Brightest Blessings on You and Yours

Happy Full Moon December 2015

Tonight marks the rising of the first full moon on Christmas since 1977. To me this moon is more than just a full moon, but a reminder of the ebb and flow of life. It peeks in the windows of my Tiny House reminding me just how good I have it. Its bright light chases away the shadows of the cold night illuminating my cozy and warm home. It is a reminder of just how good my life is, no matter the trials and tribulations of daily life. I am living my dream and that is what matters.  My wish tonight is that everyone who reads my blog or listens to my podcast can be warm and snug in their home with the people they love. Blessings everyone.
                                 -- Karin

Tradition of the Yule Log in a Tiny House

In my tiny home we celebrate Yule. Yule normally falls on either the 21st or 22nd of December each year. Tuesday, December 22 is the Winter Solstice this year. This is longest night of the year, when the light of day is shorter than the dark of night. After the solstice, slowly, day by day, the days will become longer until the Summer Solstice when light will be longer than dark. 

The Yule Log tradition traces way back to the Norse. It is a symbol for always having warmth. As you may remember, people heated their home with wood, and wood had a tendency to become scarce. The original Yule log was a full tree, brought into the home with great ceremony and one end was shoved into the hearth. The fire already going in the hearth would have been lit with a small section of the previous year's Yule log remnants. The new tree would burn until a small section was left. This small section would be preserved as the Yule log. And  so it would continue, year after year. 

Bummer in the Boonies

This morning I woke up to my usual routine of making  a list of all I need to remember to accomplish today. I am a teacher and if I don't follow this routine I get caught up in all the action of the 6th grade and forget to do many things. I added buying Halloween treats to my list this morning and it hit me: In the boonies there will be no trick-or-treaters. How sad is that? In my neighborhood right now I have a ton of trick-or-treaters knocking on my door for their annual batch of sweets and treats. In the boonies my land is too far out and other houses too spread out to have little super heros, Dora's, Princesses, and ghosts running up the drive in excitement of just what sugar-laden surprise might await them.

This is the first time I have considered some of the sad parts are living in the boonies. I will miss decorated houses for the holidays. I am sure folks out in the boonies decorate, but our houses are too far apart and on the streets that surround my property there are only 3 other houses, each about a quarter mile apart. The block parties to popular here in the suburbs will be no more. This is the bittersweet part of living in the middle of nowhere.

I do have some tiny LED Christmas lights that are battery operated to use in decorating my tiny house around Yule and I am sure I will find small trinkets to continue to decorate for the holidays, but being as isolated as I am these will most likely only be seen by me. I guess I will just have to shift to putting together a special treats package for my granddaughter and getting it to her via the mail a few days before major holidays. Thank goodness for Skype.


Do you think you would miss these suburban and urban traditions? Would you continue to decorate your home for different holidays if you were most likely the only one to see the decorations?