Christmas Decorating: Using What YOU Have and Leaving The FOMO Behind

photo from Decorators Warehouse

 I love decorating for Christmas.  You know that.  And usually I'm ok with my decorations.  Could I have more?  Sure....  Could some use updating?  Sure...  But this year, I started to get envious of other peoples decorations.  

YouTube is Great!  I love it.  I love it for exercise, for recipes, for decorating tips, and more.  I get inspiration from so many wonderful YouTubers.  But I noticed something.  I found some interior designers that were decorating for Christmas.  And oh boy, was it ever beautiful.  Then I started getting FOMO, also known as the fear of missing out.  

My decorations are not elaborate and they don't really match or "flow" from room to room.  My garland is sad looking.  I have a lot of "character" decorations that might not look very sophisticated.  My mind started to race on how I could correct this faux pas.  It seems that across the board with YouTube influencers, things are more glamorous  this year for decorating.  Trends are more minimal yet very grand looking.  I need new garland.  And I need large gold deer.  And I need white fluffy blankets.  I basically need all new stuff, because I don't have any of those things.

So I started to fill my Amazon cart with Christmas essentials.  And I looked at Michael's and Hobby Lobby to see what they had.  And I made a plan to do a tour of antique stores in the area to see what I could gather up to make it a very merry and glamorous Christmas.  Clearly, my stuff is not on trend.  And this needed to be fixed NOW.

Luckily I took a deep breath before checking out on my Amazon cart.  And I was actually too busy to go to any stores.  Did I really want to drop several hundred dollars on new decorations?

Yes.  Yes I did.  

But was that the best use of our family's finances?  No.  It is definitely not the best use of our family's finances.  

And let's face it, my reasons for wanting all new Christmas decorations aren't rooted in reality at all either.  What will next years trends be?  Will I like those too?  Will I need all new stuff again?  I do not have the room to store all these decorations, even if I did spend the money on them.  That would mean that something would have to go,  and was I willing to give up our decorations that have sweet family memories attached to them?  Would my family be ok with that?

It's so easy to see what other people have or are doing on social media and want it for yourself.  It all looks so wonderful.  And it's easy to forget that these people are making money off of it and most of the things they buy are written as a business expense or were given to them to influence us to purchase from a particular store or online retailer.  I am not a business nor am I an influencer and no one is going to "give" me anything.  I have to learn to watch these videos with appreciation, and not envy.  People who celebrate Christmas want their homes to look festive and cozy.  But that has NOTHING to do with the real reason we are celebrating Christmas.  And because all of this Christmas decorating starts earlier and earlier every year, there is more time to get anxious about what we have, what design aesthetic we are going for, and it gives us more time to spend, spend, spend.  When my parents were young, most people didn't decorate their homes or trees until Christmas Eve.  We have moved far past that tradition. One lady I watched (whose decorating was spectacular) started to decorate in September.  She decorated every room on her main level and changes out rugs, artwork, and furniture to match each years theme.  But she clarified that by saying that this is "her job".  This is not my job.  Trust me, no one would hire me to decorate anything... lol.

I stopped watching that particular YouTuber.  Even though her style is amazing, it wasn't something that I could emulate.  And there was very little that I could take and use as tips (except maybe going forward, try to make my rooms flow better together).

If you can watch these videos or read magazines and see the beauty and leave it there, then you are ahead of the game.  If like me, you struggle with FOMO or feel envious or start coveting all the things, it may be time to mute that content until you can view it through a grateful lens and  not allow it to become toxic.  

Another person that I watch went outside to gather dried flowers, grasses, and seed pods to spruce up her garland.  So I took Daisy with me, and we went out back and did the same.  Her garland looked amazing.  Mine looks a little funky.  I'm not sure I'm going to leave it this way through the Christmas holiday, but the good news here is that it cost me nothing to mess this up.  It's not glamorous, but it did look a little better.  And it was free.  

I'm going to get my decorations out in the next few days and I'm not going to look at them like they are not good enough.  I'm going to look at them with gratitude and try to carry that gratitude into every thing I do this season.  And maybe I'll stay off of social media a bit more and just enjoy what I have right in front of me. 

Advent hasn't even started yet.  We have a long way to go, and I want Jesus to be at the center of this season.  He's the one we are actually celebrating.  That's where I need my focus to be.  The beauty of the season is HIM.

We have a lot of flooding in the back, but I was still able to gather a few things.

Daisy was just happy to be outside

Still a work in progress

Merry Christmas

 It's the day after Christmas and while things were certainly different this year, they were also very good and I feel so blessed.

I'm truly honored to be able to go through this life with my people.  My husband  and three boys make my life so much more than I ever thought it could be.  

