Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Decorating for Christmas

So I decorated for Christmas last weekend. Big T didn't want me to start so early (huh? early?) but I did. Wow - I didn't realize what a huge project I took on. I got him to go up in the attic to bring down the totes filled with decorations. He had the boys help and they kept coming and coming and coming! Soon I had 10 totes stacked up against my front door. As I started to wade through them memories flooded back and the tears started to flow. You see, the majority of these were mom and dad's.


I've mentioned before how much my mom loved Christmas and how much she loved to decorate. Well, she went above and beyond people! She would decorate each and every room in the house! Even rooms that weren't used and that people wouldn't see. It didn't matter. It was Christmas, a time to celebrate, a time for good cheer, a time to give, and a time to DECORATE! Ha - I can still remember daddy fussing about having to drag all that stuff in from the barn. He absolutely hated that part! We went to visit them in 2006 and all the totes were sitting on the front porch so Big T and I decided we would put them out in the barn. Well, daddy didn't like that one bit and he fussed and fussed. He said that he would take care of it and he was none too happy that Big T and I were doing it until...until I pointed out to him that it was JULY!!! He then smiled his wonderful smile and said I guess you're right!



I set up mom's Christmas village on my grandmother's buffet. This was one of her favorite Christmas decorations. She would get the angel hair from the store and spread it out on the buffet. Then she would lovingly take each little house, each little store, each little tree and create a wonderland right there in our dining room. I can remember her very first Christmas village. It had little pine cone elves that stood all the way around the entire village. Each elf held a lantern that lit up. It was as if they were guarding the village against harm.


Another one of mom's favorite decoration was the nativity scene. Big T was surprised I kept my mom's since I had one of my own. I set this up on our mantel. It looks so nice with the lace runner she gave me. I could always count on my sending me a new Christmas decoration and a new ornament each year!! Above the mantel I have the wreath and hanging Santa Claus and Snowman she gave me.


My Aunt Connie (actually, she was my mom's aunt!), whom I never met, used to make ceramics. She made this beautiful ceramic tree that lights up from the inside. Hmm...I'm not describing it too well. There are colorful pieces of plastic called globe lights that go in holes on the tree. When the light in the middle is turned on it looks like the Christmas tree is lit up. Here's a picture of one. This is similar to mine but much smaller.









Anyway, its old and its cracked and I'm not even sure it still works. Did I throw it away? Nope - brought it home. I'm going to have Big T take it to the garage (oh no!!) and see if he can fix it.



I also kept some of their Christmas ornaments. There are some that are older than me! We won't put our tree up for another week but I can't wait to get them out and tell the boys all about them!! Decorating the tree has always been something we've done together. Big T and I fuss with getting the lights on and then we get out the ornaments and hand them one by one to the boys for them to put on the tree. Trust me - we had some very interestingly decorated trees when the boys were little and could only reach so high!!

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