All I Want for Christmas

I am noticing that a lot of my blog titles are song titles or parts of songs. This is not on purpose in case you were wondering. Anyhow, that is just a small aside which has nothing to do with this post.

Did you know that I love Christmas? Well, I do. The photo above is one of my Christmas tree last year. It is not the best photo, but you get the idea. I am lucky to have a photo of the tree at all as the lights on that tree were the lights from hell. Yes, you heard me right. I said hell. I mean a strand or two seemed to go out every single hour and this is not a joke. I would buy new lights and the same thing would happen. Now, I am a perfectionist admittedly, but I finally had to reside myself to the fact that I was going to have a fully decorated tree with lights that did not work as the light situation was truly making me loony. Now this was easier for me to accept considering that I was out of town on Christmas day and for several days both before and after.

When I was moving back in August several of my friends, who assisted, kept saying that I had more boxes labeled Christmas than anything else. They may have been correct. Honestly I am not sure what was in each box as I do not collect kick knacks or the like. However, I do have a lot of ornaments. I collect these. People have been giving me these ornaments as gifts for years which makes it even more fun. I have the NYC taxi cab to represent my internship and time in the Big Apple. Then there is the Gingerbread Man with the AIDS ribbon on his chest to remind me of my time in Africa. There is the Christmas tree that my best friend gave me that is broken in the least visible of places and it reminds me of my time in New Orleans. See that is where that tree was broken. It fell on the hardwoods of my house there as I was putting it up.

Getting the Christmas decorations out every year is one of my favorite things. I love decorating my house and taking the trip down memory lane that many of my ornaments offer. Unfortunately, since all my stuff is sitting in a 10x15 storage unit this Chritmas I am missing doing this. Somehow, it doesn't feel quite like Christmas for me without such traditions. Then I recall several other years that I did not go through the motions that I mentioned above. There was my time in the Peace Corps where there was no traditional Christmas celebration for two years. I recall that I spent my second Christmas there seeing the Indian Ocean for the first time.

So this holiday season as I am missing parts of my traditions I am reminded that none of these things are truly what make Christmas Christmas anyhow. Everytime that I feel some tiny bit of longing I recall all that I truly have to be thankful for.

What traditions make it seem like Christmas to you? What are you most thankful for this year?

Family Fun

For those of you who follow along here on a regular basis or who know me personally know my best friend. If you know her then you know how incredible she is and if you do not know her then I wish you the opportunity someday. She is funny, caring, brillant, fun, a great listener, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Over the past few months, she along with her fabulous husband (whom I keep telling I want to clone, but he says he is too tired) and their lovely daughter have opened their home to me as well.

Since the selling of my home I have been staying with this lovely family of three. It has been nice to have such a support network at home as well as have a place to relax until I determine what my next move is. Many people ask how is it living there and I think that they are waiting for some huge drama to spill out, but it is perfectly normal and comfortable. We have decided that people really are not meant to live in their own little family units and that things work much better when there is a mini village to assist.

If you stop in over the holidays you will find all four of our stockings hanging by the fireplace. They are knit in lovely white, green, and pinks. Unless you looked very closely you would never notice the masking tape that my name is on. These are the types of things that Kristi will do to make sure that I feel at home. I will have you know that when the lettering on the masking tape did not match the embroidery on the other stockings close enough she did it again until she was happy.

So as I continue to play around with photography I had the honor of taking these three out to the park and trying to capture a few shots that they may find Christmas card worthy before the battery on my camera died. Note to self always travel with extra batteries. So without further ado please meet Kristi, Clint, Lillian, and stay tuned for the baby boy who will arrive in March.

Just Pay Half

I know that a lot of people are looking for ways to save money at the moment or at least get more for your money these days. Admittedly I am not a big coupon clipper or anything. However, I did come across this website the other day and I thought that I would share it. If you live in the Charlotte area this is a great way to get more for your money and also possibly try out some places you normally would not.

The basic idea is that there are various restaurants, salons, fitness centers, etc. featured and they are offering gift certificates. If the gift certificate is worth fifty dollars then you only pay twenty five dollars for it. Check it out if you are interested. There are a variety of price ranges available. There are some limits on how many you can order. Maybe one of these will make a nice Christmas gift for someone on your list.

Oh, speaking of gifts I have been checking out Etsy for some great gift ideas. If you have come across neat gift ideas or you are creating your own gifts I would love to hear about them. I am still trying to check off everyone on my list. Happy Shopping!

Halloween

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween! I'm looking forward to an evening of distributing candy to the neighborhood kids. I can't wait to see all the costumes. I tried to find a costume for Avery, but I couldn't find one large enough. She weighs over 40 pounds now. I am sure she is breathing a sigh of relief.