Christmas is over, and we all know what's next...

Everyone knows what comes after Christmas. You knew it was coming before Christmas arrived, but now it is staring you in the face. No, not the post-holiday clean up (surely you are all cleaned up by now anyways, right??? Riiiiiiight???!?) and not the inevitable looking around the house in bewilderment and wondering what do do with they sudden influx of stuff your house has to deal with. Not the sugar detox, not the decoration putting away party. While all these things are coming or have come, I am talking not talking about these. I am talking about the new year. Ah,  2015, its been fun, but her is a bright, shiny, yet untouched New Year!

For the longest time, I didn't take new years resolutions seriously. In fact, I had the same new years resolution for many years running that I could break and keep all at the same time. "I resolve never to make another new year's resolution." And I kept it until the next year when I would break it by making the resolution again, but I never really broke it because it was the same one. See the way my mind was working here? I was about... 17 or so when I came up with this and thought myself desperately clever. My 26 year old self rolls her eyes.

I still take new years resolutions with a grain of salt. Yes, I am sure you will lose 100 pounds. Of course you will go to the gym every day of 2016. Naturally, it will be the easiest thing in the world to write a book about... what was it you said again? Yes, if anyone is going to solve the problems of string theory, it will be you. Lured by the promise of something new, people try to remake themselves every single year, and every single year they are disappointed when they fail. Many start off the new year determined, but still with a seed of resignation in their heart, knowing that they will trip up all over again. I know that not all people out there are total defeatists, but come on, y'all, don't we all feel that way a little bit sometimes?
There is also the matter of what do you most want to change? Will this year be about health? (lose some weight? start working out? become a vegetarian?) Will this year be about your artistic passion? (write that book? paint a masterpiece? learn to play the bagpipes?) Or maybe it will be about personal growth? (meditate daily? do a year long devotional?) There are literally infinite possibilities- infinite categories in which you can better yourself.

But this year, I am once more hopping on the new years resolution bandwagon. And I have decided to work on improving not 1, not 2, but 12 different areas!

Whoa, now, slow down! If doing just 1 thing for 1 year seems impossible, how can you possibly expect to do 12 things for 1 year?

Well, the goal isn't to start off all at once on January 1st, trying to change my spending habits, AND my sleeping habits, AND my workout habits, AND my eating habits (you get the idea) all at once. The idea isn't to change all at once... that would be exhausting and defeating and there is just no way, people. There is. Just. No. Way.

But according to research (that I haven't done, but I think I've head or read about somewhere) says that it takes (about) a month to create a habit. So what I would like to do is spend one month working on a change, integrating it as a part of my life, and then the next month, try to integrate different habit, so that by the end of the month, I'll have made 12 changes in as many months.

I have been thinking about what I'd like these to be, and while I have a good idea, I haven't totally planned it all out yet... So while my husband and mother-in-law are taking the kiddos to look at alligators in the everglades (we're on vacation in Key Largo... did I mention that? Its so nice out you can positively taste the sunshine! What a change from rainy Pennsylvania!) I am going to have a think, work on a plan and write some more tomorrow. Till then!

Christmas Tradtitions (The Davidson Side)

Now that Christmas is over and I am on vacation, I have time again. And I promised myself that i would write a bit about the Christmas Traditions coming from my side of the family.

With the Davidsons, tradition centers more around Christmas Eve and Christmas day, as opposed to the events leading up until Christmas.

There is the Christmas Eve party where everyone in my family (and I do mean EVERYONE, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, boyfriends and girlfriends of all involved...) crams together into somebody's house where we eat delectable food and exchange gifts. After everyone eats we crowd into a room and the younger children read take turns reading the sections of the Christmas story. Its really a beautiful thing to have the whole family together in one room and reading together the whole reason for Christmas. (somehow this didn't end up happening this year, which was really really sad to me). After that, the under 16 crowd do a "Secret Santa" (the names for which are typically exchanged at Thanksgiving). But the adults do a somewhat cutthroat version of white elephant gifts.

If you don't do a white elephant gift exchange, you totally should. Its the best. Here is how it works: Everyone brings a gift with no name on it and puts it in a heap of other gifts on the floor. The participating crowd draws numbers, and the fun begins. The first person picks a gift, which is fairly boring. But when number 2 gets his turn, he can choose to pick a gift from the pile OR steal the gift from the first person, who would then have to pick again. If a gift has been exchanged 3 times, then it is considered "dead" and can't be taken again. Compounding the interest is huge variety in gift quality. From bright pink mini tool sets, to "snuggies" to hand crafted pottery, to family heirlooms, you really could get just about anything. In one particularly well remembered exchange, my uncle unwisely picked a gift brought by my husband... a "Peruvian bar-b-q Set" which included a giant spatula, and Guinea pig bedding, among other things. This year, a 12 pack of beer went strangely quickly. This game gets rough, you guys. Bribing is common, and stealing is encouraged. Don't get to comfortable with that apple pie in the beautiful polish pottery dish. It won't be coming home with you.
After this, we are brought back around the table where a birthday cake sits. After singing happy birthday to Jesus and eating our cake, we start to pack up and go home. (AGAIN, something that didn't happen this year. How? How can this be?!?!)

