Our 2016 Holiday Season Captured in Moments.

In 2016 I practiced a new memory keeping ritual that included capturing one second snippets of everyday life and pulling them together with the 1 Second Everyday app. I shared more about it here. More on my WHOLE 2016 year very soon! Excited to share of what came of this very thoughtful and purposeful exercise.

Today I wanted to share a favorite project that I tried that came from this idea to snip together similar small segments of our holiday season this past Christmas. I love this because I get to include more of the moments that seem to fly by with the one second a day approach (moments that are sort of gone in the blink of an eye). This means MORE gingerbread making, more tree decorating, more fireside snuggles. When one snippet doesn’t suffice, here’s a mini video dedicated to one whole season:

Christmas this year felt as though it came and went pretty quickly. The minute the season began I knew that that would be the feeling all season long and so I tried to extra carefully hold onto the little bits of that seasonal spirit as they came with each special tradition. I know this will happen with lots of holidays over lots of years and this was one more way to slow it down just a teeny tiny bit.

I created this video in collaboration with Pine Mountain because lately we have been using their firelogs in our non-working gas fireplace. More on that to come as well because it has brought back the ritual of fireside family time in a huge way and it’s been so wonderful (everything about fireplace fires is pretty awesome, right?). We have been regularly lighting an amazingly fresh smelling balsam firelog from December and now well into January to bring our living room back to the helm of family hang time/game time/snuggle time. Our 1930s fireplace (which we had to convert to just a pretty decoration) is none the wiser and we are accomplishing a safe, practical alternative solution to create some wonderful winter magic.

Here’s the skinny on firelogs: Pine Mountain firelogs are built to create a cozy atmosphere and offer all the benefits of a natural wood-burning fire without the cons (burns much cleaner, produces much less off matter and carbon monoxide that ends up in your home/chimney) yet they’re still crafted from real American hardwoods, are fast and easy to light and smell amazing. I especially love the American Home Balsam Fir firelog because it’s basically a Yankee Candle and smells amazing even when just hanging out by the fireplace in a pretty stack. We choose them because they are the alternative to turning on our gas fireplace which is, in our 1930s home, a serious renovation project and endeavor. It’s a ‘one day!’ project for us right now! I don’t often share sponsored posts these days but this was such a natural solution for us to share since we have independently been engaging with our favorite firelogs for the entire winter season and hadn’t had an opportunity to follow up on that birch faux screen we added four years ago. I am so happy to share on behalf of this company! Cheers and happy winter, everyone!

This post was sponsored by Pine Mountain. Thanks for allowing me to share about companies that we support and that support this site. #StartWithPineMtn Find Pine Mountain on Facebook here.