

I made them each  a pirate map for their stocking.

And the nonhandmade items they got: Baby Bear got a piggy bank (Blue got one for Christmas when she was 2). Blue got a Barbie that someone at Mr. River passed down to her. For their stockings: they each got a Melissa and Doug puzzle. Baby Bear got a Jellycat Cow that we actually bought for her *last* year but forgot to give her haha!!  She immediately squished it upon seeing it. And Blue got a kid's Timex watch so she can learn to tell time (she really wants to learn).  They also each got a new set of watercolors.

They also got the HoneyBee Game and the super cute movie Prep & Landing as their Christmas Eve gifts.

The adults' gifts weren't quite as exciting but things we definitely love! The girls got me a "kitty" calendar that they picked out, Mr. River got me a new pillow, and we got him a Survival Strap bracelet

Advent tree + pattern

I finally finished the Advent tree! It's over a week into December, so we are starting late. But I am *so* happy with how it came out. The picture doesn't really do it justice (bad lighting, sorry!) and I'm going to hopefully get another picture tomorrow. It stands about 39" tall. I sewed 25 buttons on (one for the star) and we can now hang an ornament on for each day.

This was my first time doing a "foundation half-double crochet." But once I watched  YouTube video (linked) and tried it out - it wasn't hard at all!

Now to start putting our Advent ornaments up :) Need some? Remember Snappy-Tots had a crochet-along with lots of great patterns!

The pattern is just a quick write-up, I'll hopefully have it tested for accuracy and make it look better soon, but I figured I will get it up now for any others still thinking or working on their Advent trees :)

Pattern:

1.5 skeins Red Heart "Dark Hunter."

1.5 skeins Caron Simply Soft Dark Teal Heather

(or whichever colors you'd prefer)

Some scraps of 3 different brown colors  (mine had lost their sleeves so I'm not sure their specific color names, but they were Caron Pound, Caron Simply Soft, and a Sugar n Cream cotton)

N hook

Yarn is held TRIPLE throughout the pattern.  

I held two strands Red heart, one strand Simply Soft.

Gauge is not important.

Tree:

ch. 56

Row 1. hdc in 3rd ch from hook and in each across, turn

Row 2 - 9. ch 2, hdctog, hdc across to last two, hdctog in last two sts, turn

Row 10. ch6, hdc in 3rd ch from hook, hdc across, after last stitch of the row do 4 foundation hdc’s 

(for information how to do a foundation half-double crochet, see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tp7mgnV7fs  You will be working in the bottom left “loop” of the previous stitch for each foundation half-double crochet), turn

Row 11 - 20. ch2, hdctog, hdc across to last two, hdctog in last two sts, turn

Row 21. ch6, hdc in 3rd ch from hook, hdc across, after last stitch of the row do 4 foundation hdc’s, turn

Row 22 - 29. ch2, hdctog, hdc across to last two, hdctog in last two sts, turn

Row 30. ch6, hdc in 3rd ch from hook, hdc across, after last stitch of the row  do 4 foundation hdc’s, turn

Row 31-38. ch2, hdctog, hdc across to last two, hdctog in last two sts, turn

Row 39. ch6, hdc in 3rd ch from hook, hdc across, after last stitch of the row  do 4 foundation hdc’s, turn

Row 40+. ch2, hdctog, hdc across to last two, hdctog in last two sts, turn

When only one stitch remains, fasten off, weave in ends.

Trunk

turn tree over so it is upside down

starting at base of tree, count 21 stitches over from the right and attach yarn in 22nd, ch2

Row1. 11 hdc, turn

Row 2-5. ch 2, hdc across

Fasten off, weave in ends.

Midnight elves

I was watching a movie last night where the mom wakes up in the middle of the night and decorates the house so that the kids go to bed with the house "normal" but wake up to it all fancy/holiday-fied.

I thought... how awesome.

But, we also enjoy decorating with the girls and don't want to give that up.

Who says we can't have both though?

