so, in the end, I decided to take a piecemeal approach to circleness decoration creation. this year I tackled the essential wreath, pictured above. it's a combination of two popular designs I found floating around on apartment therapy: the west elm felted snowball wreath (shown below), and the instant gratification garland wreath.
at first I was kind of disappointed by the results, but the wreath has grown on me. I'm fairly happy with it now. perhaps I'll add embellishments as the years go by.
I also made some garlands and flag banners from paper shopping bags. yes, not altogether the most "designed" holiday decorations, but hey, it was an attempt! the flags feature the circleness infinity symbol, the circleness snake (aka circle snake), and a blue circle. 
one of my favorite decorations is the mantle circleness snake. I fashioned it from paper shopping bags, acrylic paint, and some glitter (for the happy tail). 
years ago, when I moved to philadelphia, and John's parents gave us our tree (their old fake one, which we now use because I feel guilty having a fake one and not using it), I made our circleness tree topper. it's an infinity symbol sitting within two circles. I made it out of cardboard and covered it in tin foil. it's kind of rickety and falling apart, but I haven't yet had the wherewithal to redo it yet. we attach it to the tree with a green clothespin. note the death star tree ornament I got for John this year (legos!).and then, of course, cookies! I haven't been able to unearth all of the animal cookie cutters yet, so the full on food web theme didn't quite get off the ground, but there were elephants, owls, octopi, snakes (of course!), and gorillas. I also made a couple of batches of chocolate chip walnut cookies and one big batch of snickerdoodles. my in-laws were underwhelmed by the idea of circleness, to say the least (ok, maybe my mother-in-law was officially offended by it), but all the kids loved the animal cookies. my father-in-law called the circleness snake, satan, and I told him that only a christian would say so. I honestly didn't think about the symbolism when I chose the snake as the gift-bearer of circleness. I thought only of the fact that they're stealthy and able to swallow large items (more of a Little Prince reference than anything). but the satan/christian banter was lighthearted. all in all, I was dreading outing the idea to my in-laws, and it really didn't go over that badly. I'm sure next year we'll have to go through it all over again, but alas, it takes a while to establish a tradition. this is the fifth year John and I have celebrated circleness, but only the first year we took pains to create some traditional activities in earnest.
I didn't have the energy to photograph our holiday meal, but the menu was English and simple. a pot roast, individual yorkshire puddings (my favorite part), whipped cream filled profiteroles (I put them all into a trifle bowl & skipped the topping, but next year I'll probably do at least a chocolate drizzle), and bananas foster. we ate our holiday dinner on the 23rd, circleness eve, and on the morning of circleness (December 24), we had pancakes (I made the batter in advance, so that I wouldn't have to do anything labor intensive). instead of syrup, henry used left over whipped cream for topping (he calls it baby ice cream). it was a very kitchen circleness!
and finally, one shot of henry, holding the big buzz lightyear that the circle snake delivered to our house. oh, and rather than hanging stockings, we put boots by the fireplace. snakes and boots go together naturally for a boy obsessed with toy story (woody oft exclaims, "there's a snake in my boot!").
