Christmas 2025 Re-cap

We had a wonderful Christmas here in Virginia! We were celebrating with the families of the three boys who live nearby (as well as some in-laws of theirs) in the days leading up to December 25, and then sons #3 and #4 and their families joined us for a party on Christmas afternoon, after Santa's gifts had been opened at their own homes and everyone had been to Mass.  I got to use my new professional-style stainless steel chafing dishes to serve up roasted pork, hash brown casserole, green bean casserole, and Buffalo chicken dip.  We had lots of other snacks and desserts to enjoy as well, and the kids opened Christmas crackers (which was always part of our Christmas Eve tradition when our boys were growing up).  Corny jokes were told, paper crowns were worn, really cheap prizes were fought over and broken, and all was right with the world!  I was living in the moment, mostly, so I didn't get many pictures on the Lord's birthday.  It was a peaceful and relaxing day. (Son #4's gang even came in their flannel Christmas jammies!  It doesn't get more relaxing than that.)

The day after Christmas, our oldest son packed up his 15-seater van, and he and his wife and seven kids started a two-day road trip from WI to VA.  They arrived the night of December 27. Then on the 28th, we got everyone together for yet another family party at our house, this time with four of the five boys and their families: 10 adults and 21 children altogether. (We were missing our youngest son and his crew, who were out in MI with his wife's family for Christmas this year.

I can't even put into words how much it warms my heart to see my menfolk hanging out together, talking, laughing (a lot), and solving the world's problems.

In order to respect the wishes of our oldest son about not posting images of his children on the Internet via this blog, I'll just share this one redacted photo we managed to get of all the kiddos who were there. Look at this crew!  And two were missing!  How abundantly blessed are we?!?!  Talk about a stairway to Heaven.

It was so wonderful having this WI family with us for just over a week.  Each of the brothers who live here in VA wanted to host them at their homes while they were here, so there were lots of little get-togethers throughout the week--on New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and other days. It was a full and busy visit for them (and there was a little head cold/fever kind of a bug running through their family that put a bit of a wrench in the machinery here and there, but fortunately didn't ruin their week entirely). They left to make the 1,000-mile trek back home yesterday morning, and I miss them so much already.  

But of course...this quote from my favorite philosopher, Pooh Bear, is absolutely on the money.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, dear readers!  And that you will be blessed with peace, happiness, and good health in 2026.

Blog Keepsake Books, and a Holiday Photo Dump

For years, I've been wanting to have keepsake blog books made.  In my early blogging days, I was printing off all my posts and putting them in plastic pages in big binders; but two years in, that became way too hard to keep up with, and if I'd continued with that, by now I'd have an entire bookshelf filled with binders!  But the idea of hard copies has always appealed to me, especially in recent years.  For one thing, that would keep my blog--all those archived posts filled with memories!--safe from disappearing.  (I always imagine the Internet just shutting my site down, and never being able to figure out what happened to it.  That would probably never happen, but I have an active imagination!)  The other reason I love the idea of having actual books to look at is that ever since I got my first digital camera more than 15 years ago, I stopped making old-school photo albums.  I miss photo albums!  And I thought blog books could become our family scrapbooks/photo albums.

 

Well, I finally did I it! After receiving a modest, unexpected inheritance from my mom’s estate (not a lot, mind you; but enough to make me feel like I could splurge just a little), I recently had hardcover blog books printed up, with my favorite posts from each year since I started String of Pearls in 2011.  I used a site called PixxiBook, and I have been so pleased with the books I've received so far, eleven volumes altogether: Best of 2011, 2012, 2013 (which had to be split into two volumes, so prolific was I that year!), 2014, 2015, 2016-2017, 2018, 2019, 2020-2021, and 2022-2023.  I already have most of the next volume, Best of 2024-2025, ready to go, as soon as we get through the Christmas season and I can add the last few posts of the year to it.

I think the common way to use this site is to plug in your blog address, and then PixxiBook turns the entirety of your blog archives into one book--but only if it would be less than 300 pages long. If there are a lot of posts (for me, that was 1,600+ over the course of my blogging life), they divide them into a set of numbered volumes that are no more than 300 pages each, deciding on where to separate them without your input.  The layouts for the pages are also automated, which takes away all the design guesswork for the blogger.  When you're getting your books ready for print, you can remove any posts that you don't want included, and I definitely had to do that or I would have had so many books and this project would have been ridiculously expensive!  And I definitely wanted my volumes to be divided specifically by year; so I worked the system and figured out how to make my blog posts fit into books separated that way.

