Christmas in Arizona
Christmas is my favorite season. As a girl who was born and raised in the desert and then moved to a new desert, Christmas is a season, not winter. I know hot weather and cold weather but I am fully aware that my version of cold is not the same as what others would call winter.
Fourth of July is my favorite holiday but that is a one day and done type of deal. Christmas is a month long celebration and for my family, it usually starts right after Thanksgiving. Although, this year, I got to decorate our apartment for Christmas a little early. I still have no idea how I managed to convince my husband but extra time with Christmas lights always make me smile.
Decorating our tiny apartment was different than decorating any of our previous homes. We lived in a townhouse in Vegas for the past six years so we have acquired quite the Christmas decoration collection. In the move, we lost six hundred square feet and a majority of table top space. We had to pivot everything we normally put out for our decorations. This year, the village stayed in the box and we will not be buying a new building to add to it. We had a few ornament options for our tree but we opted for the dark blue and gold ornaments to go along with the personalized, handmade, and specialized ornaments on the tree. (We’re not done with the making of handmade ornaments either!) I have three trees up this year. The big one that is the living room. I have a small white one on my desk. I also have a small tree in my bedroom. I do have a few ornaments on the tree on my desk. But those are just mini ornaments I find when I am out and about during the Christmas season. I do want to add an ornament every year though. I just got that tree last year for my desk so it’s still a new tradition.
Oh wait, I have four trees. I forgot about my Charlie Brown tree replica that is also in the living room.
The rest of the apartment has small additions to surfaces. The most important decoration every year is my mom’s nativity.
Peep the Nativity at the top of the bookshelf :)
This nativity is one my mom bought while she was in Germany visiting my great-uncle while he was stationed there. If my memory serves correctly, the navity had a permanent place in a curio cabinet in the living room. It was always displayed. I got it a few years after I had a place of my own (and a full grown up) and I’ve been displaying it every Christmas since. it is my favorite decoration to display.
One thing I am excited about is exploring where we live now and go to all the holiday events out here. It’s already started! We got to check out the tree lighting and santa’s arrival on Merry Main St. We actually have to go back to that because there is a light display we missed. We drove past it and it looked amazing so it is definitely something we want to see again. We also found a great mexican restaurant that our whole family loves so I am looking for a reason to go back there. This upcoming weekend is full of holiday outings we’re going to be doing. It is really fun getting out there and seeing everything there is to do in our city. I definitely didn’t check out everything in Vegas like I am right now. Perhaps I took it for granted.
So let this be an encouragement, go out to the events in your city. Explore your city as if it was all new. Go out and be in your community and make a new friend.
We even went to a storytime at a local bookstore (indie!) and got to meet the Grinch! Now that I live in Arizona, I follow a lot of instagram accounts that talk about local events, local mom meet ups and communities. I never followed that stuff when I live in Vegas. I never thought to look for it. So if that is you, and you don’t know what your city has to offer, go find those instagram accounts. Find the local communities that are putting together meet ups and go to one. I know it is hard to put yourself out there—I’m an extrovert and struggling with it. It’s hard to show up somewhere when you don’t know anybody. If you don’t show up though, you miss out on the fun, and you miss out on making new friends and building your community.
I’m going to stop myself there before I go on a whole tangent about screens and face to face interaction.
This year, we get to explore everything out here in Arizona plus we get to visit our favorite places in Vegas. It feels like we’re going all out this year for Christmas but dang, we’re excited. Plus, my boys love being outside so any opportunity I can give them to be out, I’m doing it.
Now, in all the fun decorating and Christmas events, we make sure that we are not losing the reason for the season. The whole reason we celebrate Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It’s important to recongize the birth of Jesus because his miraculous birth is how we know he is the messiah. It’s because of Jesus that we can have eternity with God and be free from the pits of hell. Jesus is the reason for the season and we are sure to talk about it as much as we can. It’s a blessing to be able to go out and experience the holiday season with decorating and events but all of it is only possible because of Jesus and his role in our lives. I wouldn’t be where I am today without Jesus.