Creating Holiday Happiness

In a world where everything is filled with doom and gloom and terrible news and isolation and fear, I want to create some joy, dammit. 

I need to. 

I have been feeling really, really low lately. The cumulative impact of the pandemic is just weighing heavily. Teaching in person in a pandemic with soaring numbers and no testing and a film of rosy denial settled all over school is insanely stressful. I worry about getting sick. I worry about getting Bryce sick. I don't see anyone else, so I don't have to worry about that, but with the information out about possible long term cognitive impacts of the virus, I am TERRIFIED of getting it and also passing it to Bryce. He has a special brain. I like to think I do, too, but his mathy sciencey PhD-y brain is kind of our (gluten free) bread and butter. It makes me want to vomit and it makes me very upset to think that the job I absolutely love could change our lives forever in such a negative way. 

So, back to the idea of this post -- JOY, not further doom spiraling. 

I absolutely love decorating for Christmas. I love sending out cards, those photo cards that typically are covered in children. I love finding presents for people that I hope they absolutely love, and wrapping those presents in fancy ways. 

This year, we did a photo card again (we have one for every year since we were married, which is a fun little time capsule) but did not do a photo shoot. We did "photos of the pandemic" that we took ourselves because that's the kind of year this is. It wasn't funny or silly like previous years, although we could have done pictures of us in pajamas or business-up-top-and-cozy-bottoms. I firmly believe that my family of two can have these photo cards and illustrate that families come in different sizes. I get an insane amount of joy putting these together and sending them out, and then looking at each year (I have a box with now 12 years of cards).

 Here is the 2020 card:

 

I don't know why the text came out so insanely tiny on the back. But maybe it just makes it an extra challenge, like an eye test for the holidays. 

We don't have a tree yet. I am still mildly resentful about having to pick one up, by myself, at Home Depot last year. It had to be small so I could pick it up myself and shove it in the back of my Subaru, and neighbors who happened to be there helped me get it in too, but it was worth it to have an actual tree in the house. And, I guess, to save a somewhat scraggly last minute tree that ended up looking lovely in our living room, even from the deck outside: 

I didn't want to go get a sad tree by my lonesome this year. I wanted Bryce to have to get it, or go with me. But there was nowhere we felt comfy going, and so this weekend Bryce ordered our very first artificial pre-lit tree. It's 7 1/2 feet tall, which is the tallest tree we've ever had, and it is being delivered tomorrow. I have been assured that it's the environmentally-friendly option, that it will last year after year after year, but it still makes me sad that it's not real. Probably it will make me less sad when I'm not constantly watering it, sweeping up dead needles, freaking out that the cat may drink the tree water and die (not sure that's actually a thing), or worrying about fire hazards. And of course, not worrying about where in our yard to dump it when it's done. That always seems wasteful, although I like to think that putting it somewhere in the scrub brush area of our property it provides a habitat for...something. 

Otherwise, I've decorated up the inside, and even splurged on some new decorations for a spot I've been dying to decorate: 

Bryce has since put some fairy lights behind "Merry Christmas," which is lovely and cozy.

I guess I do have a little tree, but can't put any presents under it. 

Love our mantel decorations, including the card I received twice from the same friend that always has a place of honor in the middle.

The dining room side of the fireplace. Not sure if you can see that the little black owl statue on the right has a Santa hat on.

  

The world's tiniest reindeer pulls a ginormous sleigh, while I tempt fate with a zillion tiny fires.

And of course, our woodland critter countdown -- every day we pick a new critter from the bag. It's such a fun ritual!

The outside got a wreath courtesy of my mother-in-law: 

Lit at night(ish)

Iced in snow during the day.

I felt like we needed more. So I went out and decorated our skeletal bushes: 

And our pine tree out front:

 

And even our mailbox: 

I feel this overwhelming need, in a time where everything is so dismal, to spread joy and happiness everywhere I can. To make the magic of the holidays something special for a couple of 40-somethings without kids. Everyone deserves some magic!