And I must say, these books really are so beautiful!  They are big, 8-and-1/2 x 11" (that is the only size offered), and I had no control over the sizes or placement of the pictures that accompanied each post. Some of the decisions they made about which pictures would fill up whole pages and which would be kept rather tiny are not decisions I would have made; but as the site explains, the automation takes all the burden of designing each page off the blogger, and I have to say that the end products are just lovely.   (By the way, I'm not being paid to promote this company or anything.  I just thought other bloggers might be interested in checking it out.)

A collage cover is automatically created for you.

The pages are thick--I think the quality is top-notch.

The color photos look amazing.

Okay, then, enough about that and on to the topic of holiday happenings in the Pearl family this joyous Advent season.  I am basically going to do a lead-up-to-Chrismas photo dump today, so that these pics will get into my latest PixxiBook volume.

Included are some pictures from a sweet girls'-day-out a few weeks ago, for "A Christmas Carol Tea" at a local tea house, with my daughter-in-law Braveheart and her two girls.

And then there's a photo my daughter-in-law Ginger, wife of son #2,  texted me recently of her hubby and their five boys in front of the tree...which gives me a distinct feeling of deja-vu, not only because we had five boys as well; but also because the littlest guy is wearing one of the red corduroy rompers I made for his dad and his dad's older brother to wear at Christmas back in 1985, along with its matching 40-year-old store-bought plaid shirt.  (Ginger loves to dress her boys in the few vintage hand-me-downs I was able to pass on to her.)

About a week ago, we got to watch some Christmas shows at the Catholic school about an hour south of us where eight of our grandchildren are students (one in 5th grade; one in 4th; three in 2nd--including the triplets and their cousin; and two in kindergarten--a pair of little girl cousins who are BFF's).  We got a picture with son #3, his in-laws, and his two youngest on the night his oldest two kids had their show.

Papa and Grammy sporting their Ugly Christmas Sweaters!

We also got a picture with his two oldest after their Christmas show--with both of their sets of grandparents!  #blessed

In the group shot of the Pearl gang, taken after the younger ones had their night to shine on the gymnasium stage, only the little guy on the far left is not yet a student at the Catholic school his siblings and cousins attend.  But it won't be long before he joins them.

Last night, son #3 and his wife hosted their second annual family Christmas party, a munchies-and-desserts affair that is so much fun for kids and adults alike.  We brought our gifts to the families of son #3 and son #4 (who live very close to one another), because even though the plan is for them all to come over after Christmas morning Mass tomorrow, for a little luncheon party, I wanted to make sure they had them. You know, in case (I hate to even say it!) anyone gets sick and we don't all end up getting together.  The kids were begging to be able to open their gifts from Papa and Grammy early, and we decided to let them. So they all got their personalized Rosaries.  And the girls got their capes made with velvet fabric from my late mother-in-law's attic (which I blogged about earlier in the month, in this post).  It was so adorable the way the girls reacted to those capes!  They loved them and all wanted to wear them right away.  I was touched by their reaction, I tell you.  And did they ever look adorable in them!  (I made eight more of these capes, one for each of my 13 granddaughters.  Someday maybe I can get a picture of them all wearing them together!)

I later found out that the two girls on the left put their capes back on, over their jammies, after 
showering last night; and the cutie pie second from the right brought her cape to bed with her.

The granddaughters were darn cute, indeed.  But my husband and two sons were pretty cute as well.  One of our boys and his dad even ended up wearing matching t-shirts, with no pre-planning.  Great minds.

We had lots of laughs, which is par for the course at Pearl get-togethers.  I was particularly tickled by a hilarious (and never-ending) exchange these two brothers had going on the family text stream, with the three brothers who weren't there at the party.  Son #3 started it when he posted this:

This is one of their favorite conversations to have: the debate over which one is Mom's favorite child.  (Which is why they all got ornaments like this from me in 2009.)  They all claim to hold the title. (Actually, they all do!  I always tell them it's a 5-way tie!)  But the texts and memes were flying back and forth for quite a while, and I couldn't stop laughing. At one point son #4 said, "It's cute watching you guys compete for second place. Sad, but cute." And son #2, who always insists he's my favorite, said, "When you know, you know."  I have the funniest boys.  They have given their father and me a lifetime of happiness, and I can't even imagine life without any one of them.  And I do love this humorous debate they like to have, because I know if they actually believed I had a favorite, it wouldn't be the source of amusement and laughter that it is.

