Icemaggedon 2013

The forecast called for lots and lots of ice with temps in the 20s for days so everyone (me included) went to the store to stock up. It was a good thing, too, because DFW was essentially shut down for 3 days and it took several more days for the stores to get shelves stocked again. (I don't have any of the empty shelves pictures, but people posted lots of them on Facebook so I know it was a real thing people experienced.) For us, we faired pretty well. We were out of power for just a few hours, most of which we spent at IHOP. And Seth got a 3-day weekend out of the deal, so it was Christmas-prep weekend: music, candles, etc. It was actually quite nice. Until Austin got sick.

My trunk of supplies.

A big pot of my mom's chili hit the spot!

We were without power and without firewood. I would have packed up and gone somewhere else before lighting a fire, though. I HATE the mess afterwards. Trying to convince Seth to let us have gas logs installed. There's already gas there and they make gas logs that put out heat. Maybe we'll get them as a gift sometime? ;-)

And the next several thousand pictures (I'm kidding!) are proof that all you need to turn everyone into an ametuer photographer is some ice coating everything in sight. Enjoy!

Icicles on the icicles... get it?

I love getting at least one picture of our house in a white landscape each year. Then it can melt.

I gave Seth the camera when he was in the backyard playing with Austin and said "take some pictures" and he really got some GREAT ones!

That one tree might be a gonner even though it never broke, just leaned all the way over.

I love the ones of the toys. Especially the water table with ice hanging from it.

Such a sweet face.

There's something very classic or very Christmas-y about red berries coated in ice. Right?

LOVE!

SO much ice. yikes!

The fourth day brought temperatures up above freezing so the ice could start to melt. I walked through the family room and caught a glimpse of the ice from the table falling through and had to capture it!

Christmas Card Survey, December 2013

The results from my informal Christmas Card survey are here. Overall, I had about 70 people take the survey. I ended up adding a few questions after I'd sent out the initial requests and I had to delete quite a few responses due to incompletion, but I am very happy with what I got. My final total count was 61, but because I added some questions later, not all responses have that much data. Still, I think the answers are pretty clear and I love it!

The results shocked me multiple times and I definitely wished I had an upgraded Survey Monkey plan (those aren't free, so that's not going to happen) so that I could have asked all the questions I wanted to, but here's what I got. I've included screen shots if possible, and Seth helped me analyze the comments sections to attempt clear, un-skewed results to share (because the comments won't all fit on one page in order for me to screen shot them, I had to compile manually and you'll have to trust me that I'm accurately portraying the results.)

If you took a few minutes to complete my survey, THANK YOU! The results are below. Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: I LOVE Christmas cards. It's my favorite part of the season. Some people enjoy the shopping or the wrapping or the baking or the singing or the lights or the tree... I enjoy cards. I love making them, I love addressing the envelopes, I love writing our letter, I love receiving cards. Biased responses are included with the raw data below. It is not my intention to offend anyone, but to simply give you the data alongside my opinions. ;-)

THE SURVEY SAYS:
QUESTION 1: Do you send Christmas cards?
The results were overwhelmingly that people DO send them. Only about 7% of people who took it do NOT send cards. (It's obviously very possible that a person who doesn't send cards wouldn't take the time to fill out a survey about them, so I wouldn't be surprised if these results wouldn't be accurate across the entire nation if everyone took the survey, but it also seems very reasonable to me. Just by the sheer number of cards I receive!)
Comments Data: Five people gave a comment, those are viewable below.

QUESTION 2: On average, how many cards do you send?

After wanting to know if people send cards, I wanted to know how many cards people send. (This is one of the four original questions that burns in my head every December.) I don't think I personally know anyone who sends more cards than we do (about 95)--at least not that I've talked with about this, so the number of people who send loads and loads of cards was surprising to me. The most common range was 26-50 cards with about 36% of responders answering that category. But 11% send over 126 cards!

Comments Data: This comment section was about how many coworkers were included in peoples' cards they send. Nine people said that no coworkers were included while the other two categories were 1-5 coworkers and 6+ coworkers and those categories were tied with about 12 responders each.

QUESTION 3: How many different states do you send to?
The third burning-in-my-head question is wondering how many places people send to. As someone who has lived in four states in the past 10 years, I figured our number (10 states, 4 countries) would be super high compared to most people, but somewhere out there are people who have loved ones more spread out than we do! Three people send to over 16 states. 16+ states!?!?! Woah. The most common response was 4-6 states with about 39% of responders answering that category.
Comments Data: The comment section was about how many other countries people send to. Results were pretty much all even, with half of the responders saying they send to no other countries and half saying they send to 1 or more countries (most of those said 2+).

