Everybody moving away does put quite a damper on getting together for Holidays, etc. It gets more expensive every year to travel...but it's also true that I'm just getting to tired to travel very far these days too. While my excitement for Holiday and Birthday celebrations is fading as I age...being able to spend a little time with my kids and grandkids....and siblings still is the most important thing in life to me besides my faith.
No holidays growing up much and my own birthday has bad memories. I don't celebrate anything and don't like all the creepy Halloween stuff. I do like the Christmas craft fair and hope to go this year. I worked all three days it was running last year.
Oh yes, I celebrate every holiday that comes along because it usually means presents and I love presents! At this point in my life, I have everything that I could possibly want so now presents means gift cards so I can buy more E books. I decorate the outside of our place for nearly every occasion . Right now it's Autumn decor. Later this month I'll add Halloween decor nothing very scary, just keeping in the theme. We hand out candy to all the trick-or-treat kids and really enjoy their enthusiasm and wild costumes. Next day all the Autumn decorations come down and and I start putting up Winter decor. On mild days in November, I start putting up Christmas lights before the snow flies. I don't do ladders except the first two rungs; too unsteady now, and I don't turn on the lights until December 10.
Glad to see someone else get "into" the décor thing, like we do. For the 21 years I was single (divorced), I didn't celebrate much of anything. My birthday was "just another day". However, for one Square Dance Halloween Party in the early 90's, I dressed up as a Western Sheriff. I borrowed a real Western gun belt/holster from a friend and bought a toy gun to go into the holster. Could barely see the top of the toy gun, because the holster was made for a real 45 Western 6-shooter. Had a plastic Sheriff's badge I wore. It was pretty cool back then, but that was the only time in 21 years that I dressed up. Christmas tree and other décor just wasn't my thing for those 21 years. After meeting my wife, all of that "I didn't celebrate stuff" definitely changed.
When the had kids at home, we decorated for holidays, especially for Christmas; but now, there seems not to really be any reason to do that, and it is just time and money spent on something that then has to be taken back down once the holiday is over. We do put up Christmas lights because both Bobby and I love the colorful flashing lights, and we have one of these foot-tall fiber-optic Christmas trees and we enjoy watching that changeing colors as it goes through its cycle. I would actually leave it up in the bedroom year around just to see the colors; but Bobby said it might not be safe to just leave it on all night; so we just use it in the evenings when we are there to look at it. We do usually go have lunch somewhere for our birthday; but other than that, we don’t celebrate it anymore. Golden Corral sends out an ecoupon for a free meal on your birthday, so we can go twice, and only have to pay for one meal each time.
A couple of years ago, we decided to buy a 3-section, 7 foot, lighted fake tree. When lite up and decorated with Christmas balls and Tinsel, it's beautiful! Funny, how today, people can actually hire a company to put up all their outside Christmas décor and even inside, if they chose to do so. There sure is some expensive and extravagant outside Christmas décor today. Some folks even go "above and beyond" with the inside décor as well.
For years I refused to put up Christmas lights because they used so much power and I thought they were too big and gaudy. When LED lights came on the scene I started decorating with them. The stings of lights are inexpensive, use very little power, and don't get hot. I don't climb ladders anymore at my age so the lights go at the "beltline" of our house and some a little higher across the carport and around the deck. I'm like Yvonne Smith in that I like fibre optic trees.
We moved here two years ago to be closer to our family, most of whom live about an hour away. As a result we're able to celebrate more family birthdays and holidays together. So that we can enjoy the occasion, we try and keep these celebrations simple overall.
I don't do much celebrating but I love to decorate for the holidays/seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as those throughout the year. I don't do Halloween anymore but I did a paper chain with ghosts, bats, and jack-o-lanterns for my grandbabies to hang at home. To me the holidays are just times for me to be creative.
Krogers had turkeys on sale for $.59 per lb, so I got us a small one and we put it in the freezer until next week. It used to be that we had big Thanksgiving dinners back when the kids were growing up, and there was more family. For just the two of us, it does not make much sense to go through all of that cooking and prep. On the other hand, going out for Thanksgiving dinner means that there are no leftovers, and it is expensive to go because it is a holiday. What we usually do is just make the basics, turkey with dressing, sweet potatoes, and will get a pie and whipped cream for dessert. All of that is pretty simple, and we can have leftover turkey for sandwiches or soups. We sometimes get each other gifts for Christmas, anniversaries, or birthdays, but often we do not do that either. This Saturday is our anniversary, so we might or might not go out for lunch together. Christmas, we will probably put up some colorful lights, and stay home out of the traffic.
I'm just wondering if it just getting older or do we just not care enough anymore to "celebrate and make special" the things that we did celebrate and make special when we were younger?
Well, Christmas tree up, but had a heck of a time connecting the plug-ins on each section of the tree. Finally, got it done and all lights work. Finished putting Christmas stuff on the tree and it looks great. Surprised my wife earlier this week, while she was at work, put up the red lighted garland around the fireplace, which is behind the Christmas tree. The garland has white lights and really looks cool when turned on. For the first time, have a length of silver (not lighted) garland going around our bedroom door (sides and top) inside the living room and another length (sides and top) going around our front window, also inside the living room. Set up our small Nativity Scene. Got the large Candy Canes from the garage and they are now along the sidewalk leading up to our apartment. They light up. Last night, bought a battery-operated lighted Pine Wreath for the front door. "Battery-operated", first time I'd seen this. Home Depot would've had this one for $60, while Target had it for $30. It totally matches the lighted Pine Garland going around the outside of our front door. Have a little more décor inside also. May do some more outside lights, but not sure yet. Yep, we do like to decorate for Christmas.
I also LOVE Christmas decorations too but it seems to be getting more and more difficult each year to get in the mood to decorate our own little place. Also there are some concerns in our neighbourhood regarding theft of outdoor decorations plus the condo has restrictions as to when and where we're "allowed" to decorate the outside of our townhouse unit. As a result very few in our complex are bothering with any kind of outside decorations. Having a nicely decorated tree is important to me so we'll do that plus some wreaths, at least we'll have the basics IMO. If I need a further decoration fix I can always go to a popular nursery nearby that has a large and beautiful selection of decorated trees, wreaths, garlands, ornaments etc.
We have decorating restrictions on our apt complex, like no large “balloon” type outside decor. We have put lights on our bushes next to our apt and on the bottom part of our roof in front, with no problem from management. We do live in a “bungalow” type apt (1-story) that is attached to the rest of the building at the end. Thing is, half of the bushes have died and have been removed. Not going to lay Christmas lights on the ground (LOL). When we move, may not be able to decorate outside like we do now. It is getting a little tougher each year to decorate for Christmas.
My Honey put all the porch lights up and strung the lights on our outdoor Christmas tree but I don't feel like decorating the inside of our home this year...so I'm just going to set up the Nativity and hang the wreath on the door and that will be the extent of my inside decorating this year.