Well, I am back from my holiday break today.  I am still getting over the Illness of Doom 2008/2009, but I am ready to be back at work….it’s a hell of a lot better than being sick and on vacation!

So, today I want to share with you some of my Christmas loot from Mr. Indie Fixx, share my holiday decorations (better late than never) & my resolutions for the upcoming year.

I opened some very nice indie goodies on Christmas morning from Mr. Indie Fixx. He used both Indie Fixx and the Indie Fixx Galleria to shop…what a good boy he is. This is what I got—a necklace from Lemon Grove, a print from Creative Thursday, prints and other goodies from Paper Sparrow & a notebook and wallpaper swatches from Freshly Blended. He also gave me another necklace from unnamed shop, which I had asked for, but neither of us were very happy with the quality, so I am sending it back.

I gave him the book Core Memory : A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers • Featuring Machines from the Computer History Museum, published by Chronicle Books.  It’s pretty much what the title states, a coffee table picture book of old computers. He really liked it, especially when he came across one of his first computers…the Commodore VIC-20.  I also gave him a floppy disk pencil cup from GeekGear, a subscription to Make: magazine and a plush ‘I love you’ robot from Littlebrownbyrd Creations.

In addition to buying Mr. Indie Fixx and all my other peeps presents, I had a lot of fun decorating the house this year for the holidays. I made snowflakes for all the windows. I just love making snowflakes, but I don’t really stick to traditional snowflake shapes. I much prefer to make more ‘abstract’ snowflakes.

I also made this garland from a template from Hello Handmade Paperie.  Sorry the picture is a little bit blurry, but it spells out Happy New Year. I really was looking forward to a happy start to this new year. We had plans to get together with friends for New Year’s Eve and plans to go to Washington DC and the Philly Zoo over the break, but then I got sick and all that went out the window. I’m sure hoping 2009, the year,  is better than it’s start.

So, that leads me to my New Year’s resolutions. I usually don’t ‘do’ resolutions, I sort of think it’s a contrived convention. This year, it made sense to me though. I had some time off and plenty of time in bed with nothing better to do than to make lists, plus I’ve been thinking about my goals and where I want to go both with Indie Fixx and the non-Indie Fixx part of life. Anyway, here’s what I came up with for resolutions for this year.

My resolutions

1. Spend more time with my family - I’ve become a workaholic over the past 3 years and the one area of my life that I feel has suffered the most are my family relationships.
2. Spend more time with myself - I need to read more, craft more, exercise more, try new things, follow through on some of those ideas I have, learn new stuff, etc. The things I enjoy doing and the things I should be doing to better myself and take care of myself too often fall by the wayside.
3. Cook more - I’ve recently gotten back into cooking. I used to do a lot more cooking, but fell into that all too convenient trap of pre-cooked convenience foods.  I love cooking, but I started dreading the time it took, I know many of you know what I mean, but I honestly get so much joy from creating good food and feeding hungry people.
4. Eat better &  exercise more - So cliche, I know, but oh so necessary.
5. Get outside my comfort zone more often.
6. Create more - Whether it’s with food, crafting, writing or whatever. I want to create for the sake of reawakening the spirit, not for any other reason.
7. Read more - I used to read at least 2-5 books a week & now I’m lucky if I get through 1 a month.
8. Make new friends and rekindle old friendships.
9. Clean my house and reduce the amount of shit I own.
10. Stop allowing myself to worry so much about what others think about me, my looks, my life, my choices.

That’s it for now. Later this week, I will be sharing some additions and changes that will occur here at Indie Fixx.  Love ya!

Another Christmas Eve An Indie Holiday Story for you from Heidi  of My Paper Crane. Heidi shares her super cute tree and what makes Christmas special for her.

1. Your favorite holiday tradition.

Every year we decorate a gingerbread house and while it is messy + we never eat it, I love doing it.

2.  A favorite cookie recipe?

Magic Cookie Bars

1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped nuts

•  Heat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees for glass dish). Coat 13×9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray.
• Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Press into bottom of prepared pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with chocolate chips, coconut and nuts. Press down firmly with a fork.
• Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Cut into bars or diamonds. Store covered at room temperature.

3. Share a story behind a special ornament on your tree.

On the top of our tree instead of a star we have a Queen Of Hearts tree topper. My husband and I are big fans of Alice In Wonderland and so when we got our first tree together it seemed only natural that something related to Alice would reside on top.

4. All you want from Santa is….?

For everyone to love their gifts from me!! I didn’t really have any major gift wants this year but I love love love coming up with gift ideas for other people, so I really hope everyone enjoys them.

5. Your favorite Christmas movie and why?

Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas because it always makes me tear up, good nostalgic memories…and Jim Henson!

6. Are you dong anything special for the holidays this year?

My parent’s and youngest sister have all moved out of state within the last year. We used to do a big Christmas Eve at my mom’s house each year (this is the first year that my side of the family is not all together) Since this year it just leaves my older sister her family and mine for Christmas Eve we have a big night planned for my house, an all day event. We plan to try and make up for the missing family by celebrating all day long.

