The Christmas Season

The Christmas season had officially started in our house. Saturday night we held our annual open house and about 60 friends came out to help us usher in the Christmas Season,

We started this now annual tradition about five years ago. I don't remember the circumstances that led to our first open house, but it has become a bit of a tradition and our friends look forward to an evening of visitng, food and good cheer.
I enjoy the preparations (well, except for this year since I was sick), the shopping and cooking, but most of all, I enjoy entertaining and visiting and it always puts me in a festive mood.

One of the best things about having it so early in the month is that it forces me to decorate early and not let things go until the last minute. We put our tree up Thanksgiving weekend (yes, it's not real, but that's a story for another entry) and this year I purchased another tree for the back of our house. In this house, the tree has always graced the living room in the "Christmas Tree Window" that I insisted on when we were picking out the options when purchasing this house. We have a bay window on the side of the house that is very visible when driving up the street and also from the front of the house. It was the one option that I insisted on as I could picture the tree in it. Anyway, the back of our house, where we have an open kitchen, family room and breakfast room, seemed to lack the Christmas spirit. So we now have a tree in the breakfast room and I love it. It is festive and really makes me feel like celebrating.

We normally decorate the shed in our back yard since we have floor to ceiling windows in the breakfast room and you can see the shed easily. But with me being so sick, and my husband being away at a conference, and our son away at college, the shed did not get even a light on it. Usually our son makes certain that the shed is decorated in the style of the Griswolds from Christmas Vacation. I think we will leave it for him to decorate when he gets home.

So today, I am recuperating. While the cold is slowly going away, it is not gone yet and I am really worn out.