And I think that's a good place to end this, as I ponder the many blessings I've been given.  I adore my sons! And tomorrow, God's only begotten Son comes into the world to save us all, because God loves his children so much--all of us exactly the same, without a favorite!

God bless us, every one!  Merry Christmas!

How We Handle Christmas Gifts

Before I get started, Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception, dear readers.  

We have been blessed with 23 grandchildren, abundantly blessed--and I can't tell you the number of times people have asked me how we "do Christmas" with so many to buy for.  It's a complicated question, because we don't have a set routine; each year has tended to be slightly different, and plans keep evolving with the addition of each new little one.  I didn't make a decision the day I became a grandmother about how I was going to handle the Christmas gift-giving thing.  (You know, the way some parents decide from the outset to give each of their children three gifts, like the Wise Men; or they give four: "something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read.") Part of me wishes that I had been that forward-thinking and organized about it, but I wasn't.  So as I said, it's a tough question to answer.

If we had 10 grandkids or less, I imagine I might have a different philosophy about Christmas gift-giving. But there is no way that we can be those over-the-top generous grandparents, the ones who give motorized ride-on cars and such, when there are 23 of them.  That would bankrupt us.  Even the whole matching Christmas jammies rigamarole is not something we can pull off these days  I tried that once, about six or seven years ago.  I hunted down coordinating PJ's for all of them; but somehow we never even got the requisite picture of all the grandkids gathered together in their red-and-black buffalo checks.  So I haven't tried that since.

When our three oldest grandchildren, all girls, were young, I used to sew matching Christmas dresses for them; but things were simpler back then.  For a time, they were our only grandchildren! That changed fast! In 2020, I did manage to get the five youngest girls matching red-and-white plaid taffeta dresses, which I'd bought at an after-Christmas clearance sale in 2019, hoping the sizes would work out a year later. They did, and it was adorable.

How cute are these little gals?

But I've got 13 granddaughters now, ages one to 14, who are all shapes and sizes, and all particular about how they like to dress (or how their mommies like to dress them); so that sort of thing just isn't going to happen anymore. 

Anyhoo, I was reading Leila Lawler's most recent post over at Like Mother, Like Daughter, and I realized that in her, I have a kindred spirit.  She has 22 grandchildren and a limited budget, she loves to give gifts handmade with love, and she realizes that it is not up to her to fulfill her grandchildren's wildest dreams at Christmastime.  She says, "I give myself permission to step down from the job of fulfilling their Christmas dreams.  That's the parent's job, really.  You know what I mean: if the child has been longing for a bike or a doll, the parents know best what to get...I've done my part, however inadequately, when my own children were growing up."  Lawler says it so much better than I could, and I totally agree that although grandparents play a vital role in the lives of their grandchildren, giving them the bestest-ever gifts at Christmas does not need to be priority number one.  It's okay as a grandmother to, as she puts it, "just relax into the role of the loving figure who sent you some little toy that wasn't the be-all and end-all."  She doesn't stress about it; she says she just tries "to give one gift per grandchild that is something along these lines: handmade, whimsical, and/or relating to a particular interest of the child."

Although I admittedly sometimes let myself worry about whether I'm doing "enough," Lawler's wise words really do resonate with me. I actually think it's even okay for grandparent gifts to be the ones that get the heave-ho over the shoulder, the way Ralphie and Randy do with their socks in the movie A Christmas Story.  (LOL--that reminds me of two Christmases ago, our "beach towel Christmas."  Sometime I'll give you a good chuckle and tell you all about that one!)