On Christmas Morning after opening gifts, everyone gets their choice between baked oatmeal or oatmeal a la mode. We also eat some kind of egg dish and "monkey bread" If you don't know monkey bread, I am so so sorry.

I have to say, now that I am comfortably on the other side of the holidays; Christmas, while really lovely this year, lacked some of the traditions that I have come to depend on and love... Singing happy birthday to Jesus, reading the Christmas story all together as a family... I love that part of Christmas and looked forward to it. I missed it this year, and I truly hope that this doesn't mark the beginning of a trend in the family.

That type of person...

Today I was having a bit of a crisis over yoga. I know, I know. YOGA. For crying out loud, yoga is supposed to be relaxing, right? Well today it caused me some little bit of stress.

There is a gym near my house that is giving free yoga classes during the month of December (score!) and my friend invited me to go on Monday. It had been aaaaages since I had last been to a yoga class (Years. Ages=Years. Before Amelia was born. Ok, ok. before she was even conceived.) but I went with her and another friend, and loved it. I've always had some degree of insecurity about my body and I've never been at all sporty (tangent: I played field hockey and basketball in school because my friends did. I lived in absolute dread that they would actually make me play in a game.) and I have no natural talent for those kinds of activities. But at the yoga class, I was astounded to realize that even though I hadn't stepped into a gym in ages, even though I didn't stretch out or do anything at home, I was already pretty good at yoga. I have next to no muscle to come to my aid, it is true, so I need to up my strength, but I am naturally very flexible and I was able to do more advanced poses that I thought would be impossible for me to do. (Put my head where? It doesn't reach... what? Wow, ok, never mind. I guess it does.) The idea that you are naturally good at something is a powerful force!

This all sounds like a good thing! Why the stress, Emily? Honestly, its partially because I don't know a whole lot about yoga: its history and its background, but sometimes yoga gets associated with mysticism and beliefs that, as a Christian, I don't subscribe to. I wonder whether I should be doing yoga when it doesn't necessarily align with my beliefs. That is the crux of my difficulties, and certainly the most important and weighty part.

There is also a part of me (a more vain part to be sure) dreads becoming a certain "type" of person. Oh, gosh this sounds so stupid, to write out, but its true! Over the past couple of years, I have been getting more environmentally conscious (the words "crunchy" and "hippie" have been used MANY times), more minimalist in my ideas, and more liberal on a political scale. I use reusable grocery bags, make my own laundry detergent, wash my hair with baking soda and vinegar, use essential oils, have gotten rid of a crap ton of stuff and am constantly on the lookout for more to donate to goodwill, buy secondhand, research companies before I buy from them to ensure that they don't encroach on human rights, only eat fair trade chocolate... this is just a taste, the list goes on. I'm not bragging or anything, these don't make me a better person, they are just things I do. It just seems uncanny how seamlessly yoga fits in. My husband says he's been "waiting for this to happen for awhile now" (along with me getting rid of all my bras it is true, but however comfortable that would be that is so not happening. This girl cannot go about with the ladies hanging free.) Its just one more piece that would make me "that type of person" (whatever "that type is") and it bothers me that maybe I'm not terribly unique.

OK, so that was my rant. And some parts of it read as badly as I feared it would, but there you go. Oversharing, maybe. But a real look into my head. Make of it what you will.

Oh, one more thing though... I'd be remiss if I didn't say how grateful I am to my husband for being my sounding board with all of this madness. Talking with him always makes me feel a bit better, and even a bit more sane. Love you, Andy!

Overfed

Me: (after listening to the dog whining in the next room) What on earth does she want?

Andy: Either assistance or reassurance. Probably assistance. Our pug is not the spring chicken she once was.

Me: ...

Andy: Now she is 2 spring chickens. 

Ok, so our dog is a bit overweight. Its not my fault! Its the children! Really! No, really, it is! They feed her (on purpose or not), at every single meal. I think maybe we need to back off the dog food...

Also, on a tangential note...  I may have a bit of a girl crush on Madeleine of www.sweetmadeleine.ca So if occasionally the content of my posts looks a teensy bit like hers... Well, now you know why.

Christmas Tradtions (On the Warren Side)

By the power of youtube, a damp microfiber cloth, and compressed air, my space key has been fixed. And I don't mind telling you that I feel pretty accomplished now. I could totally work in the apple store, fixing space keys.

The family at Longwood Gardens

One of the beautiful things about folks getting married is that it combines 2 people with different family traditions, and together you get to pick and choose your favorites, and even start some new ones. Andy and I already have adopted a bunch of traditions in the 5 years that we have been married, some old, some new. Initially I was going to just combine them all in one post, but each family just has its own flavor, and I thought deserved their own posts.

From Andy's side of the family, the biggest traditions mostly come before the day itself. The highlights are picking the tree, going to Longwood Gardens to see the Christmas lights, and decorating the house.

