Jingle Bells

-
When we lived in Nashville, we lived down the street from Sara, 
who was a tried and true fairy godmother to Anna and Taylor during our days there on Halcyon Avenue. 

She told me about a tradition of sewing on jingle bells to our stockings each Christmas to mark how old the children are each year.  The best tip was to keep a needle and thread along with a bag of jingles bells at the bottom of the stocking each year so that when we got our Christmas decorations out, all the materials were right there to stitch them on.   
It's a quick and easy sewing project as we get the decorations out 
and it's a sweet reminder to savor some time with these two this Christmas 
because these bells seem to be adding up way too fast! 







Taylor's 9 bells 

Anna's 12 bells 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Taylor's Crossing

-
Image
Our boy is turning 13 this month so we've been intentional about trying to create something that would fit his personality and that would speak to his heart to help mark this "crossing" year.  We did a more elaborate version of this for his sister, Anna, but he made it very clear that he did not want the same kind of  pageantry.   As we thought about how to tweak some of our ideas that we'd put in place before, we still had some of the same goals that we'd had for Anna.  The ultimate message that we wanted him to hear and remember was that he is loved. One small thing we did in preparation to drive this home was that we had him memorize Psalm 139 over a period of a few months as this passage is a beautiful reminder of God's love for us and His presence with us.   We also wanted Taylor to know that as he turned from 12 to 13 into the realm of being a teenager that he was not doing this alone. We wanted him to know that he has a team of...
Read more

St. Nicholas' Day 2015

-
Image
St. Nicholas' Feast Day is December 6th, but it seems that as with holiday busyness and with a lot going on, some celebrations have to get extended or postponed.  Grace abounds this season. :)  So, we celebrated a couple days late with our annual secret St. Nicholas candy delivery. We covered little candy bars with these St. Nicholas' papers (instead of the traditional practice of baking St. Nicholas cookies) and delivered them to neighbor's doorsteps under the cover of the night.   (It's like "booing" around Halloween and dropping off May Day flowers in the spring.  We practically have one time each season to try to knock on neighbor's doors, leave a treat, and run like the wind trying not to get caught!)  There is a wonderful reflection on St. Nicholas  here  from a weekly blog that shares on art and faith.  I loved the benediction in the reflection:   "May God give us all a heart of mercy like St. Nicholas; eyes ...
Read more

the turtle on top of the tree

-
Image
Our Advent calendar helps us count days until Christmas.   My grandparents created a beautiful Advent calendar out of wood.   They cut out and painted 25 ornaments to be hung on the wooden tree, and one ornament is put up for each day.   When my brother and I were little, we would get to pick odd or even numbers and put up ornaments on those corresponding days, and we have continued this same tradition in our family.    As we got closer to December 25, the tree had more and more ornaments helping to build anticipation for Christmas.   For some reason or another, my grandfather would always put the turtle on the top of the tree as a joke instead of the sweet angel that my grandmother most likely intended to go on top.   Through the years, it has been fun to continue that tradition and make sure that the turtle keeps his place on top of the tree. Through the years, it's the little traditions like this that bring joy and help us remember and celebrate o...
Read more