Tradition: Shopping the After Christmas Sales

The day after Christmas….and we get up early to start our quest for bargains.

This year there were no big items on the list. We wanted some special ornaments to fill out my daughter’s tree for next year….the annual purchase of mascara (a year seems like a good rhythm to buy new even if the old is not used up completely)…some heavy gloves to replace a pair that had somehow become a single recently (i.e. one glove was lost making the other one useless).

We were out of the house by 6:15 and back by 10:15. We are not die hard shoppers. The sales were successful for us in the sense that we got everything on the list and successful for the stores because we bought a bit more than we intended….mostly bed linens which weren’t on the list but the prices were too good to pass up. We also got a very large plastic bin to store the 30 year old artificial tree until it’s  needed again next year.

And a good morning was had by all.

Fort Worth Botanic Garden Christmas Decorations

The Christmas decorations in the Garden Center at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden were well done and prompted me to think about decorations more broadly. The first group of pictures are non-tree decorations....there were carolers, a Santa in green rather than a red, pots of poinsettias, wrapped packages and an elf that looked a bit like a 'nut cracker' without teeth. There were green wreaths above it all with red magic hats/rabbits/white gloves/wands. What kind of things to you do for Christmas decorations (other than the tree)? I do flags from the stair railings, a pine code wreath, Christmas cards from the last 15 years or so under plastic on the table, attached to all the metal doorways in the house and anywhere else I can display them. Cards are too beautiful to recycle after just one year!

The trees at the Garden are decorated with nature/outdoor themes: there was one with acorns and tendrils, another with birds and dragon flies, a stylized tree with flowers, and a tree decorated with golden deer with antlers and stars. I don't have a theme for my tree; my strategy has been more toward family history with some ornaments over 40 years old and others hand made by children (or me) documenting our talents over the years. It would be interesting to contemplate trees that are themed to match the interests of the people in the family. Some would be readily available - insects for an entomologist, stars for an astronomer or physicist, matchbox sized cars for anyone that worked in the automotive industry.

Enjoy the beauty of the season in your area!

Gleanings for the Week Ending December 17, 2011

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:

Materials-coating advance could lead to eyeglasses that shed fingerprints – Hope this is something that gets to market quickly.

Water Wonders Every Child Should Know (Little Studies of dew, frost, snow, ice and rain)– A free e-book available from Google, published in 1907. Many black and white pictures of ice and snow crystals by Wilson A. Bentley.

Peppermint Biscotti - What a great way to us candy canes!

Feathers in fillable glass or acrylic ornaments - I bought some of these already made but may try to make some myself for hanging in windows.

Peppermint Crunch Bark - This is a recipe for a homemade version of a holiday favorite I previously purchased already made. I think I’ll make a batch before Christmas!

Chipmunks - These little animals can be such fun to watch! Over the years we’ve had a small population around our house and seen them frequently when we go camping.

Molecule of the Month - I look at this page produced by the Chemistry Department at the University of Bristol every year in December to read through a year of postings. In 2011 there were postings about Deet, Musk, Bleach, and Warfarin. I like the history of the discovery and uses for the molecules.

Celebrating December 2011

What do you celebrate in December?

In my family there seem to be more than the normal events to celebrate with the addition of a birthday and an anniversary. The ideas below are more generic –the ‘winter holiday’ celebrations:

• Take a winter walk. This is just the beginning of winter so there is a lot to notice in the natural world transitioning from fall. Winter is the starkest time of year but there is a beauty in clear cold days – crystalline nights.
• Holiday light displays are popular in the December evenings. I enjoy walking through the one at a local garden, rather than driving. There is wonderful hot chocolate with whipped cream on top at the nature center too – a perfect treat on cold nights.
• Finding or making the perfect gifts is the prelude to witnessing the delight of recipients.
• Baking favorite foods is part of the tradition in almost every family. My particular favorites are oatmeal raisin cookies and red cake (plain or with whipped cream or with cream cheese icing).
• Gearing up for gatherings of friends and family with lots of party mix and veggie trays always ready is another happy prospect.
• Cards/letters of seasonal greetings are sent out early in the month and then arrive from others.

December is the special month to savor all the good things that happened over the past 12 months and to fill your thinking with optimism for the New Year to come.

Decorating for Christmas Everything but the Tree

Our tradition is to decorate for Christmas just after Thanksgiving. The activity signals the beginning of the happy flurry always associated with December. This year I find myself enthusiastic about our decorations other than the tree!

My favorite is the way we are using Christmas cards from years past:

• Under the clear plastic on the table (picture at right)
• Backed with thin magnets (attached to the card with 2 faced tape) and put on the refrigerator, the door to the garage, the frames of the French doors 
• Standing up on the mantle
• Pinned to the giant scrunchies on the pantry and coat closet doors (picture of the scrunchies before the cards were attached below)

The flags on the stair railing are festive as well. The first flags we bought were used outdoors and faded after a year or two. It’s better to pick out favorites and use them year and after year – making them part of the tradition rather than a short-term glitz.

The same can be said for the pine cone wreath hanging in the den. I did use it outdoors on the front door one year but decided thereafter to decorate it with more fragile ribbons, bells, and artificial birds to hang somewhere inside. It is about 15 years old now. The wreath started out with more sentimental value than the purchased flags since my sister made it from pine cones collected from the yard of another sister.

What are your favorite ‘everything but the tree’ decorations this year?

10 Extra Special Holiday Gifts

Extra special gifts require some extra thought …to make it perfectly tailored for the recipient. The ideas listed below are intended to get your creative juices started! Remember – sometimes the most memorable gifts are not the ones that cost a lot of $.

1. An IOU (on pretty paper) for something they would enjoy or need like: a home cooked meal (maybe 3 or 4 of them), 4 hours of babysitting, a trip to a local attraction like a garden or museum with transportation provided, 3 months of pet food (delivered a month at a time), or rototilling of the garden come spring.
2. A homemade favorite dessert.
3. A homemade favorite cookie dough for the freezer….to bake and enjoy long after the holidays are done.
4. A favorite blend of coffee or tea or hot chocolate…or their favorite special creamers.
5. A box of microwave popcorn wrapped with that movie on DVD they asked for
6. An exact replacement for a favorite T-shirt or pair of socks that wore out sometime during the year.
7. A thumb drive of family pictures (assuming they have a computer or frame to view the pictures).
8. If the person is a reader and you have access to a used book store where there are a large number of books they would enjoy – buy a number of books and wrap them each individually in different kinds of paper…newspaper, glossy magazine pages, etc.
9. If they are a person that enjoys personal notes – send one daily – either email or the old fashioned snail mail….that lets them know you are thinking about them every day. Do it for a month or more around the holiday. If snail mail is used, there are lots of small flat ‘presents’ that can be slipped into the envelope – a well-wrapped tea bag, a pressed flower, a paper snow flake or heart, a dried leaf, a recipe card.
10. Create a collection of digital images that the recipient would find soothing or visually appealing that you can load on their computer with instructions on how to play the ‘slide show.’ Natural images are my favorites - botanical prints, bubbling/rippling water, feathers, wood grain.

Do you have some ideas to add to the list – things that you’ve given or received that were extra memorable or needed….and obviously appreciated?