Thanks Santa (and Zoe)

Santa brought me the best present this year: a Royal manual typewriter.

It all started a month or so ago when I travelled to Austin, TX on an inspiration trip. My friend Zoe was on the hunt for a manual typewriter because she wanted to make her guest book a collection of typed notes from friends who stayed in her guest room. Of course, I decided to steal the idea and I put a typewriter on my Christmas list.

Santa outdid himself and delivered a restored vintage Royal Model 10 KH 957 circa 1934. The typewriter looks very cool in my family room, and has sparked an interest in literature for the whole family that I hadn't anticipated. The TV's barely been on, and the Furber kids have been lined up waiting to use the typewriter to write poems, stories, a few haikus, thank you notes, and notes to each other since the typewriter arrived.

My new typewriter is my favorite type of accessory -- it looks great, it's fairly indestructible, and fun for everyone.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a happy day filled with warm memories, and a peaceful and prosperous 2010.

#1 T Minus One Day and Counting

We made it to Christmas Eve with a minimum of stress and no holiday related arguments with the kids or spouse. Now it's time to sit back, relax and enjoy the next 24 hours. We follow five simple steps to get ready for the big guy:

1. Put out the cookies. Santa likes M&M cookies at our house (but he doesn't mind an oreo now and then)
2. Sprinkle the reindeer food outside so santa can find our house
3. Set up the NORAD Santa Tracker so Katie can see where Santa is, and be in bed in time for his visit
4. Open our Christmas PJs, give them a twirl in the dryer so they're nice and warm, and snuggle down for the night.
5. Read a Christmas story and tuck in for the Furber kids slumber party. This is the one night a year that all three Furber kids sleep in the same room.

#2 No More DuraFlames

My Dad and I have always loved a restaurant in Belltown in Seattle that doesn't have a fireplace, but does have a TV with a DVD of a roaring fire playing all winter long. When the DVD is over, patrons in the restaurant all shout "throw another log on the fire!"
Well, I just realized that Comcast OnDemand has a hi-def Yule Log as one of the options. Glory Hallelujah, and throw another log on the fire!

#3 Welcome, Santa. Come Right On In.

A Christmas doormat is one of the easiest ways to spruce up your exterior -- just place it by your front door and let the season begin! Here are some of my favorites:

#4 A Book to Get You Into the Christmas Spirit

Just when you think Death-by-ToDo-List seems inevitable, put down your list, grab a cup of coffee (or a toddy) and read Richard Paul Evans' "The Christmas Box." It's a quick read, and guaranteed to remind you why you do it all.

PS -- If you're looking for something a little lighter, John Grisham's "Skipping Christmas" works too.

#5 If You're Still Worried About Those Stockings...

....(see post #10) then here's a cute alternative to hanging stockings from your mantle:

I think Santa will know what to do.

#6 If You're Still Not Satisfied with #22 and #16...

...then here are a few more ideas for your Christmas cards:

Make a card tree for your entry with branches from a nature walk


Frame your favorites. You'll end up with a nice collection of holiday art after a few years.


Fold your favorites into paper cranes and add them to your Christmas tree

#7 Engage All the Senses

At our house, if it doesn't look, smell and sound like Christmas, we're not entirely satisfied. The Christmas tree makes our house smell very Christmas-y, but we also like to have a pot of Williams-Sonoma Mulling Spice bubbling away on the stovetop on the weekends.

Somehow, just a little bit fills our entire house will the smell of cloves, cinnamon and other Christmas-y things. Even Jack, who usually sleeps until noon on the weekends, has been known to wander out of his room on a weekend morning in search of what it is that smells so good.

#8 The Easiest Centerpiece You'll Ever Make

As all regular Zen readers know, the centerpiece on my dining table is a never ending creative project in my house. This year, my centerpiece came together in five minutes and required only five elements:

A vintage breadboard

A pink poinsettia

A piece of burlap

Some vintage grosgrain ribbon from Sundance

And a pretty green wreath (JP bought ours at Costco, of all places)

Wrap the poinsettia in burlap, tie it with ribbon, place it in the center of the wreath, and place all of that on the breadboard. Et voila! Gorgeous, and plenty of time left to squeeze in a nature walk (see tip #24).

#9 Hostess Gifts that Everyone Loves

My Mom taught me never to show up at someone's house empty handed. Most of the year that's not a problem, since we don't go anywhere. During the holidays, though, we have a stash of good hostess gifts at the ready just in case. Our favorite is Williams-Sonoma's Fleur de Sel.

We typically order a case of it in October, and use it throughout the year as we visit friends, go to parties, or need little gifts for little occasions. It's so pretty, and such a nice extravagance that no one will ever guess you only spent $12.50.

