It’s 2020. It’s Christmas. Not unlike our anniversary, our birthdays, or the occasion of buying our first house, this holiday season has felt disjointed, lacking, underwhelming… honestly, I’m having difficulty coming up with any adjectives that sound positive. I think the best I can manage is mediocre.
While I’d like to blame this lameness on the pandemic, I don’t think I can entirely. I’ve realized it’s come largely down to simple lack of planning. And a lack of awareness. I don’t think I really realized how much I was going to want a special holiday.
Two years ago, Christmas was a whirlwind, sneaking in just two months after having moved across the country, weeks after our first trip home, and days before starting my first semester. I got us a tiny fake tree, barely more than a foot tall, we put the presents we had all around it. We went to a party with people we didn’t know. It was fun, but a whirlwind of new, confusing, and rushed.
Fast forward a year, 2019, just over a year since we’d moved, six months after losing my dad, and perhaps at the height of my depression surrounding that loss. I don’t even remember getting out that tiny tree. I watched the Home Alone movies out of desperation. We gave each other presents. I cried and panicked, literally. The new year fast approaching and marking the first year my dad wouldn’t see, easily the most difficult singular day after the first two weeks.
This Christmas will be better than the last one and maybe even the one before it. It won’t beat the beautiful Mountain top ski resort, with the fireplace, and all my family we originally had planned, but it can’t be a complete flop, I made a list, and as any good type A knows, a list always makes things a little better.
It started the end of the first week of December, when I quickly started to realize that I wanted to do more this year but that I wasn’t really sure what to do. Beyond your basic decor and presents, most of the traditions I have enjoyed in the past involved more people. So I took to Instagram and asked for suggestions. The list was born.
Nick and Cassie’s
2020 Holiday To-Do:
- Get our tree and decorate it!
- Bake and decorate cookies.
- Hang mistletoe.
- Decorate house.
- Make homemade ornaments.
- Shop for Storm
- Decide on the best Holiday Movie.
- Go on a hike.
- Drive to see the lights.
- Go on a holiday date.
- Take cute Christmas Morning PJ pictures.
- Create a holiday cocktail
This list is slightly edited from my original posted on Instagram, mostly because some of the things ended up being quite separate from how I originally planned them. Items 1-4 have been completed. Item 7 has been cancelled, it was replaced with a Lord of the Rings marathon. We did a rendition of 9 and 10 together but have planned a second, more thought out version for the 26th. I’ve got the PJs picked out for 11 and have tried two different versions of 12 but no final cocktail in place yet.
Some of these things, aren’t really Nicks cup of tea and that’s okay too. We started listening to a book on tape together, and I’m going to do numbers 5 and 6 by myself. We will each open one present on Christmas Eve, a tradition in my family. And as we work through this year and into next year, we will make more, new traditions.
I’ve already started the list for next year. 🙂
Coffee & Conundrums 