in the past year, we’ve been asking ourselves about each and every holiday and celebration: “what would truly excite us about this day? what do we want do together? what would be fun to do now and as our family grows? how can we make this day a special celebration? what traditions do we want to have as a family?” and while, yeah, it was because we now had a child and I wanted our lives peppered with joyful traditions and intentional celebrations, there’s also another added bonus: simplification.

Years ago, Brett and I did the typical exchanging of Christmas gifts for a bit. Gut then we realized, we were - I’ll admit it - getting bored with the monotony of it all.

“What do you want for Christmas?” “I don’t know, what do you want?”

I started seeing the tradition of the Christmas Eve Box for kids and that got me thinking: could we do something similar to that? Then I loved the something they want/need/wear/read gift rule and I was like, “Could we do something like that, but make it our own version?” Soon after I was infatuated with all the “Year of Dates” gift ideas and I was like HOLD THE PHONE CAN THIS BE INCORPORATED TOO.