It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I can hardly believe that Christmas is only four days away!  My daughter has started her first Christmas Break from school and we're having a relaxing day here at home.  My gifts are all bought, although not wrapped yet.  But I've got to get a move on that since we'll be opening them on Wednesday.  Why Wednesday? you ask.  It's a family tradition I grew up with.  My mom and dad are both from the Netherlands.  The Dutch celebrate Christmas, the gift-giving part of it, on December 5.  It's called Pakjies Dag, or Presents Day.  My dad immigrated to Canada when he was just 12 and his family adopted the Canadian tradition of opening gifts on Christmas morning.  My mom didn't come to Canada until she was in her 20s.  When they got married, they compromised.  They still wanted to keep Christmas Day about the real reason for celebrating, our Saviour's birth, so we always opened our gifts on the Saturday before Christmas.  My friends were actually jealous of me; I got my toys earlier than they did!
Fast forward to my first Christmas with my new husband.  Chris grew up with the traditional Christmas Day of opening gifts.  He liked the idea of keeping Christmas Day as a celebration of Jesus' birth.  We don't have a particular day; we just pick one that works for us and our schedules, making sure the kids have lots of time to enjoy their gifts.  The last couple of years we opened them on Boxing Day.  We don't do Christmas Eve because that is when our church celebrates with a special service.  So this year we decided on Wednesday, after nap and after Daddy gets home from work.  I guess we're just a little different.
My mom still likes to keep Christmas Day for Christ, but with my brother and I married and trying to arrange time, sometimes the only day we can get together with my family is on Christmas Day.  But Mom is trying to get us to the December 5th way of doing things.  I can pretty much guarantee we'll be doing things the dutch way next year.  I like it.  I love that I am dutch.  I'm proud of my heritage and would love to introduce my kids to Sinterklaas and Swarte Pete and the whole story of a wonderful, kind, giving man who put oranges and little gifts into the wooden shoes belonging to children all over Holland.  In fact, there's even some people in my home town who set it all up with people dressing as these characters and giving out little bags of peppernoten, ti-ties, little lolly-pops coated in sugar and yummy chocolate.  And of course, I'll be getting chocolate letters again this year.
So, to celebrate the Christmas season, here's the little bag I made for Arianna's teacher's gift card.

I used a sheet of Jingle Creative Basics, some Juniper ribbon that came with it, a gold eyelet, and the Thank You stamp set.  It was incredibly easy to make, which was what I needed since I made it the night before.  Nothing like the last minute!

Stay tuned to this blog on January 1st for another Stamp-of-the-Month blog hop and sneak peeks at brand new product from the Spring 2010 Idea Book!

Have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Happy Creating!