Christmas Eve was different, but also a lot of the same.  We did not go to church.  Instead, we watched it on TV.  This was NOT my preferred way to attend mass, but Christmas Eve mass is usually packed with people and due to Covid, our pastor had to put a limit on those attending to 125.  We just felt that it was better and safer to stay at home and watch it on TV.  Right about the time mass started, so did a snow storm so I'm going to take that as a nod from God that we did the right thing.  We got about 15-18 inches in total.  Talk about a white Christmas!

We had our usual menu of fried calamari, smelts, and baccala, along with shrimp cocktail, stuffed shells, and various cheeses.  We watched a few Christmas movies on TV and then it was time for the eight year old to put out the milk and cookies for Santa and carrots and reindeer chow for the reindeer.

Christmas morning started around 7 am.  The 8 year old gets up VERY early every day, but we told him that he could not come out of his room until 7 am.  It worked.  Then it was chaos and craziness!  The wrapping paper was flying and months and months of buying and preparation was over in 20 minutes.  

Dinner is usually ham, but this year we had a standing rib roast.  I have never cooked a standing rib roast before and the boys, who are big meat eaters, were almost as excited for the roast beef as they were for the presents.  That's a lot of pressure for mom!  But luckily the recipe I used was fantastic and the roast came out perfect.  The boys were in heaven.  We also had au gratin potatoes, green beans, and I made a red wine au jus for the beef.  We were sufficiently stuffed, also known as fat and happy.

We did not get to see our extended family, but we did call or face time everyone.  We hope to have a social distance get together with the grand parents this week.  But family was truly missed on Christmas day.  

But I don't want to dwell on what we didn't have, because we really had so much and were so blessed. 

The Christmas Eve table

Mass on TV

Yummy cheese tray

Smelts and baccala

Calamari

Stuffed shells for mom who doesn't like fish

Putting out the reindeer chow.  You can see the snow blowing in the background

Christmas morning

It really snowed!

We even got snow on the front porch and that's rare.

Standing Rib Roast

Standing Rib Roast covered in garlic herb butter.

Finished Product

Green Beans and Au Gratin Potatoes

Red Wine Au Jus

A giant tent in my family room the day after Christmas

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

 Here we are!  Post Thanksgiving, Pre Christmas, in the midst of Advent.  It's kind of a blur.

The oldest came home from college a few weeks ago, and just finished finals yesterday.  It's such a joy to have him home, but I forgot how much he eats.  There is NO food in the house!  I think he's making up for lost time.  The cafeterias on campus were scaled back due to Covid and the food offered was not what it should have been.  

Thanksgiving was spent with just the five of us.  It was nice and it was quiet.  We enjoyed the day even though we missed the grandparents.

I turned 51 last weekend.  But we are not going to talk about that.

And Christmas is coming!  I'm pretty much done with shopping.  I have a few gift cards to get but that is it.  I haven't wrapped a thing yet.  But I'm not worried about that.  It will get done.  I have all the fixings to make cookies and treats so I'm thinking that I'll start that around December 20.  If I make them too early, they will eat them all and we'll have none on Christmas.

I'm not sure how we will be handling extended family this year.  I do not want to miss a Christmas with the grandparents but I don't want to pass them Covid either.  I pray we can find a way.  Life is too short and while we are being very careful, I don't want to miss such a major holiday with extended family.  Next year isn't guaranteed.  

The house is decorated.  It has been since the day after Thanksgiving.  I keep tweaking it, but it's all done.  I love the decorations.  Part of me wants to keep them up all year.  But then they wouldn't be special, would they?  And the youngest was able to see Santa!  A local church had a drive up, Covid friendly Santa.  Thank goodness we didn't have to miss Santa this year too.

School for the younger two boys ends next week.  One is actually going to school, while the other is virtual for now.  The high school just had too many children quarantined to keep classes in person.  

I don't want to lament about Covid.  We are all in the same boat.  But I'd like to get out of this boat please (and take all of you with me).  I know it's not done, but I am done with it.  

Did I mention that we got 2 feet of snow in a day last week? Yes we did.  The boys were off of school for 4-5 days and people were out of power from Sunday night until Thursday.  We were blessed and were only out from 5 am until 4 pm on Monday.  Nothing like getting ALL THE SNOW in one day.

And luckily the roads were clear and the zoo had power that Wednesday for our drive through the "zoo lights" night.  The lights were beautiful and it was nice to get out and do a family friendly activity together.

From Thanksgiving, a birthday, Christmas, to New Years

 SO MUCH has gone on since mid November.

First we had Thanksgiving.  There were 11 of us.  And this year we did two turkeys.  One I did traditionally in the oven and the other my husband fried.  It was a nice, relaxing day.  I love Thanksgiving.  It's just a relaxed holiday with zero expectations.

The power went out the day before Thanksgiving but I was still able to get prep done with my handy dandy headlight lamp

The main table.  We also had a kids table in the kitchen.

