Happy Holidays Everyone!

The NakedTree

This year Christmas was unusual for we didn't follow many of the traditions usually associated with this day. Sure there was a tree which I thoroughly enjoyed decorating and here is the picture:

I have a long standing tradition that my tree is colorless except for the sparkles from silver or iridescent ornaments. This will be the last year with this tradition for my hubby would like to have some blue incorporated into the color scheme; I guess I can do that much! lol Not sure really how I'm going to execute that exactly but I have over a year to figure it out! This year I intended to add the blue but the one strand of blue lights I had decided to use called it quits.

Un-gifts

Here Christmas morning came and there were no gifts under the tree. No, we were not on the naughty list; Our family decided to try a new tradition this year. We have a small family but financially it starts to add up when you spend almost $200 on each person. My hubby suggested the new approach with drawing names and it has been fascinating adjusting to it.

First off, my family doesn't come down until January 6th so we won't be partaking any our Christmas celebrations till then. This is the first year I am not spending the actual dates of December 24 and 25 with them so that was another paradigm shift. Another one was the new format regarding gift giving for I picked one of my sons as my gift recipient and it was weird not shopping for my older son; that is his job for my youngest son drew his name.

The most bizarre part of the day was that there was no gift bought for my hubby from me. Normally I am shopping late in the fall for his stuff and this year nothing. Sure I baked his triple ginger cookies for that is always a give in but not one wrapped present under the tree. My husband broke the protocol and gave this to me on Saturday morning:

This was a double blessing for I had always wanted another one and I was able to use it to make his cookies!

Decorations

There has been an incredible change in my Christmas celebration in the outdoor decorating department. Until now I didn't have one single outside decoration for my home; I felt like the Grinch and my house looked like it too for it was bleak. This year I placed my tree in a visible spot from the street and put some lights up around the windows to make it festive; I really enjoyed the effect!

For my first time with outdoor decorations, I wanted to highlight the windows with a simple, classic and vintage form of garland. I still have doubts as to how to express myself artistically but I pushed forward with the vision I saw for the house. There was a woman that advertised making hand made cedar boughs to custom lengths so I got enough to do my fence as well. I saw on a Pinterest post that a woman took some cranberries and used them to accentuate her boughs and I loved the picture it made in my mind. All that was needed was the pine cones and I had a stash collected from my own tree in the front yard (pictured behind the fence) for it produced an abundant crop of them this year with all the wicked wind storms we had.

Here is what it looked like:

The Universe has blessed me incredibly over the last few days for I have had surges of joy run through my body when I look at my home. For an Un-Christmas this has been my happiest ever and I can't wait to see what the celebrations will be like once my family arrives! Despite this holiday not following any of my past traditions, there was still comfort and joy.

Today may I find comfort and joy in all places I don't expect to find it.