This year I am spending my first Christmas away from home…and if I am lucky it will be my only Christmas away from home.
It is strange…there are no coats, no gentle snowfall, no gray winter mornings…there are only blustery, sunny days, where the sky is blue it hurts to look at it. It is deep into the month of December and I am swinging in the hammock in a tank top and flip-flops watching the trees bend and dance in the wind through the open front door…
It just doesn’t feel like Christmas…but my overly-pleasant weather will not stop me from celebrating. Though I long for snow boots and thick winter gloves, it looks like a fluffy beach towel and a bathing suit will have to suffice.
And it will not stop me from “decking my halls” to give my little home a Christmas-like feel…
Poinsettias and white roses from the garden on the table...
Ornaments, paper snowflakes, and ribbons hanging from the ceiling...
Homemade snowman ornament...
and a homemade star for the top....
My little tree...
It isn’t quite what I am used to, but I think it will do…and if not, there is always cheap rum and a 2-liter of Coke available at the nearest grocery store to help me forget… 
Just kidding! I want to be sober at the beach so I don’t drown…
Merry Christmas!
Enjoy the weather – it could be worse! My first Christmas away from home was my freshman year of college at Arizona State University. And like you, the weather wasn’t what I was used to for that time of year either. Still laying out at the pool in December (of course you could tell I was from NE, and not AZ or southern Cal, like my friends, because I was the only one at the pool). And even though the weather wasn’t what I was used to for that time of year, I still decorated my little dorm for Christmas. Your decorations are so much better than what mine were! It’s not the weather or the decorations that make the hoiday, but the spirit. You have done a great job of keeping the spirit alive! Merry Christmas!