QUESTION 4: Do you send a "Christmas Letter" with your cards?
And the last question that always gets me fired up is that of the Christmas letter. We send one, but we are very clearly in the minority. 84% of people do not send a letter with their cards.
Comments Data: The data was pretty evenly split between 1) people not having/making time and 2) people thinking that people (either they themselves or other people) don't care to know what's going on with their lives or that they already know everything because of social media. There was a sprinkling of responses of people who do some version of the letter most years. (More thoughts, but those will come in the summary.)

QUESTION 5: Do you write a message inside the card?
I've noticed a trend in the cards that I receive that people aren't writing messages anymore. Sometimes, people don't even sign their name, they just stick a pre-printed card in the envelope and toss it in the mail. That is so far from my consciousness (because I make my cards and have just never pre-printed our names inside and because the message is my absolute favorite part) that I didn't even include that as a possible response but I should have. 57% of people who responded just sign their names. (But I'm wondering if some people actually do nothing, but selected that category since I accidentally didn't give them any other, more accurate option.)
Comments Data: There were no comments to this question.

QUESTION 6: How do you address the envelopes?
This was the first result that shocked me so much I nearly fell out of the chair. I get so many cards with labels these days that the "By hand" category simply floored (and elated!) me. Of the people who took the survey, 70% address their envelopes by hand! (Remember, this is my favorite part of the season, so I must admit that I do somewhat look "down" upon cards with labels. --Not that I am proud of that reaction of mine! But I'm just being real here.-- Much like a baker might look upon someone who brings store-bought cookies to a cookie exchange. Or the way a wrapper might look at someone who uses only bags for wrapping. It's hard to see someone not go to the full extent when that full extent is something that brings you great joy. It's simply hard to understand. That's not me judging people who use labels, it's me wondering why they don't find joy in hand-writing them like I do. ... More thoughts, but that'll come in the summary.)
Comments Data: There were no comments to this question.

QUESTION 7: Do you make or buy your cards?
As I figured, pretty much no one makes their cards every year. 76% of responders never make/always buy their cards.
Comments Data: I was also curious about how much people spend per card but didn't have any more questions available to me (you can only do 10 with the free survey monkey plan), so I did a comment. The results were hard to tally with this one (one person put "$8", but I'm assuming that's error or that's not per card as the question was asked), but basically most people spend right around $1-- $.75-$1.25, I'd say was the most common.

QUESTION 8: Anything else you'd like to add? (Specifically, I'd love to know what you do with the cards you've received once the season is over. Trash? Upcycle? Keep?)
This question was purely a comments question, so I have no picture to show you.
Comments Data: The majority of people keep their cards. Some people leave them up for a month and then recycle them, but 20 of the 30 responders keep them in some fashion: just year to year on the fridge--when the new one comes the old gets recycled, in a big basket they put out each year, on a ring with a cover to display each year, or in a big ziplock because they think they should be keeping them, but can't decide what to actually do with them (me). Three people said they keep some and recycle others and 7 people responded that they automatically recycle them when the season is over.
The other feedback I got was that people LOVE cards. Several people said they love giving them and love getting them. Also, people commented they don't do the same things year after year.


QUESTION 9: (Where did you grow up?)
This question was purely a response question, so I have no picture to show you.
Comments Data: The data was not surprising, given who was asking for responses: 30 responders grew up in Texas, 15 in Wisconsin, 3 in California, 3 in Georgia, 2 in Kansas and 1 each in: Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana.


QUESTION 10: Are your Christmas Card sending habits the same as your parents?
This was the second question that made me jump. First of all, I realize this was poorly worded and that the two middle answers are essentially the same. So that skews the results a little. It makes the "No, not at all" category appear bigger than it actually is. Combining the middle two categories, though, the winner is still the No's--58% of people's card habits are nothing like their parents. While 40% are somewhere in the middle.
Comments Data: The biggest thing that shocked me here, was that 20 of the 29 comments included some version of "my parents never sent cards". WHAT!? It's shocking to me. (More thoughts coming in the summary.) Of what was left, half said they do more than their parents did/do and half said they do less.

