Wow – that went by fast! The weeks since Thanksgiving have really been a blur! As many of you experienced, our holidays looked different this year. No trip back to the Midwest, no chance to see our daughter or my mom (who is in assisted living so I wouldn’t be allowed into her facility anyway), or high school friends, but lots of FaceTime and Zoom calls with friends and family.
But we still were able to see friends Betsy, Aldy, and Michael (and we are looking forward to Julia and Bob visiting this coming weekend!) and family visits with cousins Bill and Susan, Kristi and Terry, and cousin Gary. All in all not a bad holiday season.
One fun adventure we had was to go out onto our property and cut down what became our very first Christmas tree in our new home. It’s challenging to find a tree that looks good from 360º, and this one did turn out a little Charlie Brown-ish, but it’s our first!
I was bummed that so few of our holiday decorations made the trip out of storage and down to Texas. To tell you the truth, I’m hoping they made it into the storage unit at all, since we hired others to pack up our lake house. What couldn’t make it onto that last truck went into our last storage unit and I hope that includes my bronze reindeer, vintage ornaments, and sentimental decor. But John came to the rescue and purchased many of the ornaments you see on our tree from a local resale shop!
Since we just finished building the house and are awaiting the beginning of pool construction (YAY!!), we decided to forgo purchasing each other Christmas presents. That being said, we did splurge on one gift for ourselves – a new leather couch for the living room.
It’s long. Really long. But thankfully I think it fits. And it is the same leather as our swivel chairs in the library, all of which is from Pottery Barn. Good leather will really last forever (unlike bonded leather, which is made from bits of scrap leather that have been glued or bonded together), and since we had a 20% off coupon code when we ordered it, we decided to make the splurge.
Another holiday (specifically New Year’s Eve) tradition we have is playing pool or billiards. Although we went out for New Year’s Eve last year, I’m generally not a fan of going out on NYE. Last year we lived in Smithville and could walk to the restaurant and back home. Now we live on 43 acres in the country and it’s just a little more dangerous on a busy state highway and with deer running about (more on that in another post). Historically, we have stayed in for NYE with a few friends, listened to fun music, enjoyed a cozy fire in the fireplace and played several rounds of pool. For our first game ever in our new home I had the honor of breaking and was delighted that I pocketed four balls on my first shot!
As I mentioned, we love fires for New Year’s Eve, but also for most every other night during the winter. In fact, we love fires so much, we built three fireplaces into our home. Three. In Texas.
It is a bit different having a fire when it’s 60-something degrees outside, but I love it on these dark nights. And not just at night, as we had our first fire in the master bedroom fireplace on an unusually grey Sunday back in December.
A huge thank you and shout out to cousins Callan and Linda for the very generous housewarming gift of three firewood holders (fully loaded with split wood even!). We’ve loved having them near every fireplace and they’ve warmed our hearts and our hearths!
John and I hope you enjoyed a healthy and happy holiday season and we wish you all the best in 2021! As always, thanks for stopping by!
Hugs, Libby
Awww – thanks Betsy! We were so happy we could continue our Winter Solstice tradition with you and Harry! And you are quite the chef yourself – that sticky toffee pudding was to die for! And John has already requested that I make the, ahem, “Whorehouse Cookies.” Probably the best Christmas gift I received this year was that recipe – so thanks for passing it on!
We were so lucky to be included in your December calendar. What a fun evening with the two of you. You are quite the chef, Libby!