Tag Archives: enjoyment

Yule Merriment

Me Myself and I, When I'm not so crazy, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I just wanted to share our Yule Celebrations (Solstice/longest night). Being pagan from Christian families, we celebrate both holidays.

We don’t buy presents twice over, and in fact I collect them all year long as I have a few dollars to spare here and there. However, we do split them into more than one night of gift opening for kids enjoyment, and also to draw out the suspense and excitement.

Because of my mom’s creativity growing up, and her thrifty skills, I’ve gotten very creative making a few dollars look like an abundant spread. Plus, I learned long ago that dollar store bags and tissue paper make gifts look much larger.

It all adds to the view and feeling of a prosperous holiday season, which in turn gets kids very happy and excited (and a little naggy).

Finally, we always save a few gifts and the stockings, so that Santa can visit us too. This year a client suggested we use the ash from our fireplace to make boot tracks where Santa would drop the gifts and enjoy a cookie. I loved the idea so much we’re totally doing it, and I’ve made several fires to make sure we’d have plenty of ash. It’ll be a mess to clean up later but totally worth it.

I just watched “Polar Express” with my two littles and I think it’s just what we needed to spark some more magic in our home and family. Playing Santa for my kiddos will stir their magical creativity for sure.

Nathan and Anya even made gluten free vegan cookies for Santa. Shortbread and peanut butter carob chip cookies- yum! Ian and Katie helped with the peanut butter cookies. Now he’s working on gluten free pumpkin doughnuts. Double yum!

Anyways, I’ll put pictures in a clump below.

May you have a magical holiday season and enjoy abundant gift giving. May your children appreciate all their gifts no matter how much resources it took to compile. May you know you always have enough and that your gifting choices are perfectly chosen. May you feel confident in your holiday preparations. And above all, may the Magic of this season fill your hearts and inspire great things in all those you love and care for. May we all feel our connection to the divine goodness this holiday season. May you know you are loved and cared for.

Om Shanti

My Buddy

When I'm not so crazy, , , , , , , , , , ,

The kitties got their yule present a few days early. It was a new cat tree. They had great fun breaking it in and got so frisky they almost toppled our holiday tree too!

I ended up catching my buddy cat in some adorable moments afterwards, once he’d run out of steam to play.

I love my super photogenic Buddy cat. I hope you find him as adorable as I do.

Early Decorating for Joy

Me Myself and I, My creations, When I'm not so crazy, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I decided to be an early bird. This year needs a little more cheer and light, and a week before I normally decorate is nothing. I might even leave them up until my birthday next February, we’ll see if I get sick of them before that. For now the extra pretties are very welcome.

This morning started with pancakes and dog loves. Even though Zen is a fairly large dog, he loves giving me hugs, and I don’t mind except when his paw catches a boob wrong. He loves me a lot, and I find him quite adorable.

Then once I got dressed decorating commenced. I got very sentimental and teary eyed when I realized this is the first holiday season I’ve been able to decorate my own home (not a rental house or apartment). It made up for the holiday seasons that we had nothing, and not even an good home.

Anya fluffed and lighted our cheap artificial tree. We’ve talked about having a fresh tree, but I am tapped out cash wise at the moment so that’s how we ended up with the one we did. As we were pulling decorations out of storage we discovered some damaged and broken, and some burnt out lights, but fortunately we had enough to do a good job decorating.

We all took turns putting ornaments on the tree, and I hung lights as many places as we could. We left two strings for outside and a tiny string for our wreath outside. Nathan will hang those sometime in the next few days. I got really emotional after doing the sliding door because it was so pretty.

Afterwards I spent some quality time with littles and kitties. It was a good day and my home feels like a home for holiday celebrating.

May you have fun decorating for holiday cheer. May you have plenty of quality time with your family. May beauty bring you joy and warm your heart. May you house feel like home. May you love your life and find reasons to celebrate. May you celebrate with joy and peace regardless of whether your home welcomes 2 or 20 or more. May you have everything you need and much that you want. May you know that God loves and supports you.

Om Shanti