Enriched Family Holiday Gift Guide 2021

The holidays are a wonderful time to find thoughtful gifts for our loved ones, but this time of year can also be overwhelming. Add on likely shipping delays due to global supply chain issues and Hanukkah arriving on the heels of Thanksgiving this year, I figured parents could use some gift idea help. With this thought in mind, I have created the third annual Enriched Family Holiday Gift Guide (for kids - up to tweens/teens). In this feature, I’ve updated previous years’ posts and included new ideas. I’m sure y’all already know the list of toys that your kids are clamoring for, so I have focused largely on educational and experience gifts, along with some great graphic novel, book, and magazine recommendations. I have tried to include gifts at a variety of price points. Please note, I have included links to Amazon (where available) simply for ease of finding and pricing the various gift ideas (not affiliate links). Many of these gifts can be found locally as well. I have girls (ages 9 and 12), so some of the gift ideas are informed by their interests, but most suggestions would be great for all kids.

Enriched Family Holiday Gift Guide for Kids 2019

The holidays are a wonderful time to find thoughtful gifts for our loved ones, but this time of year can also be overwhelming. With this thought in mind, I have created the second annual Enriched Family Holiday Gift Guide (for kids - up to tweens/teens). I’ve updated last year’s post and included some new ideas. I’m sure y’all already know the list of toys that your kids are clamoring for, so I have focused instead on educational and experience gifts, along with some great book ideas. I have tried to include gifts at a variety of price points. Please note, I have included links to Amazon (when available) simply for ease of finding and pricing the various gift ideas. Many of these gifts can be found locally as well. I have girls (ages 7 and 10), so some of the gift ideas are informed by their interests, but most suggestions would be great for both boys and girls.

Enriched Family Holiday Gift Guide

The holidays are a wonderful time to find thoughtful gifts for our loved ones, but this can also be overwhelming. With this thought in mind, I have created the first Enriched Family Holiday Gift Guide (for kids - up to tweens/teens). I know y’all know the list of toys that your kids are clamoring for, so I have focused instead on educational and experience gifts. I have tried to include gifts at a variety of price points. Please note, I have included links to Amazon (when available) simply for ease of finding and pricing the various gift ideas. Many of these gifts can be found locally as well…

Holiday Season Organizing Tips

Whether you are hosting or travelling this holiday season, I always recommend a little pre-holiday season organizing. Included are some quick tips to get your household and family ready for the holidays..

Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup: Delicious, Vegetarian Side Dishes

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. I love coming together with family and friends to share a meal and focus on our many reasons to be grateful. While I am a vegetarian, my husband and children are not. Without the centerpiece of turkey on my plate (I substitute with "nurkey") my focus has always been on the side dishes. Below is the tried-and-true menu of recipes compiled over the years that we will be having at our house, as well as some new recipes that we might try out this year.

Cooking, Family, Recipes, Menus, Holiday Traditions, ThanksgivingEsha ClearfieldNovember 12, 2018Thanksgiving recipes, Thanksgiving

Get Lucky in 2018! New Year's Day Brunch Recipes

Whether it is a small gathering of just our nuclear family or a larger event with friends and neighbors, we like to start the new year right with a New Year’s Day Brunch emphasizing lucky foods. The menu is eclectic, but definitely favors our southern roots. It has just the right mix to ensure luck, love, progress, and success in the new year…

Holiday Traditions, Menus, Recipes, CookingEsha ClearfieldDecember 29, 2017New Year's Day Brunch Recipes

Non-Traditional Christmas Eve/Christmas Menu

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are all about Thanksgiving in my house. Hands-down, it is my favorite holiday. We cook for a week in anticipation of that meal. In the past, we did a repeat variation of Thanksgiving for Christmas Dinner, but years ago, roughly coinciding with having a toddler and a young baby underfoot, we threw that idea out and decided to go for something far simpler and non-traditional that would stop stealing Thanksgiving's thunder and create its own. These days, we take an Italian-inspired approach. Christmas Eve is focused on pasta and seafood + artichokes, my favorite. The recipes we will be having this year are...

Our (mostly) Vegetarian Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. I love the idea of coming together with family and friends to share a meal and focus on our many reasons to be grateful. While I am a vegetarian, my husband and children are not. Without the centerpiece of turkey on my plate (I substitute with "nurkey") my focus has always been on the side dishes. While the decadence of the carb-bomb of Thanksgivings past is certainly something I have enjoyed, these days I try to make a more healthy-ish meal. Without completely tossing the carbs, my compromise is to up the vegetable quotient of the dishes I serve.

Below is the tried-and-true menu of recipes compiled over the years that we will be having at our house...

Cooking, Family, Recipes, Menus, Holiday TraditionsEsha ClearfieldNovember 20, 2017Thanksgiving recipes, Thanksgiving

Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead

On November 1st, the girls and I created our annual Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead altar.

Día de los Muertos is typically celebrated between Halloween and November 2nd in Mexico (where the holiday originated) and in many other Latin American countries, as well as among Latino communities in the United States. There are many similar traditions in other cultures as well. The general idea is that the separation between the living and the dead is lifted on All Hallows Eve (Halloween), All Saints Day, and All Souls Day (November 1st and 2nd) and the spirits of the dead return to visit the living.

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