SUMMARY: The results sorta confirmed my overall suspicion. I am pretty much alone in enjoying Christmas cards so much! Oh, some people said they like them--giving and receiving, but people also repeatedly said they don't have time for them the way they want. That's never the case for me. I might not have time for other things like baking and such, but I always make time for cards. To me, it seems that your priorities determine what you have time for. My priority is making and writing (actually writing on the card!) and addressing envelopes. I love to connect with my people and most of my people aren't near me and aren't on social media.

That brings me to my second point. Overwhelmingly, people said that their parents didn't send cards, so it might seem that card-sending is more common/more important/more typical now than it used to be. When social media didn't exist. So, social media exists now, and a lot of people don't see the value in writing and sending Christmas letters, but they do send cards. What is the point of a card, then, if you're not sharing information with people? I love getting letters and pictures and notes from people. My least favorite cards are the store-bought cards with a generic pre-printed message and signatures at the bottom. It tells me nothing of what's going on with their family or what they look like now or anything. It seems useless to me. (Remember, I'm coming from a place where I'm not near most of my loved ones and of those distant loved ones, the majority aren't on social media, so I realize I must be in the minority here.) Christmas cards, for me, are a time once a year to connect with people that I don't see enough and wish I could connect with more. It's a time to set aside space to make that connection happen. A season of taking the time when I don't take the time (often enough) the rest of the year. And I long for the connection to be reciprocated, so when I get a card with a signature, I wish I had gotten a letter or a picture or something. Something in the way of an update on their lives.

One person commented "nobody cares about your families year" under the "Do you send a "Christmas Letter"with your cards?" and I just cannot wrap my mind around it. If the person getting a card from me doesn't care about our year, then why would they care about getting a card? They want a piece of cardstock with our names on it but don't want to know what we've been up to? Especially if that's all they hear from me for most of the year (when I allow the busy-ness of life to overtake me)? Seth tells me that I'm in the minority about my passionate response to that comment, but I just don't understand. I'm glad to know that some people feel letters are "braggy" or that some people "can't stomach those things," but I pray that those that get my letters don't feel that way. I certainly never intend for them to only be the positives from our year. Last year's letter was full of crappy stuff-job loss, car accidents, etc. One person said they did a Favorite Things from the Past Year thing instead of a letter. That might be something I consider in the future--maybe we each choose something to say (when the boys are older).

In conclusion, please don't take what I've said in response to the data as The Way. It's just My Way (and My Opinions), and I'm glad to have gathered data on Others' Ways. Perhaps you'll take something away from this data or perhaps it'll have just been an interesting read. I, for one, plan on doing something different with the way I keep cards each year. I like the idea of keeping them (to one day have to look back on), but the ziplock baggies are not cutting it. I also liked learning how few people make their cards. As life gets busier and busier around here, I might start buying them. I've always enjoyed the creative process that goes into the making, but the writing of the cards is more important and I feel it's getting sacrificed in my crunch for time alone with my thoughts (naptime and bedtimes). We're also sending more cards now, so the making process simply takes longer, even when I try to make them as simple as possible. That's hard to even write, though, because I've been making my Christmas cards for about 12 or 13 years, so the idea of buying feels akin to giving up. But I think it might be time to move on. Sigh. We'll see...

I would LOVE to hear any and all reactions to the data. Anything I missed? Leave a comment!

Santa and the Spofford Household

***This post was first written December 2010***

First of all, what I'm about to share is personal and important to me. I share it here with the expectation that those reading it will see it as my way of explaining why I stand where I stand on this particular issue. If you don't agree or choose to do something different, that's perfectly fine; this is not to persuade, convince, or judge. Please read the following knowing that I'm not looking for a debate or to be 'countered.'

I don't celebrate Santa in my house. I mean, sure, he's in our decorations: he's in ornament form on the tree, there's a stuffed Santa in the guest bathroom, my son wears holiday attire with Santa on it, etc. We also decorate with snowmen, reindeer, snowflakes, a tree, lights, stockings, a nativity, etc. All the 'typical' things. We will watch movies and shows with Santa in them like Elf, Rudolph, Frosty, etc. We won't, however, be telling our children that the gifts were brought to them by a jolly old man wearing red--that he really exists and flies around all night delivering gifts via chimney all over the world. That's where I draw the line.

