There are no fewer than seven different advent calendars on display in our Tiny Apartment Palace, and a fragrant fir that is ever so slightly lopsided when you look at her from one angle. My Leaning Tower of Treeza.

I love this time of year for just about every reason you can imagine, but most of all for the open invitation to bathe in nostalgia. Our holiday decorations are a collection of things made, saved, or gifted and decking the halls is a more a trip down memory lane than an attempt at cohesive interior design. And I absolutely would not have it any other way.

This year, in a conscious effort to imbue as much holiday magic as possible into every single day, I have added a few special trinkets and traditions that I hope to build upon and treasure for years to come.

The kids are most excited about the basket of 24 presents wrapped and numbered and meant to be opened one day at a time leading up to Christmas. Each of these presents is a different seasonal story. There are advent tales from Italy, Appalachian stories, a classic children’s story to welcoming the first night of Hanukkah, a story for St. Nicholas Day, a story for Santa Lucia, a Mexican folktale about the Poinsettia, as well as old familiar classics such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas (which happened to be this evening’s story). This is something I’ve wanted to do for several years and just never managed to get it together – seriously, wrapping 24 books individually is kind of a pain in the neck – but it has been totally worth it to see the way even my biggest kids are enthusiastic about having a little something to look forward to each day.

The simple set of Swedish angel chimes that I’ve (finally!) added to our collection are even better than I’d hoped. And if I manage to get the supplies together for the project I have in my head, and then manage to execute said project, we will have a new festive garland to bring out each year to come.

As much as I am looking forward to the fresh start that a new year brings, I am in no hurry at all for this month to end. I’ve had a long and well documented love affair with December and that is just the way it is.