Paper Chains

Well, my first Christmas alone, or "single" as I guess they might say and it was my Son's first Christmas with myself and his Dad apart. This meant new everything to him. Routine and traditions up until now were questionable and it seemed to me like a good time to switch it up a bit. I was really stressed out about this for a long time. More then I could probably admit. I was worried about him, but I guess I was also pretty worried about me. What do I continue to do? Should I take this opportunity to change things? Would I upset Charlie if I changed anything?

The other thing for me, was that it's been a pretty strange month and half, and a tough year all around really. I was kinda faking my Christmas spirit this year. That's not like me. I was going through the motions if you will. I have about 4 rubbermaid bins of decorations, 2 trees, a box of garland and a bunch of items that don't fit in bins and none of that includes ornaments, lights, wreaths and seasonal towels/linens. I got my trees up. That felt good. There were a few little decorations I put out as I thought of them but I just didn't feel like trying to figure out where to put anything. I had no energy and I had no desire to dig through bins of memories.

But Charlie, being the incredible spirit that he is, inspired me. Kids will do that to you in strangest ways and this one never ceases to amaze me. We were out shopping when he started talking about decorations. It hit home as I realized that beyond the trees, I hadn't made very much of an effort to embrace the season thus far. And like I said, he is 6, prime Christmas age. We watched "Elf" that night and I just love the scene when they wake up in the morning and there are paper snowflakes everywhere. It's breathtaking. I said to Charlie, we should do that. His eyes sparkled. I knew this was going to get us in the spirit.

And so we went to work. Because we were hosting Christmas dinner, we decided to make the dining room the most festive place to be. We cut strips of coloured paper and spent a few nights stapling chains together. We had to stash the chains away in the closet some nights when we knew Grandma and Grandpa were coming over so they didn't see everything before it was ready. Then, the weekend before Christmas, we started to hang them. It looked incredible. I wanted paper snowflakes too but we ran out of time. That was until my friend Michelle (AKA Edward Scissor Hands), came over on Christmas Eve and helped make it a reality.

It looked spectacular. In fact it's still up because I can't bear to take it down.

I think what makes me so happy with this is the simplicity. This is what I wanted - what I needed really. Colour. Fun. Whimsy. Love. Creative. Spirit. Energy. Simple. It makes me smile. My tiny house is very quickly becoming quite the little home. This is the energy that I hope to continue to invite in 2016. Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year. 

And a shout out to Michelle (and Kim cause if she was here she would have helped) for helping me with the snowflakes. Eddie Freak n' Roid Paper Snowflake Manufacturers. Est. 2012. I just realized I didn't put my banner out. Ah...Memories.