Beyond the Moments: 10 days of Christmas

Sunday, December 16, 2012

10 days of Christmas

The greatest gift you can give someone is your time...

This is my little sister, Becky, and I. She is 7 years younger than me and lives with my parents in Virginia. I usually only get to see her once or twice a year and sometimes only for Christmas. We have a lot of the same interests and so I try to find fun things for us to do when we are together. This is a picture of us getting ready for the Midnight premiere of the last Harry Potter movie. I was dressed as Hermione and she was dressed as a Hogwarts student.

In a few days I will be going to see her and the rest of my family in Virginia. I'll only be able to be there with them for 10 days, so I wanted to give her a Christmas gift this year that would be really special.

I decided that I would plan something special for us to do together for each day that I would be home with her. Since I'll be home for 10 days I created 10 envelopes. Each one contained plans for something special we could do together as well as a couple small gifts that went along with that activity. I don't really have one for Christmas since I got her another present as well. The entire gift only cost about 25 dollars, but I know that the memories we create this Christmas will be priceless.

Here are what the finished envelopes look like. I'm going to allow her to pick one she wants to open each day. Some of them are Christmas activities that should be done before Christmas, other ones are relaxing activities or outdoor activities, and for some we will need to drive into town, so I wrote on each envelope to give her a clue of what the activity might be.

I can't wait to see her and to have her open her first envelope! We are going to have so much fun :) I'm not sure if she follows my blog or not, and sometimes we like to blog together for fun as well, so I can't spoil the surprise right now but I'll update each day with what was in each envelope. If you're interested in knowing what is in each of them now to use as a Christmas gift of your own, let me know and I'll email you the details.

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A note about my blogging desire

I've always been intrigued by blogs and jealous of those who keep them. In the past, I thought about starting a blog because I wanted to share my thoughts, experiences, and discoveries in a place where others would be able to see them, but I shied away from the idea for the obvious reasons most people probably do. First of all, I wasn't sure where to start or what to write about. I felt obligated to introduce myself, share my life story, and update it daily. I worried my opinions would be judged as trivial and my ideas would be cliche. I didn't want to be judged for my grammar or spelling or lack of poetic thoughts and inspiring pictures. I felt that if I started a blog I would have to live up to certain expectations. Then it dawned on me that blogging isn't about that. It's about being inspired by an idea or a thought or an experience and putting it in a place where it can then inspire others. It's about the cycle of sharing ideas and stories that has been around for centuries. It's in our nature, and it's in mine. Beyond the moments of everyday life are the unique experiences that each of us have and the moments that we only live through once. As time passes I realize that I only remember fractions and memories from a cluster of years, but the daily thoughts and discoveries of an ordinary day become lost. Thus, I am starting this blog to continue the tradition of sharing, and to record those experiences that years from now would have gone forgotten otherwise.

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