I came here via Samantha's note. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on a slow Christmas time. We have two small children (2 and nb) and have recently moved countries. Life is chaos! We've come to realise that the only we're going to get to enjoy it with the kids (especially the 2yo) is if we take things slowly and more intentionally. So the tree is up, but we're not killing ourselves to decorate it, we've broken out the Christmas picture books, and the Christmas songs are listened to only for as long as we enjoy them.
But the treats! I can't believe I haven't thought about mince pies until now! I'm all in favour of spreading them out; after all, 'tis the season, not the week.
Wow Kevin, yes moving to another country is massive. What country did you move to? How do they celebrate there? And with little ones too, having done it myself, I can relate! Hopefully you’ll find richness in the little moments, tiny bits of calm each day this month. I love ‘tis the season, not just the week. Genius!
New Zealand, so Christmas will be a mix of our British traditions and the Kiwi ones. Barbecues and beaches sound a bit more appealing than a full on roast. Thank you, enjoy yours too.
I’ve somehow never read Little Women and I think I’ll be doing that this year. I tend to go toward a cozy fantasy, but I am wanting to mix it up!
We have taken two weeks off and on of putting up Christmas decorations. With two smaller children this was always difficult to navigate, but this year we did it in spurts and just finished today. It felt wonderful to go slow.
Little Women is such an incredible book and I don’t think it gets the literary attention it deserves. I’ll probably be addressing this at some point here!! Would love to hear your opinion once you’re read it.
I love that you’ve taken your time to decorate and enjoyed the process. We put our tree up yesterday in one afternoon but I think I enjoyed the process of decorating the house from foraged greenery prior to that much more. Taking note for next year! Wishing you a lovely month of December!
How wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing! I love sheep too! And Vermont!! So many times in my life I’ve turned to drawing in darker times. The fact of deciding to purposefully look out for the good things to draw is so incredibly helpful for my mental health.
I love this! Today we went out for a very short walk. 2 of our boys haven’t been well this week so we couldn’t go far but just a little was enough to see beautiful colours. Really, they were so vibrant because today the sky is blue and the oak trees still have leaves. Those are probably my favourite colours of all time.
I came here via Samantha's note. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on a slow Christmas time. We have two small children (2 and nb) and have recently moved countries. Life is chaos! We've come to realise that the only we're going to get to enjoy it with the kids (especially the 2yo) is if we take things slowly and more intentionally. So the tree is up, but we're not killing ourselves to decorate it, we've broken out the Christmas picture books, and the Christmas songs are listened to only for as long as we enjoy them.
But the treats! I can't believe I haven't thought about mince pies until now! I'm all in favour of spreading them out; after all, 'tis the season, not the week.
Wow Kevin, yes moving to another country is massive. What country did you move to? How do they celebrate there? And with little ones too, having done it myself, I can relate! Hopefully you’ll find richness in the little moments, tiny bits of calm each day this month. I love ‘tis the season, not just the week. Genius!
New Zealand, so Christmas will be a mix of our British traditions and the Kiwi ones. Barbecues and beaches sound a bit more appealing than a full on roast. Thank you, enjoy yours too.
Hey Kevin, have you seen Bluey on TV? Your 2year old might like it and they have several Christmas episodes, like “Christmas swim”. It’s so fun!!
Mum and dad love Bluey! Just trying to bring our daughter round now. We're firmly a book hungry bears house, unfortunately!
Yes that mix of traditions is so interesting and I often wonder what that would feel like at this time of year. Really hope you enjoy it.
Helen! Welcome to Substack! I love this, and am looking forward to more.
Hi Samantha! Thanks for this, I look forward to reading yours too!
So much to be inspired by here Helen. I had read this one before and forgot to let you know how much I'm enjoying your posts. 🥰
I’ve somehow never read Little Women and I think I’ll be doing that this year. I tend to go toward a cozy fantasy, but I am wanting to mix it up!
We have taken two weeks off and on of putting up Christmas decorations. With two smaller children this was always difficult to navigate, but this year we did it in spurts and just finished today. It felt wonderful to go slow.
Little Women is such an incredible book and I don’t think it gets the literary attention it deserves. I’ll probably be addressing this at some point here!! Would love to hear your opinion once you’re read it.
I love that you’ve taken your time to decorate and enjoyed the process. We put our tree up yesterday in one afternoon but I think I enjoyed the process of decorating the house from foraged greenery prior to that much more. Taking note for next year! Wishing you a lovely month of December!
How wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing! I love sheep too! And Vermont!! So many times in my life I’ve turned to drawing in darker times. The fact of deciding to purposefully look out for the good things to draw is so incredibly helpful for my mental health.
I love this! Today we went out for a very short walk. 2 of our boys haven’t been well this week so we couldn’t go far but just a little was enough to see beautiful colours. Really, they were so vibrant because today the sky is blue and the oak trees still have leaves. Those are probably my favourite colours of all time.