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In our home, bookends are important–not the kind that hold up books, but the kind that hold our days together. Our daily bookends are the way we start our day and the way we end our day. Lord knows it falls apart in the middle sometimes, but it all seems to work out when we focus on making our start and finish as best as it can be. For mornings, that means as much calm and joy as possible (lights dimmed, candles lit, music playing, etc.) to balance the hustle of getting out the door; and for night time that means connection–bringing the family back together after being apart from each other all day.

This time of year, of course, we weave some holiday joy into our bookends. We only have a short time to enjoy it, so we find as many places in our week to infuse it.

So I asked our ol’ girl Alexa how she could help bring some of our much-loved holiday traditions and routines to our bookends.

In our home, Alexa means our Echo Show, an Echo, an Echo Dot Kids Edition  as well as Amazon smart plugs and smart bulbs. The fun part comes with setting up Routines and Blueprints to make our devices work together in a way that’s personalized to fit our life–and by life, I mean holiday enthusiasm. Technology doesn’t have to compete with family connection–it can support it and make things a little more convenient so you can spend your time doing what you love most.

For our morning bookend, the mood starts with me. I’m always the first one up, and my mood sets the tone for the family’s, so it’s important to me to grab that morning by the reins and begin as positively as possible. I light a candle, start my coffee (I’m a french press girl, so I boil water on the stove old school style) and tell Alexa to “Start my morning routine.” That morning routine can be customized in the Alexa app–news, weather, a motivational podcast, your favorite playlist, a 7-minute workout–whatever works for you.

I keep my morning routine pretty simple this time of year. My Echo Show starts playing my favorite Christmas playlist, and my Christmas tree lights turn on.

“Alexa, more whipped cream.”

As the morning progresses, the kids can play holiday music in their rooms from their Kids’ Edition Echo Dots, but I admit, what they’re often requesting of Alexa sounds more like, “Alexa, Fart!” (she will), or “Alexa, how many more days until Christmas?” (she’ll tell you).

I do love that I can send announcements to their rooms from Alexa–“Time for breakfast kids!” or “Three more minutes–put your shoes on please!”

One of my favorite ways we’ve been utilizing Alexa lately though is in our evening routine. We are always looking for ways to feel more connected to family far away, especially during the holidays. Now, my mom can read my kids chapters of the Christmas book they’re tackling together all the way from New York. The kids sit at the counter with their hot cocoa, and they can see her reading from the screen of our Echo Show.

Now Dash’s favorite is asking Alexa to call Grandma Krissy.

At any given time throughout the day, we can also ask Alexa to play Audible, and she’ll pick up right where the last book that played on Audible left off.

We’re still finding so many little tricks that our Alexa devices can do, but for right now we have our bookends taken care of.

“Alexa, more twinkle lights!”

Let the gift guides commence! My biggest guide every year is the kid stocking guide, and that one takes me HOURS. I take that job very seriously (and have fun doing so), and do a lot of research and scouring to find the most delightful unique treasures kids will love. I try and include 50 items and cover both little kid through teens, so it’s a J.O.B.  It’s still in the works, but I’ll have it to you early next week!

So we’re starting with a fun one–stocking stuffers for moms. This is my dream stocking full of some of my favorites as well as some wish list items.

1. East Fork Pottery Mug
This is THE MUG, the only one you will ever reach for once you get one. It’s a cult favorite East Fork Pottery in Ashville–so beloved that they restock them every Tuesday because they sell out. I want an entire cabinet full of everything East Fork, but if that’s possible, THE MUG is what you want.

2. Clary Balm
This magical concoction of all natural strained oils and infused herbs works on everything — lips, elbows, hands, boo boos, etc. I keep a tin in my backpack and ask Santa to replenish it every year in my stocking.

3. Minted Personalized Stationery Set
Every adult woman deserves grown up personalized stationery. I always feel completely put together, despite my mess, when I write a note in my personalized cards. Minted has so many beautiful sets to choose from!

4. Anthropologie Initial Necklace
I wear my initial necklace almost every day (even shower with it!) and get so many compliment on it. Super simple elegance.

5. Pendleton Hudson Bay Stripe Socks
The perfect winter socks. Very cabin-in-the-snowy-woods vibe.

6. Click! Magazine Subscription
I suggest this magazine to any and all moms looking to up their photography game. It’s full of the most beautiful inspiration, and every time it arrives in my mailbox, I save it for when I can savor it because IT IS TO BE SAVORED. Just renewed my subscription while writing this!

7. Anthropologie Bow Headband
Headbands are having a moment in fashion right now, and I’m on board. This is my favorite headband I bought this year (so fun!), and it comes in four colors!

8. Basalt Lip Balm
Luxurious lip balm with on point packaging.

9. Pentel Energel Style Gel Pen
My mom and dad were both good pen fanatics growing up. My mom always had the most beautiful Parker pens (like purchased from a showcase!), and my dad never failed to pull out a good pen from his jacket pocket when we asked for one. I’m picky about my pens–I want them to roll like butter. This one is a favorite–glides beautifully across a page AND it’s pretty!

10. Yes You Can! Oxford Pennant
Can you promote your own pennant in your stocking stuffer guide? Yes you can! Actually any of Oxford Pennants are perfect for a stocking, and there are so many to choose from! Follow their Instagram to see them displayed in the hippest ways.

11. Capri Blue Mini Candle
The ultimate stocking stuffer/hostess gift/teacher gift. One of my favorite candles shrunk down to fit in a stocking.

12. Noonday Collection Mumbai Hoops
From one of my favorite women-supporting-women companies, these Mumbai hoops are so versatile! You can build them to e as extra as you wish (that pom pom!)–or keep them simple with just that little gold coin. So many different looks with one pair of earrings.

