Christmas Around the World and in My Humble Home

As a follower of many international blogs, I am always interested to see how different holidays differ in their traditions and celebrations.  Heading into Christmas (especially this year with a very late Thanksgiving) I noticed that my blog friends in the UK, Europe and Australia didn't feel the same tri-holiday rush that we felt here in the states.  It feels here in the states like September is Back to School.  October is all Halloween.  November is absorbed by Thanksgiving and the end of Thanksgiving (starting with Black Friday) is often the beginning of the commercial Christmas season in FULL TILT mode.  Finally, December is a 4 week rush to Christmas.  This year I really felt the concentrated pressures of all the holidays jamming into one another and wished I could spread them out a bit more.

Epiphany marks the beginning of the Mardi Gras season in Louisiana.  I went to New Orleans (no post yet) back in March of 2013.  It was a great, fun trip with just me and my hubby.  So when I noticed that Epiphany (also known as 3 Kings Day) is observed in New Orleans, I thought I'd mark the January 6th occasion to catch up with all the posts I DIDNT post BEFORE Christmas!

Here is MY holiday house - just some snippets...

Poinsettia lines the stair rail.

Stuffed animals warm themselves atop the radiator.

As do the nutcrackers...

The santa nutcracker and the little blue guy with the lantern came all the way from Germany from the family of our German daughter, Katrin (aka exchange student).

The outdoor lights and wreath went up JUST as it started an unpredicted snowfall.  That snow ended up being the traffic trickiest of the season.  Three snows and very cold weather before xmas in early December and then warm and rain for the actual day.  Snow photos are coming here to my blog over the next few days.

The window wreaths in the dining room are the first to go up.

Last year my husband made wooden trees for everyone in the family (his own design).  We all loved them!  It sits beside a hand-crafted wrought iron candle holder from Boone's Hooks, made by our friend Smyth Boone (new beeswax candle attached).

This little bottle brush tree came from a flea market when I was in college.  I now decorate it with many of the ornaments my kids made when they were little (most are nearly 20 years old).

We have little stuffed Christmas friends that accompany us up and down the stairs.

I always pick up fresh holly from Trader Joes as soon as it's offered!  I love the look of holly berries.

The tree goes up and the lights go on - it took a few more days to get it decorated.

This little snowman was enjoying the sparkly lights.

The photo cards start to arrive in the mail.  They sit on the table by my front door for everyone to see!  My own photo card is still sitting in its box, waiting to get mailed.

The poinsettia vintage apron comes out and the Decemberists tee shirt.  Then I put something HAPPY in a glass and drink and dance around the house while I prepare some holiday Merry!

In honor of the pre-Mardi Gras Epiphany, I am going to do my best to re-tell some holiday happy tales here on the blog.  I want to show the hand made projects I did for Christmas which couldn't be revealed ahead, maybe share a pattern or two.  I will try to post once per day between now and January 6th.  Maybe I'll even get Christmas cards in the mail!

Hoping that on this New Year's Eve day you are enjoying the anticipation of 2014.  

PS.  If you are a friend in the UK who was expecting a package and didn't get anything from me yet - I'm sorry!!!  I got packages in the mail December 12th and apparently they haven't made it to you yet - hang tight, hoping they will be delivered very soon.

Cheers!  Sher