Stress Free Holidays

It was really important to Greg this year that we do an open house on New Year's Day. We've had a pretty full fourth quarter. I made some key hires, we moved into our new home in Carmel-by-the-Sea furnishing it from the ground up.  (That's a whole other story.)  Over the holidays we typically host 4 couples for an evening of fine wine and dining all done by Greg and a labor of love. We host our family on either Thanksgiving or Christmas.  This year we didn't do any of it for a variety of reasons. 

Our annual gift of experience was to take the family to Las Vegas on Thanksgiving. That means everyone was on their own for Christmas given the switching we do every year, mentioned in the book.   

We didn't host that fine wine dinner but went to Hawaii and invited the other couples to join us for a special dinner at La Mer, infamous at the wonderful Halekulani in Waikiki.  Only one elected to join us.  

So this turned out to be the only year in a long, long, long, time where nada. 

We didn't do a big Christmas tree because a) we weren't entertaining  and b) I didn't want to spend the holidays reprimanding Benson our lab pup for making round bright shiny ornaments his new tennis balls. And boy does he live for the tennis ball.  It was going to be the season of 'leave-it's’ and I didn't want to spend the holidays training him, or wondering if the tree was going to flip over, or glass ornaments would crush in his mouth. So out came the little fakeo - 18 inches tall that was on our side table in the living room. (see picture) 

What I loved was the breathing room of the holidays.  We don't do a lot of gifts, we've gifted experiences for years, ahead of that trend which I also write about in Magic in the Mundane.  But the season turned even more extraordinary because we went light on entertaining and hosting which I found somewhat of a relief given all we did in Q4 to end the year in the business, do some key hiring, and then get a puppy to become a citizen while furnishing our second home.  Some times less is more.  

But we couldn't leave it there.  Open House on New Years...I'll share the Greek recipes we served soon!