(Apologies, because this is obviously late and after-the-fact, but really too important to just skip over, so here we go...)
This holiday season, even though we were busy up to our eyeballs with C's final exams, his early departure for California, my crazy rotation schedule, C's birthday, my brother's birthday, C's father's birthday, C's nephew's birthday, and my travel plans (what a month-ful!), we decided to make the holidays as stress-free and festive as possible here, in Boston, together. I chose these cute, holiday post-cards that I had planned ahead and bought over Thanksgiving. They arrived wrapped in simple red and white twine, which I thought was such a simple touch that made it so festive.
This year, we also picked out our first REAL Christmas tree.
When I was growing up, my parents were anti- real Christmas tree. We had a nice, fake tree that we put up every year because a real tree was...well, wasteful. According to them, this real tree grows all year to be chopped in December and a few weeks later, dumped on the side of the road to become garbage. Were they right? Of course. Nothing screams "the holidays are OVER and done-zo!" as much as a crispy, browning, former shell of a Christmas tree, lying on the sidewalk on January 1st. But really, we had so much fun this year. The pines smelled so fragrant and many days, the highlight of my day was plugging in the Christmas tree lights in the evenings and admiring the full, beautiful branches. Here are some photos we took while picking out our Christmas tree in Sommerville.
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| me next to the tree we took home- what a true beauty! (the tree) |
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| C at the tree-mart. Trees for all, trees big and small! |
So, we drove it home on the roof of our car, carried it up 4 flights of stairs, and decorated it. We have a few traditional Christmas tree ball ornaments that we bought years and years ago from the drugstore but never used on a tree because well, we never had one! I used to place the ornaments in a shallow glass bowl on the coffee table during the holidays. They finally had a place on the tree this year. (Side note: unfortunately, Gregory, the cat, liked to bat them off the tree- peculiarly, only the gold ones. And I would find them shattered on the floor in the mornings)
One of the best traditions we started last year is buying one new novelty Christmas tree ornament every year and putting that on the tree. Last year, on our winter trip to Philadelphia, we bought a wooden snowman ornament at the Museum of Art gift store (after seeing an interesting exhibit by Michaelangelo Pistoletto) that was carved by artisans from one single piece of wood!
This year, we went to see the Nutcracker ballet (another yearly holiday tradition we started last year) and bought the most magnificent nutcracker ornament. He sparkles and is a working ornament. He has a string behind him that makes his arms and legs move. C made the mistake of showing the moving nutcracker ornament to Gregory and one morning, C found an ARM on the floor and the rest of the nutcracker hanging happily from the tree! That darned cat. The nutcracker is now fixed, fortunately, but the snowflake on his hat is secured with a green rubber band.
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Traditions: our two ornaments. And the nutcracker in his better day
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| Silent nights. Our beautiful tree |
We also enjoyed a great night of ice skating in Boston Commons when the entire rink was rented out for just for a few of us. It was a great night that was crisp and chilly, but not too windy at all. We also kept warm with some hot chocolate, french fries, and clam chowder. It was a great holiday season and though we weren't able to spend actual Christmas together, pre-Christmas-ing was pretty fantastic.
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| Monsieur Speedy learns to skate backwards this time |
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| A rare moment of me not clutching onto the wall or C, and actually not skating at a snail's pace |
