Yup, it’s time for the annual gifts-we-got-each-other post. Allow me to do some voice exercises. Mimimimi. Ok. Onnn the first day of Christmassss, my true love gave to meeeee… well, we’ll get to that in a moment. In general we like to treat the holidays as an awesome time to spend with friends and family while being grateful for what we have, so it’s really not all about gifts at our house (people over things and all that). But our tradition is to make Clara a few handmade items – like her fridge and her latchboard – and then we get each other a few “tokens” of our affection (we usually spend around $100 on each other over a few different items, give or take). But before we get to those, let’s recap Clara receiving the play fridge that we made for her.
If you saw our Instagram pics on Christmas morning you already got a taste of how happy the bean was about what Santa brought her. Of all the stuff that we had set out for her that morning (we moved everything into the living room so it’d be near the tree to “open”) – the things she loved the most were the play eggs. Which makes sense, since she had specifically asked Santa for “eggs and ice cream.” No joke.
After about 20 minutes of play kitchen time, we migrated back over to the Christmas tree to see what else was in store for us. Note: about 70% of those presents were for or from friends/family members since we usually just exchange a few things each.
Clara ripped through a couple of gifts from other family members – stickers, markers, clothes, Legos, and a warm winter hat that she already calls her “pigtails” (thanks to those long braids on the sides).
And Burger got a bag full of his favorite bone treats among a few other tasty delights. He loves them so much he even got out of bed before noon for them. What a guy.
When the “kids” were sufficiently distracted by their bounty, Sherry and I took a moment to exchange ours. Sherry picked up on my recent declaration that I need new t-shirts and gifted me a nice stack of tees from Fab.com (my recent go-to source for them). I love Virginia, mazes, bikes, and NY, so it was pretty cool that they all had some meaning while still just being comfy T-shirts that made me want to hug my wife with gratitude for not buying me a tie.
Sherry’s recently been toying with the idea of getting a tattoo (I’m 99% sure she’s just messing with me), so (you know, to mess with her back) I got her some temporary ones from Tattly just for fun.
I even threw in a kids’ monster pack for Clara to enjoy with us. That ended up being the biggest hit, and within a few minutes we were all sporting matching ink on our arms.
I also got her one of these porcelain cottage lanterns from Ballard Designs that she mentioned in her lady-gift roundup (they’re no longer available, but they’re similar to these). I got her the big one and my sister and mom got her the other two smaller ones. Could white ceramic buildings be the new white ceramic animal? Sherry cooed over them for a while, and now they live on our mantel so I’d venture to say they were a hit.
Sherry’s very good at dropping specific hints (think emails entitled “think Santa knows that I love this?”) so I astutely picked up on the notion that she’d love this colorful pillow from House of Pillows on Etsy.
And last but not least, it wouldn’t be Christmas without Sherry getting some earrings. So I got her these emerald-colored ones from Kendra Scott (they look a little more teal in this picture than they are in real life). She loves that they’re giant and colorful and I love that they look like arrowheads. Everyone wins.
The picture above is actually at my mom and dad’s house, where we moseyed over to after our small-family-present-opening activities wrapped up (Christmas pun!) at our place. Over there we had a casual Christmas lunch with my parents, sisters, brother-in-laws, nephews, and even my aunt, uncle, cousins and their kids came down for the day from Northern Virginia. And yes, there was more present opening.
Clara’s favorite gift from “second Christmas” were these Make-A-Face stickers from her cousin Elsa.
It actually may be my new favorite present too, because watching the faces Clara puts together is HIGH-larious. Above you can see Sherry helping her with the placement of that first eye, but we soon learned that it’s far more fun to let her do it all. So we help her get the stickers off the sticker page, but the placement on the faces is all hers:
But like any Christmas, the best part was the family time that we got to spend through it all. Here’s Clara clocking some quality girl time with her cousin Elsa.
And here we are after discovering that we were accidentally dressed somewhat similarly. Minus the fur boots.
And perhaps the most amusing /unusual part of the day was the makeshift indoor playground that my dad set up in his garage to help keep all of the little kids occupied (there were 6 kids under the age five here, mind you) and out of the lunch-maker’s way in the house. As weird as it looks, it was a great way to let them burn off some energy (yes that’s a slow slide leading to an empty baby pool). So if ever you mistake us for being super classy or remarkably fancy, just remember this was part of our Christmas. And it was totally awesome.
