This year, Eric and I will be celebrating our first Christmas together in our new home. Decorating this house is a bit different from decorating my little cottage. We don't have the front porch and posts to drape lighted garland on. Perhaps in the future, we'll feel up to putting lights on the eaves of the roofline, but this year wasn't the year.

I came up with a compromise this year. We got a couple of lighted wreaths, which we hung on the two front windows. In addition, I still had some lights that I used to put on the bushes outside my old apartment, so we strung those over the bushes along the front of the house.

I rather like the effect.

Inside, I used the same garland I have used in previous years to decorate the entertainment center. And my little tree, which I thought might look rather forlorn in the big living area, looks just fine sitting on a side table. And the best part of all, the cats have completely ignored it!

But the best part of our Christmas is not the lights, or the tree, or the gifts under the tree, but the fact that we will be celebrating Christmas together, something we have waited a long time for!

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