Like the little elf that I am, and since I've been relatively home bound with this rotten cold, (grrrr) I've applied myself to decorating the house. Nothing gets in me in a holiday mood quite like the proper decor.
And since the only time of the year that I bother to do any decorating is Christmas tide, I go all out. Very few corners of our home remain undecorated at this point. In our house, the stockings are hung from the drawer handles of the large display case. Since we have no mantel it will have to do. And it took me only a moment to solve to "how to hang the stockings from the drawer pulls" question. The answer...ribbon. Santa will have to literally cut the ribbon to unhang them in order to fill them. But if he can squeeze his chubby old self down non-existant chimneys I'm sure he can manage to simple pair of scissors. The bright pink reindeer with the fur collars live on the kitchen table where everyone can enjoy them :) And don't you dare say a word against them because they were a gift from my sister years ago and I adore them. I actually found the sleigh on a discount table at Michael's in an after Christmas sale a few years later. I filled them with non-traditionally coloured baubles and personally I think it looks fabulous as a little tabletop vignette. The little silver tree, (also a gift from Joy) is on the coffee table. The two little light up snowmen that holly jolly sit beside it were stocking gifts from Tim one year. Surprisingly, the original batteries still work! Another Christmas Miracle! What is left of my humongous snowman collection (the majority of the collection sold quickly at our yardsale before we moved here) sit on the receiving table in the entry on either side of that tree in a lantern thingie. The tree in the latern is relatively new. I don't know why I love it but I do. We were at Michael's last year up in Sarasota buying the decorations for the Museum and I saw that tree in a lantern and involuntarily did a little gasp. I saw Tim's eyebrows go up and then I saw the tree in a lantern go into the cart. I remember very weakly protesting that I didn't actually NEED the tree in a lantern, I just liked it. He absolutely ignored my protests and now it's mine ;) He knows me so well :) This is the first year that my Nativity has been set out. Many years ago, perhaps even before we got married, I wistfully mentioned to Tim while Christmas shopping for the boys, that I always wished for a pretty nativity to set out. It was just one of those things said idly in passing. At the time we didn't have any extra money for things that were not necessities. This nativity set was my gift from Tim that year. Wow! A man who listens! Yes he is pretty awesome :) I set it out year after year until we moved here. We sold most of our ornaments and all of our trees (we had three!) before we moved here from Colorado, but I just could not bring myself to sell the creche. Our first Christmas here, I wasn't sure we could fit a tree into this ittybitty house. But we did. And that was kind of the beginning and the end of it. The second year, I found ways to fit more decorations in and then this year....tadaa, I realized that an end table in the family room stripped of everything else would work perfectly. And now, the Nativity has it's place. The wreath is the same wreath I've had on the door the since we first moved here. But I did replace the ribbon this year. That old one was looking pretty ratty. I intended to buy some new ribbon but felt too crummy to go out shopping for it. Once I started decorating, lo and behold, there was an entire roll of this pretty gold ribbon in the decorations bin. No idea where it came from or why it was in there but now some of it is on the wreath. And it looks just fine to me! The little glass tree of course, is something I bought for myself two Christmas' ago. I don't normally buy gifts for myself but that was one of those unusual moments where I fell madly in love with it instantly, bought it, brought it home and then felt guilty for days. When I confessed to Tim what I did, he laughed it off. "Nothing to feel guilty about. You love it, you bought it. Done". I still love it :) The cute little Santa beside it is one of those sun activated bobbles. It was in Tim's stocking last year I believe. The "Christmas is Love" Sign behind it all is a gift from a long time ago. From when we lived in Connecticut, in fact, which is at minimum about 15 years. The Woodworth girls gave it to me. I believe their mom made it. And I love it to bits and pieces. It was another of the few Christmas decorations I couldn't bring myself to sell. The tree of course is over loaded with Christmas cheer. You know my Christmas Tree policy.... too much is just enough. I have scads of decorations collected over the years and every single solitary one of them was a gift. And I know who gave me which ones. And every year, as I decorate, I think about the people who gifted me each piece, I smile and my heart sings. Our tree is decorated with memories and lots of love. And so it's finished. It took me the better part of two days but it's done. Our Christmas decor is far from designer perfect but it's perfect for us. And that's all that really matters. FYI Taking a few days off next week so I probably won't be posting 'til mid-week in case you notice an absence of blog posts and wonder where the heck I am. Meanwhile, have a wonderful weekend and please enjoy every minute of the season. Hugs all 'round til we meet again next week!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorYup, this is me. Some people said, "Sam, you should write a Blog". "Well, there's a thought", I thought to myself. And so here it is. Archives
February 2025
Categories |