Christmas just isn't what it was when my wife was still here. She really got into the spirit of the holidays, baking, making candy, planning Christmas dinner, sending out Christmas cards, and doing whatever else needed to be done to make everything great. My focus was decorating the outside of the house, putting up the tree and lights and maybe putting up garland here and there.
We still have a nice Christmas, thanks to my daughter and son-in-law. They have their own Christmas decorating style, so they do most of that. Instead of traditional Christmas trees they put out three artificial birch trees with LED lights built into the branch tips. Their color scheme this year is mostly white, red, metallic gold and silver. There are also some black iron reindeer and trees from Crate and Barrell.
I haven't put lights on the house for decades. I started putting up garland with lights in it on the eves at our previous home and continued with that here. This year there is a large wreath and brough made with real ever-greens and pinecones from 7 Dee's, a local nursery on the front wall leading up to the front door. They are lit by the three porch lights instead of having strands of lights on them. It is all very low key compared to the rest of the houses in the neighborhood that have a gazillion lights everywhere and blow-up Christmas Santa's.
Not sure what the plans are for Christmas dinner this year, but it won't be an elaborate feast like my wife used to make. Since my daughter is mainly a vegetarian, if there is any meat at all, it will be a turkey breast. Pizza is their mainstay food, so maybe we will have a 'Christmas pizza', LOL!
I hope to send out Christmas cards, but I have not started yet. If I do get to them, it will be the first time since my wife passed. Since my son and his family live in Germany we will What's App video chat with them.
