It's not the idea that's new today - we decorate for Christmas every year in this house. And it's not so much the decorations themselves, though some, like the Jets ornament you see at left (a gift from a friend who knew I didn't have a Jets ornament) are in fact new.

It's more the way that every year at this time, even the same old thing can feel like a New Thing.

I told you earlier this month about how decorating the outside of the house with a New Thing helped spice that up.

Inside the house, in addition to the Jets football ornament, there's that Mets ornament hanging next to it, in which there's a picture of me and my nephew at his first Mets game from two summers ago. This is its first year on the tree.

That's part of what's special about all of these little knick-knacks hanging all around the house this time of year - remembering certain events or certain people or certain situations in which you were given these knick-knacks.

But the other special thing, I'm trying to find the words for it.

I love my in-home decorating. This is my favorite thing:

It's the moulding (I'm not sure exactly what to call it) over the entranceway between our dining room and living room, where we have our tree. To the right is a series of "Our Family" ornaments. Each year we get a new one (I've learned to get them early in the season so we don't miss out…and this sometimes means I'm buying a Christmas ornament in late October or early November, which I have a big problem with, but I need this ornament each year), and pictures of our family throughout the year stretch down that ledge.

To the left, above, and to the right of the overhang is where I tape up the Christmas cards we get. Usually the cards fill both sides of the wall.

I don't know why I love this so much. Probably because of a couple of things: 1) It's a tangible reminder, right where we sit so often as a family, of all of our family and friends, and 2) I really love getting Christmas cards. I love how the collection starts with one or two shortly after Thanksgiving, and grows and grows, and by the time it's today, the Saturday after our last day of school, and we're on vacation, the walls are covered with cards and it's like it's Christmas already.

It makes me happy. Every year.

And it's one of the oldest traditions in the books, I'd bet.

But every year it feels like a brand New Thing.