Tonight, we brought in our little fake tree and set it up on Blue's nightstand. When she wakes up, she'll have a little bit of Christmas just appear in her room. Next year, perhaps we'll do more and make it fancier - garland and whatnot. But for this year, this small bit of magic is awesome enough :)

Room when Blue went to bed:

Room when Blue wakes up:

Rice and ice

We had a nice December afternoon. I worked at the coffeehouse this morning then Mr. River walked over with Blue and Baby Bear, and we all continued to the mall (about a 5-10 minute walk from our house).

Our mall has an indoor ice rink for hockey and ice skating - and it's in the foodcourt. So you can literally sit over the ice rink and watch them skate/play. We picked up some Japanese food - Mr. River got sushi - and woodfired sandwiches and watched some people practice ice skating



If you can't tell by the picture, daddy got the girls ready.... the good thing was that he remembered the diaper bag. The bad part was that it was empty except one diaper LOL

After lunch, we picked up a gift for Mr. River's work gift exchange, and then we had the girls say hi to Santa - who had no line. They were able to stand in the room with him and chat for a bit. Well, Blue stared at him all wide-eyed and quiet, and Baby Bear petted Blue's hair.

We're hopeful that this "introduction" will make it easier when they get pictures next week.

Then we looked at the time, and raced home so naps could be had and Mr. River could get to work!

Is Christmas Here?

The day started in the wee hours of the morning as I finished sewing a hat onto a snowman:

Then, at a far more decent hour, we finally took down our fall season wall so that we can start our Winter and holiday crafts. I have a pretty grand idea for our "tree" but I need to get to work on it. Hopefully I will have it up in a few days :)

Beyond the tree, though, we have lots of winter crafts planned, plus our ornament advent calendar.

Today, we started some snowflakes and a Christmas countdown chain. 

For our snowflakes, I got the idea off pinterest to use coffee filters. These work ok, though they're a bit too flimsy for young children. We'll probably do other ones with normal paper. Blue's scissors are missing, and her purple spring-loaded ones are not nearly as "preschooler-friendly" as they claim. So I let her use my scissors, under our sharp (pun intended) eye. She did good, but enjoyed hanging the snowflakes up the most. We put them up on the windows of the girls' room. Between those and the Christmas lights, it's looking quite nice!

While Blue and daddy worked on the snowflakes, Baby Bear did some coloring. She bored of that quickly, though, and moved onto tasting the crayons. So, we switched her to playing with the fall leaves we had taken down.

I worked on the Christmas countdown chain, with Blue helping me count. Blue is "getting" that Christmas "is coming." But is having a harder time realizing that we'll be waiting a few weeks... not hours. I think the chain will help with that, as well as making our wall even more festive :)

Lights...camera... Christmas!!

In my family, we always started our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. No Black Friday shopping for us, we were busy decorating our (fake) tree, hanging up wreaths, and sorting through ornaments while we listened to Christmas music.

Mr. River doesn't seem as enthused about doing all the Christmas decorating on the day after Thanksgiving, and this year Thanksgiving fell so early that I was still in November-fall-fun mood and not feeling Christmasy quite yet.

But, with Thanksgiving and my birthday behind us, I am now feeling ready to deck the halls! Or at least, our apartment.

And so, today we started with the lights!

Blue helped daddy hang up the lights while Baby Bear stared up in awe. Blue helped me pick out some icicle lights at Target the other day to go with our standard Christmas decorating lights.  Of course, they were even more appealing since they are blue :) We put those out on our balcony.

Out front. Mr River and Blue hung up our multicolored lights, and then we even decorated the tree out front! I hope the complex doesn't mind lol. They're doing inspections next week so we'll see!

Blue decided to add some Christmas spirit  to our sidewalk :)

We discovered some awesome mushrooms at the base of the tree!

Blue admires the balcony

Tis almost the season

The holiday attire crafting has begun! If I'm to not go insane during December, I need to also start the various gifts I'm making. Hoping to do that soon, as soon as I finish the other list that's a mile long :P

These baby-legs/leggings are from a pattern I was testing for an author. They turned out super cute, though Baby Bear's chubby thighs didn't let me pull them up any further haha.