Decking the Halls...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...'tis the season to be jolly...falalala la la la...and all that.

I've been spending a lot of time the past few days wondering what I should write about. I have tossed a few ideas around, but they haven't amounted to anything. I just can't seem to be inspired to write. Maybe because I've spent the last three days cleaning and decorating and doing laundry. I guess I can't be creative and orderly at the same time. Those two things must use different areas of the brain.

So, I will write about my Christmas decorating, boring as that will most likely be.

I love decorating for Christmas. I don't do anything as elaborate as I used to, mainly because I don't have the time. It used to be a week long all day production fancying up nearly every room of my house for the holidays. The first year after I started working, I spent so much time with my usual decorating that I didn't even have time to enjoy it all before Christmas was over and it was time to pack it all away again. So over the past years, I have drastically scaled back what I decorate so that I can finish most of it over Thanksgiving weekend. Each year, I ask the kids what they think are the most important decorating tasks, and that's what I do.

Of course, we put up the tree.Tony and I have vastly different ideas as to how to decorate the tree: He likes the big, old fashioned colored bulbs, and I like tiny little white lights. For many years, he insisted that our tree had to have colorful lights, so we compromised and used the tiny colored lights because I refused to put those gigantic bulbs on my Christmas tree. Finally, about 10 years ago, I decided, hey, why should HE always get to have what he wants on the tree, and I don't? So I told him we would trade off...one year our tree would be decked out in all the colors of the rainbow, the next year, the lights would be clear. But for some reason, for the past two years, our tree has been decked out in colored lights. The other day, without me even saying anything, he put on the clear lights. I've been playing around with my camera and trying to get some good "light" pictures, and this is the best I can do:




The other 2 things the kids always want me to do is decorate our staircase:




and decorate outside. We put wreaths with red bows on all the windows and wrap the porch railings in greenery and red bows. I am also in charge of the lights outside. I usually decorate with all white, red and green, but yesterday, I discovered that only one strand of my 15 strands of red lights worked, and only a few of my green strands worked. Probably because when Tony took them down after last Christmas, he just piled them all in a Rubbermaid tub and they were a tangled mess. By the time I untangled them, they didn't work. I wish I'd thought to take a picture of that mess. :( I didn't want to spend money on new lights, so after being rather pissy with my husband all afternoon, I decided to simply make do with what I had. Which was you guessed it...all-colorful. While Tony and the kids were gone last night, I lit up the outside, and the kids all love it. I admit, it turned out pretty nice, even though it's not how I usually do things. The kids love it, so I guess that's all that really matters, right?



I experimented with the night settings on my camera again...check out this cool shot! The lights look like music notes. Not sure how I achieved that look...



In addition to those few things the kids insist I decorate, I also do several other smaller things around the house.

My dining room table:




I know this is pretty boring, but...I only show it because the bright green crocheted cloth on the table was made for me many years ago by my Great Aunt Mary. I love it and always look forward to getting it out at Christmastime.

Also in the dining room:




The table by the front door:





The cloth on the table was also made by my Aunt Mary, although she didn't make it for me...it is older than I am. Again, I love it and look forward to getting it out every year. My Aunt Mary absolutely loved Christmas, so while I sadly miss spending Christmas with her, I feel she is with me in a small way.

Finally, one of my very favorite things about Christmas...my Christmas dishes. When Justin was a baby, my mom started buying me a 4-plate collection of Pfaltzgraph Holly Berry dessert plates. Each set had 4 plates, each depicting one of the "days of Christmas." After the first three years, once I had all of the 12 days of Christmas plates, she gave me other pieces...glasses, a serving plate, then, she gave me gift cards to Famous Barr...now Macy's, and I purchased a plate, dessert cups, and a candy dish. Every year, I wanted to buy the actual dishes that we could eat off of, but I never did. Then a few years ago, I was given a gift certificate to Macy's by my boss, and on Christmas Eve, I saw that Macy's had a set of 4 place settings on sale for really cheap. And my gift card was enough to buy two of them...so I now have 8 place settings. And I use them. I unpack them Thanksgiving weekend, run them through the dishwasher, and we eat dinner on them each night. And an added bonus...I am forced to clean out a cabinet in order to make room for them.

I'd show a picture, but my kids were making fun of me already for the things I have been taking pictures of. Taking pictures of dishes might be too much and they might go to Facebook and write about what a weirdo I am.

Besides just decorating this weekend, Rachel and I found a recipe to make homemade lipgloss. She is so excited to make it for her friends for Christmas. We also went through cookbooks and decided what Christmasy treats we are going to make. I love that one of my kids wants to cook and bake with me. I think I've created a cooking monster though, because she asks me pretty much every day what we are going to make.

Okay, ending this with what I am thankful for:

I am thankful that we got to spend Thanksgiving with Tony's family, who we don't see nearly often enough.

This should be the first thing on my list...I am oh so thankful that Justin got a JOB! His first one. He is going to a Little Caesar's guy...standing out on the sidewalk in front of Little Caesars in a silly costume waving at people. He is excited!

I am thankful that after the tough year that we have had that I was able to spend the weekend "decking the halls" and putting smiles on my kids faces.

I am thankful that on this Sunday night, my house is clean and laundry is caught up.

I am thankful that both Tony and I have a job to go to tomorrow.

And finally, I am thankful that my kids, who know how tough times have been for us lately and don't often get many of the material things they want, are still able to be excited by a Christmas decorated house. Their joy in something so simple truly brings peace to my heart.