I can’t believe that Christmas has already come and gone! What a beautiful day it was, full of all the magic that Christmas always brings. My husband and I were alone together on Christmas Day for the first time ever, in spite of this being our 7th Christmas of couplehood. We have always been with some branch of our collected families over the holidays, and while we missed being with our parents, siblings, grandparents and other assorted family members, I must say that 2009 marked my favorite Christmas ever. We were able to relax and just enjoy each other’s company, with nowhere we had to be, no set time for presents, or dinner, or anything else. There was no stress and we truly enjoyed every minute of the day.

We created our very own traditions, such as sleeping in (this was also the first Christmas of my LIFE where no children were present!), and revived old family traditions, such as eating apricot rolls for Christmas breakfast!

We went a bit non-traditional with the decorations, choosing to make it a “very succulent Christmas” here at our little bungalow. Succulents can be found year-round in our home, they practically take up our entire back patio, too, so it made more sense to incorporate them into our decor than to banish them.

Holiday cards were displayed on a tiered cookie display stand (that lovely letterpress gem of a card was from the fabulous Bonnie Tsang)…

I came up with a new way to hang my pine cone balls, suspended with fishing line over our dining room table to create a “faux” chandelier of sorts!

And our tree was lovely in every way! The ribbon on our tree has been recycled year after year, it originally graced the aisles of Trinity Episcopal Church for our wedding. We’ll be celebrating four years of marriage next week!

Mixing many of the things I love: candles, succulents, and glittered fruit! ;-)

And more of that pretty tree.

I just love being at home during the holidays, everything is so festive and cheerful.

Burning candles make me think of simpler times, a slower pace of life, and a total lack of hustle-bustle… just how I like my holidays to be.

Is there anything more festive than home-made eggnog? My family’s secret eggnog recipe is full of delicious spices, creamy cream, and some rum and brandy for good measure. Yummy yum yum!

After a matinee viewing of Sherlock Holmes at our favorite local theatre, {lovah} and I returned home for our Christmas day feasting.

We lit our candles…

…and laid out our china, crystal, and that lovely gold flatware- a wedding gift from my grandmother & grandfather. I enjoyed mixing silver and gold, I do it frequently with the jewelry I wear, and find it to be a wonderfully unexpected design statement.

Our holiday feast was a feast indeed, featuring all of our seasonal favorites.

We savored each delicious bite of our Christmas ham, cranberries, marshmallow yams, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon, pureed cauliflower… the feasting lasted long into the night!

And though we don’t have a real fireplace, we put our cheesy little yule log DVD on, and cuddled on the sofa, watching the screen as the log flickered away. Eventually, we turned the log off and turned our attention to Elf, one of our favorite holiday films. It was a joyous day indeed.

I hope your Christmas day was just as lovely, and that you are all able to spend time with the people you love throughout the rest of this holiday weekend! I’ll be back in the office on Monday, and will have some gorgeous images to share with you then. A very merry post-Christmas, TO YOU!

• Posted: Saturday, Dec-26-2009
•  7 Comments
• This post was filed under Blog and tagged with: Design & Styling, and My Life.