Quite possibly! We are six days out from Christmas & the house is in great shape. Okay, the heater conked out, but we are doing okay with it. The holidays certainly got a lot more snuggly! Even the cats are super bonding in a chilly living room, curled up together instead of grrrrrrrrrring at one another.
As always, the first two things to go on display - on the day after Thanksgiving - were the nativity (always the first up in the Lockhart household) and the little plastic Santa & sleigh with reindeer, Penny the flocked penquin nestled in the back, a long-standing Murphy tradition.
Last year's "I wonder..." turned into a solid hit in 2015. We haven't had a Christmas tree in over 8 years, ever since Max claimed it as his special climbing toy. But I missed seeing ornaments that hold memories for the two of us, separately & together. When I packed away last year's ornaments, I included a sketch of the long interior living room wall. Tiny clear lights were strung along the top of the wall, overlaid with "garlands" of little plastic icicles. Ornaments attacked to white ribbons hung down from them, against the white wall. What looked interesting on paper looks awesome in reality! The room is even prettier than when we actually had a tree - go figure.
The kitchen is clear & clean - yes, Scott, even the island! The living room is welcoming. Our bedroom is snug & the rest of the house is coming along very nicely.
Tomorrow, the Murphy Christmas village goes up over the pantry & all will be done.
Outside, we have our traditional red poinsettia wreath, with a garland of fake holly bush draped along the top of the brick planter, large clear bulbs cuddled close, with a string of tiny clear lights back lighting the pot of silk poinsetta. We are both pleased.
Everything looks stylish yet welcoming & all of it was easy to do. Which is one reason why we are - and have - enjoyed so many Murphart Christmases past & look forward to many more in the future. We keep things simple & take things slow. In lieu of sending Christmas cards, we send thank you notes - still have to deliver or send off the majority of them, but will be in the right hands before Christmas (which is a good thing, since a lot were writing on Thanksgiving or soon after!). And there are some people I chose to hold off writing to until after the new year, because that just felt like the right time for them.
For the first time since Mom was reunited with her O Best Beloved, we will not be spending Christmas Day with friends. It's been lovely to have that time with them & great fun to watch them surrounded by their family, but we are okay this year with "our family" being the two of us - and the cats & stuffies & dolls & backyard critters.
We will have breakfast with a dear friend, go to church - attending Christmas Day church has always been important to me, since I was a kid - and then head out with a full tank of gas for a leisurely ramble.
Had planned on going to NYC, but that seems a bit of a stretch. Then, we expected to wander up to Springtown at the tippy top of our county & meander home through Bucks - but we just rolled along that very beautiful stretch of back country roads yesterday!
Whatever we do, it will be filled with love & appreciation for the meaning of Christmas, focusing on the spiritual & intangible joys, including the amazing blessings we have in our interlocking merging converging circles of friends & cherished acquaintances.
We are blessed & we know it. Our thanks to All That Is for all we have & all who/that got us here.
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