Every year, I usually ask the question: “When do you start decorating for Christmas?” and receive a ton of responses from folks on every end of the aisle. This year, though, I’m asking you this question:
When do you actually take down all of your holiday decor?
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Christmas Eve-Eve is, to me, almost as fun and exciting as Christmas Eve. This year, like year’s past, we made Christmas Fettuccine a la The Holiday and gathered around the dining room table to eat it.
The kids stayed with their aunt and nana that night, so it was just us and my mom and younger sister and her fiancé. It was a nice, adults-only evening where we listened to Christmas music and drank wine and cooked. My favorite kind of night
Alex, my best friend from high school and his wife and one-year old daughter were in town, so he stopped by after dinner to say hi for a few hours, and it was so nice to catch up after not seeing him in a few years.
I can’t think of anything better than spending the evening with good food and the people you love.
Wanted to pop in and say, from our family to yours, that we hope you have a lovely holiday. Stay safe, stay warm, and enjoy the most wonderful time of the year.
A sweet subscriber sent us the most delicious, if not the most creative gift in the mail the other day: little chocolate covered balls from our friends at Beekman 1802, appropriately called Goat Poop.
John’s note said when he saw these, he immediately thought to send them to us, and I’m glad he did. They’re so good! The container has a bunch of different varieties of chocolates and fillings based on the name of the goats in the herd.
For example, the one called “Hazel” is an artisanal producer of roasted hazelnuts covered in milk chocolate; the one named “Shadow” is made from toasted almond covered in dark chocolate; and one called “Talea” is made of sea salt caramel dipped in milk chocolate.
These things are so addicting and would make an unexpected, cheeky little gift this Christmas, don’t you think? Thank you so much, John!! These definitely put a few smiles on our faces.
While I picked up the house yesterday, I put on one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time: The Holiday. Anna and I watched it and ooo’d and ahhhh’d over Cameron Diaz and the little girls’ cool fort in their room. Of course, I fast forwarded through the parts that weren’t appropriate for a 4 year old, but overall it was so cute to watch her get into the movie.
I love introducing them to my favorite films. Most of the time they roll their eyes and say “Not again! Do we have to watch The Family Stone today?” but yesterday was actually a winner! She loved it. And I can’t think of a more perfect film to watch over and over again on repeat this time of year.
It’s quiet and cold this morning. The kitchen is somewhat messy, signs of life and fun from last night still all over the countertops. Our friends Matt and Beau are leaving today to go back to New Orleans for the holidays so we had a goodbye dinner last night and I made this recipe. It turned out well! Perfect for a cold winter night.
I looked at the calendar yesterday and realized we have less than two weeks until Christmas and we haven’t done any of our actual shopping yet. Why do we wait so long every year? Christmas has a way of sneaking up on me, I suppose because we’re so consumed with the craziness of the end of the year, and I seem to lose track of time this time of year. The plan is to get all of the shopping completed this weekend and to do what we can to relax and have a smooth rest of the season. We’ll see if it actually happens that way.
As the holidays are setting in, I hope they feel like the photo above: warm, cozy, relaxing. I want them to be filled with joy and laughter and kids playing and family time and cozy Christmas movies and pasta and wine and blankets and lots of hunkering down at home. Of course, there’s much more to life than warm and cozy feelings, and the chaos of the holidays are a great reminder of that, but I think the best we can all hope for is to have those moments sprinkled in with the rest of what life has to offer
That’s my wish this year: To appreciate all the moments that this season brings, the cozy and the crazy (which can sometimes be one in the same). Hamilton Wright Mabie said it best:
“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”
The Property Lovers is a daily blog by PJ and Thomas about our adventures as husbands and dads living in our small hometown, life in our 100 year old Craftsman, and fixing up our farm. Welcome!
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