Christmas Traditions

Savoring the Little Joys of Christmas

December 19, 2017 By kimwheeler 5 Comments

How are you all coping with this season and all the shopping, gatherings and to-dos? I love Christmas, but to be honest each day feels like I’m running a mad race to get everything checked off my list so I can finally enjoy. I do this every year and I realize I often don’t savor the little things of the season rushing about like that.

The other night I had a few hours with the men gone at the Star Wars movie. My mind was telling me all the things I should use the evening to catch up on -wrapping or writing Christmas Cards. That is my usual mode, trying to hack away at things here and there, not so successfully. Then I thought no way, I’m going to put on my pjs and watch a Christmas movie. Somehow I ended up watching Valley Girl, which I caught on some odd channel and is not a holiday film at all. That film held up! It was pretty enjoyable, especially with the young Nicholas Cage and the great music from 1983. I digress, but it was one of those moments this season I have really appreciated by the fire, a great old movie that had me reminiscing. It was pure enjoyment even though I ‘should’ have been doing otherwise. In a season of so many shoulds what we really should do is take more time such little joys.

Other things that I have been meaningful-

Playing all our old holiday CDs from Frank Sinatra to Peanuts and The Carpenters, while writing out cards with a cup of Christmas tea.
Making little bags of cookies with homemade tags for the neighbors.
Creating a tree on the wall with all the Christmas cards we are getting and washi tape.
Driving with my kids to look at the holiday lights in town.
Coffee with friends.
Looking through my mom’s Betty Crocker Cooky Book from 1963 with all her precious handwritten notes.
Chatting with my grandma about Christmas’s past and all her tree ornaments I still remember from childhood!
Reading a very long handwritten Christmas letter from my 93 year old great Aunt Pat from Iowa and sending a reply.
Festooning a $6 Noble Fir wreath from Trader Joes with succulents and found yard bits to make it a little different and funky.

I know I’m still behind on cards, shopping and wrapping, but as my mom used to tell me -it will all get done. Anyhow, this mad rush to get things done earlier and earlier is crazy. People used to decorate their trees and shop on Christmas Eve, not so long ago! Now it’s become an all-encompassing months long lead-up.

I hope you are finding a few moments of joy and peace too. I’d love to hear what small things have made this season special for you too.

Next up I’m going to share some California Christmas ideas and a new cookie recipe I tweaked that I am loving this season.

Enjoy all the little bits of the season.

Kim

Happy Christmas Everyone!

December 24, 2014 By kimwheeler No Comments

I’ve been going as fast as I can this week. Got almost everything done except for a few little bits.

Here’s a little of the simpler variation I did on decorating this year.

I loved this herringbone ribbon so added that to the front room where we have white brown and some black. My bells from last year are mixed with my usual hodge podge and cuttings from outdoors.

Loved the trees in these wooden pots from Trader Joes this year. I bought one for this room.

Two more in my powder room.

I stole this idea from my friend Leasa and added some festive bits to the soap dish.

These vases now have the Starry String Lights from Restoration Hardware wound to the branches.

I also used the timed Restoration lights on the living room mantel.

(These are on sale right now and work great in summer around umbrellas!)

I wanted to keep it light and bright in that room which is darker.

The boyz helped with the tree.

I had some fun wrapping with this ribbon I found at Cost Plus. Wish I bought more.

I love adding little ornaments to a package and tags you make yourself.

I also made sure to do some shopping in town. As much as I like going online and to places like TJ Max, I know our small businesses can’t stay here if we don’t shop. I was surprised how many cute gifts I found at all prices when I spent some time in our cute Los Gatos downtown.

This bakery, Icing on the Cake, has so much besides their wonderful cookies and cakes. You will certainly get inspired by all the unique items that functional and also fun.

I love to see how friends decorate as well.

I was lucky to experience some Swedish hospitality at my friend Catrin’s house. Love the simple and elegant beauty of her home and Scandinavian holiday look and yes served saffron buns too!

My friend neighbor Kim and I made these door banners with moss.

Her version (above), came out the cutest.

She also has a great collection of cloche jars and they look charming all together.

Kim created a runner with this beautiful paper held down by gold wasabi tape at the edges. It came out quite glamorous and pretty with mercury glass, hydrangeas and poinsettias.

They had their vintage Christmas music albums out at Kim’s. I love it!

I know I have mine somewhere… Taking up garage space as my husband would say.

Another talented girl, my friend Meilei made me this darling painting that is in my entry.

So many people are crafty!

I also got this cute pig and toffee from another pal.

Then another very gifted friend Lori, made us amazing homemade toffee.

I like how she festooned it with sage from her herb garden! I still have the bunch hung by my pots and pans and it smells very good.