That was pretty much how our Christmas looked. And you already got the drill about Christmas dinner at our house on Monday.
So, how’d your holidays go? What did you give/get? Did any special family events occur (we learned two of our cousins are pregnant!) or were any new traditions started?
Update: You can check out all of our favorite holiday decor finds here – many of which are under $15!
Denise says
I can’t believe I typed my name as Debuse, what was I thinking???
YoungHouseLove says
Hahah!
xo
s
Travis Potts says
Hey guys, Mery Christmas and all the best for 2013!!!
Loved the post on the Christmas Dinner and the presents you got for each other, so sweet and thoughtful!
My mom actually has a collection of small ceramic houses for tealight candles, they’re like a village as we cluster them on the one table. My folks have their second childhood and go wild with decorating the house for Christmas, every flat surface is adorned with decorations that we’ve collected all over the world on our holidays. Even the dogs get their red fur-lined collars with bells if they sit still long enough. Anyway, all the best for the upcoming half of the book tour, travel safe and enjoy!
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds so festive! I love it!
xo
s
Mary @ Ms Redo says
Oh I loved watching Clara explore her new refrigerator and food, what an absolute delight! Looks like everyone got some great stuff, love Sherry’s new earrings, John’s shirts. Glad y’all had a fabulous Christmas, guys! Mary
Adrienne says
Hey! I got my hubby a tie. What are you trying to say? :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I think John’s just happy his “I need more t-shirt” hint-dropping wasn’t subbed out for something else ;)
xo
s
Barbara says
You can tell you don’t expose Clara to a bunch of television. Her Christmas reminds me very much of our Christmases back in the good ol’ 1970s. Stuff that you have to use your imagination for!
I love that she was so excited over balloons, ice cream and eggs. Who cares about the refrigerator, huh? :) And wanting to get in the car and go thank Santa…well, so cute.
And I was glad to see Burger out of bed for Christmas!
Stacy says
May I ask a question, it’s kind of in reference to something you posted a few days back. Are all the gifts you place under the tree for Clara from Santa? Or do you guys give her gifts together? This year my daughter only got 3 presents from Santa and the rest were from mommy and daddy or family. I may have been mistaken, but I’m just curious, since that’s how it came across in one of your posts. Also, love the video of Clara enjoying her kitchen. My daughter LOVES her play kitchen and uses it almost every day.
YoungHouseLove says
She saw us get the rolling cart for her food for her kitchen (she was with us and helped us push it out) so we told her that was from mommy and daddy but that Santa brought the food and the fridge. Some of the stuff gets to be from Santa and then a few things were from us – and all things from relatives and friends are from them and not Santa so she can thank them :)
xo
s
Stacy says
Thanks for clearing that up – I was just confused! I’m glad you guys had an awesome Christmas. I meant to tell you sooner how much I loved your tree this year.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Stacy!
xo
s
Amanda Healy says
Wonderful post, beautiful pictures, and Clara is just adorable. My three-year old daughter also says ‘lasterday’ to refer to anything that’s happened in the past. I laughed out loud when Clara said it in the video! Happy New Year Petersiks!
YoungHouseLove says
Hah, so cute!
xo
s
Gabriella @ Our Life In Action says
Awww – you guys have such a cute family. Looks like everyone had a wonderful time. :-)
Jenna L. says
Love all the gifts and beautiful pics. Sherry, I really hope you DO NOT get a tattoo. They are so unclassy on anyone, but especially one women. Most friends that I know who have got them years ago wish they didn’t, especially after they got pregnant (for those who got them on the small of their back, above their hip, etc) since they stretch out and look terrible after.
The ink itself is just injecting poison in your body. Hopefully the temporary ones were fun enough that you decide against it.
