Warmth & Joy from Our Home to Yours

May your Christmas be merry and bright.
Wishing you all the Happiest of Holidays,

Robin, Ken and the Our Big Earth crew

Tracking Santa from Vancouver Island

So, I put in a call this morning to the secret Santa Division of Environment Canada and they said that the big guy is already on his way, completing the rounds in places far off like New Zealand where it’s already tomorrow (he is in Cambodia as I write).
Besides the obvious pure joy that Santa [...]

Fun Last-Minute Gift Ideas for the Time Challenged

Oh my. Dec. 22. Where has the time gone? Many of us have the best of intentions to get everything done well in advance of the big day. But, there always seems to be that one special person or those last little bits that, well, sneak up on us and we realize we haven’t finished [...]

Holiday Traditions – A Community Reading of Dickens A Christmas Carol

Editor’s Note: If you missed Marcie Dumais’ column on turning old traditions into something all your own, check it out HERE. Now, it’s time to tell you a bit about Our Big Earth’s last community event for 2009. We hope you’ll join us for a wonderful evening of fun for a great cause.
Our Big [...]

Making Old Family Traditions Your Own

Editor’s Note: This morning Marcie Dumais is on site with a look at folding old family traditions into your very own new holiday traditions. It’s such a fun time of year to reflect, honor, laugh and enjoy. Creating those memories and reliving happy pieces of our childhood are some of the best parts of this [...]

Family Eats – Simply Sinful Holiday Treats

Editor’s Note: Good morning. Today we have local foodie Sarah Stromquist dishing out her love for the holiday season and some wonderfully delicious season-themed treats. Yum. Here she is:
I‘m not sure if anyone knows just how much I love Christmas, but there are the definite tell tale signs – my house is decorated on December [...]

Holiday Traditions – Where To Check Out the Lights

Editor’s Note: This morning we had a fun post about getting organized and creating some cute projects for 2010 courtesy of crafting goddess Vanessa Falle. You can check it out HERE. Now, time for more holiday traditions. Today, where to find some of the best light displays in the Comox Valley.
If there’s one thing about [...]

Holiday Traditions – Our Favorite Spot to Cut Down the Tree

Editor’s Note: If you missed this morning’s post, we got green and shopped local with recommendations for some of the hottest natural stocking stuffers for this year. Check it out HERE. Now, it’s time to get into the holiday spirit with the fun family tradition of cutting down the Christmas tree. We have a favorite [...]

Monday Morning Moms – Green Stocking Stuffers

Usually, right around Dec. 15 every year, I realize that Christmas is in 10 days and I have nothing for anyone. I vowed that would not be the case this season and actually got the bulk of the Santa Clausing wrapped up this weekend.
The big stuff is, for me, the easiest to knock off the [...]

Preserving Holiday Traditions with Sausage & Kraut

Tucked away in a kitchen cupboard is an old paper-bound cookbook. It’s nothing fancy, no spectacular photography, not even a professional print job. But, this book – The Wigilia – is one of my dearest possessions.
When I was nine, my grandmother and I traded letters and tapes once a week for a month as she [...]

Send Your Letters to Santa via Canada Post

Editor’s Note: If you missed our morning post, check out some easy ideas for making holiday cards HERE. Now, it’s all about getting that special letter off to Santa (and getting one back from the big guy) thanks to Canada Post. HOHOHO.:)
You know Dasher and Dancer, maybe even Prancer and Vixen. But, did you know [...]

Holiday Crafts – Easy Kids Cards

One thing I promise myself that we will do every year is send out homemade cards. When Ken and I were DINKS (Dual Income No Kids) we made the craziest Christmas cards ever like us hanging lights off of the Golden Gate Bridge, us as Star Wars characters, the list goes on.
But, that would mean [...]

Kids Book Review – Winter Gems for a Roaring Fire

Editor’s Note: If you missed our morning post, Gayle Bates gives us a peek into holiday traditions around the world and how to take part in some global giving HERE. Now, we’re checking out two Winter children’s book faves that are a part of OBE’s holiday events at the Filberg Lodge.

Chestnuts roasting on the fire [...]