We squeezed in a batch of Ethel’s sugar cookies!! You know the ones from that old Betty Crocker cookie book? Today we may make more as they are gone already.

Last night an annual dinner was held by another friend. I loved Jen’s pretty table with real holly and pinecones and just a hint of sparkle.

Jen makes an amazing kale salad that I will share in a future post. It features those Meyer lemons that are coming up all over here in Northern California right now. Sunset Magazine has a whole lot on Meyers in the January issue.

I bought myself an early Christmas gift. Isn’t it hard when you are out shopping to be good?

You see so many deals on things.

So far I love this book, in the 5 minutes I have had to read, with it’s diverse, mainly California homes, especially Donna Dixon’s and Windsor Smith’s.

I will be at my parent’s for Christmas with my whole family for once and I am really excited.

I hope to do some nature hikes and more together time with our boys.

There are so many nice friends out there reading and leaving notes.

I’m grateful to you all for being here!

Happy holidays to you all!

Kim

Christmas Traditions & Simplifying Gift Giving

December 19, 2014 By kimwheeler No Comments

I’m still here! Sorry for the lapse in blogging. Life happened and I was trying to keep up with things like school cello concerts, making Boy Scout wreaths, helping my grandma, getting the house decorated, shopping not to mention some fun holiday gatherings I’ve been lucky to be a part of.

My cards got messed up this year in the printing, took forever to get fixed and just now got to me. When I will get those out is anyone guess… This week I also fit in a new kind of spin class –The Dailey Cycle that is opening soon in the Willow Glen area of San Jose. I’ll write more about that fun experience in the next week or so.

Speaking of Willow Glen, I love it this time of year, with it’s trees and festive neighborhoods!

We took a night last week to do a special family dinner out in Willow Glen and see the lights. Willow Glen is one of the most charming areas to me as the streets still resemble the era they were built in, and they take pride in preserving the home size and neighborhoods as they originally were. It’s a delight to drive through during the holidays since many streets choose a theme for their Christmas lights. This year we saw candy canes, arches, icicles, and snowflakes as street themes! It has become a tradition to have dinner there and then drive through with the Christmas tunes playing.

Love the big trees and how about those snowflakes? Sorry hard to photograph well!

You can see people go all out…

Today finally school is out! My boys are home and in jolly moods! We made a list of all our favorite Christmas movies we want to watch on my blackboard.

So far our list…

Elf
It’s a Wonderful Life
The Christmas Story
A Christmas Carol (The George C. Scott version)
The Santa Clause
White Christmas
Rick Steve’s European Christmas
Arthur’s Christmas

I would love to hear your favorites if you could share!

One idea I’m trying to pass to my boys this year is that Christmas is special because of the rituals we love and not gifts. It’s the movie nights, the baking and decorating cookies, get-togethers, special dinners, seeing the lights, advent calendars, playing board games and all that which makes it so fun.

My husband and I are trying to buy less this year as we usually go overboard each buying more than is even used and played with. I loved a recent article on Houzz about making Christmas simple and more meaningful. So many also left comments following the article about how they do it. One lovely idea that many do was using a formula to make the gifts for kids easier. My kids are teens, so we told them we are doing something you want, something you need, something that is a surprise, and something to read. They will also get a stocking with some very nice things and a little envelope with some money to shop after Christmas sales.

My oldest is 16 and he thought it was great. The 13 year old wasn’t as crazy about it. We may split a few of his gifts into two items. He says he prefers quantity. Oh brother. This is typical of these guys as Jackson is a minimalist and needs nothing ever, and Griffin is an active hoarder that we had to take off garbage duty as things kept showing back up in his room!

We shall see how this all goes, but it is making Christmas shopping a way easier and I am doing my best not to just grab things I see that aren’t part of the plan.

We also made the guys do a charitable thing. Sacred Heart Community Service said one thing they really need is gifts for teenage boys as they get so little for that group. Bingo I thought! That is perfect for us. We are shopping tomorrow and each will pick a gift to give to another teen boy.

We did begin some baking with the Christmas Dream Drops from Sunset magazine. Always a hit and easy.

We got a few wreaths up. I love my bay wreath that Griffin my youngest made with Scouts. They even cut the foliage up in the mountains and spent many nights making these pretty wreaths. I hung a little sign on mine.

I also fell in love with this tinsel wreath I found and added this Eiffel Tower ribbon. I do like having wreaths on the French doors!

Much of the decorating has been just adding greenery and a lot of it stayed in the storage boxes this year. The house feels calmer and I like it.

The tree is up and nothing fancy, but smells amazing! All our little family ornaments and school ones are mixed with our travel keepsakes and mercury glass and the kid’s personal ones.