Category Archives: family

Holiday Traditions for Your Family

December 13, 2010christmas, familyKirsetin

Chaos. Shopping. Family tension. If these are the visions dancing in your head during the holidays, it’s time to dream some new dreams.

In the midst of the “must-do’s” of the season, it’s imperative to make time for special events and to create traditions you cherish. Don’t have many? Last year at Blissfully Domestic, I wrote about a few holiday tradition ideas you could borrow from my family to get a jumpstart. You can read them all here, but this is one of my favorites:

Read. When I was a little girl, my family read a story from Norman Rockwell’s Christmas Book every night as Christmas approached. My kids look forward to the same tradition. There’s a wonderful comfort in hearing a beloved story even when you already know how it turns out. And despite reading The Gift of the Magi every single Christmas season since childhood, I still choke up at the selflessness of their gifts.

This year, calm the choas, create traditions you love, and have yourself a Merry little Christmas. Does your family have a tradition you love that you can share? I’d love to hear about it.

The tree is up

December 12, 2010christmas, family, lifeKirsetin

…the gifts are ordered, the wreath is hanging on the door. Christmas cards have begun to fill our mailboxes and the first batch of cookies have already been devoured.

But our Christmas photo is elusive. I lost them all, you see. Everything from this year.

So I’m scrambling a bit, trying to capture my boys in a quick posed shot, not the beach-walking or fun-on-vacation or family-afternoon-at-the-park kind of photo I’m partial to. It’s hard.

But the tree is lovely and the snow is beautiful and I’m very thankful for my family, even if I don’t have the pictures to prove it.

And our puppy is almost 10 months old already. How can such a lucky girl complain?

How about you? What makes you smile this time of year?

So Far From Want

November 24, 2010family, holidays, ThanksgivingKirsetin

Who can resist the stuffing and the bird, piled high on the plate, with too many sides to count? The whipped cream, the pie–can I have cherry and apple?–with a little ala mode for good measure?

In an article he wrote way back in 2007, Mitch Albom quoted Edward Winslow, who described the joy of the first Thanksgiving, in part, by explaining that they were “so far from want.”

So far from want.

Isn’t that us?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I hope your plates, and your hearts, are full and very far from want.

photo credit: rfduck