Lou says
I had a question, and I suppose it is kind of personal (maybe I should have emailed it?), and also it is none of my business, and please keep in mind this is NOT a criticism… I’m just very, rudely curious: Do you ever wonder or worry that Clara might grow up to be a private type of person, who might not have wanted her childhood to be so, well, publicly recorded? I have no kids, not a parent, NOT judging. She truly is adorable, and it is obvious that people love reading about her. I just have been following for a long time now, and so love the blog, but I keep wondering this same thing. I know that you take a bazillion protective measures, but mine really isn’t a question about safety, just personal space. Specifically, hers. I’m probably not the first person to ask, I bet? Feel free to not talk about it. Oh, and happy New Year!
YoungHouseLove says
It’s a great question and something we think about a lot. I think the way that we look at it now is that we probably share 1% of her actual life here. So it’s not like we record and broadcast her morning, noon, and night – maybe we share one two minute video every week or two, which is obviously a very very small portion of her actual life. I guess that just feels good for now, but you never know where we’ll end up! We always want it to be her call, so if we ever break out the camera or the video camera if she says “I don’t want you to take pictures” or something, we’ll listen. Away they’ll go. Of course she’s not old enough to truly understand everything, but if she grows up and wants to not even be mentioned on the blog at all, we’ll honor her wishes.
xo
s
Lou says
Hey, thanks for fulfilling my nosy needs. And now that you mention it, you guys definitely don’t broadcast things you could- no tantrums are thoroughly documented. She will probably appreciate that someday. Plus, even though I’m not a mom, its obvious that some of your more informative posts could really help a parent out. So, it is a weird line to straddle.
Wrenaria says
Looks like a fun Christmas! My honey managed to find two out-of-print books that I’ve been wanting for ages. It was a really sweet surprise. Also got a few fun camera gadgets. And this awesome bird juicer I’ve been coveting (thanks mom): http://www.amazon.com/imm-Living-KAS066-Bird-Juicer/dp/B0033PRFQ6
John cracks me up by the way. Re: Santa’s location, “Yeah, I don’t know either, I think it’s somewhere north.” Made me laugh.
Lindsay says
Hahah, John, I love your wit….”Do you know where Santa lives”? “I think it’s somewhere North”. This made me LOL!
Happy New Year to all of you!
jenh says
looks like you had a great day. We started off our christmas morning with a complete meltdown when our almost three year old realized that santa had indeed come, but had not gone into her room in the night to say hi to her. We had no idea she thought that would happen, and it took a while to get her calmed down and excited for presents, it is a funny video, her excitedly running down the stairs, only to hit the bottom of them, see her presents, and immediately start sobbing because santa didnt talk to her. poor thing. but after she calmed down we had a great christmas
YoungHouseLove says
Oh my! That’s a reaction I would never predict. I can kinda see Clara doing that to us at some point, so thanks for the heads up!
-John
Bria says
I just watched the video of Clara with my 3 1/2 year old son…he thinks Clara is his baby sister (I’m currently pregnant with his baby sister). Anyway, I thought it was so sweet. He even said, “Bye, bye baby sister.” when the video was over. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Awwwwww. Heart officially melted.
xo,
s
Evin says
Our holidays were lovely. With our families for the first time in five years and with our little man so extra special. I gave everyone copies of the cookbook I contributed to and did the layout for plus lots of Irish chocolates! I received many thoughtful gifts but the best was time together and a baby blanket my late Grandma made for a family friend’s baby decades ago, which was given to our son. Best. Gift. Ever. We too had a special feature to keep the three boys (aged 1-4 years) occupied. Three washing machine boxes became a gigantic fort. The only thing missing was my Mom, who was in the hospital with complications from her MS. But she may have lucked out, I can totally imagine the kids trying to borrow her wheelchair to make the box fort roll. Happiest new year’s wishes! Thank you for your blog, it brightens my days and my Mom loves reading it too. She hasn’t noticed yet I adopted her copy of your book and brought it back to Ireland. Maybe book stealing can be a new Christmas tradition in our family.
Sarah says
We had our first Christmas at home this year. It was nice and relaxing!
I love the t-shirt John got – so fun! And Sherry, those ear rings are gorgeous (what a lucky lady you are)! Oh and Clara’s “pigtails” are adorable!
We got some awesome gifts around here too. I recently blogged about 3 of my favorite gifts. (Linked above).
