Creating a little early holiday cheer

I love the holidays. It has always been a very special time for all of my family. Both of my grandmothers LOVED Christmas and had very specific decorations they enjoyed on their Christmas trees. Grandma Goldie preferred a sparkly gold and red theme, gold sparkly pears, red balls, gold angels. Grandma Vandenberg adorned her tree with angels. Many of the angels were tatted by grandma herself.

I am excited that this year will be our second Christmas with little Elliot in our lives. Year however Christmas preparation will be a little bit different.  James is headed to Uganda in mid December to we need to get everything ready early.  Tree, Wreath, Christmas cards and presents all need to be taken care of early.

It is interesting for me to see how the importance of certain things has changed as I have gotten older.  For the past several years I have stressed the importance of usable gifts.  I don’t like to purchase anything that is just cute.  I prefer cute AND useful.

Last year for my parents we created a great calendar on shutterfly.com.  Each month was a group of photos of Elliot from the corresponding month from 2009.  It was a perfect gift for my parents.  They could spend a whole year, 365 days, with Elliot.

A new thing for us last year was sending out photo Christmas cards.  That too is a double duty item for me, Christmas card and a new Photo of Big E.  In the past I had been quite skeptical of just ordering a photo card online.  The designs often seemed generic and boring.  I was pleasantly surprised to find these great Holiday and Christmas card designs at shutterfly.com.  Design of every item in our house is often a HUGE discussion.  My husband is an Art Director/Graphic and web designer and myself being in the architecture business….well….let’s just say that we are both very opinionated and will not settle for a mediocre design. I am super excited about ordering this year’s holiday cards.  I think my Grandma Goldie would have joyed the retro chic feel of this card. And the subtle colors in this one make me think of Grandma Vadenberg’s white angel tree.  She always had silver tinsel that gave it that cool, classic feel.

I also love many of those that give the hope of Peace and Love this holiday season.   Honestly I am having trouble narrowing my selection down.  Maybe I will have to send out more than one design this year.

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