The Holidays at Home

Home. The word itself makes me feel loved and happy. I feel protected and comfortable in our house, decorated for the holidays, full of love, warm and familiar. Every year, I have the opportunity to do the traditional things associated with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. I pick and choose those activities that give me the most joy, and I don't do everything. Trying to do everything just makes me feel stressed and anxious. This year, we were traveling during Halloween and Thanksgiving, so I didn't decorate for either of those, nor did I make any of the specific favorite foods that I usually make or pass out candy. When we returned on December 5th, I prioritized getting the Christmas decorations up, since I usually do that on the day after Thanksgiving. We never have a tree; our first cats would have destroyed it, but I've gradually come to my current level of the holiday spirit. Seeing the lights and the festive decorations gives me a lift during a dark and cold time of the year. It's easy to become depressed here because of our near-constant cloud cover and rain, and our short days that are even darker under the clouds.

The hearth, with cedar garland and pine cones.

The sunrise inspired me.

Wine helps with the Christmas spirit when decorating.

Ready for the holiday.

I change the pillow cases and add a slipcover for the sofa.

I put ornaments in dishes around the room, since we don't have a tree.

Festive pendant lights and a gnome cookie jar.

My mom left us with a lasagna for when we returned home.

We also prioritized visiting with our friends and family that we haven't seen in months. Usually that involved either going out for a meal, or sharing a meal at home. I also love cooking with my full-sized kitchen after months in the R-Pod. I treasure the tradition of making cookies with my mom, usually in her kitchen. We made six varieties this year. I typically give some away as gifts. Our financial planner and a close friend scored a tin this year. We had to meet with our planner to make some changes before the end of the tax year. Cedar also had a fun trip to the veterinarian for his annual checkup. A lot of things got squished into December along with my holiday activities because we were gone for so long. 

Heading down to the Jewel Box for a crepe breakfast with friends.

Warm and comforting, cabbage patch soup and a candlelit table.

Christmas Butter Crisps (our traditional cookies).

Crushed, sliced almonds for the thumbprint cookies.

Mixing up the next batch.

He's too comfortable to pay us much attention.

Rolling the lemon cookies.

The frosting operation.

Mom does the base, I add the flair.

The final product.

Arepas for dinner.

Breakfast arepas the next day.

The view from our financial advisor's conference room.

We eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory after we meet our financial advisor.

Half mushroom, half mizithra.

Winter squash and mushrooms with fresh pasta and sage cream sauce.

Cauliflower-cheese soup with a blue pear salad.

Naps during the holidays are the best.

A friend joins us for dinner.

Pasta with veggie sausage and kale.

Lunch at the Red Hot with Mom and Dad.

Pizza (frozen from last time I made it) and a green salad.

Chili dog (vegetarian brat). More salad (greens from the farmer's market).

Mushroom quiche and the last salad of the year.

The actual holiday celebrations were quiet and cozy. Our family usually does our main celebration on Christmas Eve, with appetizers, wine and cocktails. Christmas Day was my mom's day off from cooking, so we always eat take-and-bake pizza on Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve.

Yummy wine.

The end of the night. Not much left.

Drink options.

Chili is cozy.

Waiting for Santa.

Christmas morning means cookies and coffee.

We call Russ' family on Christmas morning.

This year I had my book club meeting on the day after Christmas, so I took advantage of the holiday to serve goodies as our snacks. The host is responsible for the food, and I was happy to volunteer to host with so many good things ready for sharing. We were also gifted with some delicious boozy eggnog for the meeting. The overall consensus was that the book choice was depressing after a difficult year, and we picked a shorter, more amusing novel for the next one.

A cheese board is festive.

Discussing the novel.

He didn't read the book, but he likes company.

Dinner out at a favorite local pub, The Thirsty Hound.

Key Lime pie hits different now.

His gift to himself. For garden weeds.

Breakfast at the Hob Nob.

Friends at breakfast.

Hey!

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Western Gray Squirrel.

Wright Park in Tacoma.

The pond in winter.

Cold air and cold water, but the ducks don't mind.

Weeping willow.

Bright sunrise.

Fried bologna sandwich.

It's his birthday.

At Terry's Office.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Day with family.

Black-eyed peas. It's tradition.

New Year's is my favorite holiday. I love the idea of starting fresh and looking forward to the future year. We usually open our house to friends and family on New Year's eve; this year was a quiet one. We didn't prepare for a big party, partly because the month was short for us, so we just had a few people ring in the changing year with us. I actually enjoyed sitting at the table and completing my planner updates and deciding on my theme for 2026: take care. I will take care of my body, my mind, my emotions, my friends and family, my community and the environment. New Year's Day always includes eating black-eyed peas as our family tradition. For me, this year also includes doing the Daily Stoic New Year, New You Challenge, which I've considered before, but never committed to. This year I am committed.