Sarah
JenB says
My husband and I try to keep it simple in the gift-giving to each other and the kiddos. Our three year old loved the ukelele Santa brought, even though the strings broke in about 2 minutes (we think the strings were bad in the first place & we’re getting it restrung). Santa also brought stuff from the party favor aisle from Target (army men with parachutes, kazoos, etc.). So much fun!! For each other, we buy tickets to a concert we both want to see. So we get that date night that we always talk about but never manage to work in!
Happy New Year!
Luanne says
Love the slide/pool feature for the kids. It wouldn’t be the south without it! ;)
Alyssa Dacosta says
saw on the list that you guys have the book Gone Girl… have you guys read it? Is it good?
YoungHouseLove says
John read it and loved it and I’m halfway through (no spoilers!). Very suspenseful so far!
xo
s
Heather W says
Alyssa,
Read the book! It is really good and not like any other book I have read before. Totally recommend. My BFF is reading it now and can’t wait to talk to her about it when she is done.
Wendy says
Ha – I hated the book. Hope you guys enjoy it though!
Lauren says
This may be my favorite Clara video EVER. She is so adorable I can’t stand it.
Erin says
Last year I started a Stump Sliver tradition in our house, in which we save a slice of our Christmas tree’s stump and fashion it into a yearly ornament. I continued the tradition this year, which really pleased me since it became way more official with more than one stump sliver (I’m a huge nerd). Here’s a Pinterest link to our 2012 Stump Sliver: http://pinterest.com/pin/60728294947232233/
PS – I adore Clara’s face art! Sort of Picasso-esque in an awesome way.
YoungHouseLove says
Love that!
xo
s
Marlayna says
Awww! She makes me want to have one of my own. :) she has such a fun personality and hilarious responses!
Jamie B says
Aw, my daughter (now 5 1/2, but shares Clara’s b-day) also said “lasterday” for the loooongest time! She only stopped saying it before starting kindergarten.
Diana says
Love the Clara video… had to watch it twice! Adorable that Clara wanted to get in the car to thank Santa….awwww
Congratulations on the beautiful shades and Happy 2013!
Audrey says
I love the impromptu garage playground!
For Christmas, my husband gave me a bust of Sasquatch. Here he is on Etsy: http://tinyurl.com/akycj8d
I’m still confused… We’re not ready for kids, but I think it will be cool in a kid’s room someday. Until then, it will stare at me – creepily – from a bookshelf in the living room.
YoungHouseLove says
Hahaha!
xo
s
Victoria says
This year was the first year we knew my aunt and mother are celiacs. That led to me experimenting and successfully making gluten-free cinnamon rolls, and a gluten free buche de noel.
Other than that, it was funny to see that as every other year passes, the adults are slowly getting more presents than the kids.
And as per the agreement I have with my boyfriend, I didn’t get him anything, but he surprised me and gave me 2 gallons of homemade, delicious pasta sauce.
Heather says
That video is too cute! “I;m so proud,” and “Lasturday” were my favorite “Clara-isms”. I can’t wait to see how my little grows up and the funny things she comes up with (she’s 9 months now, her Christmas consisted of (in her world, anyway) eating ribbons, paper, and bows!)
Happy New Year!!
Patti says
Congrats on the Christmas celebrations! Looks like everything went really well. Yay! This year my husband went all out and bought us a Nikon DSLR, an extra lens and a sturdy tripod. He also got us tickets to see Jersey Boys at Broadway in Boston. I got him a new wallet (his was falling apart) and Swiss Army knife (he’s been hinting this all year). I also framed two of our favorite photos for him and did the framed magazine drop-cap letter from your tutorials. We will be filling out hallway soon with pictures of us and our family and I want these to be the first additions.
Our new tradition is to buy a photo frame ornament every year and insert our favorite picture taken during the year. We buy one for us and one for our dogs (we call them our “boys”). I can’t wait until we have space for a huge tree – it’ll be filled with lots of special ornaments we collected together through the years.
Thanks for sharing your Christmas with us!
Leah says
The best part of this video is when sherry breaks out her British accent and announces the band “Potato Christmas.” Hahaha :)
P.s. that big box totally reminded me of a local company that sells boxes specifically for play. Anyone with kids interested in building should check them out. They ship nationwide!
https://playfromscratch.com/
Sounds like you guys had a great christmas!
