Tag Archives: holidays

a tangle of cords and ornaments

Christmas has left the building

Events, Family,

I just finished putting Every. Last. Item. related to Christmas back in the knee-wall. That’s not saying the attic is presentable, it just means that the Christmas stuff is put away.

Our decorations were kept to a minimum this year. We did put up a tree and hung our (okay, my) favorite ornaments on it. We didn’t decorate the other rooms too much, although this year I did force some paperwhites to bloom during the holidays. They are still going — one bud has not opened yet. And of course we brought out the kissing Clauses. I also decorated my Monkey Puzzle Tree.

Really glad the holidays are over, but they were manageable this year. We were lucky that Clare came out for Christmas and we were able to spend some time with her even though she was not feeling 100% most of the time.

Christmas stockings on mantle
Menu for 7 fishes
one cat in a box and another nearby
pavlova tiramisu
Clare
Monkey Puzzle Tree

[Not] Home for the Holidays

Events, Family, Musings, ,

It occurred to me after we returned from our almost spur-of-the-moment trip to Atlanta for Christmas (which was a lot of fun) that we may never again host Christmas/Christmas Eve in our house. It’s pretty clear that Clare won’t be returning for the holidays ever again and Andrew’s fiancé’s folks are quite invested in Christmas, so Andrew and Alex probably won’t be spending the holidays here ever again.

When I made that realization, I was really bummed. I felt sad and a little hurt. After all, we travelled to Illinois every Christmas for at least two decades even though I would have liked to create some Christmas traditions here in Bethesda with our kids.

After thinking about it though, I realized that we did make traditions in our home. It might not be on Christmas day or Christmas Eve (in fact that was a tradition in itself — having our personal Christmas after Christmas) but we still hung stockings on our mantlepiece and unwrapped presents in the morning of the day we designated our “Christmas”.

I don’t know what the future holds for subsequent Christmases — travel probably. Maybe we will go see Clare sometimes. Maybe Dean, Clare and I will rent a house somewhere warm for a Christmas someday. Maybe if A&A have children we’ll all gather wherever they are.