Ten years ago today, I started this blog with this post:

I'm Elf!  And Christmas is 86 days from today.  Are you already stressed?  Have no fear.  Pull up a nice mug of cider and a comfy blanket and spend some time with Santa's chief elf. 

Elves live Christmas every day of the year.  That doesn't mean that our houses are always decorated or that we hand-craft all our gifts from the flock of imported sheep in our backyards or that we are perfectly organized.  It means that we hold the spirit of Christmas:  hospitality, generosity, caring, and joy.

As an Elf, I love to entertain and craft and give gifts through the year.  Any holiday is a great opportunity for me to let the people I care about know how much I love them.  So we won't be focusing only on Christmas.  We'll be celebrating throughout the year.

I don't assume that my readers are independently wealthy with staffs to take care of the mundane tasks of life.  I hope that my readers will be students and people starting their first jobs, stay-at-home parents raising their kids on a budget, busy professionals with more money than time, and other folks looking to live graciously and simply and to hold the spirit of Christmas in their hearts throughout the year.  So, you'll never see a blog entry telling you how I greet guests at my summer place.  (For the record, my "summer place" is a Target beach chair I put under the trees in my yard — once I've checked the area for squirrels, bunnies, spiders, and dog poop.)  I will be blogging about ways that you can plan and entertain in ways that reduce stress for you and your guests, ways to save time and money, and ways to treat yourself and those around you with loving care.

I'd love to hear from folks who read here. (Elves are very optimistic.  I actually believe that people will read this!)  Please ask your questions and tell me what you'd like to read about.  You can feel free to write to me at ChiefElf at aol dot com.  Unless you ask otherwise, anything you write to me can become blog fodder.  And remember, I'm an Elf, not a magician.  I can't give you a perfect family, a perfect house, or a perfect life.  But hopefully, I can help you make living this imperfect life a lot more fun.

It's been ten years and I'd like to think that I've achieved what I set out to do. With a few interruptions when life became too much, I've blogged consistently over those ten years.

But it's been a decade. In that time, I've lost both my parents. I've found a wonderful boyfriend. A wonderful dog rescued me. I've written four books with the fifth to come out early next year.

So, it's time for some renewal. I'll be switching platforms for the blog and making it a more complete website. We'll update the colors and add more photos. I'm hoping to offer more referrals and book reviews, things you asked for in the survey. Hopefully, in time, we'll add some audio and video features and even host some Facebook Live events. The newsletter will remain monthly, but its format will change a bit to make it more useful. I'll be looking to step up my social media game, so you might want to start following me on Facebook and Twitter.

We're entering the holiday season and I'm ready to take it to 11! So let the second decade begin.