How many of you still have a stray Christmas decoration lurking around your house? Honestly? We still had a mini Christmas tree, a lighted Madonna, and a few Santas in our family room — with lights still hooked up to a timer that clicked on every afternoon at 3, and shut off around midnight. My husband and I kind of liked the ambiance while we were watching TV.

I toted the last stray signs of Christmas out of the house and into the garage, yesterday afternoon. But these Christmas bulbs, which the boys gave me, are still here…

And honestly, I wouldn’t mind another batch of bulbs right now to start all over again.

Packing List:

One country ham

Corn Meal (Forgot…. throw into car!)

Packs of Starbucks Salted Carmel Hot Chocolate

Pears

Cans of Pineapple and Cherries

Ice Skates (lake is frozen!)

Entire duffel bag  of mittens, snowpants, gloves, scarves

Extra blankets

Hersey Kisses for Peanut Blossoms

Peanut Blossom Cookie Dough (already made)

When we drove to Chicago, my husband and I snuck into the lake house and pulled out the Christmas tree, and decorated it… and left a few presents.

So, you’re wondering what I got in my Altoids Tins? This particular one came from the one who loves green — which explains the green highlighter used to write my treasured “Gift Tag.”

He even borrowed a little ingenuity from this Origami Master Brother to make an “envelope” that was a shirt — without a tie, because this one is for a girl.

Inside were little scraps of paper… because, “You’re a writer, Mom.” Of course.

Also included was a bottle of Grapefruit Essential Oils… OK, he didn’t actually make this part of the gift — but we’ll let it slide for thoughtfulness. Grapefruit is my favorite scent. After each of my babies, I suffered from a medium case of the Baby Blues. I found the care I needed in an Aromatherapy Apothecary store, where the essential oils are kept behind a counter — like pills in a drug store — not in little bottles you pick yourself. You tell the girls in the store your “problem” and they mix a concoction for you — dry skin, acne, anxiety, depression, wrinkles, labor pains, back ache — you name it, there’s an essential oil remedy for you. They girls there study plants, and they have tomes of research to aid them in creating your remedy. The whole experience is quite charming.

Every year, my husband walks into that store at Christmas time, and asks for “Susie’s card,” and buys me a selection from that list. (You can do this to0, and use one of my many remedies they have already built for me — for you — they’re timeless!). My index card, dates back to 1996, with handwritten notes on all of the remedies they have made for me. Many of the remedies are listed in the above paragraph.

I love the ancient wisdom in these essential oils that have been around for centuries.

For the Postpartum Blues, the essential oils called for are Grapefruit, Rose (quite expensive — so just a drop) myrrh and Frankincense. I’ve always liked the fact that the 3 kings brought Jesus a gift of Frankincense and Myrrh — and that’s what goes into the Postpartum Blend. I wonder, if that gift was really for Mary, to ease her stress for all that she had to deal with at that time — giving birth in a barn, feeding shepherds, and eventually fleeing because Herod was out to kill all the babies.

Notice that I call the Postpartum remedy “care.” The aromatherapy gave me a means to care for myself at that critical time when I learned how to find my balance each time our family grew. (How would I manage the grocery store — the library? One in a sling, one in the cart, and one by my side holding my hand… and then the fourth.)

I dropped this postpartum essential oil blend into a mason jar, full of Epsom Salts and and equal amount of olive oil, and packed it in my bag to go to the hospital. After birth, when I was able to take my first shower, in the hospital, I took the jar, unscrewed the lid, and slathered the salt scrub all over my body. Smelled wonderful. The citrus smell from the grapefruit was always so uplifting. Then, I showered as usual, and the scent would linger.

I would use that scrub every day, as long as the scrub lasted. It was my ritual. This was my way of caring for myself at a time when so many others, much more helpless, needed me.  Occasionally, I will have a bottle made for me when I want to remember how lucky I was to have these babies.

