Christmas is over. I don't feel as though I've fully recovered, even though our (dead as a doornail) tree is down, the lights put away, the gifts stowed throughout the house.
I love Christmas, but it's exhausting to stay up until 1:00 in the morning putting together your daughter's art easel with 5,042 small pieces, only to be awakened by enthusiastic offspring before human o'clock.
I'm normally one of those annoyingly Martha Stewart Christmas people, who's all, "LOOK! I painted my own gift wrap!" and, "I knit you this queen sized afghan!" and, "I handcrafted this wreath out of locally harvested holly berries!"
I don't do it to be annoying. It's honestly fun for me to do these things, most of the time.
But this year was one of the lowest key Christmases we've had. And that's OK. I crafted exactly zero items. And while, yes, my gift wrap had a color scheme, I didn't make the paper myself, and I used stick on bows instead of elaborately styled ribbon. I didn't send cards. I didn't finish my one Christmas knitting project.
Let's see, what else?
I didn't have any ubiquitous blog posts about my holiday home decor. (But those are so fun to read, aren't they?) In fact, I barely posted at all.
I didn't get up early on Christmas to make my traditional coffee cake. (I did, however, make Creme Brulee French Toast.) (Keep in mind: I don't like French toast. This was for the enjoyment of others.)
I finished shopping on December 23rd.
And you know what? It was all OK. I let it go. We had a lovely Christmas.
I did go to one holiday party. And it was at the studio.
The studio tree is like the ugly Christmas sweater of Christmas trees. It's garish. Tacky. And amusing. Almost all of our ornaments were bought at a thrift store, and they are of the goggly-eyes-glued-on-a-walnut variety. (You can see more of them here.) We do treasure the handmade ornaments that many of you have sent us, though -- they're like old friends coming to visit!
As you can see on our Christmas tree, we ran around the studio, finding random items to include. Hidden in the branches are about 12 skeins of yarn, a large plush rooster with posable tail feathers, glitter sparkle tree branches, and bibs and bobs of ribbon and other detritus.
There is one thing that the studio knows how to rock, however. And that is food.
We had an epic brunch and cookie feast.
EPIC.
More (holiday?) decor. What is this woman? She is made of molded paper and is from the 1960s.
After brunch, we exchanged gifts, hauled out the projector and movie screen, and watched Christmas movies while trying to knit in the semi darkness.
I watched the movie Elf for the 600th time, and it never fails to make me laugh. Get two people together who enjoy that movie, and they will spend a half an hour saying things like, "Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?"
"Smiling's my favorite!"
"First I traveled through the seven layers of the candy cane forest, past the swirly twirly gumdrops..."
"You're sitting on a throne of LIES!"
Try it. If you're a fan, you know exactly what I mean.
On December 23rd, one of the best parts of Christmas finally made her entrance. She was more than a little tardy to the party. (Try more than two weeks late -- maybe she couldn't find anything to wear?)
One of our awesome team members, Heather, welcomed her first baby into the world.
And, oh heavens. She is precious.
Little Cecilia Scout (after the To Kill a Mockingbird character, perhaps?) weighed 7lbs, 1oz, and I would be happy to take her off her mama's hands for a week or seven.
Look at that one day old face. She could not be any sweeter or better smelling. (And I have held quite a few babies in my day.)
Who needs Christmas crafts when you can snuggle a new baby?
Here's what I did do this Christmas:
Ate too much. Marveled at how much children grow in a year. Shopped and wrapped and marveled at how fun it is to give presents you think the recipient will enjoy. Listened to 160 hours of Christmas music. Minimum. Marvelous. Attended school holiday programs where children sang loudly and with abandon. Marveled at how it's possible that we shipped nearly 1,000 packages in less than three weeks. Spent a quiet holiday with family eating, visiting, and marveling.
And it was perfect.