Christmas Without the Tree

I'm not so good at winter.  The dark and cold weather get me down.  I prefer sunshine and warmth.  Focusing on the holidays and Eliot's birthday, though, get me through half of January.

Usually after Thanksgiving, we start hanging the lights outside.  We pick out a tree.  We hang the wreaths.  I enjoy having about a full month of Christmas.  However, since we're moving right before the holiday, we won't be doing any of our Christmas traditions here like usual.  This makes me sad not so much for myself but because I was really looking forward to Eliot being more aware this Christmas.

I am trying to keep myself excited about sharing Christmas with Eliot anyway.  Even though we'll be really busy packing and getting paper work together, there are still many parts of Christmas that we can share.

Christmas portraits at a Christmas tree farm.  It sounds silly, but Christmas portraits are important to me.  I love taking a photo in front of our tree each year--and we have since we got married (expect for our second Christmas because we were out of town for Christmas and didn't even put up a tree).  Just because we're not having a tree doesn't mean we can't have a picture....  Maybe we'll just awkwardly set up our tripod at a local Christmas tree farm and take some shots.

Our first married Christmas in 2007.  Babies.

Simple decorations.  We're pressed with time to pack, so I won't be busting out all of the decorations.  I do plan to decorate the mantle some with our usual lights, garland, and stockings.  I can leave those up until we move at least!

Going on campus.  If I start missing the lights on our house, we just need to drive to campus!  They have lights all over the place and a big, big tree.

Mistletoe market.  Each year downtown, they offer carriage rides.  It was a bust last year, but maybe it can work out this year.

Lights in Chesapeake.  We will be going to Chesapeake for at least the house inspection.  In this time, I'm sure we can sneak in a trip to the Botanical Gardens or the boardwalk to see their lights.

Shipping presents.  I don't know how I'm going to do Christmas shopping.  I don't know how I'm going to move all the presents along with all of our stuff.  It seems like an extra load.  I bet my mom won't mind if I use her shipping address instead of my own so the presents arrive in Chesapeake instead....

A late tree.  We close on the new house on December 21.  It will be late, but we will try very hard to find a tree for those few days.  Even if it is small or dying, we just want something to string some lights on.

Back when the house was tan and I was pregnant in 2010.

It's going to be busy and exciting and stressful, but Christmas isn't going to be cancelled this year.  Maybe I can even host Christmas Eve dinner this year!  (Yeah right).  And at least I know where Eliot's birthday party is going to be this year!