Sparkly In-Home Holidays

Hi! I ate 6 sugar cookies yesterday and 7 today and the semi-sick but also satisfied feeling in my stomach as I look at our sparkly redesigned living room made me miss you all and this space and the posts of the same traditions I write every year.

So much about this year is different, but we decorated the tree while listening to the Raffi Christmas Album and I made my quadruple batch of sugar cookies and nearly broke the kitchenaid and it was nice to have something that is exactly the same.

I rolled and cut and baked while James hung Christmas lights in the front yard and the kids raked leaves and the sheer normalcy of it was soothing to my soul.

The cookie decorating also went as expected. James made an anatomically correct gingerbread man and Landon found it so hilarious he almost could not recover.

Cora, my meticulous 7-year-old, decorated exactly 4 cookies over 90 minutes and ate 2 immediately. Claire decorated a solid dozen and managed to eat 5 before I realized how many she'd downed.

And I, I decorated all 100 of the rest. Which is only fair, since I seem to do most of the eating.

I continue to work from home. It's safe and I'm thankful for the care with which my agency has approached this pandemic, but as an extrovert I feel a bit like I am slowly dying inside. And the holidays- with their whirwild of parties are usually SUCH a battery charge for me, even in a normal year of going to work each day, teaching at two different yoga studios, attending two different school's PTA Board Meetings, and meeting up regularly with family and friends, and well, I've been a bit dreading the loss of my surge of happy sparkly extrovert endorphins.

But I decorated the house and the sparkle gives me a lift every time I walk through the living room, which is often, because I drink 650 cups of tea a day and live for the change of scenery that is walking to the kitchen to make it. AND I get to make it instantly with my instant hot water dispenser that James got me for Christmas last year and my dad installed and it makes me SO HAPPY.

Like little puffy emoji hearts burst from my eyes everytime I turn the handle and steaming hot water comes out. It's 200 degrees of joy on tap.

Other pieces of happiness: our advent calendars.

Since so much of our traditional holiday fun is canceled this year, I decided we should all have an advent calendar to brighten December. James got one with tiny Bonne Maman Jams and Preserves he eats with breakfast each day, the kids are taking turns opening a Lego calendar that is the highlight of each morning, and I got this one from Adagio Teas. We're on Day 7 and I'm still SO excited to wake up each morning and see my new tea. So far I've had five I never would have purchased (Blueberry White; Caramel Candy Apple; Cranberry Black) and they have been SO good.

Also, Moose wearing a holiday sweater with a MOOSE on it.

And the fact I got Maggie a matching one after she seemed jealous of his.

I can't imagine why I didn't just get Maggie one in the first place, but I think I had a moment of misplaced frugality when matching Christmas sweaters for the Rescue Pets were obviously never going to be the place for that.

Moose also got a Christmas stocking and now all seven are hung by the chimney with care.

It's his first Christmas and he is filled with holiday spirit.

In much bigger projects, I started working with a designer in the neighborhood to rework our living room. I never felt like we used the space well - it's so long and narrow and SO open on the sides I just couldn't figure out how to fit a second couch in and hated how the one we had chopped the room in half. So I just left it as it was and have spent the last 8.9 years wishing I could think of a better solution.

Enter Melodye. She looked at our space and current furniture, got my budget, and then sent me a drawing of the redesigned space largely repurpusing what we already had. Once agreed on the plan, she'd send me 3-5 ideas for the various things we'd decided to purchase, like the couch and rug, so I could pick a favorite. It was the first time I've ever worked with a designer and she helped me break through the wall that was my stalled living room plans.

And now our whole family can sit comfortably all together! It opens up the space so much- you can talk to someone in the kitchen, at the bar, or sitting at the table.

I adore the textured bean bag ottoman I never would have purchased that the kids now lie on all the time. The carpet is fluffy and soft and Moose's favorite place to stretch out and sleep. The new couch is beautiful and I never would have thought to pair it with our old one the way she did. She reused all our side tables, moved around art, and we've ordered a new piece full of color I can't wait to see.

