HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS

My vintage Santa Mugs

There are so many fun events this time of the year. So much so that if you blink, you may miss half of it. As a mom, I am forever feeling the pressure to "make - the - memories - happen". Women put so much pressure on themselves to do it all, and I too struggle at times with trying to be too much.....

be the perfect mom, perfect wife, perfect business woman, perfect mentor, perfect friend, perfect...perfect...perfect. Good golly, we are so unfair to ourselves. And the holidays just seem to bring it all to a head.

I have learned of the years to "let it go". How? Not sure, really. Maybe it comes with age. No words of wisdom, no "aha" moment for me. More a steady conscious decision to do what I can, as best I can, and if it goes wrong.....so what!

As an artist, I found early on that sometimes my biggest "mistakes" came with breathtakingly beautiful outcomes. My best work, in both art and life, humbly began as one big f-up. LOL

So let it go, and enjoy the season everyone. Memories are made from the feelings you create in others. Let that be your only goal.

Gift Shop display at the Methuen Festival of Trees

Last week, the family spent time hitting some of the local Christmas attraction. It is outings like these that help those warm feelings grow and give you a sense of connection with your neighbors and friends. The annual tree lighting in town, although very cold, was a fun night of lights, hot chocolate, cookies and Santa. Side note: don't you love it when Santa shows up and he has a REAL beard! Yeah!

We also spent a few hours at the Methuen Festival of Trees. If you live in Massachusetts and have never attending a Festival of Trees, please find out if your local town has one in your area. They can't be beat. Methuen, if I am not mistaken, was the only town to have a Festival, but I have noticed that a few more have branched out (no pun intended) to others areas.

The trees are all donated and decorated by local merchants or residents. And each tree is raffled off at the end of the event.

My camera was not kind to me that day .... but as I said before .... just let it go! There were so many gorgeous trees, but these were all I could find that were in focus - LOL

Below are some of the not so blurry pictures of a few trees and the lovely Gift Shop they set up during the event.