Seriously, though, I don't believe that grandparents need to compete with Santa.  Now don't get me wrong: even though gift-giving isn't my first love language, I do love giving gifts.  It's just that I'm happiest when I have an idea for something I can make rather than buy.  And it's not about the money, really; it's more about wanting to figure out something personal and meaningful for the people who mean the most to me.  I am more apt to want to find a special wished-for toy for each grandchild on their birthdays, when it's all about him or her. But on Christmas, it's all about Jesus, and I feel like the gifts that Papa and I give don't need to make anyone's dreams come true.  I never received anything but clothes and books from my grandparents, and that was okay by me; it was Santa, and Mom and Dad, who stockpiled longed-for toys under the tree and filled my stocking with tiny treasures.

My husband's parents, who ended up with a whopping 32 grandchildren, got to the point where they just gave out crisp five dollar bills at Christmas, and then eventually ten dollar bills. It had just gotten too hard to do gifts for that many kids!  We're not quite there yet, but I can see that as a possibility for how we'll handle things down the road--adjusted for inflation, of course.  :)

So, how's it going to go this year, you ask?  For Christmas 2025, our main gift for each grandchild will be a Rosary handcrafted with love for them by their Grammy.  The ones for the girls are made of white pearls, with rose-shaped beads for the Our Fathers; the ones for the boys are made of blue and gold pearls (Notre Dame colors!), with football-shaped beads for the Our Fathers; and all of them have their names spelled out in letter beads.  I made these way back in the spring, when I got the idea.  I was too excited to wait!  (I do realize that I have some grandchildren who are too young to appreciate or take care of these Rosaries yet; but I wanted to make them for all 23 anyway.)

It's really going to be a handmade Christmas (yay!), because I also stitched up short capes for all 13 granddaughters (well, full disclosure: eight are finished, and I'm currently working on the last five). My youngest son's wife suggested this project to me, and I thought it was genius!  I had to purchase some lining fabric and some metal sew-on clasps, but the yards and yards of lovely velvet material came from my late mother-in-law's attic (adding some sentimental value to these garments).   I'm hoping to get pictures of the girls modeling them, and if so I'll share them here at the blog someday. 

I've been busy in my basement sewing room!

Girls like pretty clothes, so I can do this sort of thing for the granddaughters; but boys, not so much.   I used to sew a bit for my grandsons when they were little guys, rompers and such; but these days, I don't think that's the way to go.  When it comes to clothes, a team jersey or a Pokemon t-shirt might be a hit; but they all have plenty of those.  So the girls will get the capes with their Rosaries, and the big boys will get new footballs (cool ones with favorite team logos on them--I'm not a total Grinch!).  The boys who are too little to care about footballs will get trucks (again, not a Grinch!).

I might have thrown a few extra toys into the mix for two of our wee granddaughters, who are almost 3 and almost one; but they are the only grandchildren we won't see this Christmas season (they'll be out in Michigan with their other grandparents), so I think it's okay to spoil them just a tad. 

This is how we're doing things this Christmas; it all might look totally different next year, depending on circumstances.  But I'm thrilled that this one is going to be a mostly homemade Christmas.

To wrap this up, I don't really think it's necessary, or even a good idea, to try to spoil our grandkids too much with stuff--in general, not just at Christmastime.  Their Papa and I prefer to spoil them with our time and attention, which we give as generously and joyfully as we possibly can throughout the year.

And now, down to the sewing room!

To Blog, or Not to Blog (Oh, and Happy New Year!)

It's been more than two months since I was last here at my little site--which used to be a place I frequented quite often, believe it or not.  Back in the day, when I opened up shop in 2011, I was here almost every morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and raring to type up my little stories and random musings.  Even though almost no one was reading those posts, writing them made me so happy.

And the funny thing is that if anything, I have more to write about now than ever.  My family has grown by leaps and bounds and all of my people's lives are so very interesting, so very blog post-worthy.  But I am having the most severe case of blogger's block that I've ever experienced.  And I'm seriously considering just quitting altogether.  I've said that before at different times over the years, but this time I might actually be serious.

My husband thinks I should keep at it; he knows how much fun it is for me to have a writing project in the works, and keeping up with a blog is an ongoing writing project (that is, if you ever actually sit down at the computer and DO it!).  So I guess he might have a point.  And maybe it's not time to throw in the towel. Not just yet, anyway.