Register Today for the OBE Heritage Holidays at Filberg Lodge

Editor’s Note: If you missed our morning post today, check out Bobby Herron’s take on why music lessons aren’t always the right path for your budding musician HERE. Now, it’s time for some holiday cheer and a fun, old skool Comox Valley event that is all about family, stories, treats and the traditions of the [...]

A Mom’s Guide to Greener Holidays

Tis the season to consume. The holidays are all about stuff. Why is it that this time of year brings out the worst in spending? People go crazy with trend and forget all about tradition. The season is supposed to be about joy, gratitude, family and friends. But this appears to be lacking, at least [...]

Santa’s Workshop Needs Your Help

Editor’s Note: It is getting all holiday-ish around here the last couple of days. If you missed this morning’s craft post, check out the vintage ornaments Robin made from recycled lids and bottle caps HERE. This afternoon, it’s all about hope, community and the warmth of coming together for a fantastic cause.
The news that the [...]

Homemade Holidays – Easy Recycled Ornaments

As the holidays begin to descend upon us, the tiny person and I are very seriously focused on learning about traditions, honoring our own and creating some new ones this year.
We’re also working hard at keeping with the whole idea of creating more and consuming less. And that has lead to great projects in the last [...]

Monday Morning Moms – Holiday Sanity Savers

Oh my holy no, no, no… it cannot be a month until Christmas. Seriously, how is it possible that I reach this day every year and shudder at the reality that I am so far behind and there is no turning back? Now, it’s all just about getting it done as fast as possible, with as [...]

Helping Kids Learn the Value of Generosity

Editor’s Note: Good morning. Marcie Dumais is here discussing ways in which her family implements giving, generosity and gratitude. She also shares ways in which people can get involved in the community throughout the holiday season. Here she is:
With the newest holiday mumbo-jumbo at the front-line of most stores, it’s not surprising that Christmas is already on [...]

Holiday Craft Tutorial – Homemade Wrapping Paper

It wasn’t an uncommon site – back in the day – for the moms in our lives to lock themselves in a back bedroom one December afternoon. I thought it was some sort of magic, how they went in and came out a few hours later rather refreshed (6 hours of peace and quiet will [...]

Holiday Traditions – Handmade Christmas Crackers

Since I was a little girl, I’ve had this picture in my head of the perfect way to make everyone in the family – wherever they are – smile at the same time and think of each other.
Maybe I did myself in early with grand visions of a Norman Rockwell holiday where everyone – for [...]

Holiday Craft Tutorial – Cookie Cutter Gift Tags

The last couple of years, as I spend more time with folks like the David Suzuki Foundation and learn from folks like the Comox Valley Regional District, I find myself a wee bit overwhelmed at the things that AREN’T recyclable during the holidays.
One thing that I never even thought about was gift tags. In fact, [...]

Holiday Gems for the Heart (& The Kitchen)

I like to think of our family as a crew of non-traditional traditionalists.
We love Christmas and birthdays, presents and sweets. But, in ways that present the age-old traditions of those times with a classic sense of heart, not necessarily a classic point of view.
After falling hard for Eve Bunting’s holiday gem The Night Tree this [...]

Homemade Holiday Treats – Baklava

It was my childhood Winter wonderland – this magical place where all things flour and powdered sugar, pecan tart and almond brittle converged and I knew I had caught a glimpse of perfection.
To the average person, that place looked like my grandmother’s basement. But, to me, with it packed – literally – from floor to [...]

Holiday Tutorial – Card Making with Kids

There once was a little girl who so wanted to make her own holiday cards. Her mom, relatively junior in the crafty universe, yet fussy nonetheless, had personal issues about it all.
Preschool cards are messy and generally not so pretty in a traditional, big person sort of designer style way. They require a fair bit [...]

Presenting Our 2008 Holiday Green Guide

Good morning. As we are just about to head off to a very soggy Santa Claus Parade today I am getting more and more into the holiday spirit.
There’s lots of creating going on around our house – our first batch of almond toffee appeared a few days ago, sparkling walnut ornaments, homemade pompom bows made [...]

