slippy

i feel like this year in particular, i've really enjoyed giving christmas gifts. we put a lot of thought into our gift selections, and so far, they've been very well received.

on friday night, we had a house christmas party with andrew and shannon. we ate a delicious feast, exchanged gifts, and baked cookies. it's a fun tradition celebrating with them. shannon made me a 2014 calendar – 'a year of shanno and les'. it was super fun looking over the calendar, and some of the photos made me laugh to the verge of tears. i love homemade gifts.

this year, i wrapped a total of 46 christmas gifts. that sounds far more outrageous than it actually is. i've realized recently that b and i are, what one would call, 'fiscally conservative'. we don't spend what we don't have, and have a budget for everything. so the 46 gifts are mostly small gifts (and within budgeted) for our ever-increasing family. we're not giving each other anything, and we didn't buy anything for éamon, other than a few little things he needed anyways, but i'm keeping for this stocking. i think we'll always aim to keep christmas-giving modest with him.

rach told us about this clever gift giving approach: something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read. i think that's just FANTASTIC! after giving it some thought, i think we'll use that for birthdays, and for christmas we'll do pajamas, something he wants and something homemade, every year. someday, when éamon's bigger, and we have a larger house with a playroom, i'm going to make him a play tent/teepee. i'm pretty excited about that. i love imagination play. this year we gave audrey a superhero costume. i made the cape, and we randomly found a matching eye-mask and wrist cuff at a toddler store. i think it'll be loads of fun :)

thankfully the weather is much more placid that it was this past weekend. we'll soon head out into the world and enjoy the fresh winter air.

let young hands build you up,
and carve your face in honest rock.