So much has happened since I last checked in, which was just after Halloween.  A trip to South Bend for a Notre Dame football game with a couple of our boys.  Multiple Pearl birthdays in October, November, and December.  Thanksgiving.  Christmas (which included having our youngest son, his very pregnant wife, and their adorable almost two-year-old little girl staying at our house.  They were with us for two whole weeks before going back to their home outside of Nashville.  Oh how I miss her--I mean them!).

Having four of our five boys and their families (15 grandchildren included!) over for a family party on the 27th was the highlight of our Christmas.  We were only missing our oldest and his gang.

I also spent the last few months before Christmas working on a special picture book project for my grandchildren, which I might share here eventually.  Oh yes, and then there's the whole learning how to make sourdough bread saga!  Let's just say that I'm a great maker and keeper of starter (I've named mine "Bubbs," although when I read somewhere that people name their starters,  I swore up and down that I wouldn't do such a nerdy thing), but I've had varying degrees of success with the actual bread itself. Especially when, like the farm wife I pretend to be, I try to use home-milled flour instead of the good old reliable store-bought all-purpose fluffy white stuff (remember this post?). Yikes, there's so much to write about, and I don't know if I should try to re-cap the past few months or just push ahead into 2025.

While I decide, know that all of our Christmas decorations are still up, because son #1 and his family (including seven of our grandchildren!) are coming next week to spend about a week with us, and since they weren't with us for the holidays I want it to feel Christmas-y around here.  (Also, the Christmas season doesn't technically end until Feb. 2, when we celebrate the Presentation of Our Lord on Candlemas Day. So we've decided that they don't come down until then!)

Happy New Year, dear readers (you know who you are: baby sister, my better half, a few D-I-L's, and about three other people!  Ha ha!).  I'll just be sitting here sipping my coffee by the tree when I've got nothing more important to do.

Merry Christmas 2023

I woke up early this morning and was sitting in the living room, which was still dark except for the tree lights, drinking my coffee and thinking about how very blessed I am and how I wouldn't trade my life for anyone's in all the world.  I have five sons whom I adore, they have five wives who feel like daughters (and who love my boys, which is the only important trait a mom looks for in a daughter-in-law, right?), and I am a Grammy to 22 of the most extraordinary little people on God's green earth.

Joy to the world, indeed.

My house is quiet.  Much has changed since I was raising those five boys who are now husbands and fathers, living in their own homes, with their own lives, and raising children of their own.  They are establishing holiday traditions for their own growing families, so our family celebrations don't look anything like they used to.  As someone who by nature has always resisted change, this has been difficult to accept at times.  But ever since our move from NH, where we raised our five sons, down to VA, where we live close to three of them  (and 14 of our 22 grandchildren), we know that we will spend at least part of every Christmas with a good portion of our family gathered together.  What a gift that is!

On the 23rd, we were able to get all of our VA gang over to our house for an early Christmas celebration.  (By some miracle, no one was sick--I think we all still have PTSD from last year's epic stomach bug fiasco!)  The grandkids had a wonderful time running around the house, and it looked a bit like a bomb had gone off in here after they all left.  But it was just the best, and I hope my husband and I can stay healthy enough to give them this one crazy party every Christmas season moving forward.  I'm never happier than when my home is full of my people.  And my husband and I truly live to hear the sound of our sons' laughter in the house.  That is the best gift of all.  We don't want their presents; we want their presence.  (I just made that up!  But I'm probably about the millionth person to say it, so I suppose I can't take credit!)

There are no little people opening their stockings in this house on the 25th.  It's quiet here.  But it's peaceful and I've got the best husband in the world and I am feeling very happy. 

I hope you are having the merriest of Christmases, dear readers!  

It's a Wonderful Life (Truly It Is!)

What a beautiful time of year this is!  I love it so much.

Last week, we went to some of our grandkids' Christmas concerts; one night, it was our 3rd grade grandson G-Man's show at his Catholic school; the next night, we got to watch five of our grandchildren performing together: two of G-Man's younger sisters, who are in 2nd grade and kindergarten, and our triplet grandchildren (also in kindergarten, two siblings in one class together and the other with his cousin); and finally, the next day, we watched two of our granddaughters, younger siblings of the aforementioned kids (4-year-old cousins who are BFF's and classmates), perform in their pre-K concert at their Christian preschool.  It was a busy week!  It is so special that these cousins are schoolmates/classmates.  It is a joy to their Papa and me to see them experiencing all of this together.

