The Gift of Time

For Christmas this year, I decided to take the advice I had heard that experiences are more meaningful than things as gifts. Since I still needed gifts for the girls on my side of the family, I was trying to think of an experience that we could all enjoy together (and that was not a million dollars). Since Christmas for us happens in small town MN where blizzards are prone to strike at any moment, I knew that going anywhere was out of the question. Hence, it had to be something that was doable at home.

As I pondered things we might all enjoy doing together at home for not a lot of money, I realized that we were all pretty creative people. We've all spent time here and there making cards of various sorts, being creative in our cooking, engaged in fine arts, etc. That being the case, I decided that maybe we should attempt scrapbooking. To accomplish this, I covered my bases by guaranteeing that everyone would be home and have one day free during the Christmas break. (Easier said than done.) I knew my mom and my sister-in-law had a good chunk of supplies that would be helpful, so I made sure those supplies would also be in the house at the time. Then, I got to do the fun part. I took the money that I normally would have spent on the girls and bought scrapbooking supplies (the actual book, stickers, ribbons, embellishments, etc.)

The more I thought about this adventure though, the more it occurred to me that if I was going to do scrapbooking, I needed to have some kind of focus, so I decided that it'd be cool to do a scrapbook centering on photos of people in the kitchen and family recipes. First, I managed to find a library book about recipe-centered scrapbooking just to get us started. Then, when I was at home, Mom and I went through scores of old pictures and albums looking for pictures of people eating, cooking, or in places where we could associate a recipe with it. Then, we started tracking down recipes, and away we went. And for the final touch, we had the boys cook lunch for us while we were working!

When the day came, we spent a good chunk of hours making pages, as documented in the photos below. It was more challenging for some of us than others, but we all contributed to the album, and enjoyed spending time together. Lots of memories were made :-) Oh, and we also plan on adding to it at future Christmases as well. The gift that keeps on giving :-)

So, having now had experience with giving experiences, I would highly recommend it. :-)

New posts and old posts

In case you're out of hobbies and don't know what to do with your time (like me, ha ha!), try this one on for size :-)

As often happens (ok, it's not that often), I clean off my desk and purge my drawers in an effort to feel less clogged with meaningless junk. (It's amazing how much I can throw out when I get right down to it.) Over Christmas, I found the pack of postcards that I've been adding to and digging around in the last 10 years of my life.

Collecting postcards is a bit of a hobby for me. There are 3 kinds that I "collect." The first are the kind that people send me from other places. As I skimmed through the bundle of postcards from other people, I was touched at the number of people that have sent me postcards from various places over the years (particularly my lovely little sister, among others :-)). I was also thrilled to discover a good number from my handsome husband, which were so sweet!

The other 2 kinds of postcards I collect are postcards I buy. Whenever I go somewhere, I always buy 2 postcards. One to send to someone and one to keep. By getting one to send to someone, I am forced to write someone snail mail, but it can't be long and drawn out, because it's a postcard! So, it basically forces me to keep in touch :-) (However, as I went through my postcards, I found QUITE a few that had never been written on, so maybe my system doesn't work as well as I thought :-))

The postcards that I buy and keep are to have memories of the place that are far better photographs than I could ever take, and they are micro-diaries of my adventures in that place. For instance, the back for a postcard from our trip to Philadelphia this summer gave the date and read something about our good times trying to get Dad to try new foods (and keep his voice down), touring a ship, and playing Settlers of Catan in the hotel room. As I put these into a photo album yesterday, I was so happy that I had all these memories collected in one place. AND, I am super-excited to get even more postcards and adventures this summer as Ben and I and our friends Steve and Darla Shrock head to Europe for 2 weeks!

Hence, if you're in need of a new hobby, try collecting postcards from your adventures and briefly documenting the events of that time. Along with regular photographs, they are great ways of remembering eventful times in your life! :-)