isolated.

preparations

I have most of my decorations up now, although decorating for Christmas is more of a process than an event for me. I enjoy going through my boxes of ornaments and putting them up a few at a time...savoring the memories that come with them. My front door wreath from the past few years had gotten pretty stale. Seriously, it was really dull. So, I freshened up a grapevine wreath (made from our own grapevines) with odds and ends from my Christmas boxes, and I think the end result is pretty! What do you think?
We put up a sticker nativity scene for YaYa. It's actually an advent calendar (from Oriental Trading), and it has big numbered star stickers for each day. I helped her place baby Jesus, Joseph and Mary and then let her put the rest of the stickers wherever she wanted. We had a similar calendar last year, and it was so cool for me to see how her reasoning skills are developing (for the most part, the wisemen aren't in the sky upsidedown this year). She put all of the jars together and all of the birds together. Then, she wanted to make sure that the animals all had a bucket of water, and most people ended up holding a sheep. The calendar is underneath our actual nativity set, so I hope that it gives her lots of creative play as she starts to gain an understanding about this very special baby.
So, I love snowflakes! They're everywhere in our house this year, and I've even gotten out some of my all-time favorites! I love cutting snowflakes...I think it's a gift of mine, passed down to me by my mom. The ones hanging on the window below are favorites of mine, exploring all sorts of shapes and forms. Although it's not pictured below, I've even cut a Hanukkah snowflake before, complete with Star of David, menorah, and dreidel...I'll have to show you in my next post!
What shape/object/theme would you like to see in a snowflake? I'm always looking for new ideas and inspiration!

Chair,