I’ve been thinking about traditions this week. I’ve concluded that the traditions that I try to start intentionally are rarely a hit with my people. It’s those random, afterthought, on-a-whim moments that seem to take flight around here. Example: every year, I have sentimental visions of driving around town looking at Christmas lights, listening to Christmas music, and relishing every moment of being together in the close quarters of Daddy’s truck. I even went as far as to print a Christmas light scavenger hunt from Pinterest last year. Know what happened? Both children enjoyed the lights-set-to-music show in a nearby neighborhood, but other than those three minutes, the older one seemed unimpressed and the younger one dozed off most of the time. There’s a house in a nearby neighborhood that features a video image of Santa walking by the window, peeking out, and holding a little candle—well, that just freaked both of them out. My husband was quite ho-hum, and my teeny bladder cut the trip short. But the first thing on my list today? They start asking when it will be time to do this around August.
The Santa’s Beard Countdown
This is the one we use, but these are all over the internet, so take your pick. A bag of cotton balls and a disposable tape dispenser, and we’ve got ourselves a par-tay. My children take turns every night taping one cotton ball on Santa’s beard (tape works better than glue). They color his hat together. As I mentioned above, this was a half-hearted afterthought of an activity, but oh my goodness, they love it.
Battery Storage
I’ve had my share of Pinterest bombs, but this one was a golden moment. I have a big man and a little man, and they both have an intense fondness for all things battery-operated. We used to have a stash of batteries in a desk drawer, another stash in a kitchen drawer, some in the garage, and another few in a cabinet in the laundry room. Then I saw this picture:
I sent my husband to get a tackle box (sure, twist his arm to go to a sporting goods store), and we gathered up every battery in the house. Love that we can easily see what we have and what’s running low . . . and they’re all in one nice, neat place.
If only all of the pieces of life fell into place that easily.
Easy Appetizer
If you come to my house over the holiday season, there’s a chance that I’ll treat you to my homemade pumpkin dip. Maybe I’ll make a batch of spicy sausage balls. Or maybe my husband will make his incredible homemade pimento cheese, and we’ll eat it on crackers and pita chips and tortilla scoops and little pieces of bread (I love that stuff).
But there’s also a good chance that I’ll just serve you some of this:
This isn’t just a holiday thing for us. My daughter and I have been pigging out on this since last spring. We generally spread it on baby carrots or cucumber slices. I’m not as much of a label reader as I used to be, but from what I can tell, this is a relatively healthy snack . . . but it tastes like a big indulgence. I've found that it's great to have a few of these kinds of goodies on hand for spur-of-the-moment partying.
Happy Friday, everyone!
--Andrea
Andrea and Stacey both love . . . .
If you haven’t taken Dr. Gary Chapman’s Love Language assessment . . . seriously, take it right now! Between us, we’ve read three of Dr. Chapman’s books, and we have a long, cold winter ahead filled with reading opportunities! His teaching is pointing families back to the Bible and married couples back to each other. It doesn’t get much better than that!
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