The oven baked turkey.

Next up was my 50th birthday.  I'd rather not even discuss turning 50, but it did happen.  My husbands company Christmas party was at our house on my birthday weekend, so my husband planned the celebration for the following week.  I requested NO PARTY and I put my mom in charge of making sure that no party happened.  She did a great job because of course my husband wanted to do a party.  But instead he planned a night at a local glass works where we made Christmas ornaments and then went to dinner.  It was a fun night with just our family of 5, my parents, and my mother in law.

Me getting some instruction on working with glass.

Next up is Christmas.  It was a wonderful day spent with family.  The boys loved all their gifts and I love watching them open them.  It's 6 months worth of effort over in 45 minutes.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.

This years tree.

A gift from his big brother.

The aftermath.

And lastly New Years Eve.  It was another quiet night with just the 5 of us to start with and then just 4 of us because the 17 year old went to a friends house.  We usually do fondue, but we decided to have homemade chicken wings and French fries.  I bought everything for the fondue, but we were too full for it so maybe we'll use it this weekend instead.  After food, we decided to watch The Swiss Family Robinson on Disney+.  3 of the 4 of us made it to midnight.  The 7 year old went down at 11 pm.

Some of the wings.

I love homemade fries

The fondue pots were on standby.  Maybe we'll use them this weekend instead.

I can't believe the holidays are over.  It just goes by so fast.  But it was good and I couldn't ask for anything more.  Now on to the new year.  I'm hoping to get this house more organized in the new year.  I'm joining The Bowl Full of Lemons 2020 Home Organization Challenge.  I follow her on Instagram and I find her so inspirational.  I may or may not update my organizing here.  So stay tuned for future updates on how that's going and also what our family is doing in 2020.  Lots of major happenings this year!

Baseball, Vacation, and Summer Fun

This summer is going by in a blur.  The entire beginning was taken up by travel baseball. It feels like it goes on forever.  But it's over now.  But guess what??  Fall Ball starts on August 17.  And of course football starts a week or so after that.  This is the life of a mom with three sports loving boys.  I know that one day I will miss it.  But today is not that day (lol).

Vacation was wonderful.  We went back to our favorite place, Litchfield Beach, SC.  We love it there.  We all love the ocean, the boys love to fish and catch crabs, and everyone loves the pools.  My favorites are the morning beach walks and the shopping at The Hammock Shops just down the road at Pawley's Island.  We've been going there since the boys were little.  I asked them if they wanted to try a new place next year and it was a resounding NO. So, God willing, we'll go back next year.  I'm already looking forward to it.

Along with a new sport season, we have back to school to think about.  We will have a senior, a sophomore, and a first grader.  The little one is the only one who needs school supplies right now.  The older boys don't find out what they need until after school starts.  I kind of copped out today and ordered all the little one's school supplies via Amazon Prime.  I'm sure I probably could have saved some money just going to Walmart, but it was worth it to me. Now I just have to worry about school uniforms and shoes.  Sometimes it's just better to do the easy thing instead of the money saving thing.  Ordering directly from Amazon is my sanity saving thing.

We also have the little ones birthday in August.  The Middle turned 15 in July and we celebrated as a family, but we combine the Middle and the Little's birthdays in August for the extended family party.  It's less running around for everyone.  I'm also going to do a "friend" party for the Little this year.  It will be his first.  I've been a slacker on this.  The older boys had friend parties starting in pre-school.  I feel badly, so I said this year he will get a friend party.  I'm having it at a local sports venue, and it's only 1.5 hours so fingers crossed that it all goes well.  Seven year old boys aren't easy to entertain.

Let's see, what else has been happening....

Hubby and I celebrated our 19th anniversary last week.  19 years have flown by.  It sure doesn't seem like 19 years.  They've been 19 wonderful years.  I've been blessed with an amazing husband.

I'm still plugging along with my walking routine.  I try to do 2 miles 3-4 days a week, but I've been overachieving and walking 4-5.  Still trying to eat healthier too.  Eating healthy is hit or miss, but I really am trying.  I'm also doing intermittent fasting.  I like it, but I'm not losing any weight.  I'm trying to not get discouraged and keep plugging along.  At least I've stemmed the tide of gaining weight.  Got to look on the positive, right?

Right now, I'm obsessed with the Hallmark Christmas in July movies.  They make me happy.  Don't judge me lol.  I LOVE all things Christmas.

Other things that have made me happy this summer:

This Pawley's Island candle from The Isle Co. that I got on vacation.  It smells so good!

The Christmas Mouse store.  Another thing that I love from vacation (told you I love all things Christmas)
 
Delay, Don't Deny: Living An Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle  This book by Gin Stephens really explains the whys and the science behind intermittent fasting in an easy to read guide.