#10 Conquering the Mantle, Part 2

Am I the only person who thinks stocking holders are a hazard? Those big heavy metal objects attached to Christmas stockings seem to me like more of an attractive nuisance than the pool in my back yard. When Katie was born, I decided to stash the stocking holders away and hang the stockings from the mantle with ribbons.
We just tap little nails into the point where the mantle meets the wall, tie ribbons to them, and we're done. Easy, very cute, and no heavy metal objects to bonk my children or my dog on the head.

#11 Conquering the Mantle

The mantle always seems like the most stressful holiday decorating challenge: all that space, all those possibilities to do it wrong! I like to keep it simple and decorate my mantle with fresh greens. Before JP puts the tree up, he cuts a few boughs off for me, I collect a few things from the yard and I go to work.


PS: Happy Birthday JP. Love you.

#12 Thanks Bob

Every year at Thanksgiving, my dad brings a huge bucket of Bob's peppermints to my house.

Those mints go into the jar on my countertop and look happy and festive all season. Thank goodness for the jumbo sized bucket that makes them last all season.
I'm sorry to say that my dad didn't visit for Thanksgiving this year, so my jar is filled with Wheat Thins. I miss my peppermints. And my dad.

#13 25 days of Christmas Spirit

Every year on December 1st, we get out our Advent calendar to kick off the season.

The advent calendar used to be a source of stress (24 more little things to acquire), but in recent years we've figured out that it's the excitement of checking the calendar each morning that the kids really get excited about. So this year, we've created 24 cards, each with a special thing that each kid can cash in for whenever they choose: lemon cupcakes, a game of HORSE, a read-in. So far so good.

#14 Promoting Literacy at Christmas

We always store our Christmas stories away with our Christmas decor. Then when we get them out, the kids spend a few days reading them all again. For the season, the Christmas stories are stacked up beside the sofa in the family room, ready for an impromptu read in.

#15 Like a Kissing Booth, but Free

We always hang mistletoe in our family room. It's easy, it's pretty, and it's sparked a fun tradition in our house. Several times a day, someone will yell "I'm under the mistletoe!" and anyone within hearing distance will come running for a kiss. Most weekends, I can be found camped out under the mistletoe, collecting kisses.

#16 If You Don't Like #22...

...try these ideas to put your Christmas cards to work:

Integrate them into your wreath

Take over the pinboard in your office

Use them to make a pretty centerpiece

#17 Hang Something Silly and Fun on Your Christmas Tree

My friend Jeffrey Moss covered this tree has all the pages of the story "The Night Before Christmas:"

#18 Hints of Christmas Everywhere

Create fun little Christmas signals throughout the house when the mood strikes, like this stack of books that looks like a Christmas tree:

It's fun for the kids, especially the little ones, to pick them out.

#19 There's Music in the Air

Not exactly on the topic of decor, but we always make a point of having fun Christmas music in our house during the season. The kids love it, we love it, and when there's music in the air, Sunday night cleanup doesn't seem like such a drag. In fact, I'm going to test that theory tonight.

This year, we've discovered Pandora: put in the name of your favorite Christmas song, and Pandora will create a playlist for you that you are guaranteed to love. So far, Pandora seems to know me better than my husband does.

#20 Start Your Day Off Right

We always get out our reindeer mugs right after Thanksgiving and drink our coffee from them in the morning, our tea in the evenings, our hot chocolate for our after-dinner study parties. We even sometimes eat our ice cream from them. Any chance we get to use them, we do. And they're like Girl Scout cookies: just when we're tired of them, they get put away for a year. Then along comes December and we're happy to see them again.

#21 All the Romance, No Trip to the ER

I love candlelight, especially at Christmas. I prefer beeswax candles, tapers and votives, but until my little Katie is old enough that I don't have to worry she'll set her sleeves on fire, I keep the ambiance to a minimum for now. Thank goodness for whoever invented Flameless Candles. The best versions have wax pillars, last for 30 hours, and have timers so they turn themselves off after a set length of time. Any house with children should have plenty in the pantry for the season. I buy mine at Pottery Barn, but they can be found in most home, garden, or hardware stores.

#22 Make Your Christmas Cards Work For You

One of the challenges I hear most during the holidays is "what should I do with my Christmas cards?" My solution is always to treat them like art and display the prettiest cards on the table in my entry. That way we all get to enjoy them.

#23 Update the Gallery Wall for the Season

Like all families, we generate lots of art. I especially like the Christmas art that comes home each year. My favorite is the reindeer made with Andie's foot as the head and her hands as the antlers. Art like that has to see the light of day at least once a year, so we update our gallery wall for the holidays by putting two or three of our favorite pieces of the kids' art into the frames. No need to buy new frames, just temporarily bench a few photos, slide in some cute holiday art, and you're done in 20 minutes.

#24 Go On a Nature Walk

One of my favorite things about Christmas is bringing the outdoors in. Send your children on a nature walk to collect as many acorns, leaves, pinecones, branches and other pretty natural things as they can carry back with them.

Those items are great for centerpieces, coffee tables, or whatever surface needs decorating. If you run short, time for another nature walk!