There. That says it all.
I just have no ideas for a catchy, or descriptive, title.
Holiday prep around here used to have a set of guidelines and processes. We’d always gotten out the lights and decorated the house the day after Thanksgiving, and we had usually gotten our tree by the first weekend in December. Those first two weeks in December were the best time to decorate since my daughter’s holiday concert was typically the second weekend in December. The children and I (both my own and the daycare kids I had) would make snowflakes from coffee filters and wrapping paper from paper grocery bags. We’d decorate the house with our “art”. Baking was a scheduled event and one particular CD had to be played every season. Sounds stifled when you read it, but it had a comfort to it. A scheduled, unhurried rhythm that got it all done.
As the children grew, things changed. We expanded our holidays to include our “family of choice” ( meaning our dear friends) and new traditions formed. Those traditions came fairly organically. Now that my children are grown and on their own, and the majority of our family of choice have moved to other states, our traditions have also changed. Just not as organically from my point of view. It’s taken me some introspection to get to where I am.
The first year we lived here we decorated everything. Everything!! Lights were everywhere and it was fun. We had a pretty good crowd of people visiting, so it felt right to be festive.
Last year we did very little. In fact, it was so bad I ended up going to the store at the last-minute and finding paper gift tags to hang on a tree just to say we had one. It was depressing, but we were traveling and I couldn’t justify putting everything up just to leave it while we were visiting our son.
This year, Hubby was too busy to really help, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the more I can do on my own, the better it will all be. To that end, I picked up lights that are easy to put on and decided that I’d take a “less is more’ tact with everything.
I was much happier this year with that. The whole pressure to have a perfect looking home or the perfect cookies or the perfect light display à la Good Housekeeping was trashed. I decorated to please me. Just me. If the kids liked it, then fine. If not, oh well. I bought new decorations and found new places for older things and did whatever I could (when I could) and didn’t beat myself up if it all wasn’t just perfect. I always try to do the best I can, but I didn’t berate myself if the results weren’t magazine photo worthy, especially if I liked them.
I guess the real point here is the evolution of my holiday and decorations in some ways reflects my life. When I was younger, it was all about structure and the children. As the kids began to fly the coop (and we did as well by purchasing a different house) my life was one big transition. Now that everyone has settled in for a bit, my life is … well.. what is it? It’s busier than I thought it would be, and it’s also quieter now and then; I find I have time to do what i want to do.
I supposed the goal for 2015 is to figure out just what I might like to do!
Snippets and Tidbits 