When it comes to trees, there are 2 tree picking methods, the new and the old. The new method is the one currently in use by Andy's family. His parents have an exceedingly high ceiling in their living room, you see, and they always take advantage of its height by getting the biggest flipping tree they can possibly find. These trees have been given up by the tree farms as impossible to sell, because no one wants or can fit a 20 ft tree in the living room. They somehow break the laws of physics to get it through the door, and get many ladders to decorate it. One year, they only managed to string lights on the bottom two thirds of the tree. That's all they could reach people. I tried to find a picture to post, but I can't find one for the life of me.
Andy and I, who have normal ceilings in our house, adopted the old Christmas tree tradition in picking out a live tree, with a bulb intact so that it could be planted once Christmas was over. We even added to the tradition in a way. We always pick a white pine now, because they do the best in our soil. The other trees that we picked in previous years are a bit stunted, where they survived at all. So while a white pine may not be the most traditional of Christmas Trees, it has become our go to. We picked out our tree yesterday, a feat made easy by the fact that they only had 3 white pines bulb-d. Amelia wasn't terribly interested in the tree-picking. She liked to play in the mud and to look at the big tree grabber that loaded the tree into the truck that we borrowed from Andy's dad.

Behold, our tree, trussed up and ready to take home.

Longwood Gardens is about an hour and a half away from our house, and every year they decorate the whole park lavishly for Christmas. Lights everywhere. It is tradition for the Warrens to go around Christmas to freeze our little tails off watching the fountain display and admire the outside lights, to walk around to get some hot chocolate, cider or mulled wine and then to walk the conservatory look at the displays in a warmer setting. Longwood Gardens has become one of the favorite things that we do each year... and this year we are planning on doing it twice. 
 Quick (adorable) note: Amelia really loved the musical fountain display in particular. She just so happened to mix up the word "fountain" with "mountain" and was talking about the "fairy mountains" all evening. So cute! Now we went this year when it was relatively warm but it is usually freezing cold out, so bundle up for the outside lights! 

"Look at the pretty flowers!"

As for the decorating with the Warrens, the Christmas decorations aren't anything extravagant. just a few lights and some personalized stockings and all, but the thing is... my family never really decorated for Christmas. One extraordinary year, my mom hung a wreath on the door and put those fake candles in the windows, and this attempt blew our minds. Now, my family does a tree and stockings and always have, but that is IT for decorations. So we went with the Warren tradition of... you know... actually decorating. 

Oh, one other tradition that we adopted from the Warren side is that they got to pick out one small gift from their stockings on Christmas Eve. We all love the little taste before the "big day". 

So that's it for the Warren traditions that we are carrying on. Later, I will have to tell you about the Davidson Family traditions. 

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?

 

Sticky Keys

I have a sticky space bar at the moment. It doesn't look like it now, but I tell you it is sticking. I have to make a concentrated effort to push the space bar in, or no space will appear. It is most inconvenient, as I have things I want to type, and refuse to carry on in this way. Idon'twantallofmysentencestoenduplookinglikethisone. For real though. That was with me hitting the space key normally. Now I have to take this bloody computer apart and figure out what on earth is wrong. This could get messy.

On failing and of holiday stress.

So I have come to the conclusion that I made a foolish decision basing a blog off of a 3 month no buy challenge. Especially one that takes place OVER CHRISTMAS for crying out loud. Total epic fail. *Sigh.*

This is why people do year long no buying challenges. Because they get to practice before all of the really hard stuff hits. I thought that this would be possible for me to do. I really did. And if I had all the time in the world, then it totally would be. I had plans to finish Victor's quiet book and make a cute little doll for Amelia, and do a more experience gift for my husband (I had a Mutemath concert in my sights.) But people, I do. not. have. the. time. Not when I've essentially promised paintings to my mom and dad this year too. There is no way I will get this quiet book done, especially when I was hoping to finish crocheting Bini's Christmas stocking, but still I press on. Amelia may or may not even like a doll. Andy preemptively bought concert tickets. Haven't started the 2 paintings. I haven't even thought about my in-laws. Yikes.

I know that in the grand scheme of things this is so not a big deal. As an aspiring minimalist (lets all face it, that's what I'm aiming for, isn't it?) I shouldn't care about the stuff part of the holidays. But I kinda do. And that in itself bothers me. Its ridiculous.

So I am trying to keep two things in my head at the same time.
1. I am trying to concentrate on what really matters this Christmas and that gifts are such a small part of it. How it began with God's gift to us, and how that is what we should be celebrating. I'm trying to concentrate on the fun family traditions that add to the seasons instead of detracting from it.
2. I'm trying to figure out what the heck I am going to do for gifts. (Sigh)

Anyways, I will freely admit that I am going to epically fail at the buy nothing challenge that I arbitrarily set for myself. But you know what? I don't care (or at least, I only care a little). Up until this point, after all, I've actually done pretty good. But also because so far I've actually kinda enjoyed the blogging aspect of it. Its... cathartic. I see why people do it. So the blog has been worth is, despite not having many entries. Who knows? I may even make it a more regular thing.

Though I am not sold on the whole title. "The Shelf-Help Monologues" has a ring to it, but I feel like it promises some sort of assistance for... um... shelving? Though the monologues part is certainly true. Ramblings might be more like it.

But if you ever feel like making this monologue a dialogue, feel free to chime in!