This post is sponsored by Pinhole Press who loves books, photos and miniature things as much as we do. 

While I’ve managed to control the hoarding tendencies in my life for the most part, my kids’ library collections have swelled beyond containment–books saved since the days of closing my classroom and joined by many others over the years–classics and Caldecotts, chapter books and board books. Since we don’t have a room solely dedicated to housing books (wouldn’t that be amazing though?), I’ve started to whittle our collection down to favorites, passing books we don’t read as much on to friends and preschools and houses that need books. But the one collection I’m hanging on to–cherishing its last term of service before my kids have officially moved on–is the board book collection. I love miniature things to begin with, but add those thick pages and the chubby little fingers that turn them and you have yourself a childhood rite of passage.  Goodnight Moon and Guess How Much I Love You and Five Little Monkeys.

If the books in our home follow the story line of Toy Story, then our board books are happy right now–thrilled to be the chosen source of entertainment, validated by Dash’s love for them.

The favorite though–the leader of the board books, the Sheriff Woody of the bunch? His “Dashy book”–the Mini Book of Names and Faces from Pinhole Press.

Like our other favorite board books, his Dash book has thick, kid-friendly pages that are easy to turn, but the best part is what’s in it–his people.

Photos of his sisters and brothers and grandmas and grandpas and friends–people he loves, family he doesn’t get to see a lot and names and letters he’s beginning to recognize.

The book is durable, colorful, and I love that it’s spiral bound, making page-flipping an easy task.

Pinhole Press is one of our favorite places to shop for photo gifts (I just made a wall calendar for next year, and it’s gorgeous!). I have high standards when it comes to picture quality in printed products–colors and sharpness and page thickness, and Pinhole Press Mini Books delivered. I love our little Dashy book, and it’s quickly become a family favorite. Nella even ran and got it to show her babysitter as soon as she arrived the other day.

And when we’ve grown out of board books and it comes time to pass our collection on to younger friends? This baby isn’t going anywhere. Our own timeless little classic.

And now that I officially said Christmas on the blog–pause for all the dancing lady emoticons–how about this little book hanging out of the stocking? Baby stockings are hard to fill–I mean how many rattles and biter biscuits can you put in there? But this? This mini book was made for baby and toddler stockings. And the best part? Order your Mini Book by November 20, 2015 and use code Kelle, and you’ll get $5 off. How ’bout them apples? Rather, roasted chestnuts.

Don’t forget to include your pets! (Dash’s favorite page)

Alright, it’s time. I’m not shoving tinsel down anyone’s throat and I promise I won’t take the joy of Thanksgiving away from anyone. If you haven’t noticed, Target is way ahead of me with full Christmas aisles, and our neighborhood just put their holiday decorations up on our entrance. But me? I’m going to balance this just fine. We’ll start slow, maybe get to second base in a couple of weeks, but I’m not going all the way with Christmas until we’re all good and ready. And if I’m going to sleep with Christmas, I’ll at least make sure he’s wearing–oh stop, I wasn’t going there–the perfect pajamas. So can we start there? Pre-game is important. Pajamas sell out quick.

Christmas jammies literally make my heart flutter. They hold all the little stories, and I can see them the minute the jammies arrive on our doorstep–the reindeer food we’ll sprinkle in the driveway in them, the candlelight carol fest we’ll sing in them, the sleeping kid line-up picture I’ll capture in them, the cinnamon roll breakfast we’ll eat in them.

The Ghosts of Christmas Jammies Past:

2010 (I LOVED these)

2011

2012 (our gown year–nightgowns are so special)

2013

and 2014

We wear Christmas jammies for our annual Thanksgiving breakfast and our North Pole Party and the best of all, Christmas Eve.

And whether you like snug cuddly long johns or Laura Ingalls-esque gowns, there are options galore when it comes to Christmas jammies.

I took the liberty–because it’s something I enjoy–to gather some of the best Christmas jammies out there. Flannels, long johns, sleepers, gowns, two-piece, one-piece, snug and flowy–but all festive and cozy. I’m obsessed with the matching thing on Christmas Eve and choose our jammies based on what sizes are available and gender options, so I included available sizes on these.

