Our simple Yule celebration.

So our plans for the holidays changed a bit. We decided to put off our trip to Florida until sometime after the New Year. When the weather is not as bad, and things are a bit less hectic. When you have a lot of animals that depend on you, it makes leaving home rather difficult. My friend had offered to keep the goats at her farm and we have a few neighbors we can ask to stop buy and check on the dogs and chickens. However with the weather as unpredictable and crappy as it has been, i really wasn't comfortable leaving them. We were also quite concerned about pipes freezing, and there were a few other factors.
So the decision to stay home was very welcome, and a bit of a relief, but also made me a little bit sad. We are very used to spending our holidays with just the four of us, but i was kind of looking forward to spending this year with extended family. i have not seen my grandparents in almost 4 years, and i know the kids would have enjoyed being with Nana and Pap.

So despite our decision to stay home, our Yule celebration was really quite nice.

A few days before we went on the hunt for a new Yule tree. We did not find a lot of options for live potted trees. We ended up with a Norfolk Island Pine that was being marketed as a 'living Christmas tree'. It is small and compact, with soft needles and made a lovely, simple little yule tree. i did not realize that it can't be re-planted..and so we'll keep it inside as a houseplant and hope that it survives so we can use it again next year.

We decorated our tree with the usual simple ornaments. A few ribbons, bells, pine cones and gingerbread. The little tree was just not able to hold up many of the decorations, so it was very, very simple this year.

Many of our gifts were simple as well. i picked up a couple of these little bird whistles as stocking stuffers at Wintersun in Floyd. You add a little water to them, and they make a fun, realistic bird sound.


i also found these old school acrobat toys also at WinterSun. i don't know the name of them, but i remember having one as a kid. You gently squeeze the bottom and the little acrobat flips around. These are handmade in Ecuador, and i found it a bit funny that they all had familiar cartoon characters on them. Sage's has Pink panther, and the one i picked up for Sequoia had Pikachu. i would have preferred them with plain or traditional acrobats, but the kids were still thrilled with them.

Both of the kids found handmade pendants in their stockings from daddy.

Sage was thrilled with the bendy gift set i made for her. i know i posted a few pictures as i was putting it together. i'm not sure i ever posted a picture of it complete.


i am quite pleased with how it turned out. The flowers in the back are 3-d flower stickers i found at the craft store. i also made her a unicorn and Pegasus to go with the set.


Several weeks ago, i found a wooden goat at Michael's craft store and picked it up for Sage to paint. It's the one in the middle. Then earlier this month she asked for a goat shed to keep her goat in. So i was super thrilled to find this one at Michael's which seemed absolutely perfect. i decided to make her a felt goat, and a couple of chickens to go with it. Then i found the goat on the left at The Treasured Toy in Floyd. So she now has nice little set up to go with her dollhouse. :) This was a fun surprise for her.

i had several handmade gifts for my boy as well. i've posted some pictures before as i was putting things together, and will post a few more on another day.

Our day was very laid back, surprising quiet and nice. We truly enjoyed each other, played with our new toys, played games, ate a lot of good food and junk and watched the snow come down.
i can't really think of a better way to celebrate the season.