A Geeky Family Christmas

Was your holiday as geeky as ours? Normally this wouldn’t be a term I’d use to describe our family, but this year was a little different.

011We started out our holiday with the impending snow storm of 2009. Like the neurotic winter driver that I am, I started worrying about driving on bad roads about a week before the first snow flake fell. The plan was for me to take the kids and dog with me from Minnesota to South Dakota a day early, with my husband about a day behind us.

This is Geeky Point 1) We drove separately out of state to my parents.

Living in Minnesota can be interesting, and we are used to adjusting our schedules around the weather. Therefore, I pulled the kids out of school a little early to get on the road before the bad weather. As it turned out, we arrived at my parents about two days before the storm arrived.

We had a great holiday playing games with the kids, eating lots of food, making a trip to Barnes and Noble, playing out in the snow, etc. During a great game of Quiddler (which I highly recommend BTW) my sister, oldest daughter, and I looked up to see this:

 monkey stompers

This is Geeky Point 2) My six year old was walking on her monkey stompers, wearing a pair of goggles. It was hilarious.

Later that day we watched the Griswolds have their Christmas plans ruined by geeky uncle Eddie. It’s a family tradition in our family to watch that movie, as it doesn’t make our own seem quite so crazy. I also got the chance to see “Ralphy” walk down the stairs in the pink bunny outfit his aunt sewed for him in “A Christmas Story”.

The final episode was our family Christmas picture, complete with our ugly sweaters we had prepared.

Final Geeky Point needs NO further explanation:

 015

We had a great Christmas break, as I took the kids and spent an extra week in NW South Dakota at my husband’s parents too. It was really nice to have extra time to visits and get away from our routine.

How was your Christmas?

Christmas Cards and Letters

Dance Recital, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Bella 07 136Is writing an annual Christmas letter a thing of the past?

I’ve been wondering this a lot lately.

With blogs and Facebook a part of my daily life, I am able to stay in close contact with my friends and family. We post updates, so we know all the news. We Facebook throughout the whole year, so there’s rarely any surprises. We post pictures and videos by the dozens.

As I sat down to write my annual letter and think about the cards I wanted to send, three things happened.

First, I won a $100 gift certificate to smallfri.com I checked out their site and realized I could use the gift certificate for personalized Christmas cards. I got really excited to send cards, and immediately started to think about what pictures I wanted to use. They turned out very unique and fun, so I know they will be a welcomed delivery over bills and junk mail, right? ( As a way of saying thank you for the gift certificate, I offered to mention where I got them. In return I was given a code for my blog readers to use to save: confessionsmom10 to get a 10% discount on orders over $49 and confessionsmom15  to get a 15% discount on orders over $99)

Second, I realized that only about half of my Christmas list is on Facebook. Therefore, I still want to keep in touch with those I don’t talk to regularly.

Third, I love writing Christmas letters. It’s such a great way to reflect on the year, give thanks, and end the year on a positive note. Regardless of what has happened in the past year, a Christmas letter can focus on love, friendship, family, and blessings. Plus, I love getting Christmas cards, letters, and pictures. I don’t want that tradition to change.

I hope people embrace social media, as well as enjoy it. But, I really hope people will continue to write and send their annual Christmas letters/cards/pictures. Will you?