And because I recently read a book wherein my thoughts were put into words better than I could do myself, here is an excerpt from the book:

"Thinking About Santa
For several reasons, we have chosen not to include Santa Claus in our Christmas stories and decorations. First, fairy tales are fun, but we don't ask our children to believe in them. Second, celebrating with Santa and manger will postpone a child's clear understanding of what the real truth of God is. It's very difficult for a young child to pick through a marble cake of part truth and part imagination to find the crumbs of reality. We want our children to understand God as fully as they're able, at whatever age they are. So we try to avoid anything that would inhibit or distort that understanding.
Third, think how confusing it must be to literal-thinking, uncritical preschooler. Santa is so much like what we're trying all year to teach our children about God. Look at the attributes of Santa:
He's omniscient-he sees everything you do.
He rewards you if you're good.
He's omnipresent--at least, he can be everywhere in one night.
He gives you good gifts.
He's the most famous "old man in the sky" figure.
But at the deeper level that young children can't comprehend yet, he is not like God at all. For example, does Santa really care if we're bad or good? Think of the most awful kid you can remember. Did he or she ever not get gifts from Santa? What about Santa's spying and then rewarding you if you're good enough? That's not the way God operates. He gave us his gift--his Son--even though we weren't good at all. "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8. He gave his gift to us to make us good, not because we had proved ourselves good enough.
Helping our children understand God as much as they're able at whatever age they are is our primary goal. But we've also seen some other encouraging effects of not including Santa in our celebration.
First, I think children are glad to realize that their parents, who live with them all year and know all the worst things about them, still show their love at Christmas. Isn't it better than a funny, old make-believe man who drops in just once a year?
Second, our children know our family's usual giving patterns for birthdays and special events. They seem to have an instinct about our typical spending levels and abilities. Knowing that their Christmas gifts come from the people they love, rather than from a bottomless sack, can help diminish the "I-want-this, give-me-that" syndrome.
And, finally, when children know that God's generosity is reflected by God's people, it tends to encourage a sense of responsibility about helping make Christmas good for others."

There's more to the topic, the chapter, and the book, obviously, but the above is the piece that struck me the most. Not only are the above points true, but I simply can't imagine lying to my children. I remember learning that Santa wasn't real and thinking "Well, if they've been lying about that, what else are they lying about?" I don't want my kids to have a moment where they question if the things I've been teaching them about the world, about life, and most importantly about God are true. It doesn't sit well with me. Sure we'll read fairy tales, but I won't ever go to great lengths (putting out cookies, writing 'from Santa' on presents, etc) to convince them the characters are real.

A story in the next section of the book talks about a foreign exchange student studying in the US and writing home telling his family of how we celebrate Christmas here--that it's to honor this guy wearing a red suit. He goes to this house that has a large nativity as their main decoration and he's confused about what a baby in a barn has to do with the guy in the red suit and presents, and the family has a chance to share Jesus with him. Talk about making me check my motives! Do I want outsiders to see that I celebrate Christmas as a way to get gifts from a old, fat guy, or do I want to use it as an opportunity to share Christ and his salvation? I choose the later. I mean, we'll exchange gifts, but we'll be doing it as a family, from family. (On Christmas Eve since there's no reason to wait til morning.)

Now, I'm not saying this in a 'Holier than thou" or "My way or the highway" way. I'm sharing why we've chosen to celebrate this holiday the way we have. I'm sharing how the topic affects me; I'm sure it affects each of us differently. I'm sure you can have both Santa and Christ in your Christmas, but as for me and mine? We'll be celebrating Christmas as a way of honoring and remembering God's perfect gift to us, his son, Jesus Christ, without the inclusion of the figure of Santa being promoted as a real person. I do hope, however, to explain that there once was this man named St. Nicholas, that he gave gifts to poor children, and that he's represented today as the jolly figure in red. (I also hope to teach my children the origins of all the other symbols we use this time of year: lights, the tree, presents, etc.)

Please don't leave your time having read this thinking of this as a judgment of others and their celebrating practices. It's simply a long-winded (long-worded?) way of me answering the question "Why aren't you including Santa in your Christmas traditions?"

*Book section taken from "Treasuring God in our Traditions," Noel Piper

postscript December 2011: A friend just shared this blog with me, and I wanted everyone else to get a chance to read it. I'm in love with this blog post.

Christmas Season 2013 -- Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas from our family to yours...

Merry Christmas to our loved ones near and far!                                                                        December 2013

Whew! If we could summarize 2013 in one word, it would be “whew!”