 

1. Hatley Beary Christmas Union Suit
2. Lanz Tyrolian Nightgowns from Vermont Country Store
3. Snug Santa long johns from Carter’s
4. Flannel Gown from Land’s End
5. Candy Cane Sleeper from Leveret
6. Red Union Suit from Hatley
7. Nutcracker Clara’s White Nightgown from The Wooden Soldier
8. Classic Christmas Stripe Long Johns from Hanna Andersson
9. Hot Cocoa Jammies from Chasing Fireflies
10. Christmas Bear 2-piece Jammies from Gap
11. Snowman Long Johns from Chasing Fireflies
12. Sleepytime Plaid Family Pajamas, Amazon
13. Classic Christmas Flannels, Pottery Barn Kids
14. Reindeer Long Johns, Garnet Hill
15. Fairisle Cozy Jammies, Target

Sleep Tight!

I visited the idyllic setting of the Pacific Northwest for the first time last year when I contributed to a writing retreat in the San Juan Islands. I felt like we were gathered on the page of a coffee table book, and I was quickly enchanted not only with the environment—I mean, those trees! That fog! Those coffee shops!—but with the entire creative experience in which I was submerged: artists, music, writing, mountains, poetry, yoga studios, quirky little shops that sold way cooler stuff than anything I’d ever seen in my town. The air felt thick with creative inspiration.

I bought hammered metal earrings, found crystals for my kids, tasted my first whiskey, watched for whales, experimented with poetry and took pictures of a landscape I dreamed of waking up to every morning. And somewhere between planting that first Hunter boot off the plane in Seattle and boarding it again to return home, I convinced myself that these were two completely different worlds. That the feeling I got from a weekend writing retreat on a storybook island far away was a creative experience I could temporarily taste but had to return—like leaving the slopes and turning in my rented skis—when I was finished and headed back to the reality of buttering toast in the kitchen of my subdivision home where my writing view consists of a basketball hoop in a driveway and a wilted gardenia bush that hardly ever blooms.

Once home, I reconsidered everything. For a second, I thought I belonged somewhere else, was meant to BE someone else. I told myself that I’d be far more creative, feel more alive, dive deeper into that wild and precious life I was supposed to be living up to if I just…had a different life.

Like if I made pottery in Arizona. Or lived in a beach hut in Brazil. Homeschooled my kids while we trekked across the country in an Airstream. Lived in the mountains. Quit shaving my legs. Traveled more. Had more alone time. Didn’t have kids. Had a different husband. Took a different career route.

See where I was going? Down the rabbit hole of creative disillusionment, the repelling force to acceptance and gratitude, the true sources of creative satisfaction. And like alcohol and drugs and pornography, seeking creative surges and wild-and-precious-life highs and equating them with a life outside the one we already have is a slippery slope. Because one day that potter in Arizona is going to wake up uninspired and that mom in the Airstream parked in the mountains is going to feel bored and tired and lonely. That’s life.

This past weekend, I hosted another writing retreat with my friend Claire, in Ojai, California. And yeah, for a tiny second, I felt it again—outside the Deer Lodge, three days removed from the chaotic ordinariness of my reality, four quiet writing sessions behind us, artsy hippies crossing our path, toting their yoga mats. “If I had this life, I could…”

But I know better. Creative satisfaction, contentment—it comes from in, in, in not out, out, out. And all these people? Writing poetry in the San Juan Islands, scurrying to auditions in the streets of New York City, sipping whiskey from the bar stools at the Deer Lodge in Ojai, sweeping driveways in subdivisions in Southwest Florida—we’re the same, same, same. Love, heartbreak, insecurities, wants, fears, connection, hopes. Our sources of inspiration are our stories.

This weekend we wrote and shared, dreamed and challenged. A speech writer, a magazine editor, a stay-at-home mom, a business owner, a single woman, a married woman, one with difficult childhood memories, one with dreamy childhood memories, a city dweller, a country dweller, high-profile, low-profile, introvert, extrovert, writes a lot, writes a little—but all the same. Searching for more ways to find fulfillment, acceptance and creative inspiration not in a different life, but in the wild and precious ones we already have.

I buttered toast again this morning. French-braided hair, flipped through new catalogues, entered a few school events in my phone calendar. It’s raining now and from my office window, I can see puddles swelling around the basketball hoop in our driveway. And I feel fully creative, inspired and grateful for this simple life that is mine. But I still want to make pottery.