Two summers ago, our neighbor carried a very large square “train table” out of their house and to the curb. Then the words “free” appeared on a piece of paper taped to the front. Made by the father, legs painted white, their son, about the same age as my little guys, used it as his “train table.”

At the time I needed a lego table, and the neighbor helped me carry it over and move this hand-crafted table into our lives. Never a train table (much too small for their creations), but always some kind of building table. This Christmas, it served as a building table for the mass of “building” Christmas presents. The Eiffel Tower, The K’Nex Ferris Wheel, The K’Nex Roller Coaster (absent during picture because owner decided to tear it down for repairs), The Sears Tower (leftover from our trip to Chicago), and the Origami Christmas Trees — with a white sheet for “snow.” There was a time when a lego figure appeared… and it was the Abominable Snowman. The scene, was obviously a 3-d replica of none other than King’s Island at Christmas.

All designed by two very, clever sweet little boys. This is one tree that is very, very hard to take down.

When, I called home from Chicago, the boys picked up the speaker phone, which meant that I could actually hear the sound of his feet padding across the kitchen floor as he ran, breathless, to the computer to check out his Youtube video. Up in Chicago, where it was cold, I was melting  with joy over the news I had to share. At they time, they were busy building “Chicago” in their room out of their 3-d puzzles…

Note that Elf had “TPed” the room.

My little guy had been checking his Youtube stats daily, since we posted his tutorial on how to make an Origami Christmas tree. He was averaging about 12 views… and 8 of those views were his.

So, before I left for Chicago, I emailed Rob… his origami teacher… who has patiently taught so many how to make so many different origami creations. Rob, who my son did credit in his video.

Rob, responded while I was in Chicago. Not only did he leave a nice little comment, but he posted our video on his page… and brought the page views up well over 800.

Best Christmas present ever.

This is the 12 days of Christmas, right? This is when all of the holiday hubbub is suppossed to take place anyway. Yet, I know that, like me, you’re tired of it all, and ready to move on. And, I will — after I’ve finished with the Altoids Tin Challenges.

It was getting down to the wire — it was the day before Christmas Eve… and all through the house, all the creatures were stirring — including my 16-year old who decided it was time to start and finish his Altoids.

As I brainstormed with him, I realized then, what a great Christmas challenge this was. How trying to figure out what will fit into an Altoids Tin forces you to limit and narrow your focus to what really matters. Gifts that no gift card, cash or toy store can compare with. Gifts that say, “I KNOW you.”

Finally, he came up with this:  ”He likes to build things.” So, he creatively cut out shapes from a Quaker’s Oat’s cereal box…

made the “heart” go right where the heart fits

and put the whole thing together with some brads.

Oh yeah.

He’s back… and he’s been quite the challenge to “manage” while we’ve been working through the Great Altoids Gift Challenges.

Here’s what he’s been up to this year — from my newspaper column.

We can freely debate the existence of Santa in our house — but when it comes to Elf, there is no discussion. Out of all of the make-believe characters that are introduced to children, Elf is the only one that truly helps me. For example, I’ve found him standing guard in front of the Kitchen Aid Mixer, preventing me from creating a icing-massed disaster with my over-zealous dream of a Martha Stewart gingerbread house. Some days, in the throes of the holiday hustle and bustle, Elf is the only one who remembers to move the marker on our Advent Calendar.

More importantly, when the stress level is too high, he’s the one who pulls out the karaoke machine and gets us singing to yet another verse of We Wish You a Merry Christmas. And thoughtfully, Elf mixes the reindeer food in advance, so that we’re ready. I’ve warned my family not to have any discussions that even hint at the possibility that Elf is nothing but velour and stuffing. If Elf ever heard us talking like that, he would leave for sure.

