As I write its 65 degrees outside. Spring bulbs and forsythia have begun to emerge for a premature bloom. Rochester has received a whopping 1.2 inches of snow so far this year…and that happened on one night over a month ago. Last year at Christmas there was over a foot of snow on the ground and temperatures were in the single digits…so needless to say “When you’re still waiting for the snow to fall, It doesn’t really feel like Christmas at all.”

Last year I had mainly focused on just getting used to living on my own as Kit was still living outside of Rochester. We had got a bunch of electric candle lights for the windows, but I had to go to my parent’s house to enjoy any decorations beyond that.

All lit up last year, with snow on the ground.

Following Christmas last year we raided the local hardware stores and boutiques buying up all of the light strands and decorations we could get our hands on at 60% to 80% off. Around Thanksgiving this year one of our closest friend’s mom, who adores Kit, invited us over for dinner and to pick up some Christmas decorations. Our friend told us to show up with an empty car…and he wasn’t kidding. Kit’s car was so full that there was only room for one person to drive and our friend had to drive Kit back to our house with extra decorations in his trunk too. So let the decorating begin!

As many of you well know, one of my favorite features of our house is the unique triple gable. We bought enough lights to light the christmas tree inside and hopefully line all of the gables on the outside. One of our neighbors let us borrow their giant extension ladder(should have thought about that for stripping the paint this summer), and we were in business. Of course, the higher and higher I got the more Kit did not want to watch…but she did snap this great shot at I was placing lights at the peak.

We ended up having to double back on each gable to get the lines right without odd spanning connections.

Before our carload of decorations we only had lights, some christmas ornaments, and one wreath for the front door. In the end after everything got unpacked from the car we have six wreaths, tons of garland, lanterns, statues, several small pre-lit trees (one even found its way to making the bathroom festive), and more. The kindness of our friend’s mom was honestly overwhelming, we cannot thank her enough. After two partial afternoons due to rain, we finally turned them on…and it was quite the experience seeing our roofline from a block away.

Luckily because it took me so long to write this post, it snowed two days after christmas and I snapped this shot.

On the interior we struggled to find enough surfaces to fit all of our newly gifted decorations, but after we moved some pottery underneath some furniture it all somehow fit. It is amazing how much decorating can get into the seasonal spirit despite the disagreeable snow-less weather.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We also, of course, got a tree. Kit’s family always has a Christmas tree picking party on the Saturday after thanksgiving in Syracuse. We trekked east and returned with a Norway Fir…which Kit’s Grandma called “the worst tree you could possibly have picked!” Why is that? Well as we learned Norway Firs are notorious for dropping their needles as soon as two weeks after being cut. We were somehow able to keep the tree limping along until Christmas, but had to take it down the day after as every needle was loose and at the ready to hit the floor. The tree was also comically large for our livingroom. I have always had a thing for picking out wide proportioned christmas trees. This usually didn’t pose too much of a problem at my parents house as their living room is gigantic. After some light-hearted bickering Kit caved to my desire to get a tree like those I had got with my parents (knowing full well that I would teach myself a lesson). After we horsed the beast in and set it up, we cut the wrapping mesh and let it unfurl to what appeared to be a final width of about six feet…or nearly half the width of our living room. Needless to say I will be sure to one, never get a Norway Fir…and two, bring a measuring tape and only get a four-foot wide tree next time!

Did I mention how wide the tree was…the center of the fireplace is the center of the room.

We have an assortment of ornaments that Kit has received yearly from her Grandmother as well as some local Rochester artisans.

After we took the lights off, there were literally no needles left on the tree.

As an additional topping off to the whole season, my old friend, and now famous globe-trotting musician, Julia Nunes and her two bandmates played their final show on their living room tour…in our living room! I had reached out to Julia months in advance to offer up our place for her coming home show and she gladly accepted. Despite having nearly 40 strangers in our living room every turned out awesome and everyone had a great time. Cannot wait to do it next year!

Julia is at left, her girlfriend Danielle is at center, and Mike, who’s performance name is “Old Best Friend” is at right.

It has been nice to see so many friends and family throughout this whirlwind of a holiday season…and we look forward to what next year will bring. It was exactly two years to the day of publishing this blog post that I fatefully called our realtor Rome Celli and began our search that ended quickly with an offer on MPLMP. We will always have much to grateful for at this time of year. Wishing you and your’s all the best in the new year and the rest of the holiday season!

Stay warm everybody!