Make Your Own (reusable) Advent Calendar

Editor’s Note: Usually the last Friday of the month is reserved for Bevin Clempson’s witty Green-e-ology column. Not to worry, she’ll be here on Sunday talking about her conversion to reusable water bottles and coffee mugs. But, today we have a bit of a special feature that couldn’t wait.
Vanessa Falle of Lotus Paperie – a [...]

Holiday Crafts – Old Skool Snow Flakes

When I was a kid, scissors were the coolest thing ever. I would, literally, spend hours during the holidays cutting out snowflake after snowflake in an effort to coat every inch of window space in our house with the white stuff.
Growing up in the Rocky Mountains, snow for the holidays was never an issue. But, [...]

Stress-free Holidays – Tips for Getting Organized

Editor’s Note:
If you are anything like me, it generally dawns on me somewhere around Dec. 10 that Christmas is two weeks away. In the mommy universe, that very late recollection of time and, well, time, is a not-so-happy moment.
Now that we have a baby on the way (holy cow, yes, it’s true, we are pregnant [...]

Winter Break Projects for the Whole Family

With the Santa countdown about to officially begin, family and friends about to gather and joy to commence there is a rather un-joyful reality that families often get at least a wee bit agitated when piled in the same general vicinity for long periods of time.
I’m no Scrooge, and I totally love getting the whole [...]

Holiday Fun – Winter Solstice & Family Weekends

As I stood at the kitchen window looking out at complete darkness about 7:15 this morning, I realized that today and its legendary darkness marks the beginning of Winter around these parts.
What the Friday before Christmas also means is that the Valley is JAMMED with families in town for the holidays – as was evident [...]

Last-Minute Holiday Treats

I have this rule about always trying to post photos with food recipes.
If you can’t see it, why eat it?:) Unfortunately, the camera and the kitchen have yet to connect this week.
But, with a couple of fun holiday parties on the schedule this weekend and all of the baking I did in the last two [...]

Homemade Wrapping Paper

I am not going to try today, in any way, to lead us all down the path of making our own paper in a by-hand, from-scratch sort of way. If I had infinite hours in the day and unholy amounts of patience, I might personally go that route of fiber, water and binding agents. But, [...]

Holiday Fun – Write A Story for Cash!

So, there I was at Safeway this morning after realizing far too early in the day that I was short every single regular breakfast item in our house – including coffee (which is entirely unacceptable in mommyville).
I’d had a request for breakfast sausage from the gallery. So, along with eggs, goat’s milk and the every-necessary [...]

Calling All Santa Fans!

BIG NEWS for all fans of the Claus.
Kris Kringle’s caravan will be headed through town to set up shop over at the Driftwood Mall tomorrow…
…and the big guy in red is looking to have as many kids as possible join him for the journey!!!
“NO WAY!” our daughter said this morning when I told her about [...]

Kids Books with Holiday Charm

Finding sweet, sentimental holiday stories for tiny people with a nod to tradition and a modern flair is no easy task. In the last couple of weeks I have pored through my fair share of seasonal tales.
I was completely impressed with the library’s wide range of stories of celebration from around the globe. But, while [...]

Sugar-Free Holidays

So, there we were – Christa and me – brainstorming at 11:30 p.m. when both of us knew we should be asleep.
What the heck was today’s post?
Then, just as she e-mailed me about her sugar-free baking experiments, I found myself recalling all of the conversations I’d had lately with moms trying to cut the sugar [...]

Bottle-cap Christmas Trees

Welcome to the first installment of Homespun Holidays!
Once a week for the next six weeks we’ll be offering up ways for you to build in family time, have some fun and personalize your holiday season with family-friendly crafts, eats and adventures.
Today, we start it all off with a craft favourite that I am personally quite [...]

Halloween Spookytacular – Plan Ahead for Christmas

CVK mom and family-friendly photographer extraordinaire Karen McKinnon is so very far ahead of the holiday planning game this year. We all are totally going to have to do some serious sprinting to keep up with her.
Actually, the sprinting is going to have to be in the direction of the phone (890-9222), e-mail (info@mckinnonphotography.com) or [...]