{"id":469,"date":"2015-12-23T18:53:38","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T18:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?p=469"},"modified":"2015-12-23T18:53:38","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T18:53:38","slug":"slowing-christmas-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?p=469","title":{"rendered":"Slowing Christmas morning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When my husband and I were first married, we were not able to do much for Christmas gifts for each other and it was just the two of us so we became a bit inventive in order to make the fun morning last.<\/p>\n<p>We blended some Dutch traditions (my husband&#8217;s land of birth) with some Anderson family traditions (my family) to slow down the morning and spend more time enjoying each individual unveiling. Here&#8217;s a bit of a list that you might enjoy.<\/p>\n<p>First we open stockings one at a time. This works out especially well as it can give you the chance to &#8220;prank&#8221; one of your family. I remember one year when I was a child. We had thirteen stockings hung up, and everyone received Silly String <em>except my mom<\/em>, who was summarily attacked. Good times, Good times.<\/p>\n<p>We then take a break and get snack-y morning food and coffee. We like Swedish coffee bread, clementines and turkey summer sausage (and mimosa). No forks needed, so opening presents is not an issue!<\/p>\n<p>Then we open presents, ONE at a time, with ooohs and ahhs and &#8220;thank you&#8221;\u00a0to the giver, of course. In every family, this is important.<\/p>\n<p>We also extend the morning by creating clues or riddles as a method of giving. I&#8217;ve listed some creative ideas below. The cool part of this is we invest more time in HOW we will be giving the gifts, and the giving itself becomes more important. It also slows down our morning, and removes that mad scramble and feeling of &#8220;More, More, More&#8221;.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make all the gifts into a crossword puzzle and provide clues &#8211; when the full puzzle is solved, then give the most important gift.<\/li>\n<li>Sing a song for each gift.<\/li>\n<li>Find a photo or two to match up as a clue for the gift. So for socks, the clue could be a photo of a sheep and a foot. I did this one year and then all the photos fit into a puzzle that was a weird story-telling collage.<\/li>\n<li>Make up poems.<\/li>\n<li>Wrap all the packages in layers into one BIG present. I did this one year &#8211; thirteen layers, but one box under the tree.<\/li>\n<li>One year I got little clear plastic boxes hung all over the tree, each with a scroll with a clue. The first gift I opened was a hammer.<\/li>\n<li>When my son was young, we did clues and a scavenger hunt&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>How about using scrabble tiles &#8211; give an envelope with the letters spelling the gift, to unscramble.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We also have chosen, over the last few years, to make at least one gift for each other. The first year, we combined efforts. My son and I baked my husband a cheesecake, which was a HUGE hit. \u00a0My son and husband built for me a fairy garden&#8230;anything handmade makes the season brighter.<\/p>\n<p>Slow down Christmas morning. Just like slow foods, slow gifts bring joys many of us have forgotten. Enjoy each other and the intent behind the gift. \u00a0Make it fun, and make it last all year.<\/p>\n<p>Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,<\/p>\n<p>Jodi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When my husband and I were first married, we were not able to do much for Christmas gifts for each other and it was just [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-personal-reflections"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p40KlT-7z","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1283,"url":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?p=1283","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":0},"title":"Equity or Equality?","author":"greenerjsa","date":"August 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning I encountered a very good example of equity versus equality, before I even had my morning coffee. It's all about salami and cheese crescent rolls. Who knew? My husband, son, and I, all love the occasional weekend treat of oven crescent rolls and a hard-boiled egg. The package\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Language&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Language","link":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?cat=149"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2bgreener.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_1574-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1065,"url":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?p=1065","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":1},"title":"Guilty and Greening","author":"greenerjsa","date":"November 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A few years ago, at an inter-agency committee meeting to work on greening state agencies, one of the prominent leaders associated with the work introduced himself, and then told a story. Here it is from my memory: \u201cGood morning, all. I am your average Joe-in-a-position-of-visible-authority and I am very glad\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Advocacy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Advocacy","link":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?cat=128"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2bgreener.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/styrofoam-cup-beach.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2bgreener.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/styrofoam-cup-beach.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2bgreener.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/styrofoam-cup-beach.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":764,"url":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?p=764","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":2},"title":"Catch-up, Guilt-free","author":"greenerjsa","date":"January 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I have not posted for a couple of weeks. Okay, 4 weeks. But this ties in to some things I have learned over the holiday season. Be in the moment. I haven't posted because I have been doing the things that mattered to me at the time. We make Christmas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;DIY&quot;","block_context":{"text":"DIY","link":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?cat=109"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cork Ornaments","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2bgreener.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ornaments-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1302,"url":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?p=1302","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":3},"title":"Kool-aid","author":"greenerjsa","date":"September 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"1978: Jonestown, Guyana. Over 900 people died, including 87 young children, when they drank Kool-aid laced with cyanide and other drugs upon the advice of Jim Jones, their religious-cult leader. 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Thank you, NYSERDA, for sharing this Scoop on Java \u00b7 To reduce use of disposable paper cups, think about checking with your local coffee shop to see if they offer reusable and\/or recyclable* cups , such as this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Materials Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Materials Management","link":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2bgreener.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/image0021.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2bgreener.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/image0021.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2bgreener.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/image0021.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2bgreener.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/image0021.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":670,"url":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?p=670","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":5},"title":"Koffie met Vlaai","author":"greenerjsa","date":"August 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We were in the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago, a family trip to visit the homeland, friends and relatives, indulge in Dutch cheeses and the sound of the southern dialects, architecture, canals and trees all lined up nice and neat. And to enjoy koffie met vlaai. Vlaai is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;community&quot;","block_context":{"text":"community","link":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"sign","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2bgreener.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/sign-e1471305689175-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470,"href":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions\/470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2bgreener.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}