A Little Christmas Cheer.

The winter holidays are pretty much my favorite time of year. Say what you will, I truly believe people are a little bit nicer and a little bit kinder to one another come December!

Here are a few of my favorite things: the glow of holiday lights, Christmas trees, beautifully wrapped packages, baking cookies, candle light, the smell of cinnamon and gingerbread, peppermint mochas, a crackling fire, crisp-but-clear night skies, Christmas carols, Heat Meiser & Snow Meiser, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes….and of course that feeling of joy and anticipation that fills the air.

After an outrageous fall (it was a sunny 74 degrees on Thanksgiving, people. Crazy!) San Francisco has grudgingly admitted that it is indeed winter. It’s been sooo cold here (by California standards), dipping down into the 30s at night. Brrrrr. Thankfully our house has central heating, but for years I lived in cute little hipster Victorian flats—that had NO heat!!! Those old Victorians are gorgeous but brutal in the winter. I remember one of my flats had a heating duct OVER the door to my bedroom, so you were toasty warm if you happened to be a stilt walker or were constantly changing light bulbs.

Over the years—egged on by Wolfie—we have gotten bigger and bigger with our house lights. I raided the Target post-xmas sale last year and apparently went a little crazy. We are now the proud owners of THREE light up deer. And yes I dorked out and placed blue lights on the ground in front of the little grazing doe so it looks like she is drinking from a pond. (C’mon now, it’s CUTE dammit!)

Last night we went finally found time to go and get our tree. We own a super fab, vintage aluminum silver tree that has a color wheel and rotates and everything (I’m not even kidding, it truly rotates! And no, it's not that little wee one in the picture above...) but nothing truly beats a real tree. We got a 6-7 footer and oh my is she ever a beauty!

We have a nice collection of vintage ornaments, but I’m not a purest. We have a lot of fun new ones on the tree too. Last year I had to get rid of an entire box of vintage christmas ornaments as they were quite faded and the metallic finish was starting to flake and crackle off. It broke my heart, but it just seemed like a safety hazard. Here are some of my fave ornaments, a mix of vintage and new:

The Snoopy was Greg's when he was a little boy. So cute! This is our tree topper, she always makes me smile:

This year, Wolfie requested we place a star on the tippy top of the tree, so Miss Angel Cakes is taking the season off. I was sad to see her go. I have to confess I'm a bit of a tyrant when it comes to decorating the house for the holidays. I'm totally one of those moms who rearranges the tree sneakily once their child is in bed. (Sorry Wolfgang! Mommy still loves you....and hey, I kept them in the same vicinity as where he hung them himself!) That being said, I'm a democratic tyrant....and really making your child giggle with glee is half the fun of the holidays. So a star it was.

So how about you guys? Do you have any fun traditions? In greg's family, the stockings were KING. They made a big deal about making sure they were filled with awesome goodies. In my family, the stocking was a bit of a boobie prize—we'd get a chocolate bar and other little so-so goodies. But I must say my parents really did it up in all other respects. Not just lovely prezzies, but my parents truly loved Christmas and always made sure it was fun for us. We would sing songs, have game nights, special meals. They've definitely passed that love down to me....and I'm passing it on to Wolfie!