We're still getting new bookcases and some gorgeous new tile around the fireplace but this little update has brought me more joy than I could have imagined. The budget is equal to what we spend going to Colorado to ski every December (canceled this year obviously) and I love that we're using it to shake up a space we now spend so much time in.

And even if these were Normal Times, after nearly 9 (9!!!!) years in this house, we're just in a different life phase than we were before. Our kids are teens and tweens and even the third baby is a big kid- we hang out in a way that is so different from the early playroom-in-the-dining-room days. We watch shows together and chat in the evenings and everyone reads their own books all sprawled out on the couches. Landon is often baking in the kitchen and no one goes to bed before 8. This space fills my heart and I'm thankful for the vision of another who made it possible.

I'm still working much of the time and I'm still struggling a bit with the at-home nature of my life right now, but I really mean it when I say there are also so many moments of bright joy and quiet happiness and I'm so thankful we've been able to be safe and well this whole year. I've been missing this space and I truly hope you all have something that gives you a little bit of the joy Cora felt when she opened her new rollerblades (and literally every other gift) on her birthday a few weeks ago.

(She turned 7. Our tiny amazing gift of a perfect third baby is SEVEN. What in the actual hell.)

Now that our pool has a heater, so James could keep offering swim lessons after our nights turned cold, she got to swim on her birthday and eat a "chocolate mermaid cake with all the chocolate in it" and she found it to be the most perfect of days.

I've heard from a few of you (thanks!!) and you've mentioned missing my meal lists (along with my witty ramblings, obviously). We continue to eat all meals at home, with a takeout treat 1-2x/month. Given that I now also eat all lunches at home, I have cooked more in the last few months than in so many years prior, but I haven't minded. It gives me a reason to leave my computer in the bedroom and the money we've saved by not eating out (and not paying for a nanny, restaurants, or anything fun that takes place outside the house) has allowed us to update the living room and even save despite the swim school being functionally closed. And so while I can't remember much of what I've cooked, I've recently made and loved these:

Turkey Pot Pie (perfect use of leftovers, I'll make this again with chicken)

Crock Pot Beef and Barley Stew 

Creamy Mushroom Chicken with Crispy Onions (with triple the crispy onions) 

Baked Honey Mustard Pork Chops (first time I liked a pork chop)

BBQ Chicken Pizza 

Sunday Chili (my new fave chili recipe)

Pizza Baked Ziti 

Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup (obsessed with this one) 

Garlic Herb Spaghetti with Chicken Meatballs 

Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo (love! go slowly with the tempering of the egg)

Crockpot Chicken Wild Rice Soup 

Roasted Tomato Puttanesca 

Ang's Creamy Tortellini Soup (amazing) 

Coconut Lime Chicken and Broccoli 

Other regular favorites: homemade pizza (nearly every Saturday), Gyros (Trader Joe's, with naan, roasted potatoes, veggies, and tzatziki), Tacos or Tamales (most Tuesdays), my mom's spaghetti, and Big Salad Night.

May your days- and/or your nights- be at least a little bit merry and bright.

Happy December! Also- the comments should be fixed and back open, so let me know what's giving you joy this last month of 2020!

Update!: You guys I had finished the kids photobooks several weeks ago after WEEKS of late nights and a carpal-tunnel-inducing million mouse clicks and they've been sitting in my Shutterfly cart because I just CANNOT spend the full amount on them, even at the constantly available 50% off sales. I was worried the elusive "unlimited free pages" promotion that takes my cart of four giant books from $400 to $120 wouldn't arrive in time this year and then today IT DID just this morning. It did and it's done and my books are ordered and now I am completely done with Christmas shopping and I am so happy. Sometimes, joy is the right coupon code after weeks of work and waiting. Thank you Shutterfly and Happy Tuesday to you all,