It may come as a bit of a surprise to find out my sister and I never celebrate holidays together anymore! With our growing families it just became too difficult ---- and too "peopled."
This year my husband's side of the family will spend Christmas with us in our home and we will number about twenty folks from age 4 months through (shh!) 87 years of age. She will have close to that number in her home.
So what do we do? We celebrate BIG TIME on another date: just the two of us.
We give each other themed gifts --- a lot of gifts from silly to serious, small to big and with our usual ornament exchange. It is one of our favorite holiday traditions!
Her theme to me this year was SISTERS.
Each gift was accompanied by a little card tag with a picture of the two of us somewhere or doing something together and a related gift. For example: on one of gifts the little card opened up with a picture of us downtown wearing aqua and blue clothes (unplanned) and the same exact shoes (purchased independently).
The words inside the card were
As sisters we....
sometimes wear the same clothes.
The gift was a sweater just like the one she had on in a different color. Maybe you will see us out and about one day looking similar and you will wonder why we are dressing like twins. We don't do this on purpose, it's just a freaky sister kind-of-thing!
My theme gift to her this year was Glamour.
She used to love that magazine in her college days and, as younger sister, I "borrowed" her magazines to find the page with black rectangles covering the faces of fashion violators. When I grew up I would strive to be a fashion "do." Ha!
The lightbulb moment for her theme, though, was when we attended the Swedish Covenant Hospital Gala Benefit Dinner earlier this fall at the Field Museum. The theme there was Glamour Gala and the event certainly was glamorous. I made a photo book for her with the pictures from this event all done up in black and white.
The gifts given were all meant to give her glamour within the confines of her own home...a plush horseshoe-shaped travel pillow, a box of paperwhite flower bulbs, a monogrammed accessories tote, etc. When she left home, there was a blingy pair of sunglasses to disguise herself from paparazzi!
See? Doesn't she look like the epitome of glamour already?
Merry Christmas to all you sisters out there!
(Note the hair colors of
the cover girls...I tried
to match them to the
real-life colors
we sport.)
So what do we do? We celebrate BIG TIME on another date: just the two of us.
We give each other themed gifts --- a lot of gifts from silly to serious, small to big and with our usual ornament exchange. It is one of our favorite holiday traditions!
Each gift was accompanied by a little card tag with a picture of the two of us somewhere or doing something together and a related gift. For example: on one of gifts the little card opened up with a picture of us downtown wearing aqua and blue clothes (unplanned) and the same exact shoes (purchased independently).
The words inside the card were
As sisters we....
sometimes wear the same clothes.
The gift was a sweater just like the one she had on in a different color. Maybe you will see us out and about one day looking similar and you will wonder why we are dressing like twins. We don't do this on purpose, it's just a freaky sister kind-of-thing!
My theme gift to her this year was Glamour.
She used to love that magazine in her college days and, as younger sister, I "borrowed" her magazines to find the page with black rectangles covering the faces of fashion violators. When I grew up I would strive to be a fashion "do." Ha!
The lightbulb moment for her theme, though, was when we attended the Swedish Covenant Hospital Gala Benefit Dinner earlier this fall at the Field Museum. The theme there was Glamour Gala and the event certainly was glamorous. I made a photo book for her with the pictures from this event all done up in black and white.
The gifts given were all meant to give her glamour within the confines of her own home...a plush horseshoe-shaped travel pillow, a box of paperwhite flower bulbs, a monogrammed accessories tote, etc. When she left home, there was a blingy pair of sunglasses to disguise herself from paparazzi!
Merry Christmas to all you sisters out there!
(Note the hair colors of
the cover girls...I tried
to match them to the
real-life colors
we sport.)
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