Merriment

Our holidays were pretty quiet this year in terms of activities.  Jonathan had his kidney surgery in early December, spent a few days in the hospital and then the rest of December recovering.  So, knowing that Jonathan wouldn’t be able to lift anything heavy (like a 10-foot artificial tree—with, seriously, a 6-foot girth—boxed up on shelves hanging from the ceiling of our garage) we decided to go smaller this year and picked up a 6’ real tree—the change was fun and it took a lot less time to decorate.  We got down fewer of our boxes from the attic, too, but our house was plenty festive.  We didn’t head to any of our usual holiday sights—Gingerbread Lane, the bear orchestra in uptown, or even a play or show—but, we had a nice time making merriment at home.  The kids always say that decorating the tree is their favorite holiday tradition so we, of course, did that together (on a smaller scale, as mentioned), we made a few new ornaments (a scallop shell angel and melted crayon glass ball ornaments, though not pictured), we decorated graham cracker gingerbread houses and 2D houses, we baked cookies, we sang Christmas carols at the piano, and we enjoyed the quiet of advent.  Actually, we did get out for one show—and luckily it was more than a week after Jonathan’s surgery so was able to, gingerly, join.  Ella was in chorus for the fall semester and they had a little holiday concert.  Ella had even auditioned in solo to be able to sing in a small group for one of the songs—so proud of her moxie to sing in front of a large group.  Anyways, we had a nice holiday season, enjoying time spent together at home, caring for Jonathan and celebrating in our own quiet way.  Here are just a few photos I snapped here and there during the month of December.



{one of my favorite ornaments.}

{and why the above is one of my favorite ornaments…}

{ella’s chorus concert—front and center, she’s wearing a santa hat although you can just see the fringe.}


{graham cracker gingerbread houses—pinterest success, or at least good enough for our purposes.}






{our 2D decorated houses…jack actually ate most of his—talk about sugar overload.}