The Holiday Season Already? Bring It On!

Having just waddled through an awesome Thanksgiving feast and having lived through an inundation of Black Friday sales of which we took some small advantage, our thoughts are now turning to the upcoming Christmas holiday season.

When we lived aboard Nine of Cups, we decorated the mast instead of a tree.

We haven’t had a Christmas tree in nearly two decades … mostly because we haven’t had a house in nearly two decades and we traditionally spend Christmas in Boston with Lin and her family. When we spent Christmas in foreign countries aboard Nine of Cups, we decorated the mast and this will be our first Christmas without Nine of Cups since 2000. We still intend to spend Christmas in Boston, but we’re also planning to have a sib pre-Christmas celebration before we leave for the east coast in mid-December which will give us the opportunity to decorate for the holidays.

Christmas in Tasmania - 2012

Despite the commercialism of the season, I’m quite excited about having a tree again and decorating the house. In Boston, Lin will undoubtedly have a fresh-cut tree. Here in the Las Vegas desert, we’ll resort to the artificial variety, probably purchased pre-lit with LED lights. I’ve saved ornaments from around the world and look forward to adorning our tree with pleasant memories of years past. We don’t have any garlands or shiny glass Christmas balls, so visiting a few thrift shops is probably in my future in order to remedy that situation.

I was hoping for a new Christmas stocking, but David wouldn’t budge!

We’ve also not done a great deal of Christmas shopping over the past 20 years and that probably will not change much. Checks and Amazon cards seem to satisfy even the most discriminating of our gift recipients. David and I don’t exchange gifts other than occasional small tokens. Lin and I traditionally stuff stockings for everyone … mostly with trinkets and practical gifts. It’s the fun of opening them on Christmas morning and discovering all the little surprises that Santa stuffed in the stockings that’s the allure and everyone seems to look forward to this early Christmas morning event. I’ve been shopping for stocking stuffers, writing our holiday newsletter and taking a look at photos of Christmases past.

Yup, the holidays are coming … bring ‘em on!