Tis the Season

Today I spent most of the day decorating the house for Christmas. I have lots of ornaments - I collect Hallmark ornaments, Radko Ornaments and Thomas and I also collect pairs of ornaments when we travel. I spent a lot of time just unpacking things. The ornaments are kept in their own boxes so I have to unwrap them. I put up two trees - one has all the Hallmarks ornaments and the other one has all the other ornaments. One tree is completely done now. That is the Hallmark tree. We also got those boxes back into the attic and out of the way. Some of the Hallmark ornaments don't go on the tree. I scatter those around the house on shelves and tabletops. I also got wreaths up on the doors and a few other decorations put up around the house. Tomorrow I hope to put up the second tree and get the rest of the decorations up as well.

I really enjoy decorating and it usually takes me two to three days. Partly because I look at each ornament and reflect on where we got it or why we got it. Putting up the ornaments really bring back memories and get the holidays off to a great start. We are planning to drive to Louisiana to see my family for Christmas so we really only have about three weeks to enjoy the decorations. So if we can finish decorating the house tomorrow we can just sit back and enjoy them and have time to do some shopping and do some other holiday things. Well here is to a great holiday season.

The Christmas Season Begns

Well, its Black Friday and I didn't step one foot into any store. Honestly, I just don't get it. Stores are open every single day. Do you really have to get up at 4:00am to go shopping? I don't care what kind of deals they are having, the idea of this is just ludicrous. And it's not just the getting up and out to the store so early, it's the crowds and the pushing and lines. I think I will leave my Christmas shopping for another day.

So instead I stayed home and worked on some things around the house. One thing I did was get the Christmas decorations out of the attic. I got the tree set up but the ornaments won't go on until tomorrow. I also got wreaths on the doors and a few other things up around the house. I am looking forward to the holidays and I love the way everything looks with all the decorations - just so festive. I am hoping to finish up tomorrow and have the boxes back up in the attic. That way I can just sit back and enjoy them.

We don't have a lot of exciting things planned for the holidays yet but we do have a few. Dinner with friends on a couple of weekends. A play and dinner with cousins in Albuquerque. And we will be traveling back to Louisiana to spend Christmas with my family. I am hoping that the holidays are relaxing and fun. Sometimes you try to do too much and it just becomes too stressful - I am going to work hard on avoiding the stress. So here is to a happy holiday season.

Christmas Eve in Santa Fe

Each year on Christmas Eve there is an area of Santa Fe that decorates their neighborhood with farolitos. Thousands of people descend upon this area and walk the streets admiring the wonderful glow coming from all the little paper bags filled with sand and a candle that line the streets and walkways. It is a perfect way to spend the evening. There are usually bonfires (luminarias) burning at different spots along the route to allow people to warm up as they enjoy their stroll. And you will hear Christmas Carols being sung all around you. It is the best reason to be in Santa Fe for the holidays.

Usually Thomas and I travel to Louisiana to spend Christmas with my family. I come from a large family - my dad is one of eight and when you add the spouses, grandkids, great grandkids and significant others we usually end up with close to 100 people for our annual Christmas Eve celebration. Until a few years ago one of my aunts would have this at her house, but it finally became to big of an ordeal and the eight brothers and sisters decided to take turns hosting the night. One of the changes involved renting a hall for the night so that we had the space to actually enjoy ourselves. Everyone also contributed decorations that get passed around each year so that we can decorate the hall so that it is more festive. We also do a potluck so that one person doesn't have to do all the cooking. We always have a good time and it gives me a chance to see everyone in one place instead of having to find the time to visit all of my aunts, uncles and cousins seperately. This year we decided to stay in Santa Fe for the holidays since we were in Louisiana in October for my dad's wedding.

On Monday night and Tuesday morning of this week we had as incredible snowfall. Tuesday afternoon and today was sunny but the temperatures stayed in the low 30's so we still have most of the snow on the ground - everything looks so beautiful and what a treat to have a white Christmas. Tonight Thomas and I left the house at 4:30pm so that we could make our dinner reservations at 5:00pm at Cafe Paris. We enjoyed a great dinner and dessert and just chatted about nothing in particular. It was very relaxing. Afterwards we walked through the Plaza and made our way to Canyon Road. We strolled slowly along Canyon Road stopping every now and then to enjoy a bonfire or take a picture of the farolitos. It was quite crowded but still very pleasant. Quite a few people were singing Christmas Carols as we passed - it was not always the most pleasant sound but it was fun. At some point we made our way over to Acequia Madre, which was much less crowded. We stopped to take pictures a couple of times and then finally made our way back to the Plaza and our car. We ended the night by attending an Open House at our friends, Diane & John's house. We visited for about an hour and then headed home - by this time we were tired and cold and were ready for our warm house. It is always nice to spend the holidays with your family, but Thomas and I can't always make it to Louisiana for Christmas. And besides Thomas is my family, so enjoying the holiday in Santa Fe with him is very special.

So Merry Christmas from Santa Fe. I hope your evening was as pleasant and special as mine was. I hope Santa is good to each and everyone of you.

It's Christmas Time

Well I finally got the house all decorated for Christmas and all the boxes back into storage. I gave the house a good cleaning and then decided I wanted to take some pictures. I have a lot of decorations and I didn't even put everything out. I also have a lot of ornaments - I collect Radko and Hallmark Ornaments. This year I decided to only take out what I needed to decorate the trees and leave the extras in storage. Just because I have all of these decorations doesn't mean I have to use all of them each year. I decided I could change things a little each year and it would be something new without buying new stuff. Anyway, I digress, here are some pictures of some of the decorations.