Xox
YoungHouseLove says
What a smart idea!
-John
Kirsten @ Through the Front Door says
Clara’s sticker faces are just too funny/adorable! It’d be so cute if you printed off that collage of the 6 of them, framed it, and voila, you’ve got a baby warhol on your hands! :)
Renee' says
Adorable video of Clara! It’s so funny that Sherry has been talking about getting a tattoo. I have never wanted one my whole life until recently, have no idea what I would want, and my husband thinks it’s mostly a joke too. :)
Kate says
It’s ten lords-a-leaping day!! My family doesn’t really celebrate the 12 days of Christmas, but it’s tradition in our casa to keep the decorations up until January 6, when the it’s said the wise men finally got their directions right and visited with their gifts(o:
In keeping with tradition and nostalgia, my husband and I decided to try something new this year. We chose and made gifts for all our families and friends based on the theme of nostalgia. My husband has 3 siblings, so he thought about some nostalgic memories he shares with each of theme and we found a gift that was reminiscent of the memory. Needless to say, some of the gifts were kinda weird (his older sis got a set of small hor d’oeurve spoons, a pound of sugar and Trader Joe’s Gingerbread cookie spread) so I drew, scanned and copied a “Nostalgic Christmas 2012” card for each family member to explain their “unique” gifts.
The theme was such a huge success for us (helped us think of meaningful and memorable gifts, while keeping someone from impulse-gifting…ahem) that we’re DEFINITELY going to use a theme for next year…I’m thinking everyone receives something that fits into a 6×6 inch box…????
Happy New Year(o:
eileen marie says
Clara is absolutely precious in that video. I am glad you both have this time before you have another child to really enjoy how great she truly is.
Sarah W says
I was cracking up when Clara said she was so proud! She’s getting so funny and articulate lately. Thanks so much for sharing her moments with us.
I find that when it comes to gift giving, men sometimes need a little, shall we say, blatant inspiration? I may or may not have posted the exact watch I wanted on my boyfriend’s facebook a few months ago. Apparently it worked because there it was when I opened my Christmas present! It’s a beautiful old timey looking skeleton watch that I have named ‘The Professor’ so that I can look at it and say, “What time is it, Professor?”
merle turner says
That is one cute kid, i enjoyed the video and had a proud potato christmas.
Merle……
Diane says
I love “lasturday”!!! Reminds me of the time that my son told my Mom, “bye-bye Nana! I’ll see you the nextertime”!!! :)
YoungHouseLove says
LOL. Lasturday and nextertime are definitely pulled from the same dictionary.
-John
Momcat says
I am impressed with the absolute cleanliness of your dad’s garage!! Way to rock the playground, Grampa!!
Lovely post. Your house is just so darn CHEERFUL!! Both in color and in the smiles on everyone’s faces.
Ya’ll are way cool. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah, my dad is very dedicated to his garage…
-John
Wendy says
My husband and I gave each other early birthday presents that resulted in the best early Christmas present on 5 December- Susanna Hope!
(We found out 3 days before my b-day at the end of March I was preg and she was born 25 days before his at the end of December.)
In addition to our new babe, we had a week’s worth of snow which resulted in the ultimate Christmas present for Susanna’s older bro who was visiting for a week.
YoungHouseLove says
Congrats Wendy! What a pretty name.
xo,
s
Wendy says
Thanks.
Hub and I each dreamt of her name at different times. We compared. It was the same.
The name holds mega significance beyond the dreams. Susanna means lily, so she is our Lily of Hope.
ElizabethAnn says
Quick question. Has your website been hijacked? For the 2nd day in a row, when I go to your website, I’m taken to some other website. Today is was something about Catholics. Is this happening to anyone else? It doesn’t happen when I go to other websites. Just yours.
YoungHouseLove says
So sorry! We ran malware scanners on our entire site and they came out clean. It still could be something random like a sidebar ad that might have been coded badly or sneaking in something like that. Eeks. We don’t see anything on our end and haven’t changed anything about the way we code things. Anyone else having this issue? If you could take a screen grab of the site it’s redirecting you to and give us the url that could really help! We’d love to block it from happening but it’s not happening when we go to the site. Thanks so much!
xo
s
Patricia says
This has happened to me also this week. I can’t remember when it happened first but tonight I clicked to watch the Christmas video and it started and then I was redirected to somewhere else. I can’t remember where it took me to though. It was something like nyaete.com or nyete, nayete, who knows and then a bunch of gibberish. And it didn’t look like I clicked an ad by accident either (Those pop up in seperate windows anyways, right?).
