A New Year: Affirmations and Aspirations

A little Dr. Who humor (thanks to my husband’s decorating efforts).

I hope you had a happy and holy Christmas. We had a beautiful Christmas Eve candlelight service at church. When we sing Silent Night with all the candles lit, I always take a moment to look around the sanctuary at all the people singing in the glow of the flames. I wish I could capture that moment and relive it throughout the year. There’s peace and unity and worship. It’s one of the most beautiful experiences.

Normally I wouldn’t want to just list the gifts I received for Christmas, but this year’s gifts really touched my heart. Typically, I’m the master gift giver of the family, but this year the students out did the teacher.

My dear husband gave me two paint brush cases so I can transport them safely to classes. Who knew he even noticed that the big brushes kept falling out of the cart?

In my last post, I commented that one blogging skill I need to improve is my photography skills. The photos I took were done on a very old palm-sized digital camera. On Christmas, I opened a box containing a tripod and camera accessories. What? Then he hands me a second box with…you guessed it…a new camera. I really didn’t think getting a better camera would happen any time soon.

Compare these two pictures. The first from last week’s post and the second from my new camera. Better, huh? Now you can see the reindeer names clearly. I still have A LOT to learn, but I am really enjoying playing with my new toy.

Next, my son’s present to me was (is) tickets to The Lion King in the Spring. Ahhhh! I know!

And finally, my daughter made me a hand-made throw. How sweet is that? I will always think of her when I snuggle up in it.

The point of all this is that these gifts were very thoughtful. They are affirmations of their love and understanding of me. Each gift is a way to help me enjoy life, my painting, this new adventure of blogging, and a live musical presentation. Wow, it’s like they were saying “we support you, you go girl”  (Really, the guys would never say those words being manly men and all.)

Anyway, today I should be planning New Year’s resolutions, but I don’t really like that term. I’m thinking new year Aspirations and Goals. I hope to share with you in the next post what I aspire to accomplish in 2017:

In my home

In the blog

In spiritual growth

I hope you’ll join me in this journey. I’m still trying to work out all the “bugs” in the posts.  Please be patient.  I am reading all your comments and I am so excited to see you following. If you’re reading this from my Facebook link, you can subscribe to my newsletter on the right of this post and continue to receive new post notifications via email.

Celeste

 

Merry Christmas: So we begin

 

Living room tree: Gold, white, teal

Welcome to the premier posting of Penultimate Home.

What is this blog all about and why did I start it?

Well first, let me introduce myself. I’m Celeste and Merry Christmas. I decided to explore blogging as a creative outlet. I’m looking forward to retirement in the next few years, but I can’t imagine not having something to do.  I need a purpose and work even if it’s not a job. And I’m too young to collect Social Security. Ha!

I’ve followed several lifestyle/home décor blogs in the past few years and thought I’d love to do that. Create. Communicate.  I clearly still have a lot to learn about this blogging process. (Taking better photos heads the list.)

Kitchen Snow tree

I have been a long-time home décor enthusiast, (This is not the time for my old friends to jump in and say “Remember when you had that thing for lace and had doilies all over everything?” Yes, yes I remember. Let it go.)

I’ve also been busily employed outside the home most of my adult life. I have a lot of projects in my home that I want to tackle. The spirit is willing, but the wallet is weak. Over the years, my philosophy has developed into just do what you can and let the rest be. Some day you realize that act of creating is more rewarding than the ever out of reach perfection.

This Handel’s Messiah ornament is one of my oldest

So why have the name Penultimate Home?

Penultimate means next to last. And since I am a bit of a restless soul that always seems to be looking for new experiences, it seemed appropriate. But there is another reason behind the name. I have faith that this is not my final home. No matter where I live in the future, my final home will be with God. And yes, I’m looking forward to that move too.

Sleigh Bells

Finally, the purpose of this blog is to explore and share the things that bring me joy or interest me. Things like developing a comfortable home, graciously aging, music, and faith. I make no claim to be an expert in these things, but they’re the things that bring quality to my existence and I want to share with any interested followers.

Thanks for reading and please join me again.

Celeste