Did you feel like the holidays snuck up on you this year too? Jeff was busy making orders and I was busy shipping orders, working hard to get everything mailed out in time. (Thank you to everyone who supported our family business this holiday season, and for your continued support over the years, it truly means so much to us.) The boy had extra holiday activities I was bringing him to, and in between all that we were working on some holiday crafting in little pockets of time. I was wondering when I was going to get the chance to get all our gifts for family finished up and mailed out. We all got sick, and ended up getting our tree and putting it up later than we ever had before. By the time Christmas rolled around, we were all pretty grateful for a mellow Christmas at home.

And then I wasn’t ready for it to be over. It just got here… we just put our tree up… (We are all enjoying our tree so much, it will still be up for awhile.) I have always wanted to string popcorn for our tree, and we did that this year for the first time. (You can see one little popcorn garland in that first picture, as we started hanging some up, in various lengths, all over the tree. Oh, and our guitars hang on that wall in the living room, thus the guitar in the background.) It amazed me that something so simple- some popcorn and some red thread- could look so beautiful strung all over our lit-up tree. It gave the tree such a full and cheery look, and was such a nice addition next to all the ornaments. I could hardly believe we had never done that before. (Next time I want to string some cranberries too.)

That’s what I really needed during the holiday season this year- enjoying simple things with my family- drinking hot cocoa, snuggling up on the couch to watch a favorite movie, caring for one another while we were on the mend, and yes- stringing popcorn. This weekend we’re savoring all that- the slowing down and the home time- just a little longer. One of my weekend projects is thank you cards, the boy and I have been making cards together to send to family and friends. Next week activities start back up again, orders need to be mailed out, and I have plenty of cleaning (and other things) to catch up on, but for now I want to linger a bit more. On second thought, though, some deep cleaning and organizing is much needed and might have to begin this weekend…