Welp, we’ve added the downtown Christmas carousel, my ladies weekend getaway, and the Nutcracker to the list of things we didn’t do in 2020. Bah. Humbug. I’m a sucker for the holiday fanfare and have missed the glitzy lights, the merriment of evenings spent with our closest friends. BUT (COVID is all about finding the “but”) this December has still been full of wonder, in a quieter, simpler sort of way. Our wide-open calendar has given us space to pause and drive straighter to the core of advent in meditating upon Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.
Juliette made an advent wreath at the beginning of the month and we created a nightly ritual of lighting the advent candles at dinner each night, starting with Hope and making our way closer to Love with each passing week.
I saw something on Instagram at Thanksgiving about using M&M’s and a cue card to play a game of gratitude and we did something similar during the week of Hope, each of us picking an M&M from a bowl after dinner and using this card to share some of our deepest (or lightest!) hopes.
Juliette and I jotted down a note before bed each night and hung it on our Advent Tree – she went big with her first hope:Â I hope we have a good Christmas and COVID gets better and we have a good new year.
There’s been plenty of Christmas fluff, too – this is the year I found the time to play Elf on the Shelf, hiding this guy around the house each night to be sought out by Juliette each morning.
And so much Christmas crafting! Dried orange garlands and sugar cookies and our best-ever gingerbread house.
We worked hard on our mantle game.
And Juliette wrote a very polite letter to Santa with some modest requests.
I’ve been getting up early to sneak in a walk before work and feel a happy buzz when I walk by a house that has left its lights on through the wee hours of the morning.
As winter approached and the sun rose later my walks got darker, but there were a couple of days when the full moon lit my path.
…and then dawn broke. So good.
I see you, Rainier, and I love you!
We’ve fought the urge to hole up entirely and have done plenty of traipsing through Schmitz Park.
And, bonus:Â a wide open lawn at the end of the trail!
There she goes.
We did a short hike at Twin Falls on a chilly Sunday.
And then there are some traditions I fought to keep alive, like the trip out to our beloved tree farm at Mountain Creek. I snagged one of the last early-December weekend reservations, we made the drive, and then masked up to hunt for the best Grand Fir we could find.
Found it!
No hot cider this year, but the mountains were as lovely as ever and they still doled out candy canes as we left.
And then…tree trimming! Crank up the Charlie Brown Christmas, Shane.
Opening up our ornament collection and spreading a lifetime’s worth of memories out on the living room floor is one of my most cherished traditions.
Juliette and I have sister bunny ornaments who have taken on personalities of their own through our goofy role-plays – Phoebe and Monica have very strong southern accents and love to go dancing downtown late at night.
SO COZY.
We brought some extra twinkle to Juliette’s room and though I think these lights are entirely too bright to leave on while sleeping, she insists.
The ginormous downtown light show at CenturyLink Field was cancelled this year, but we made do with a nighttime stroll through our neighborhood with the Rusts. Our neighbor’s collection of inflatables grows with each passing year.
And this sweet house! Shane runs by this place nearly every day and watched this woman spend two weeks stretching lights across her lawn and house.
And finally, COVID can’t stop the annual Mama-Jules slumber party by the tree to celebrate the onset of Christmas break.
We actually spent most of last weekend laying on the living room floor, reading and playing cards and snoozing there Friday and Saturday night.
We climbed out of our blanket nest on Sunday morning to eat our doughnuts from 9th and Hennepin and Juliette declared the Pannetone raised glazed a favorite, because the whipped cream on the side “had a texture that’s very soothing”. A budding food critic, this kid…
I suppose the holidays at home ain’t so bad – it suits my introverted side and the extra time to reflect has mostly done me good. But come Christmas 2021, you better believe we’ll be shouting Hope, Peace, Joy and Love from the rooftops like a flock of pink-coated Santas atop a herd of rainbow unicorns.