Except for this year. Elf has been making his mischievous side a bit more apparent. His antics go beyond the snowball fights he organizes with the other stuffed toys in the house, (the one that involves mini-marshallows). I’m talking about that one particular morning we found he had made snow angels. On the counter. With flour. The next morning, the boys woke up to find their room had been “toilet papered.” Elf was found sitting in the corner of the room with the empty toilet paper roll dangling from his velour-stuffed arm. Elf loads the TiVo with Christmas specials, leaving no memory space for our own shows. And Elf is always the one who leaves the Legos lying all over the floor — it’s never the boys, so they tell me. We came home just in time one night, to catch Elf sneaking the tape off the wrapped presents under the tree. And, don’t even ask us about what is up with our Christmas lights — Elf messes up the timers on the lights so that the lights are on during the day, and off in the evening. Sadly, there are even teeth marks on the gingerbread ornaments dangling from the tree — from very small teeth.

One morning, Elf made the boys late for school. They had trouble scrubbing off the single red dot that Elf had painted on their noses while they were sleeping.

Clearly, Elf may have over-stayed his welcome this year. Yet, Elf, I’m learning, is perceptive. He knows when I’ve had enough, and just when I’m searching the house to find him so that I can promptly stick him back into the Christmas storage box in the attic, he changes. That’s when I find him sitting in a rocking chair, with a stack of Christmas books neatly propped in his lap, “reading.” Or, the clincher, is the notepad I found on the dining room table. Each page included a date, with a list: “Things I Caught Your Kids Doing Good this week.”

The parts of a mini-gingerbread house fit neatly into an Altoids Tin –

if you’re a bit creative. I’m not quite sure if the parts and pieces inside are enough to make a house — maybe more like a shack — or maybe even a sidewalk leading to a much bigger Gingerbread house. Who knows that will become of these parts.

He broke apart a single graham cracker, and loaded the inside with candies — as much as the tin would hold.

For the royal icing, we filled a small stamp envelope with powdered sugar (A ziplock baggie was too big) and put it inside the top of the tin.

Here’s the gallery so far:

Yes… it is days before Christmas, and there is another party is scheduled at my house in just a few days, and no, we cannot squeeze yet another event into our busy days. My husband was good enough to mail the stack of Christmas cards for his family  – mine was not.

Yet, despite all the crazyness of undone “to-do” lists that only kept growing, we found a College boy to babysit, and off my husband and I just escaped away from it all and headed off to Chicago. Who knows what shape the house will be in when we get back — and who cares?

Crazy? Yeah, a bit.  Chicago has yet to warm my heart: A spent a few days here a few years ago when my Mom came out of her coma — I missed it because I was there. And when I came back home, she had already slipped away.  As beautiful as this city is — I can’t look down at its sidwalks and not think of those words I never got to say.

But can I just tell you — Chicago is so romantic at Christmas.

He took me to a Champagne bar, called, POPS.

We headed to this Tappas Bar…twice!

A spinach salad loaded with EEVOO, (I mean, the olive oil must have been freshly pressed it was so rich) freshly shaved Parmesan cheese and pears, at 10:30, after being ravenous after walking all over the city — was heaven. Then we had to order more — beef spareribs, veal meatballs…

Shopping on Michigan Avenue

Went to Marbles — and we were so overwhelmed for choices for the boys.

Those sad memories of mine began to fade a bit. Ironically, melting on the icy sidewalk.

Now, just hoping the air cools enough so that we an bring back some snow for the boys.

This Monopoly Altoids Christmas gift is over the top — and there were several moments when I questioned the purpose of the whole entire project at this point.

But to by honest,  there really is nothing for me to gripe about. The son who came up with this one, I thought, was too young to handle this project. But he proved me wrong. Except for the cutting I did for him — he did all the creative work himself. He was the one who thought of finding an image of a Monopoly game board and printing it… of finding images of the deed cards and printing it so that Mom could cut them out.

He was the one who thought of using a combination of staples and magnets as game pieces… (I think he broke the stapler trying to get out all of the pieces — because they had to be bent staples.) He insists on using paper money — and I tried my best to convince him to use Pennies — and change the prices accordingly to be a true miniature game, with boardwalk selling at 3 cents. No deal.

Now, all he needs is a roll of magnet “tape” to finish the game, and we’re good to go.

Altoids Christmas Gift Gallery so far: