Christmas Wrap-Up
Today is the last day of Christmas: happy Epiphany!
I found it so helpul last year to include a "post-mortem" (as it's called on Frugal Upstate, or "debriefing," if you prefer, from Organized Christmas) of our Christmas -- what worked, what didn't, what we should repeat -- that I'm doing it again.
So, this is the tale of our Christmas just-past, plus jotted down thoughts for Christmas Future.
Travel: We can't control the weather, which broke up the family Christmas celebration on my side of the family early (and still had my parents driving in blizzard-like fog on the last lap of their way home), postponed DH's aunt's 95th birthday party, and sent us back to Minnesota a few days early because of its forecasted nastiness. (The one which then, of course, did not occur.)
Despite that, though, we had fun being with family. Nora really liked playing with her cousins on both sides. She told me that her cousin, "Sammi is gonna come visit me at my house." (Luckily, she is -- depending on weather, of course.) At my sister's place, the girls played some game with rules known only to them in which the four-year-old and Nora were the "babies" of the eight-year-old. This evidently involved a lot of getting into and out of the one-year-old's crib. After another adult checked, I was informed that Nora was performing this feat by climbing up on a chair and then diving, headfirst, onto a pile of stuffed animals. Which explains to the grownups, at least, although probably not to the two-year-old herself, why she then wandered through the hall a few minutes later gently rubbing her head and going "Ow!" She also enjoyed playing those cousins' piano.
Despite her whining as Christmas dinner was being prepped and served, "I want some fooood!" (and my subsequent surprise that my dad didn't echo her, since it's the sort of thing he would do), Nora mostly ate Chex mix that day-- and pretty much throughout the Christmas celebrations. She did supplement it with a lot of pea salad at DH's family gathering, and also pulled up a chair, leaned over the table, and helped herself to a couple of cracker-full servings of shrimp dip.
Luckily, I ate one piece of my mom's pecan pie at my family gathering, since I took the rest back to my in-laws' farmhouse -- and discovered, at that gathering, that there are quite a few people there who like pecan pie. Not so many like fruitcake, though, so I did get to eat most of that, which my mom also made me.
At the in-laws', the five-year-old cousin had brought her diary she got from Santa. No one was allowed to look at it except her preschool age cousins. Because they can't read. After the extended mealtime discussion of the best modern-day sources of lard and the method of making lye soap, that family gathering broke up earlier than planned because of extensive icing on the roadways, which postponed the 95th birthday celebration which had originally been going to take place that same day.
That actually worked out well, in my opinion, since we were staying at the farmhouse and didn't have to go anywhere -- and hauling a two-year-old away from a Christmas celebration to go sit in a nursing home's party room for a couple of hours, in the same day, with no chance for a nap, never had struck me as a good idea. (Unfortunately, however, it also meant that we didn't get to see my sister and her kids as much as planned.)
When it did occur, the birthday celebration went very well. The 95-year-old is hard of hearing and visually challenged, but still mentally acute, and on no prescriptions. I took lots of pictures because she will want to talk many times about who was there. The five-year-old gave her a birthday card she had written herself (well, she copied the words down, but it was a long poem in her own handwriting -- she's only in kindergarten! Very impressive.), and extended family members we don't get a chance to see as often were there.
Nora was well behaved, coloring with the five-year-old, going to see the nursing home's birds with her aunt, and sitting down for a while handing M&M's and raisins from the snack bowl to DH's cousin, the sister. (She didn't get any peanuts, despite a request, because, when Nora accidentally picked one up, she announced, "I don't like dose.") The 95-year-old honoree, who is her great-aunt, offered to give her a wheelchair ride on her lap, but she never got that brave, though.
DH and I even got a chance to go off for a day by ourselves, leaving Nora in the care of DH's sister, his niece and her daughter (the five-year-old). They watched the Tinkerbell movie, played a modified version of hide and seek which involved hiding Nora's slippers, and did much running around. DH and I went to the Amana Colonies and ate German food and shopped and browsed, including at our favorite herb/tea store there, which was unfortunately closing because the owner is moving. I got some tea and, at her sale price, he bought a pound of chili powder. He disputes my claims that it will be a decade before we get through that much.
We also saw my grandma, and two sets of aunts and uncles simultaneously (the set she lives with, and the set who were visiting), and Nora played blocks with my uncle. My aunt showed us the quilt she is quilting, which was pieced by her great-grandmother.
Takeaway: Although I complain about the travel, we really do love being with family and having time to spend with them and getting a bit of a chance to get back to some of our favorite places in Iowa.
What I don't like is the packing, unpacking, carrying loads of heavy stuff around, mammoth laundry at some point, and disruption of regular life. Either I need to clone myself, so I can both enjoy the family time elsewhere and simultaneously keep my own life going, or I need to get everything so well-oiled and organized that it just runs along swimmingly and I don't need to do any major overhauls or anything upon our return.
Church Services/Family Devotions: The weather this year was frightful, throughout Advent -- which was frustrating in terms of getting to church: we only made it once during the season, considering travel (on the Sunday after Thanksgiving -- missed the first day right there), blizzards and sub-subzero temperatures (20 below! with "bracing" wind! -- even the family member who's a nun said she hoped there were no children out on that Sunday). On Christmas Eve; DH went to an afternoon service; I went to a 9:30 p.m. service -- and fell asleep during the sermon.
On the plus side, on the Sunday we did make it, Nora noticed the change in the church's decor: the absence of the "dove birdie" in favor of a star, and was fascinated by the large Nativity set. We spent much time examining it and talking about it.
It wasn't really safe this year to have a candlelit Advent wreath at home with a very active two-year-old, so we didn't do that, either. We tried to do a Jesse tree, but we were late getting it started, seemed to be playing catchup on a ton of decorations at once when we did get to it, and I couldn't find devotional information that was at the level of understanding of a very young child.
Takeaway: Well, I don't know what we can do about the weather. By next winter, though, I'm hoping Nora will be potty-trained and I won't have to lug a heavy diaper bag and haul a trippy two-year-old across large, freezing parking lots, so that might bring some improvement in our ability to get places. And I checked the calendar, and Advent starts the Sunday after Thanksgiving again -- which pretty much means we have to write off that Sunday in our household, due to the travel.
I think we'll probably need to wait a couple of years on the Advent wreath anyway, but maybe we can try a simple Advent calendar next year. (My mom has a pattern for one that apparently she would like to make Nora. It's one that needs to be filled, perhaps with little candies or stickers (not a bunch of little toys that will go all over the house and drive me crazy.) We might need to wait on the Jesse tree idea again, too.
Next fall, too, Nora will start Sunday school -- which means she'll be getting some more religion, and also that she'll be in the Christmas pageant.
Activities of Advent
As I mentioned in this this post, I had read of the idea of doing something special every day of Advent. It seemed like a fun idea, and we tried it, to an extent, this year.
Takeaway: I liked some aspects -- it's fun to read Christmastime books and watch Christmas specials on TV -- but not others. Trying to spread things out by introducing our Christmas books one at a time means that some of them never got read -- or even put out. I think next year we should just get all the Christmas books out at once and place them in a special basket and, rather than try to do something every day, plan times to do the activities we most enjoyed: reading books, watching TV/videos, decorating the tree, cooking.
Also, especially since Nora will already have the Sunday school Christmas pageant as an additional activity, I think we need to stop all other non--holiday-related outside activities in December. (Those two weeks of music class that went into the middle of December were killers on the schedule, even though it was only one night a week.) This does mean that I can go to my women's group's party, since it's a holiday party, not a meeting.
Cookies and Cooking: Nora loves to help cook, but her decorating efforts concentrated only on two cookies -- and our cutout cookies almost all broke when I took them off the cookie sheet. I never got around to making any other kind of cookies, although we did have fun making and eating the family cheeseball recipe -- Nora actually ate more of that than she did the cookies.
Takeaway: That's it, I give up on cutout cookies. The ones my mom gives me every Christmas taste better anyway -- and they actually have shapes. If we do any decorating of cookies, iit will be in pre-purchased shapes (which will then probably *still* break when they come off the cookie sheet. Ack!). We can, however, turn our attention to other kinds of cookies -- there are tons out there that would be fun to make together, taste good and not require any rolling of dough or cutting of shapes. If I get organized, I might even be able to make some ahead of the holidays and freeze them.
Some year, it would be fun to participate in a cookie exchange again -- we did one through my women's group in 2006. Or, I could figure out a way to get invited to the annual three- to four-day cookie bake I learned is hosted by a relatively new friend from that group, in which 65 people come to her house to bake cookies.
Christmas Dinner: We actually had Christmas brunch this year (and on the good china/kid's penguin plate, too!) consisting mostly of the items I planned in this menu. (I ended up not making the Igloo Salad.) The ham and egg casserole and the cocktail wienies were both hits.
Takeaway: Easy and festive: Christmas brunch was a good idea. If we want to have adult liquids, however, evidently I need to tell DH exactly what to get (even though I don't know) with much, much lead time -- and check on the progress of this task. He also suggested sparkling cider for Nora, but that didn't happen, either. Also, the brunch was great....but, considering that we left town the day after we ate it, the leftovers didn't keep very well. (I don't think you can freeze an egg casserole? or cocktail weinies?), which led to some food waste.
As I mentioned before before, knowing that it's an issue to come home to something to eat after our travels, however, helped me plan better this year and have easy-to-fix frozen items stocked before we left.
Presents/Wrapping: It was good to, once again, get my shopping done before Thanksgiving (this didn't happen last year). This makes it so much easier for all the "doing" in December. On the other hand, I felt there were some hits and some misses in the gifts I gave this year (it's hard to pick for other people's kids when you don't get ideas for them).
Takeaway: Do more year-round gift shopping/being on the lookout (and ear out) for ideas. Keep a gift idea list. Remember that there were tons of great sales in December this past year, and take that into account in the overall budget, whether for Christmas 2009 or other occasions.
Remember, and use again, the great idea I read on a blog this year to wrap presents for one side of the family in one color wrapping paper; presents for the other side in a different wrapping paper. Makes it so much easier when sorting things out. If I determine which wrapping paper to use, I could potentially wrap things earlier, too.
May need to stamp/craft some more gift tags this year; we're getting kind of low (which is amazing, considering that I don't think I have ever, in my life, bought gift tags -- I started out with a stash that came as freebies in one of the magazines my mom got. That's 20-plus years of free gift tags.)
Decorating: Nora loved helping to decorate the tree, and I like putting decorations up on the mantel. I didn't get much time to enjoy sitting and looking at the tree, though.
Takeaway: Decorate the tree again together as a family. Decorations are kind of fun, but not where our family's main focus is these days.
Looking at Lights: It was fun last year (2007) to make a special trip to do this with friends. This year, even I, the main lover-of-looking-at-lights in our family, was not enthusiastic about more driving through slippery snow and cold to do so, so we didn't make any special trips.
Takeaway: Some year we'll have another fun trip. If the weather cooperates.
Christmas Cards: I'm still torn between the cards with the pretty picture and the warm, individual personal note to everyone, and the family newsletter which actually tells you what's going on with everyone and the updated picture of the kids that you want to see. (I actually asked a couple of people this year, and they said they like to see the kids.) This year, we went with a kid picture and a newsletter. I heard from relatives who said they put the picture on the fridge, and a friend of mine from toddler days thanked me for keeping her updated with the newsletter.
Takeaway: If I were SuperOrganizedWoman, I could get the addresses updated and the labels printed by November. And, since I actually bought next year's photo frame cards this week, I could get the photo done at any time during the year. Which means I might have time to write the newsletter (scanning back through blog posts of the year is a good way to get ideas for things to include) and a few nice notes, too.
Christmas Giving and ThankYou's: This actually was an area that seemed to work really well for us this year. Nora liked putting money in the Salvation Army kettle. Since I wanted her to give as well as receive, she made bookmarks by decorating foam shapes with foamie stickers and then choosing which ones to give to people. She really enjoyed the process of making them throughout December, and cheerfully gave them to people and informed them "I made dat!" I think it really helped her to understand gift-giving better.
We also did thank-you notes this past weekend, in which I wrote down (and talked about the person I was writing to, what they gave, and what I was writing) the words on some notecards and then Nora "signed" her name and decorated the rest of the card with stickers. She was very enthusiastic about this project --she wanted to do more, when we were done with our thank you notes. She also dictated her own words for a few of them: my aunt had given her a round green plastic Skittles container (which we haven't opened yet; we're saving it for something like church), and Nora said, as I was writing, "Tha'k you for da big M-n-M."
One of Nora's aunts also sent her a thank-you note for the bookmark, which was very nice.
She was even very good about giving away a few of the toys that she has outgrown; she accompanied me to the charity thrift shop to give to "kids who don't have any toys, when you got lots of new things for Christmas" (an oversimplification, but really, oversimplification is *meant* for two-year-olds) and was fine with it. I was impressed.
Takeaway: We should definitely have Nora do a gift project again. It could potentially be something with just slightly more advanced skills next year, although I did try to choose something that could be useful to recipients, or at least not take up much space, rather than being more clutter in their lives. (Both sides of our family are full of readers.)
We will, of course, do thank you notes again. My mother taught me well.
This year, too, I think Nora can be more involved in picking the items for and packing the Operation Christmas Child box(es?). Since those have to be turned in so early, though, it might be worth trying to find something that's a direct charity thing a little kid can help with during more of the actual Christmas season. Perhaps an angel tree type gift request thing? I never saw those around our community this year, but I think there may have been a tree at the mall -- I was hardly at the mall in December.
I found it so helpul last year to include a "post-mortem" (as it's called on Frugal Upstate, or "debriefing," if you prefer, from Organized Christmas) of our Christmas -- what worked, what didn't, what we should repeat -- that I'm doing it again.
So, this is the tale of our Christmas just-past, plus jotted down thoughts for Christmas Future.
Travel: We can't control the weather, which broke up the family Christmas celebration on my side of the family early (and still had my parents driving in blizzard-like fog on the last lap of their way home), postponed DH's aunt's 95th birthday party, and sent us back to Minnesota a few days early because of its forecasted nastiness. (The one which then, of course, did not occur.)
Despite that, though, we had fun being with family. Nora really liked playing with her cousins on both sides. She told me that her cousin, "Sammi is gonna come visit me at my house." (Luckily, she is -- depending on weather, of course.) At my sister's place, the girls played some game with rules known only to them in which the four-year-old and Nora were the "babies" of the eight-year-old. This evidently involved a lot of getting into and out of the one-year-old's crib. After another adult checked, I was informed that Nora was performing this feat by climbing up on a chair and then diving, headfirst, onto a pile of stuffed animals. Which explains to the grownups, at least, although probably not to the two-year-old herself, why she then wandered through the hall a few minutes later gently rubbing her head and going "Ow!" She also enjoyed playing those cousins' piano.
Despite her whining as Christmas dinner was being prepped and served, "I want some fooood!" (and my subsequent surprise that my dad didn't echo her, since it's the sort of thing he would do), Nora mostly ate Chex mix that day-- and pretty much throughout the Christmas celebrations. She did supplement it with a lot of pea salad at DH's family gathering, and also pulled up a chair, leaned over the table, and helped herself to a couple of cracker-full servings of shrimp dip.
Luckily, I ate one piece of my mom's pecan pie at my family gathering, since I took the rest back to my in-laws' farmhouse -- and discovered, at that gathering, that there are quite a few people there who like pecan pie. Not so many like fruitcake, though, so I did get to eat most of that, which my mom also made me.
At the in-laws', the five-year-old cousin had brought her diary she got from Santa. No one was allowed to look at it except her preschool age cousins. Because they can't read. After the extended mealtime discussion of the best modern-day sources of lard and the method of making lye soap, that family gathering broke up earlier than planned because of extensive icing on the roadways, which postponed the 95th birthday celebration which had originally been going to take place that same day.
That actually worked out well, in my opinion, since we were staying at the farmhouse and didn't have to go anywhere -- and hauling a two-year-old away from a Christmas celebration to go sit in a nursing home's party room for a couple of hours, in the same day, with no chance for a nap, never had struck me as a good idea. (Unfortunately, however, it also meant that we didn't get to see my sister and her kids as much as planned.)
When it did occur, the birthday celebration went very well. The 95-year-old is hard of hearing and visually challenged, but still mentally acute, and on no prescriptions. I took lots of pictures because she will want to talk many times about who was there. The five-year-old gave her a birthday card she had written herself (well, she copied the words down, but it was a long poem in her own handwriting -- she's only in kindergarten! Very impressive.), and extended family members we don't get a chance to see as often were there.
Nora was well behaved, coloring with the five-year-old, going to see the nursing home's birds with her aunt, and sitting down for a while handing M&M's and raisins from the snack bowl to DH's cousin, the sister. (She didn't get any peanuts, despite a request, because, when Nora accidentally picked one up, she announced, "I don't like dose.") The 95-year-old honoree, who is her great-aunt, offered to give her a wheelchair ride on her lap, but she never got that brave, though.
DH and I even got a chance to go off for a day by ourselves, leaving Nora in the care of DH's sister, his niece and her daughter (the five-year-old). They watched the Tinkerbell movie, played a modified version of hide and seek which involved hiding Nora's slippers, and did much running around. DH and I went to the Amana Colonies and ate German food and shopped and browsed, including at our favorite herb/tea store there, which was unfortunately closing because the owner is moving. I got some tea and, at her sale price, he bought a pound of chili powder. He disputes my claims that it will be a decade before we get through that much.
We also saw my grandma, and two sets of aunts and uncles simultaneously (the set she lives with, and the set who were visiting), and Nora played blocks with my uncle. My aunt showed us the quilt she is quilting, which was pieced by her great-grandmother.
Takeaway: Although I complain about the travel, we really do love being with family and having time to spend with them and getting a bit of a chance to get back to some of our favorite places in Iowa.
What I don't like is the packing, unpacking, carrying loads of heavy stuff around, mammoth laundry at some point, and disruption of regular life. Either I need to clone myself, so I can both enjoy the family time elsewhere and simultaneously keep my own life going, or I need to get everything so well-oiled and organized that it just runs along swimmingly and I don't need to do any major overhauls or anything upon our return.
Church Services/Family Devotions: The weather this year was frightful, throughout Advent -- which was frustrating in terms of getting to church: we only made it once during the season, considering travel (on the Sunday after Thanksgiving -- missed the first day right there), blizzards and sub-subzero temperatures (20 below! with "bracing" wind! -- even the family member who's a nun said she hoped there were no children out on that Sunday). On Christmas Eve; DH went to an afternoon service; I went to a 9:30 p.m. service -- and fell asleep during the sermon.
On the plus side, on the Sunday we did make it, Nora noticed the change in the church's decor: the absence of the "dove birdie" in favor of a star, and was fascinated by the large Nativity set. We spent much time examining it and talking about it.
It wasn't really safe this year to have a candlelit Advent wreath at home with a very active two-year-old, so we didn't do that, either. We tried to do a Jesse tree, but we were late getting it started, seemed to be playing catchup on a ton of decorations at once when we did get to it, and I couldn't find devotional information that was at the level of understanding of a very young child.
Takeaway: Well, I don't know what we can do about the weather. By next winter, though, I'm hoping Nora will be potty-trained and I won't have to lug a heavy diaper bag and haul a trippy two-year-old across large, freezing parking lots, so that might bring some improvement in our ability to get places. And I checked the calendar, and Advent starts the Sunday after Thanksgiving again -- which pretty much means we have to write off that Sunday in our household, due to the travel.
I think we'll probably need to wait a couple of years on the Advent wreath anyway, but maybe we can try a simple Advent calendar next year. (My mom has a pattern for one that apparently she would like to make Nora. It's one that needs to be filled, perhaps with little candies or stickers (not a bunch of little toys that will go all over the house and drive me crazy.) We might need to wait on the Jesse tree idea again, too.
Next fall, too, Nora will start Sunday school -- which means she'll be getting some more religion, and also that she'll be in the Christmas pageant.
Activities of Advent
As I mentioned in this this post, I had read of the idea of doing something special every day of Advent. It seemed like a fun idea, and we tried it, to an extent, this year.
Takeaway: I liked some aspects -- it's fun to read Christmastime books and watch Christmas specials on TV -- but not others. Trying to spread things out by introducing our Christmas books one at a time means that some of them never got read -- or even put out. I think next year we should just get all the Christmas books out at once and place them in a special basket and, rather than try to do something every day, plan times to do the activities we most enjoyed: reading books, watching TV/videos, decorating the tree, cooking.
Also, especially since Nora will already have the Sunday school Christmas pageant as an additional activity, I think we need to stop all other non--holiday-related outside activities in December. (Those two weeks of music class that went into the middle of December were killers on the schedule, even though it was only one night a week.) This does mean that I can go to my women's group's party, since it's a holiday party, not a meeting.
Cookies and Cooking: Nora loves to help cook, but her decorating efforts concentrated only on two cookies -- and our cutout cookies almost all broke when I took them off the cookie sheet. I never got around to making any other kind of cookies, although we did have fun making and eating the family cheeseball recipe -- Nora actually ate more of that than she did the cookies.
Takeaway: That's it, I give up on cutout cookies. The ones my mom gives me every Christmas taste better anyway -- and they actually have shapes. If we do any decorating of cookies, iit will be in pre-purchased shapes (which will then probably *still* break when they come off the cookie sheet. Ack!). We can, however, turn our attention to other kinds of cookies -- there are tons out there that would be fun to make together, taste good and not require any rolling of dough or cutting of shapes. If I get organized, I might even be able to make some ahead of the holidays and freeze them.
Some year, it would be fun to participate in a cookie exchange again -- we did one through my women's group in 2006. Or, I could figure out a way to get invited to the annual three- to four-day cookie bake I learned is hosted by a relatively new friend from that group, in which 65 people come to her house to bake cookies.
Christmas Dinner: We actually had Christmas brunch this year (and on the good china/kid's penguin plate, too!) consisting mostly of the items I planned in this menu. (I ended up not making the Igloo Salad.) The ham and egg casserole and the cocktail wienies were both hits.
Takeaway: Easy and festive: Christmas brunch was a good idea. If we want to have adult liquids, however, evidently I need to tell DH exactly what to get (even though I don't know) with much, much lead time -- and check on the progress of this task. He also suggested sparkling cider for Nora, but that didn't happen, either. Also, the brunch was great....but, considering that we left town the day after we ate it, the leftovers didn't keep very well. (I don't think you can freeze an egg casserole? or cocktail weinies?), which led to some food waste.
As I mentioned before before, knowing that it's an issue to come home to something to eat after our travels, however, helped me plan better this year and have easy-to-fix frozen items stocked before we left.
Presents/Wrapping: It was good to, once again, get my shopping done before Thanksgiving (this didn't happen last year). This makes it so much easier for all the "doing" in December. On the other hand, I felt there were some hits and some misses in the gifts I gave this year (it's hard to pick for other people's kids when you don't get ideas for them).
Takeaway: Do more year-round gift shopping/being on the lookout (and ear out) for ideas. Keep a gift idea list. Remember that there were tons of great sales in December this past year, and take that into account in the overall budget, whether for Christmas 2009 or other occasions.
Remember, and use again, the great idea I read on a blog this year to wrap presents for one side of the family in one color wrapping paper; presents for the other side in a different wrapping paper. Makes it so much easier when sorting things out. If I determine which wrapping paper to use, I could potentially wrap things earlier, too.
May need to stamp/craft some more gift tags this year; we're getting kind of low (which is amazing, considering that I don't think I have ever, in my life, bought gift tags -- I started out with a stash that came as freebies in one of the magazines my mom got. That's 20-plus years of free gift tags.)
Decorating: Nora loved helping to decorate the tree, and I like putting decorations up on the mantel. I didn't get much time to enjoy sitting and looking at the tree, though.
Takeaway: Decorate the tree again together as a family. Decorations are kind of fun, but not where our family's main focus is these days.
Looking at Lights: It was fun last year (2007) to make a special trip to do this with friends. This year, even I, the main lover-of-looking-at-lights in our family, was not enthusiastic about more driving through slippery snow and cold to do so, so we didn't make any special trips.
Takeaway: Some year we'll have another fun trip. If the weather cooperates.
Christmas Cards: I'm still torn between the cards with the pretty picture and the warm, individual personal note to everyone, and the family newsletter which actually tells you what's going on with everyone and the updated picture of the kids that you want to see. (I actually asked a couple of people this year, and they said they like to see the kids.) This year, we went with a kid picture and a newsletter. I heard from relatives who said they put the picture on the fridge, and a friend of mine from toddler days thanked me for keeping her updated with the newsletter.
Takeaway: If I were SuperOrganizedWoman, I could get the addresses updated and the labels printed by November. And, since I actually bought next year's photo frame cards this week, I could get the photo done at any time during the year. Which means I might have time to write the newsletter (scanning back through blog posts of the year is a good way to get ideas for things to include) and a few nice notes, too.
Christmas Giving and ThankYou's: This actually was an area that seemed to work really well for us this year. Nora liked putting money in the Salvation Army kettle. Since I wanted her to give as well as receive, she made bookmarks by decorating foam shapes with foamie stickers and then choosing which ones to give to people. She really enjoyed the process of making them throughout December, and cheerfully gave them to people and informed them "I made dat!" I think it really helped her to understand gift-giving better.
We also did thank-you notes this past weekend, in which I wrote down (and talked about the person I was writing to, what they gave, and what I was writing) the words on some notecards and then Nora "signed" her name and decorated the rest of the card with stickers. She was very enthusiastic about this project --she wanted to do more, when we were done with our thank you notes. She also dictated her own words for a few of them: my aunt had given her a round green plastic Skittles container (which we haven't opened yet; we're saving it for something like church), and Nora said, as I was writing, "Tha'k you for da big M-n-M."
One of Nora's aunts also sent her a thank-you note for the bookmark, which was very nice.
She was even very good about giving away a few of the toys that she has outgrown; she accompanied me to the charity thrift shop to give to "kids who don't have any toys, when you got lots of new things for Christmas" (an oversimplification, but really, oversimplification is *meant* for two-year-olds) and was fine with it. I was impressed.
Takeaway: We should definitely have Nora do a gift project again. It could potentially be something with just slightly more advanced skills next year, although I did try to choose something that could be useful to recipients, or at least not take up much space, rather than being more clutter in their lives. (Both sides of our family are full of readers.)
We will, of course, do thank you notes again. My mother taught me well.
This year, too, I think Nora can be more involved in picking the items for and packing the Operation Christmas Child box(es?). Since those have to be turned in so early, though, it might be worth trying to find something that's a direct charity thing a little kid can help with during more of the actual Christmas season. Perhaps an angel tree type gift request thing? I never saw those around our community this year, but I think there may have been a tree at the mall -- I was hardly at the mall in December.