One day it felt nothing like the Christmas season and suddenly it’s December 3rd, we have two (yes, two) Christmas trees in our home, mornings barefoot are freezing and the TiVo is so full of Christmas movies that I fear it’s survival through this holiday season time.
Welcome, Christmas!
We spent chunks of our weekend adorning trees and placing other miscellaneous Christmas decor around our home. We decided, albeit a bit sadly, not to put lights up, outside, this year. It’s a good decision, a smart decision, and as long as we are inside where it most certainly feels festive- it doesn’t really matter. Those rare times though, when we return home after dark, I know we will feel a twinge of sadness at being on of the few dark homes in the neighborhood. Thankfully, twinges only last until we are inside where the fir garlands, sparkly trees and other dots of festivity will fill our senses and chase them away.
As we are still in thralls (though nearing the end) of our legal battle for Gen, it’s a much more frugal Christmas than anyone would hope. In light of that, with friends being injured and off work, or being laid off, we are certainly grateful. We are trying to shift the focus to being both generous with the world outside of our family through acts of kindness and other, and creativity. We’ve shaped our advent activities somewhat like that, while also keeping with a few annual splurge like traditions…
Day 1: Decorate the Christmas tree.
Day 2: Get pajama’s, mugs of hot cocoa and snuggle down for a Christmas movie. {What about making some peppermint whipped cream to go with that cocoa?}
and so we did. Well, by “we” I mean Gen did. While it was technically my idea, I was sort of reserved about the whole thing. My husband, who hesitates to try new things, was even less enthusiastic. {There was a bit of 13 year old drama, initially, but i am happy to say that the Peppermint Whipped Cream was AMAZING!!!! }
Also, I should point out, we watch a significant amount of made for tv Christmas movies, this time of year. Honestly, Genny and I are somewhat obsessed with them and Chw is not too far behind us. Some of them are so awful, {Like Lifetime’s modern day remake of Little Women. My poor 13 year old Genny was devastated} but sometimes you find one that is really, truly worthy. Last night’s movie was one of those. Love at the Christmas Table was so cute, And really fun to watch. We LOVED it!
Day 3: Make cards for neighbors.
This will be interesting. We don’t really know our neighbors well, something I would like to change though it has just been easier not to.
Has your holiday season kicked off?
If you need other holiday inspiration, here is what is inspiring us, this season…
”I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes the day hard to plan.” E. B. White
Rainy Day in May... 
I'm working on getting to know the neighbors this Christmas too! I love that peppermint whipped cream idea. I definitely see that in my future!
It is well worth the try! Glad I am not the only one! Our generation really keeps to itself. So sad!
Our holiday hasn't kicked off and probably won't until Dec. 17 when we go to MI, we've decided not to decorate, since we'll be up there for almost 3 weeks. BUT I love hearing what's happening in your home, makes me feel like I have a little slice of heaven here in MO :)PS: we haven't gotten to know our neighbors either, but one set scares me :) lol
Oh, that's our issue too! We had AWESOME neighbors, on both sides of us… Then one set lost their house, and the other set moved and rented their house out. Honestly, BOTH sets of "new" (within the last year) neighbors have had issues. (police issues, domestic violence, theft, etc.)
Sheesh…. I am so behind on my blog reading! Our holiday season kicked off the day after Thanksgiving. We refuse to do the whole Black Friday thing. Rather, we stay home and put the tree up. Cause honestly, if it doesn't happen over a long weekend, it's not gonna happen!That evening, we watched "A Christmas Story" in memory of my mom. She loved the "how does a little piggy eat" scene. It probably wasn't as enjoyable this year as I would have liked, though, honestly. All through December we do an advent calendar. It's so fun for everyone to see the picture form as we turn the little boxes around. I absolutely LOVE Christmas!!!!