13. Colourpop Palette
I love Colourpop eye shadows from Ulta. Their palettes are beautiful and much less expensive than some of the leading makeup brands known for their palettes.

14. Glossier Lidstar and Cheek Paint
These two Glossier favorites are always in my makeup case. They have some really pretty subtle colors that are great for tweens starting to play with makeup. I heard Santa may be dropping some of these in Lainey’s stocking.

15. Zara Rhinestone Hair Clips
Super glam. Growing out your bangs isn’t quite so miserable when you have these to clip them back with.

16. Le Labo Santal 33
My absolute favorite. The sexiest most intoxicating scent. I use it sparingly and put it in my own stocking every year because I can.

17. Wood Chris Farley Magnet
Chris Farley’s face on a wood magnet? Yes, please. So many fun pop culture magnets (Dolly! Bill Murray! Bea Arthur!) from the cutest shop, Frog and Toad Press.

18. Williams Sonoma Mulling Spices
The BEST mulling spices–tastes homemade with bits of dried citrus and the best blend of wintery spices. Add to hot cider and sit around and watch movies all through break.

 

I like my levels method for holiday decorating–slowly filling vignettes of our home with festive delight little by little until it’s done–but Mama Hedgehog? She just goes for it. She’s like BAM! Level 10 in one day because Sister does not mess around with levels when she has 52 hedgehog mouths to feed.

I’ll admit I may have started this dollhouse hobby this year simply so I could decorate it for Christmas. Oh wait. I forgot. This dollhouse is for Nella. Yes, let’s go with that. All of this was a giant sacrifice of time and labor just for her.

When it came time to start thinking about how the dollhouse would transform into a festive explosion of glorious hedgehog holiday spirit, I was on it–googling 1:12 scale wreaths and mantel garland. The thing is, this dollhouse hobby has kind of become a thing this year for many creative people (hence why I’m following way too many miniature accounts), and there’s a major market for dollhouse furniture and decor now–and it ain’t cheap, especially considering these are tiny objects no one is actually going to use. So I had to get creative. Find the inexpensive stuff. Improvise. Which I did, and it turned out just as festive as I had hoped.

I can’t help but laugh at the process of my tragic fall into the dollhouse abyss this year though. From the outside, it’s quite comical, evident by my attempt to photograph the dollhouse a couple weeks ago once it was decorated.

“Can you help me carry this dollhouse outside?” I asked Brett. “I’m doing a photo shoot of the rooms, and I need some natural light.”

He doesn’t even flinch anymore. I think he was desensitized after the three weeks I sat at the dining room table sawing tiny crown molding to size with a serrated kitchen knife and asking him to come look to see if the kitchen wallpaper was “too busy” for the imaginary people who lived in it.

So Brett and I hauled the dollhouse outside, super careful to keep our ends level so that the objects inside didn’t start falling. The tiny red alarm clock the size of a tic tac fell off the dresser, and Brett noted, “Oops, alarm clock fell!” as if what was happening was completely normal.

Once the dollhouse was set up in the driveway with good light, I hunched over it, rearranging furniture and making things perfect while neighbors walked their dogs beside me so it looked like a grownass woman was ignoring her children inside while she played with a dollhouse in the driveway. Because a grownass woman was ignoring her children inside while she played with a dollhouse in the driveway. I started shooting the rooms which requires some very interesting body positions to get the right shot. I was curled into a pretzel with my head half inside the dollhouse living room. I was lying on my stomach with my camera shoved into the kitchen. Our neighbor across the street actually walked up our driveway during this, looked down at what was happening and said, “Whatcha doin?” When I nonchalantly answered back, “Doing a photo shoot of my dollhouse” as if it was an ordinary household task, HE DIDN’T EVEN FLINCH.

“Cool, where’s Brett?” he asked. Have they all been desensitized? Is it just now an accepted fact in our neighborhood that I am the weirdo? Maybe it was last time he walked up my driveway and asked what I was doing and I answered, “Oh nothing, just trying to blend the right shade of yellow for Big Bird in this chalk drawing of the Sesame Street characters I’ve been working on for the past 40 minutes while my kids tear my house apart inside.”

That said, this little project has been so much fun, and decorating the house for Christmas was the icing on the cake.

Please note: My favorite Christmas movie, The Family Stone, is playing on the Hedgehog T.V.

Please also note appropriate holiday literature:

…and the fact that I cut the head off a deer ornament to make this:

Cookies fresh out of the oven.

…and teeny tiny glass ornaments.

That’s about the extent of dollhouse-specific items I bought. The rest was crafted from “evergreen” pipe cleaners…

A bag of miniature wreaths and bottle brush trees…

…some glitter-dusted windows made from Shrinky Dink sheets:

…and lots of images shrunk and printed.

And the bathroom is the perfect glowy retreat for Mrs. Hedgehog in the evening after a day of wrapping and baking.

 

While editing pictures, I was like “Dammit, I should have propped that toss pillow up before I took the photo. Shoot, there’s fuzz on the floor I didn’t catch.” I got caught in the Instagram perfection trap over A MINIATURE HOUSE THAT NO ONE LIVES IN.

But most important…LOOK! The 2019 Holiday Bucket List ready to go in the Hedgehog home! Three checks already!

Get your 2019 holiday bucket list and so much more holiday goodness (52 pages of holiday activities and crafts, recipes and printables, traditions and more in the Once Upon a Holiday PDF! All the details here!

And now it’s time for me to catch up to Mrs. Hedgehog.

If you’re interested in falling down the dollhouse rabbit hole in 2020 and want to pass it off as “for the kids” this holiday, this is the dollhouse we purchased (and it’s priced on Amazon for $30 less than what I paid!)