A little Santa in all of us.

Sweet Suzanne asked me to share with you some of my favorite holiday traditions, and I must've started and stopped this list a thousand times. When I was little, really little, my favorite things list would've been about closing my eyes as tight as I could, squeezing them shut and listening to the sounds on the roof... is that him? is that? and then MOM WAKE UP I THINK SANTA'S HERE! That tradition would've been at the tippety top of my {littlest me} favorite things list.

When I got a little older... old enough to see that Santa's handwriting and wrapping paper were quite like my mom's... well, then my favorite things list would've been about wishing for snowfalls on Christmas day... watching A Christmas Story over and over and Ralphie-you'll-shoot-your-eye-out! over again... seeing my family open the cards that I'd made the night before with cotton balls and crayons and glue... and playing with my delicious new treasures for the next several days. These traditions would've been at the tippety top of my {medium me} favorite things list.

And then I got a lot older... old enough to know that Christmas was wonderful but also stressful. Families seemed to fight a bit more... it became a lot about money and less about thought and love... Christmas trees started going up a bit later... the magic of the holidays was around me here and there, but that tangible, prickly, glittery feeling? It was missing.

This year, though, something changed. Our little girl arrived: Devon Whitney. Stinky McStinkpot. Twenty inches and six whole pounds of giggly, warm, loved up and new. She's too little to understand now, but soon she'll believe in Santa, in reindeer, in the importance of cutting paper snowflakes and leaving out snacks for the elves. Sometimes you need a little reminder of that feeling... of waking up to the smell of pine and presents... of hot cocoa and sugar cookies in the morning... of realizing that maybe Santa isn't as big and red and ho!ho!ho! as you once thought, but that there's a little Santa in all of us. This feeling is at the tippety top of my {biggest me} favorite things list.

Psst: Thanks, Suzanne, for having me here. I hope you'll all come visit me at my blogs, The Lil Bee and Feather Report.

Big kiss,

Bee.

Images from top to bottom, all via We Heart It: Scream Colors; Katherine writes.; Inspirart; and unknown.

{a cherished holiday tradition: by guest poster Simply Mel of Reverie}

Being a daughter of a Fire Chief, I grew up welcoming Christmas Day with very early morning sunrises. You see, sometimes, the Chief had to work on Christmas Day, and this meant my brother and I would be roused from our beds to open our gifts before dawn. Dad had to leave for the fire station by 7:00 a.m., so in order for all of us to share in the magic of this anticipated day, we would open all our gifts and share a bit of breakfast before the rays of Christmas sunlight peaked through our frosty windows. It became a tradition (including the Christmases in-between the holiday shifts), a very early morning, blurry-eyed, beautiful family tradition which lasted even after my hero, my dad, the Fire Chief retired.

And as the years went by, I would find myself wide awake just waiting for him to open my door and declare, “Mornin’! Merry Christmas!” We would then run down the stairs and be welcomed by the festive atmosphere of the sparkling-lit Christmas tree surrounded by ribbon adorned presents, the smell of freshly brewed coffee, the local radio station playing Christmas songs, and my Dad standing there with the biggest grin on his face and his camera ready in his hands. This is what Christmas was all about….the pure joy that filled every fiber of his being just watching as his two kids gathered around the tree readying themselves to open all the gifts he worked so hard to give us. Every year he checked our lists and made sure he granted our wishes … the perfect pink 10-speed bike, the ‘you’ll shoot your eye out’ bb gun, and the ‘must have this exact one’ black cashmere sweater (yes, this was only a few years ago!). However, the magical sparkle in his eyes every Christmas morning is the one gift that I will cherish the most – forever and always.

So now that I have my own little crumb, we will be starting a new Christmas morning tradition this year. The ‘early rising syndrome’ seems to run in the family which means I will most likely be following in the Fire Chief’s footsteps. And even though this Christmas, there will be 3,000 miles between me and my Dad, I’ll find comfort and joy in knowing that we will both be greeting the morning sunrise with magical sparkles in our eyes as we reminisce upon and begin a holiday tradition that we will forever hold close to our hearts.

{you can find me daydreaming here and learn more about all the pretty things I love here.}

blurry eyed Christmas photograph by Gaia Miette McArdle

{ the simple things: by guest poster kelli from kelli jane photography }

This December has been different than past Decembers. This December I'm celebrating the spirit of the season through the eyes of my 3-year-old....and maybe it's just me, but isn't everything about Christmas time more magical and fun when you see things through the eyes of a child? Our family traditions seem to be about the simple things we do together....making cookies, drinking hot chocolate, getting all bundled up and going ice skating, decorating our home with colors of red and green, and watching every movie from "Charlie Brown's Christmas" to "Love Actually" (well, technically it's just me watching "Love Actually" over and over again :). It's the little expressions of joy and wonder on my daughters face that have meant the most to me over the past few weeks, and being that I am a photographer, I try my best not to let any of them go uncaptured. I never leave home without my camera....even if it's just my polaroid.