My husband and I also squeezed in a movie date over the weekend and went to see The Shift, a new film out by Angel Studios (they also did The Sound of Freedom).  It is just SO GOOD, we highly recommend it!  The theater that was showing the movie was in danger of closing not too long ago (thanks to all that Covid business, ugh!); but they didn't. I'm so grateful, because every now and then, it's a huge treat to go out and watch a movie on the big screen.  And they have a giant, glorious Christmas tree outside this multiplex, so we snapped a date night selfie in front of it.

 

 

On Sunday, son #4 and his kids (the triplets plus one, who calls herself an "honorary triplet") came over for brunch after Mass.   And the 6-year-old girl triplet couldn't stop looking at the "quilted" ornaments on our tree.  For some reason, she was fascinated by them, especially when her Papa told her that I had made them.  I learned this simple and rewarding craft more than 40 years ago, when I was a young Navy wife who wasn't even a mom yet.  I used mostly traditional red and green Christmas fabric scraps from other projects for the first ones I made.  Since then, I have used materials that have special meaning to "quilt" the balls.

I made NY State Lottery ornaments for my mom, my siblings, and myself
after my dad died, using scraps from his old T-shirts.

I used some old baby garments that my boys wore to make the blue and yellow
one.  (The smaller one on the bottom right is one of the originals from 1981.)

The maroon, grey, and white one was made out of bits and pieces of
my boys' old Catholic grade school uniforms.

Yesterday, I made this one for the granddaughter who was so intrigued
by them, and I plan to give it to her tomorrow for her family's tree.

(I shared the step-by-step process of making these ornaments here at the blog a while back, if you're interested.)

Not much else is new.  We're just trying to get all of our must-watch Christmas movies in before the 25th, if possible. Last night we watched my favorite, It's a Wonderful Life.  

This morning before daily Mass, I sat in my living room, reading a new book by a lovely Catholic author with whom I became online friends back when I was writing Finding Grace and Erin's Ring.  (Her latest novel, The Charter Class, just came out.  It's a work of historical fiction about the very first class of students at the College of Our Lady of the Elms, an all-girls school in Massachusetts that opened in 1928.)   I was enjoying the book's uplifting story; the tree lights were sparkling; and for the first time ever, I was drinking my coffee out of one of the Santa mugs my husband gave me for Christmas last year.  It all felt a little too good to be true.

And I thought to myself, "Yes, it truly is a wonderful life."

God bless you, dear readers, at Christmas and always!

Christmas Cheer (An Instagram Post...but on My Blog!)

I'm not on Instagram anymore.  My husband and I deleted our accounts a few years ago, and I haven't missed it.

Oops...I've just begun this post, and I've already told two lies. Mea culpa.  

Truth be told, I'm back on Instagram (as is my hubby), as of just recently.  But only because our youngest son is working on a short film project for his Master's program, and he's posting about it on there, and we don't want to miss any of those pictures and videos.  So that takes care of lie #1.

Even though I’m back “on,” I'm not really planning to post on IG, or to collect followers (L to the OL!); I'm just planning to stalk.  But not too much.  Over-stalking was one of the main problems I had that led me to give up all my social media accounts in the first place.

Okay then, what's lie #2, you ask?  I said I haven’t missed Instagram...but that's not true, because sometimes I do.

I miss some of my favorite Catholic "influencers" (hello, @elizabethfoss!).  I miss the awesome recipes and the gorgeous home decor ideas, and even the pop-up ads, believe it or not. (I am amazed by how Instagram seems to know exactly what kind of clothes I like to buy and wear.  It couldn't be that social media sites are tracking my every move...could it?)  But I am saving money, now that I don't see all those ads for things I never knew I wanted or needed.

Anyhoo--here are some pictures I might have posted on IG, back when I was a prolific IG poster (but certainly not an influencer!).  I just like how my house looks when it's decorated for Christmas, so I thought I'd share.  If I knew how to make a blog link-up, I would make one and have you show me pictures of your Christmas decorations.  (But in this new, rapidly changing world where even Instagram will probably soon be obsolete, does anyone even remember blog link-up parties?)

May you enjoy your social media accounts without over-stalking (you’re probably better than I am, dear readers). And may your Christmas season be merry and bright!