How to Love the Holidays

I am moving.


I started moving in the last few days of October, when a friend decided on a last minute move and needed out of her lease. Having lived in a one bedroom apartment with two growing boys for nearly five years, I was all over it. I loved the building I was in, right downtown and beautiful with a great landlord who actually fixed things when they broke... but did I mention the two growing boys... and the single bedroom? Right, so when an affordable place with a yard came up, I overlooked the single paned windows and the fact that winter would soon be upon us in favour of having my own space and an outside. If needed, I was willing to "rough it" till spring just to have space for the boys to move around and for me to sew and create. Finding a decent rental in this town is like panning for gold. I figured if my darling (although much more durable and self reliant friend) could live (and sew) on top of a mountain for years, I could do a winter.


Thankfully, I didn't have to. The house is cold, but lovely, and we have deer roaming through the yard almost daily. And my own bedroom. Although, it gets so cold at night that the boys are back to bunking with me till warmer weather. The electrical in the tiny top floor can only handle one space heater at a time before blowing the fuse. I am not sure who built this house, but it was very obviously meant to be a summer home. And while tiny by most people's standards, it actually is the perfect size for us.



The Martha in me, who has been desperate for a house to decorate for ages, immediately got on the phone and invited everyone for Christmas dinner. I did not inherit my need to decorate and entertain from my mother, and in fact, pretty much everyone else in the family thinks of the holidays as something to get through. So I thought that it would be really nice to switch it up a bit, shoulder the preparations, and do it here. That also gives me the right to inject as much greenery and sparkle into it as I can and they can't do a single thing about it :)


Then I bought paint. The kind of green that takes four coats. I have a newly painted, very shiny green living room. The part where I am still unpacking boxes and trying to make the last of the gifts (yes, I said make, because that is what I do) was kind of an afterthought. Also, the Martha in me does not cook. Nope, nada. I can cook, but I don't. I decided to put the dinner on solely so that I could set the table (that I don't have). With random vintage plates and napkins that I also didn't actually have, no less. I mean, I had it all set out in my mind, and I have been scouring for them every few days at the thrift store and I now have thirteen of the sixteen settings needed... so we're gold :)


I had my bestest friend come over and drop her kids off for a crafternoon extraordinaire with me and the boys, and then the living room looked like this. Which is actually a step up from the way it looked the day before which is covered in no fewer than twenty large boxes full of things I hadn't looked at in over five years. You know that part of the move where you have already opened the boxes that were meticulously packed and organized by a sane mind... the ones that are easily unpacked... and you are on to the ones that were packed at the end with no rhyme or reason just to get the rest of the crap out of your house? Or, say, were packed by the seven year old? That is the stage I am at now. I open a box, and it is either stuff that was in storage or stuff that doesn't actually make sense. While I can place artwork till the cows come home, and adore styling bookshelves with objets and colour coordinated tomes, I have no idea whatsoever one does with, say, the toolbox. Or the blender. Or the summer coats and hats. I understand what people with basements and storage closets and such do with them, but what if you don't have those?

Anyhow, I am quite happily puttering around and telling anyone and everyone not to worry, that there will definitely be room for sixteen people by Christmas Eve... and I know in my heart that the place will be twinkling and pretty... and most of all, that everyone will have a fabulous time. It might take a bit of mulled wine and a few cookies, but it will all work out just fine. For myself, I already got my gift. I cannot tell you how happy I am to be in a house with space for a garden (already got the seed list on the go) and... did I mention? My OWN bedroom!