YoungHouseLove says
Argh! So sorry Patricia! If anyone could take a screen grab (which includes the url of the redirect) it would be awesome! Then we can block it!
xo
s
christie says
“i’m so proud – ” love it!
also, teacher nerd speak alert, but dang, check out that number sense – ‘how many eggs?’ misses no beat and says three and keeps going. i’ve had 2nd graders who would’ve had to count them to answer that!
YoungHouseLove says
We were surprised by that too! She’s usually pretty good at counting, but most times we have to count up to a number (i.e. “1… 2… 3!”) to figure out how many we have of something, so her just blurting it out caught us off guard too.
-John
JennieM says
Ok, I am just stunned at the “John’s big toe” comments. I went back and looked at the photos…I had to look really hard to see the “parking space”…holy cow people REALLY study your photos! No judgement on them, just suprised. BTW, loved the indoor playground.
Adriane says
Merry Christmas and happy new year! I love your blog…
I always give hints on what I want from “Santa” but my husband never catches them… own… :)
xo
AJ
Katie says
Clara is such a doll! Love those white ceramic buildings — was just at the Ballard Backroom and picked up the ornament set at 75% off (4.50 for the set of 4!) and am planning on cutting off their ornament strings and making a little ceramic village of my own :)
Audrey says
I actually made my hubby his gift this year, something he’s been hinting at for YEARS. I made a BIG wine cork wreath and he did l.o.v.e. it. I even did a tutorial on how to make it, if you’re interested you can check it out here: http://neverendingdecorating.blogspot.com/2012/12/how-to-make-wine-cork-wreath_31.html And he bought me a sensible present this year. The demilune foyer table I’ve been eyeballing at Kirkland’s for our foyer. :) It was a “home decor” kinda Christmas for us. Have a great weekend. Faithful reader in Powhatan, Audrey
YoungHouseLove says
Such a fun DIY! Love it!
xo
s
Mary says
Aww – Clara’s face is so stinking cute on the first photo! I think you guys nailed it :) Pinning that bicycle t-shirt for the hubby, who is also a bike fanatic. Thanks for sharing!
Stephanie Haworth says
“Oh that’s a good idea, just put the whole basket on the burner.” Ahahaha…
Devon @ Green House, Good Life says
I love how Clara seems to think everything BUT the refrigerator is the gift — the ice cream, the eggs, even the bow. It’s like the refrigerator just seemed like the packaging (and yet, if the refrigerator had come in a box, she’d probably love playing with that). I trust she has now fully grasped the awesomeness?
YoungHouseLove says
Hahah! Well now she loves taking everything out and shoving everything in, so it has sunk in that the “packaging” is part of the toy. Hahaha!
xo
s
Steph says
Lasterday, I should start using that! My boyfriend is constantly making fun of me because I always say “the other day…” when it could mean yesterday or like, 10 years ago, hah!
I finally got your book for Christmas! My mom always gets me a book every year, either home decorating related, cook book related, etc. so this year she told me to hold off when it was released, and I knew what that meant. It was so hard not to just go ahead and buy it, but it was definitely worth the wait! I am slowly obsessing over everything in there!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks so much Steph! So glad you’re enjoying it!
xo
s
Stephanie Nelson says
Love the tees for John, perfect alone or layering under plaid shirts!! :) I was wondering what color big earrings Sherry would get for a gift this year! Wouldn’t it be cool if Clara grew up to be a great chef and could say it was all because of the cool kitchen appliances you made her as a kid? So funny about the fridge box in the garage too. It was a like some sort of theme for this years Christmas! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man it would be awesome if she grew up to be a chef! I can’t cook to save my life!
xo
s
Stephanie Nelson says
Oh, are those shadows on your tatoo arms or bruises? I hope you’re all OK!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Just shadows! Our own heads were making shadows on our arms from that angle :)
xo
s