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Chasing the Christmas Chain
I don’t know how long it’s been. Probably since kids were tiny. Those little countdown calendars of some sort, you know. Nine years ago the format shifted from adorable and quirky to a low budget paper chain. And paper chain it has stayed nearly a decade later. Like EVERYTHING currently, it is more and more difficult to find daily time to chase the tradition. But if you know me, traditions matter A LOT, so chase it we must. The kids still all look forward to it, even those teenagers, so I’m willing to make it fit and work it out and do what we can to keep the chain going.…
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thirty years of July Fourthing.
Yes. Totally aware that it is practically August. And I’m fine with writing a post about July Fourth. This year we think we calculated that it was Year Thirty for our annual July Fourth at the Farm. That’s kind of big deal. What started out three decades ago as a couple of neighboring families and friends taking a tubing trip down the Pigg River, hosting a cook out and shooting off fireworks into the Virginia summer sky, has turned into an annual family reunion and event that calendars get rearranged for and that is held as some sort of holy ground by those of us who love it best. The…
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a story of a tradition gone south
Maybe this just isn’t the year for keeping things the same. I didn’t chose a word. I didn’t make our annual list of things to accomplish this year. I already told you guys all that. But we always take a hike on the first day of the new year – or a day really close to that. It’s not just a regular hike, it’s a hike designed to be about creating a little time for reflecting as a family and for looking forward as a family. We also always pack along a bottle of sparkling juice of some sort and our own small glasses. The best part of the…
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July Fourth Shenanigans
If you know me, you know that my favorite holiday is July Fourth. It’s the family and it’s the food. It’s the farm and the fun. It’s being together and it’s tradition and it’s years stacked on years of celebrating a summer day and lives and family and friends. July Fourth on the Farm is the best. It was Ryder’s first July Fourth. That dog legitimately loves the farm. (And spends his days racing to the pond and collecting briars in his thick coat and harboring dirt and mud all over his legs and just in general being a happy go lucky mess. The food is plentiful at the…
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the traditions and the heavy lifting of holidays and the sliver of light I hope you find
This is a season of tradition. And tradition matters in the culture of a family. It’s the fabric and the face of a family. It’s what we do. It’s the stuff we do that makes us who we are. It’s the story we tell. “Every year we make monster cookies.” “Every year we see the lights and eat donuts.” And it’s what makes us feel like family. It’s the stuff that says Keigley or Johnson or insert-your-own-name. It’s the ties that bind. And it’s okay when circumstances shift or a family decides to begin a new tradition or to let an old one fade. But it’s hard too.…
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The Dollar Store Gift Idea That I Am Borrowing (and think you should borrow it too)
Hannah sent me a text. (How many decisions in my life do I make based on texts that I receive? I don’t want to know.) She had this link and said, “You should do this.” The website she sent me to was written by a mom of many who explained how her family created a tradition years earlier when her children were much younger. She and her husband wanted to teach their children to think about what their siblings and family members would like for gifts, to foster their relationships, to know the preferences of their family members and to provide an opportunity for all of the kids to purchase…
Keep Reading . . .
These Is My Words: A Book Review
Snap.Shot.
The July Grove Collaborative Giveaway
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Gray Mountain Farm
You guys. We are at the farm. The beautiful lovely Virginia farm. Where the mountains ensconce you and the framily embraces you and the mosquitoes bite you and the wireless signal evades you and the Internet still doesn’t trespass onto the property. So I just can’t easily share the good life we are living on these gorgeous acres across the wires on this blog. And that is alright. Just picture us all tubing down a muddy river. Working on endless food prep in a continual prep-cook-serve-eat-clean cycle all the day long. Going on little hikes and gator rides. Feasting on different people’s specialty meals and desserts. Sharing long held, over…
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Ye Olde Christmas Chain. Again.
I am often guilty of working too hard in creating moments when the best moments are usually spontaneous. I am frequently guilty of contriving glorious traditions when my family is pleased with simple favorites. This is revealed to me every year when I think about our basic Paper Chain. The one made of strips of red and green construction paper. The typical little decoration that my children cherish. We were ready December 1 and we’ve been guns blazing ever since. (Well. No guns blazing. I’m probably not a person qualified to even use that phrase. I have, however, watched the movies Tombstone and Young Guns a plethora of times, so maybe…
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The Book on the Bed Christmas Tradition
I don’t think there’s a Keigley gene for Early Rising. Sure, as very newborn humans the kids woke up early – but 3 a.m. isn’t actually early. It’s more like – late. Or middle of the night. My dad was an extremely early riser. Despite his hopes and his best efforts, the habit has never actually rubbed off on me. And not on my children either. I have friends whose non-baby children routinely awake at o’dark thirty, full of energy and go-get-em. I pity those parents. (Just kidding. They all seem happy about sunrises. Good for them.) The kids in my house are mostly late sleepers and quiet awakers. Hooray for…
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And The Middle Shall Be First
Twas the month of December and the tree was chopped down. No one can find the nativity scene but the tree stand magically reappeared after a two year hiatus. Christmas music blared and we all scrambled through the tissue paper and completely untidy array of ornaments treasured and tarnished and piled high in a less than glamorous Rubbermaid bin. We name every tree we get. I can’t pretend to recall the names of all of those trees but I do remember the first tree I ever decorated the first year I ever spent the holiday as a wife. Herbert. Herbert was a ratty old scrub cedar plucked from his life on a hillside…
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The Christmas Chain Took Us To Bethlehem
It’s hard to focus on school this month. This Christmas season feels shorter since Thanksgiving landed later in November. The kids and I just want to play and craft and bake and we don’t want to add or memorize or diagram sentences. (And this gloomy cold rain is not helping our (I mean, mine) attitudes either.) But we keep trying to persevere anyway. Only a few days late, we hung up our traditional Christmas chain. And so far we’ve watched a Christmas movie with snacks, decorated our tree (finally!) and this weekend we whipped up those infamous monster cookies and took in a new local event to our family –…
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Fourth. To be continued.
It may be that my posts will all be on week delays this summer. It was July Fourth last week. Remember? And for our family for the last twenty plus years that has always meant the same thing — annual July Fourth party at the farm. The farm has everything that matters – people we love, wide open spaces, kids running through fields, a river, a pond. But it does not have clear, quality Internet service. Which means I can’t link you back to posts about other fun farm parties in years past and I can’t use any photos here except ones from my phone. But the one does make…
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Christmas Traditions
One small tradition we started a couple of years ago that I thought maybe I’d quietly back my way out of this year is the goofy little Christmas chain. The kids already asked me about this year’s chain before December even hit the calendar. So I coordinated and googled and pinterested (see how I made two words turn into verbs even when no one should do that?) and made a list of plans to write on the paper chains for all of the days leading up to Christmas. Some days were easy to plan – like Mosely’s birthday and the arrival of Papaw and Grandma and the arrival of Oma…
