This isn't a normal holiday season. We didn't get to have family over for Thanksgiving and we're usually visiting our children in Maryland and Illinois around now. Last year we were visiting our son and his family and took a trip to Washington, D.C. to see the Ice Maze at City Center.
We then stopped in Illinois for a few days before heading home to Hawaii.
Missing my children and their spouses, grandchildren and friends who we loved visiting on the mainland and being stuck at home here in Hawaii didn't produce a lot of holiday spirit.
However, our daughter insisted we should put up the tree and carry on.
So we did.
And a funny thing happened.
It actually worked as the memories each ornament invoked nudged our spirits upwards.
It is good to make the effort. I wish you a good Christmas despite the lessened circumstances.
ReplyDeleteLove your Santa nesting dolls. Good for you to take on the season in the right spirit.
ReplyDeleteI read that the governor of Vermont asked residents to put up lots of lights this year to help lift people's spirits. They seem to have followed suit here in New Hampshire too but then never being here at this time of year I wouldn't know if it's more or less. They're pretty though.
ReplyDeleteMy new apartment doesn't have a place for a Christmas tree. The den would be perfect but there is only one plug in and I have a large strip on it and the entire strip is filled. The den used to be a patio and the former owner closed it in but didn't add any new plug ins. The one out there on what was once an outside plug on the patio is all there is. So I gave my Christmas tree to the homeless woman my congregation got a home for at Sycamore Landing. Others of the congregation gave her pieces of furniture for the apartment.
ReplyDeleteWe have a couple of decorations in common -- the reindeer and the nesting dolls. It is a kind of 'fake until you make it' Christmas this year, but it seems to be working to add what cheer we can.
ReplyDeleteI love your tree and your cool little Santa display, Kay! I sure am sorry you won't get to spend time with your kids, I'm sure things will look entirely different next year. I'm glad you didn't let this make you grinchy :^)
ReplyDeletePS. Love your holiday banner at the top too! How'd I miss that??
DeleteActually, I just put that banner up. Our neighbors give us a potted poinsettia every year.
DeleteIt's amazing how we think about Christmas in a geological location. I spent Christmas in the Philippines a handful of years ago and found it quite odd to not have snow, cold weather or decorated Christmas trees everywhere I looked. After a bit of time, I started seeing other things like lighted parols, roving bands of carolers, etc. that we never have back home that still made the season even if it wasn't like what I had always had.
ReplyDeleteOh Kay, I should send you a chanukiah (a Chanuka menorah) so you can have candles for 8 days and even more light in your home. Enjoy the holidays at home with Mom and Art! Love ya all.
ReplyDeleteHanukkah Sameach, Dina! It's so nice to see you again. I was wondering where you were since you haven't been on your blog in a year. I hope all is going well wherever you are.
DeleteYes, that holiday cheer is important in these dark days.
ReplyDeleteIt really helped to put up our decorations this year!
ReplyDeleteSpent some Christmases living in Honolulu as a little kid years ago and still remember swimming in the ocean on Christmas Day. Quite a treat for a kid from Seattle. Hope your Christmas spirit thrives, hugs.
ReplyDeleteYour tree and Santa display looks festive! Gotta Zoom the kids this year, so you can see them next year!
ReplyDeleteYour poinsettia header reminds me of one February trip to Hawaii. It was horridly cold in Kansas City, but in Hawaii, on the grounds of our Lahaina, Maui resort, there was a huge outdoor, natural, "always-there" poinsettia bush about 9-foot tall, full of blooms!
When I was raising my son, I couldn't afford a tree AND his presents. I borrowed a friend's tabletop fake tree and loaded it with lights, for TWO Christmases. (At least there were presents.) Now at 33, the son insists on a real tree in his own house. Interesting how he was ruined, supposedly. I now have a plastic official Charlie Brown Christmas tree...a breeze to set up.
Remember the good times! Cheers, Linda in Kansas
Lots more Christmas lights here, too, and especially the blow-up figure displays. My goodness, where do they get them all?!! We put the tree up early to try to get out of a funk from not being able to spend Christmas as usual — with family. It worked for us, too. Not sure the needles will still be on the tree by the 25th, but it’s done its job already.
ReplyDeleteYes, everyone seems to need holiday cheer, and I too am enjoying our tiny tree.
ReplyDeleteWe get our cheer where we can this year and just think how amazing next Christmas will be. We will appreciate it so much more.
ReplyDeleteAn ice maze! That sounds amazing. I too was supposed to be somewhere else, and have decorated a little. (but no tree) What I've done is going to be enough for just me.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you put up your tree and decorated. I think it's very important that we don't diminish the holidays any more that we are forced to. We have trimmed the house out totally, just like every Christmas, and we a re loving the ambiance.
ReplyDeletei can't see my kids and one is 2 blocks away and the other is about 10 minutes away. it's so sad. this is the first year that i won't have a tree. i just can't do a fake one and i can't go out to get a real one.i did decorate my mantels though. and my front porch. and my patio.
ReplyDeleteI don't ever put up a tree, but I do have a few ornaments and whatnot that I add for cheer. This year I've been lax, but you just made me realize that, of any year, this one is an important one to elevate. All my blogging friends are giving me some of their cheer! Sending you lots of hugs. :-)
ReplyDeleteHot and humid here but our tree will come out of hiding and hopefully be reunited with all its dangly friends by the end of the day. Just have to muster up the energy to retrieve it and the ornaments from the garage. If not today there’s always tomorrow:)
ReplyDeleteMaybe (if you don’t do it already) you could always connect via zoom/FaceTime, show off the tree and toast each other that way.
It looks like people are finding some good things to do for Christmas under the circumstances.
ReplyDeleteIt is as if we are clinging to Christmas as the last toe hold to what was normal. That, and looking forward to a new year which HAS to be better, right?
ReplyDeleteAll the lights going up and coming on have made me smile.
ReplyDeleteThe spirit is still the same even we have to celebrate Christmas virtually.
ReplyDeleteVaccines and a new administration are very close! Best wishes for a wonderful year ahead after all of this trial 🤙🏽
ReplyDelete