7. What’s the best toy you ever got when you were a kid.

I can’t even remember…maybe some fisher price little people? I always liked art kits too do those count? Nothing impressed me more then a new box of crayons!

8. Why is Christmas special to you?

I love the time we spend on our friends and family. I love baking for everyone, and trying to plan out the gifts. I love that we have all these mini celebrations with different sides of families, our own family, and then friends. Oh and I love all the crazy decorating and lights, just LOVE it!!

I just love the artwork of Marisa Haedike of Creative Thursday fame.  In fact, I have a few dozen of her prints on my Christmas list and I sure hope Mr. Indie Fixx was paying attention…

Anyway, Marisa found this clever idea for making tree ornaments from Starbucks cup sleeves on the Internet and decided to add some of her tiny prints  to make the cutest ornaments ever!  She was selling them in her Etsy shop, but they are all sold out now. You can read about their creation on her blog though.

You can also read about Marissa’s most treasured ornament for her An Indie Holiday Story submission.

Every year I open a little brown box that holds an ornament I made in the 3rd grade.  And every year I’m still so excited when I open that box and every year I love it a little more. Considering what it is made of I can hardly believe it has held up as long as it has, and hasn’t gotten crushed in all of the many, many moves I’ve made since the third grade.  It is made of a white Styrofoam egg carton. We basically cut all the egg “cups” out of the carton and then cut thin upside down triangle shapes all around the edge of each cup, to make it look like the edges of a star. Then all the cups are attached to a white Styrofoam ball with a long pearl tipped pin that also holds a couple of blue and white beads and a blue metallic snowflake. The pin presses through the center of the egg cup and holds all of the baubles in place. When it is finished it resembles a big white snowflake with touches of silver and blue. I’m still so impressed by the ingenuity my teacher had in coming up with this idea for such a pretty ornament, that I have to say is also a timeless design ! And as the story goes with ornaments, when I unpack it every year, I’m reminded of my childhood, the dreams I had and the dreams I have, and I think about how my life has turned out and what my child self would think about my life now. And I think she’d be very happy.

Margaret from Resurrection Fern (and on Etsy) shares her pretty & pretty clever frozen icicle doily snowflakes.  You can read about how to make them here, but this one is really only for people who live where the temps are at freezing or below.  It’s gotten cold enough here lately, but too bad it’s going back up to be in the 40s & 50s for Christmas day.

Margaret also shares her An Indie Holiday Story  with you.

Christmas is very handmade in my home. I think one of my very favorite holiday traditions is the dolls’ Christmas that we celebrate on Christmas Eve. I borrowed this from Tasha Tudor. On Christmas Eve we decorate a tiny tree and each of the children are allowed to invite one of their dolls or special stuffed animals to join in the celebration. They each receive tiny handmade stockings with doll sized treats and one or two small gifts under the tree. Usually, they are a new handmade outfit or knitted hats. The dolls and children then have a tea party with tiny party sandwiches , cookies and cupcakes.  My three daughters would almost always invite the dolls that I made for each of them but my son would bring a different stuffed animal to the party every year, from puppies to dinosaurs.

More An Indie Holiday Story goodness for you from Vicki of Three Wheels Turning. I love Vicki’s adorable advent calendar and her kids are pretty cute too!

Vicki shares her Christmas story:

1.  What’s your favorite cookie recipe?

While this is not a Christmas-specific recipe, these are the best chocolate chip cookies you will ever have. And so it seems only right to share them with Santa:

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks margarine (-2T)
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 medium eggs

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Slightly soften margarine in a large bowl (do not melt).
Use a spoon to mix in order: brown sugar, sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, salt, flour, chips.
Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet by heaping tablespoon.
Bake 12-14 minutes or until golden.

2. Share a favorite holiday tradition.

My favorite tradition:
In our house on Christmas Eve, after we’ve baked the cookies and set them out for Santa with a glass of milk, we write Santa a note thanking him and wishing him a safe journey. We also go out on the front steps and leave reindeer food (a delicious mix of glitter and dried instant oatmeal) for Santa’s hungry team.

3. What’s best toy you ever got when you were a kid?

The best toy from my childhood: It was Christmas 1982 when I got my Barbie camper. I was eight years old and getting that giant, yellow motor home felt like a true Christmas miracle.

Laura from Xoelle shares her pretty thrifted and handmade holiday decorations for An Indie Holiday Stories. Laura also shares her favorite Christmas movies.

My favorite Christmas movie is a VHS, recorded from the TV in the early 80’s when I was a kid.  It contains “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, and a few others with the original planter’s cheese balls, york peppermint patties, and almost home cookie commercials.  I save it to watch for the week before Christmas and it always takes me back to what it was like being a kid, waiting in my new pajamas for Santa to arrive.