My dear friend Missi doesn’t celebrate Christmas with things. The reasons are complicated and incomprehensible to some, but simply put she and her family prefer to focus on the reasons behind Christmas instead of the commercialized holiday. She knows that my family does like Christmas. More specifically, I like the lights and the music that put me in a cozy mood. My boys are a little bit cynical about it and put up with me.
With our surroundings and circumstances being so very different this year I was fully prepared to let the season slide by. I left my special ornaments in Oregon. I don’t need to make the generator work extra just for colored lights. There’s no room for a tree in the RV. It’s okay, expected, and perfectly alright for me to do nothing this year.
I was surprised when my dear friend showed up at my door on Friday night with this baby Norfolk Island Pine. They are my favorite plant to pet and I haven’t had one in years. She said she wanted to make sure I had something for the season. Even though she doesn’t celebrate she wanted to make sure I can. (And she says she doesn’t understand why she has been told that Hospitality is one of her spiritual gifts.)
My son immediately dubbed it Plant. Plant will keep Mr Coffee company now that Mr Coffee has been abandoned for the stovetop version. It will be hard to keep Plant alive in the variable environment of the RV, but we’re up for the challenge. We still don’t know how or if we will dress Plant up for the holiday, but this could be fun.
As a side note, we spent all the daylight on Saturday (11am to 3:30pm) rebuilding the stand for the heating oil barrel. The quick and dirty stand that was put together to get us warm was starting to fail. We dismantled it and made a much better one.
Really, it only took about 2 hours of work, but we had to come inside multiple times to warm up our hands and the driver drill. Our tools didn’t like the -13 weather any more than we did. It’s done now and should last us a good long while. I keep saying we, but I have to give all credit to my son. I was just the gofer on this project, as much as that goes against my nature. He can be proud of his work and I’m proud of the man he has become.
Do enjoy you sharing your life in Alaska. Yes, spiritual gifts are wonderful. Considering your love of decorations perhaps a colorful ribbon or such of light weight so as to not damage the little fellow might be in order. Come spring it’d be gr8 for you to be able to tell us it survived and is doing well. Blessings upon you all up there.
Thanks for commenting! I love knowing that I can entertain. We thought about using Werther’s toffee wrappers. They are about perfect for weight and sparkle.
I’m glad to see you have a bit of the holiday to enjoy. Our Christmas has been very different the last two years also. My kids are not around to do some of our getting ready for Christmas traditions, our friends that we’re staying with have slightly different traditions, and we have very little space for decorations. We have made sure that we’ve had a tree (potted, kept outside, and trimmed with lights), a couple of ornaments hanging in various places in the RV and container (mainly ones given us last year and this), and this year we will be able to hang some lights on the container. I have struggled some with loosing some of the traditions that I have loved (mainly the ones done with the kids, who have loved them as much as I have – I hope). But I have enjoyed making new traditions with my friends. I guess new chapters in life mean making new traditions.
Absolutely yes on the new traditions! Now we just need to figure out what we want them to be. Isn’t it funny how we always forget that the only constant in life is change? No two holiday seasons were ever exactly the same, but when one gets wildly different we feel upset. I hope your new traditions come to you and feed your soul as much as the old ones did.
Minus 13 degrees and covered in snow. I can’t even do plus 25 anymore. Have a blessed holiday season and please don’t freeze your self.
Oh we are keeping cozy. The cold outside makes sure we appreciate the heat. Just like the darkness helps us appreciate the light. I know this place isn’t for everyone, but I’m loving it so far.