2017 has been the year of “something different,” with the word of the year being “change.”

After the selling the business, the house and most of our possessions, we left New York in May with a plan to “go and see where we end up.”

A little over six months later we are semi-permanent residents of Las Vegas Nevada; living in the RV on a lovely lot in the Las Vegas Motor Coach Resort. The weather is wonderful, but the best part is that we can pick up and go anywhere, anytime we want.

But suddenly here it is December and the holidays snuck up on me.  My Christmas decorations are still living in a storage facility in New York leaving me at a loss as to how to decorate for the season.

There certainly isn’t space inside the RV for a tree.   There isn’t space inside the RV for much more of anything.

So, because we do so much of our living outside in the open air casita, this will be our inside-out Christmas.

I bought a small artificial pre-decorated tree in a pot and put it on the dining table.

I bought lights and poinsettias and a wreath.

We even bought two of those laser light projectors for the front landscaping and hung a strip of lights around the outside of the casita.   That felt like enough for this year.

It’s not much compared to the multiple totes of decorations we collected over our marriage and left in storage, but it does remind us that the holidays are here and helps give us some Christmas spirit in a setting that still feels a little foreign to us.

As I was doing this little bit of decorating, I realized that for me, the Christmas season is all about feelings.   I miss my favorite decorations. Each year, unpacking and hanging those was my touchstone to Christmas past.  Those Christmases of family and laughter and precious memories.   I had to remind myself that the touchstones aren’t gone forever, and they will come to Las Vegas to live before next Christmas.

This is the Christmas of change.  While the decorations may not be what I’m accustomed to, they certainly fit with the year we’ve had; A year of adventure and doing something different.

On the twenty-first, we’ll point Bella-BOW south and head to California.  We reserved a spot at Newport Dunes RV Resort and will spend Christmas in California with the little grands.

Our inside-out holiday decorations are just the trappings of Christmas.  The true spirit and love of the holidays will shine in those little faces and that is what will make our Christmas and another precious memory.