We were able to take three roadtrip vacations this year. Two family ones--one to WI and one to GA. The one to WI in June was a long, 9-day trip involving a stop on the way up and again on the way down. (It’s about 19 hours in the car when you have an 8-month old and a 2.5 year old.) Both boys did great with the time in the car as well as the time spent reconnecting with Sena’s People. We stayed in Eau Claire with Grandma LaPean for most of the time, which was nice because we could spend most every meal with a different friend or family member. Since the WI trip went so well, we decided to venture to Atlanta in late October to see the new baby girl of a dear friend. That was approximately 13 or 14 hours in the car and three days there. It was a nice time hanging out and enjoying old friendships. Also, in early fall, Seth and Sena got away for an Adult Only Vacation to Fredericksburg, TX and the time away from the boys sure makes the heart grow fonder!

In addition to the vacations we took, we tried to do one Family Outing each month. These were things geared toward having fun as a family and included trips to the Perot Science Museum, the Dallas Arboretum (several trips there), The State Fair of Texas, The Cottonwood Art Festival, a local pumpkin patch, a theater experience of The Cat in the Hate, and lots of trips to our community pool. Also, we now sponsor TWO World Vision boys—one that shares each of our boys’ birthdays, so we try to send a letter as well as some art from the boys each month.

Our boys had birthdays in October—Graham is the 15^th and Austin is the 20^th. Austin didn’t have a party, but we had a small party of friends and family for Graham’s 1^st. He LOVED the cake (once he figured it out) and seemed to do well with all the attention. As of this writing, he’s still not walking. He can, he just doesn’t. It’s weird for us because Austin was walking by 11.5 months, and Graham is currently 13.5 months. Austin’s language continues to increase and for that we are very thankful. Both boys are “All Boy.” They love to wrestle, spend time outside, and seem to genuinely enjoy attending the BSF children’s program as well as their “school.” Austin goes to preschool twice a week, 9-2 and Graham goes to the same place in a Children’s Day Out program one day a week 9-2.

In addition to Graham’s party, we continued to host several holiday events this year—Easter, Mother’s Day, and Thanksgiving. We also coordinated (with our next-door neighbors) a potluck event for our street on Memorial Day, which was a blessing. It was a perfect day for front yard fun!

Seth is still employed with Williamson-Dickie as the Director of Distribution Support. This means that he works in their Fort Worth distribution center helping with the company’s cost effectiveness and with customer satisfaction. He just recently got to hire his first person, which has been an exciting change as all of his other direct reports pre-date him. Seth took his dad to a Ranger’s game over the summer and was religious about following the team again this year.

Sena still hosts her monthly book club (it’s been together for 4 years now!), attends a supper club in her neighborhood (one Sunday a month), attends BSF (every Wednesday morning), blogs (anorthernbellesblog.blogspot.com), scrapbooks (though she’s super behind!), recently finished her first 5k (notice we didn’t write “ran her first 5k” ;-), and is now a consultant for Rodan + Fields (senaspofford.myrandf.com). Most of her time is spent as a Stay at Home Mom and she wouldn’t change it for anything. We make a lot of sacrifices for her to be home fulltime, but it’s worth it.

Praying the best for you and yours this holiday season and in the coming new year!

Cute Pic Post -- November 2013

November was AWESOME. We had fun times with family and friends but also had time to just sit around enjoying each other (and some college football and pumpkin candles!). Sadly, Seth's Gran unexpectedly passed away in the middle of the month, so that was some serious sadness, but overall it was a month with a good balance in it. Even considering all the extra things that came with her passing.

Graham loves crawling up into Austin's bed. Time for a new bed arrangement around here?

I took this picture to ask Seth what was awry with the straps (we had taken it apart and washed everything when we got home from Atlanta and hadn't put it back together correctly), but I love his expression and the color of his eyes!

Freshly cleaned, smiley baby!

So big and yet so small.

After eating all his dinner, which included a bunch of strawberries, he decided to give his foot a taste!

I loved looking up and seeing them both playing with this!

Such. A. Squirm!

When you add snot to eyebrows, they can look like Oscar the Grouch eyebrows.

Graham was snuggling Austin's Elmo. Too sweet.

Graham was helping Seth with dishes.

Graham is such a joy to take shopping. Always loves helping me put stuff in the cart.

Seth grew a beard for Movember.

We're still finishing up the last tub of toddler formula, and Austin was so sweetly watching Graham drink his snack bottle.

Happy and Messy

There's a lot of orange-sippy-drinking going on here.

Seth made a pile of leaves for the kids on Thanksgiving and Graham was helping.

And had a blast too!

My three men playing a hymn of thanksgiving on Thanksgiving morning.

Isn't this so sweet!?

Don't tell CPS. They go in there on their own, I promise!

A little Chick-fil-a treat while putting Christmas up.