I do plan on starting a new tradition this year and it came about from a vision I had. After the Holiday's are over, I'm going to design a photo book that is solely about how we spent our Christmas; that way, when Christmas comes around next year, we can pull it out and have fun looking at the ways we celebrated in the past. I want to design one for each year to come, and my vision is that hopefully, when my kids are grown, we can pull them all out each Christmas and enjoy looking at our Christmas journeys of the past.

May you be richly blessed this Holiday season!

{ sharing holiday traditions }

photo courtesy of Jay Mather, found here

Ever since I can remember, visions of sugar plums...candy canes and snow fairies have danced in my head at Christmastime, thanks to my favorite holiday tradition, The Nutcracker Ballet. I still recall the thrill of going to see it each year in San Francisco with my grandmother and being utterly captivated by the music, costumes, and scenery. I've loved sharing the same tradition with my own daughter the last couple of years and watching her fall head over heels in love with the story as well. This year, our tradition continued with a very special twist when my daughter auditioned and was cast as a teeny tiny mouse in the Sacramento Ballet's production of The Nutcracker.

Each year, The Sacramento Ballet casts 400+ local children to perform throughout the holiday season with their own company of professional dancers, creating unforgettable, tug-at-your-heart magic on stage. {I recommend having tissues on hand}. It's an amazing experience for the kids to perform with professional dancers in front of such a large (and adoring) audience and the opportunity to hang out backstage and discover the hard work and dedication behind the scenes is priceless. I chaperoned one of the performances and was able to take a few pics. I thought you might like a sneak peek through the eyes of my teeny tiny mouse...

we wait for the cue that it's okay to put on our costumes

and then, we wait...again

we watch the "big girls" & dream of someday playing the part of a party girl or Clara

we have our makeup done

and visit with the **stars** who stop by for a visit

we chase away the butterflies in our tummies

and then...it's SHOWTIME!!!

a new twist on a favorite tradition = a lifetime of magical memories...

what a gift!

P.S. I'll be taking a little bloggy break while my daughter is on winter break from school and will return after the Christmas holiday. In the meantime, I've invited some fabulous blogger friends to stop by S.HOPtalk and share their favorite holiday memories and traditions with you all {as the lovely Mary did earlier today } Wishing you and yours the happiest of holidays! xo ~Suzanne

Local readers can find ticket information for the remaining Sacramento Ballet Nutcracker performances (today - December 23rd) here.

{ my favorite holiday tradition : by guest poster mary from pretty good }

Our neighborhood is not for everyone. It’s in a historic part of our city, so the houses are all 150+ years old, and they’re, quite literally, on top of each other. The charm is obvious, but being packed in together tight with your neighbors is something that, when we moved in three years ago, I wasn’t sure how we’d adjust to.

But we fell right in love with our new community. Rather than feeling suffocated, we felt immediately connected with people who were more like family than friends. People who would spend their Saturday helping you expose the hidden fireplace in your living room and would bring you a pair of fresh lobsters they caught earlier that day and were only steps away with a bottle of wine and a roaring fire during a blizzard. So when the holidays roll around, we make it a point to put together special goodies for these special people whose houses we can practically touch when we open our windows.

The first year, we made my husband’s favorite fudge and proudly delivered them to everyone, until we soon learned that the ex-mayor (who lives just a few houses away) has been wowing everyone with her great-great-great-grandmother’s fudge recipe for years. Ohhkaaay.

The following year, determined to make our mark, we tackled this amazing, fall-off-your-seat fabulous cinnamon rolls recipe. They were completely, sinfully delicious, but making them turned our kitchen into a total disaster area and although I have been known to exaggerate for effect, I swear I was scraping the sticky butter/sugar/cinnamon mixture off obscure parts of our counter through late June.

Two days ago, on Saturday, with a smidge of a red wine headache, I was thankful that this year I had scoped out something easy (but still wickedly yummy) to make for the neighbors: Oreo truffles and red velvet cake balls. They're simple, require minimal baking, and are kid-friendly -- because three years here has added a few little ones to these homes.

This new ritual of baking, packaging, and delivering treats door-to-door is one of our favorite things about this time of year. And the very act of creating something to share with others and spreading a bit of cheer is the absolute reason for the season.

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{ You might know Mary from her photo blog, pretty good, and her whenever-she-gets-around-to-posting Tumblr. Or, you might not. She’s also fifty percent of the t.ruffle girls, and would like you to know that even though Karey said they’d close up the shoppe for the holidays on Friday, the doors seem to still open. So take a peek inside before she goes to lock up. And have yourself a very, very, super, happy Holiday! }