Christmas in the Lower Income Bracket

Christmas is coming and I am partly very excited about it, and partly exhausted already. People in the lower income bracket can appreciate how the holidays seem bleaker than usual, especially when you have a child that you want to make a special holiday for. Already I've had to make some changes to our usual holiday festivities, including a decided lack of a tree, as we have no floor space for one and the cats will eat the fake one we could put on the table. But mama is nothing if not resourceful.

That is wreath garland in a zig-zag tree shape on the wall of mommy's "office", or rather the corner of the living room where her desk is. Only a few of our ornaments were hung on it, with thumb tacks and 3M hooks. Those are our stockings, hanging in the hallway between the living room and the kitchen. 

There is something sad, but also kind of lovely, about where we are now. We have no space and most of our things haven't been unpacked and quite frankly the apartment sucks, but it allows me creativity I couldn't have before. In our previous place, we weren't allowed to paint the walls, put up shelves, or even screws to hang pictures. We weren't even allowed to use 3M hooks, though I did it anyway.  But here, in this place, I can pretty much do whatever I like. I don't even ask permission, because I don't care at all about the space and the landlord is all but absent from our lives, and he does the bare minimum to sustain our living. I feel I owe him nothing. 

This isn't meant to be a depressing post. It just is what it is, and those who will be having a thin Christmas this year will appreciate how, sometimes, just making do with what you can is enough not to give up. So on a happier note, here are my wintry nails and my husband repellant hand lotion. (He hates the smell of the cinnamon pine cones in craft stores, and this is what it smells like. I love it.)