This year Mr. Heb and I are attempting a "relatively commercial free Christmas". Regular readers may recall that we piloted this plan last year when the Hebden household attempted a slightly more challenging no gift policy...sadly we discovered the error of our ways on Christmas morn...the childish thrill of ripping brightly colored paper of something (anything) is a necessary part of the holiday...without it, something intangible was missing. This year the revised plan is one low-cost gift a piece (hopefully wrapped in about 12 layers of glittery paper) and a festive glow instilled by whiling away our time before the big day by making our own decorations, cards, and other seasonal accoutrement.

A trip to the local art store yielded origami paper to festoon our tree...and a lino cutting kit for the production of Christmas cards. The goal is naive charm...though as I haven't applied chisel to lino since high school I'm assailed with doubts of the "will our seasonal greetings look like they were created by a five year old?" variety. Time, as they say, will tell...