Dreams of Falling by Karen White  It's such a great beach read.  I've read almost all of her books and usually on vacation.  I really enjoy them.

A Thankful Month

 I can't believe we are moving into mid-November.  I feel like Christmas is right around the corner (and I am SO trying not to stress about it...  I will not be stressed this Christmas.  I will be a bucket of  peace and calmness...).

This is also the month for Catholics to remember the ones that we've lost (All Souls Day is in the beginning of the month, but we can carry this through all month long).  We currently have a bowl on the kitchen counter with any prayer cards of friends and family that we have lost and a list of names for those we have lost but don't have cards for.  It's a reminder to keep praying for them and to keep praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

I sat down this morning and wrote out my Thanksgiving menu and my grocery list.  I usually start cooking the Tuesday before (making the cranberries and the gluten free bread for the stuffing).  Pie, sweet potato casserole, and green bean casserole are done on Wednesday.  And I save the Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, and turkey for Thursday.  I feel less stressed doing this in steps and with a plan.  All of this needs to be free of wheat, rye, barley, oat, egg, peanut, and tree nut.  I've been doing it for so many years that it's not a problem, but when I first started out, things came out not so well but everyone was kind enough to not complain.  My biggest issue is usually the gluten free, egg free pie crust.  There was one year where it took me 3 hours to get the pie to a point that it would be edible.  And then I accidentally dropped it on the floor while taking it out of the oven.  It was a sad, sad day.  So I had to start all over again at 9 pm making a whole new pie.  Thankfully the movie Gone With The Wind was on that night to help get me through.

Christmas music started on Sirius XM November 1st.  While I have been thankful for that, it has taken my kids a few weeks to come around.  But they are into it now too.  I'm considering putting up one of our Christmas trees this week too.  I know it's a tad early, but I am SO READY!!  I've been watching Hallmark Christmas movies since they started also.  Being the only female in the house, I can honestly say that I truly am the only one thankful for the Hallmark Christmas movies.  But we have enough TV's in the house that it all works out fine.

Last week, I started to buy a few things for Christmas.  Just for the boys.  I have a list, but they change their minds on things so frequently, that I don't want to do too much yet.

I also bought a few new Christmas-y smelling candles last week.  I LOVE scented candles and I usually buy my candles from Yankee Candle, but this year I thought I had a gift card to Bath and Body Works (turned out it was for Bed, Bath and Beyond... I should learn to read better) so I went there and am going to try their 3 wick candles which I have not tried before.  They were on sale, so I hope I like them and that they have good "throw".

I still have to do the family Christmas card.  I usually make it on one of those "online photo sharing sites".  But I'm not sure exactly what I want to do yet.  I was thinking that if I put up the small tree, maybe I could gather the boys around it and take a photo and use that.  I usually use ones that we took throughout the year, but I feel like it's gotten old and maybe we need to mix it up a bit.  Whatever I'm going to do, I better figure it out soon because I usually send out the cards the first week of December.

So that's the current happenings in a nut shell.  I'm just trying to remember to be thankful for everything this month.  I hope it becomes more of habit and I will remember all the things to be thankful for EVERY month.

Links:

My Pinterest Thanksgiving Recipe Board

Bath and Body Works 3 wick candle page

Hallmark Countdown to Christmas 2018

My favorite turkey roaster from Granite Ware (Walmart link)  I have a small version of this that I use for roasting chicken too.  They are great and they clean up very well.

More about November and the month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory from CatholicCulture.org

(these are NOT affiliate links and I get no compensation for sharing them. I'm just sharing some things that I like)

Back to School...or not.

Today should have been the boys first day back to school after Christmas break.  But thanks to sheets of freezing rain, and now snow, they are home again today.  They have no complaints about extending their Christmas break by a day.

I had quite a few things planned to do around the house today, so this means all of my plans aren't going to happen.  That's OK.  I won't complain about a lazy jammie day.

We took down all of the Christmas decorations over the weekend.  It always makes me sad.  But for some reason this year, it really hit me hard (like ugly cry hard).  Time is flying and the boys are getting older and it's happening too quickly for me.  I started thinking that the oldest will be 16 in one month.  Pretty soon he'll be off to college and our family Christmas traditions may not stay the same.

I know, I still have several years before that happens, but it just hit me that my boys are growing up and things won't stay the same.  To say that I don't handle change well is an understatement.  I know that my job is to raise the boys to become happy, independent, moral men and send them out into the world.  My head knows this.  But my heart wants to keep them little.

These days are short.  And the busyness of the world makes it hard to enjoy every moment.  But I have to remember that I need to enjoy EVERY moment, even the difficult or mundane.  But enjoying every moment doesn't mean holding on to it (or the boys) with a death grip.  At least I have a few more years to perfect all of this and to learn to embrace the change.