sparrowpost

So after all the hemming and hawing, we celebrated a pretty classic Christmas. We did some indoctrination: read our 3 yr old The Night Before Christmas, encouraged him to leave out some carrots and cookies for Santa. We did up a stocking for him. And we did the limited gifts for everyone else. In the end I’m glad we did.

Somehow in aiming for no gifts, the gifts that happened were just right… impromptu, gag gifts that made for a funny Christmas morning, and still let people know that you’d thought about what they would like (or what would make them laugh.) Continue Reading »

This year I’ve backtracked from last year’s hard line no-gift policy. I’m not really sure what motivated it, but I’ve basically gone back to making or buying one thing for each member of my nuclear family.

In spite of the fact that the gifts are pretty humble, I’m afraid that I may have broken some of the trust we were able to build up last year by entering back into the arms race. Continue Reading »

Andy Dressed as a Gator, circa 1988

At the beginning of this football season, dismayed by the recent news about long-term brain deterioration as a result of concussions, angry about the ugly lockout and stories about racism at the NFL combine, and frustrated by the graft scandals in the NCAA, I decided to boycott football viewing this year. It was a general sentiment at first, and the details needed to be negotiated along the way, so I settled on not reading online articles about the NFL or NCAA, and not watching any football games unless they were integral parts of social events with friends and family. Continue Reading »

Can’t remember if I saw this somewhere or came up with it myself… a semi-mod way to display all those rad photo cards. This is nice ribbon, pegged to the wall with thumb tacks. You can pin the cards on or use clothespins to attach (in case sticking pins through photos has too much bad ju ju for you!) Continue Reading »

According to some, the tradition of giving gifts at the time of the Winter Solstice has a practical subtext. Because winters were so grueling, sharing one’s wealth across the community in the form of gift-giving and potlach was a way to ensure community survival, and also a way to encourage reciprocal generosity in times of scarcity. In many traditions, gifts are not only given to the human community at this time, but also to the natural world, and specifically to birds. Continue Reading »

The various benefits of real v. vinyl Christmas trees has been discussed on Sparrowpost before… in the years since I first researched the question, evidence seems to have continued to favor “real” cut Christmas trees as the more sustainable option.

Continue Reading »