Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Prettiest Sight to See...

Is the holly that will be on your own front door!
(Name that tune.)

I always say that fall decorations are my favorite...

Until it's time to drag out all of our Christmas decorations, and then I realize that these are my favorite decorations.  I love the fall for the colors, and the change from blistering heat to energizing cool weather...But I love my Christmas decorations as they are surrounded with happy memories, and many of them were made with love by friends and family.`

 My mom made this snow man for me one Christmas.  How cute is he?

A lady at work was talking about putting her tree up yesterday.  Her theme is cowboy with hats and boots and ropes.  She asked me what my theme was.  She literally laughed at me when I said my tree is hodgepodge..."I suppose you have hand made ornaments on there too?"  I replied, "Of course!" and she laughed even harder...

I decided she had never seen my tree, so she is unable to understand the simple beauty of a tree bursting with ornaments.


Could this tree or this girl BE more beautiful?  The girl was all dressed up for her very first band concert.  Can I just say, she totally rocked some "Jingle Bell Rock."   I love my tree, and I love my hand made tree skirt from my mom!  And I love all of the homemade gifts I can see in just a glimpse, complete with all of the ornaments my husband and I've exchanged through the year.


I love this little glimpse of love.  The Santa and Mrs. Clause, who obviously takes better care of herself than good ole Saint Nick...And the tree made at some Christmas party by Bookworm in 2006.  And then I see the snowman that appeared in my stocking one year.  I was trying to remember who made me the crocheted stocking.  I know I've had it since I was a child. Any input from my mom would be helpful here. You can see that instead of sparkly tinsel we use wooden bead garlands, that I bought the year I graduated nursing school.  I know when I bought them because I had a real income, and it was the first year we weren't using a tree we got from Brent's grandma, and we had money to buy ornaments!  Our hand me down tree was hideously lovely affair with the thick stove pipe cleaner branches.


These adorable ceramic snowmen were from my Grandmama Dolly's house.  We lost her this past January, and her birthday is December 21, so they will always make me smile.

See the wreath?  My family has a homemade gift exchange tradition (which the men are trying to rebel and stop, but I vote we women stand firm and united.)  My sister made that lovely wreath for me!  The tall ceramic angel was a gift from Grandmama Dolly one year.  The tea cup was a gift from my sister Dawn several years ago, the tree cut out of old barn siding was made early in our marriage alongside my mother in law...Read here:  She told me step by step what to do, and wisely allowed me very few tasks.  Translation:  I think I mostly cheered her on!  Also, if you enlarge the picture you can see a cute little Santa painted on a piece of drift wood, again made by my mother in law!   Finally, the Nativity. I just love Nativity scenes.  I have four scattered through my house, from this ceramic one given to us on our first Christmas by my mom, to a wooden folk art Nativity, and even an inexpensive one I bought solely so my girls could have one to play with.  It is a cheap little resin affair I got at Walmart for about five bucks.  But the girls look forward to getting out every year!

So.  There is more than you ever wanted to know about my Christmas ornaments.  I have so many I find it ridiculous when I try to pack it all away, or have to hall it all out.  But then, as I start scattering them around, and packing away our "every day" decorations in order to give our house a celebratory feel, I can't help but feel you can never have too many Christmas decorations!
 
Oh, and I feel I MUST respond to KiteFlyer's comments on my previous two posts:  First of all, that TV is the largest one we've ever owned, and when we got it, we thought it was ginormous!  And by the way, that was only a few months ago.  Second, my husband DOES use antlers in all of his decorating, and his favorite character from Beauty and the Beast is most certainly Gaston.  Third, the balls are still there!

What about you?  What are your very favorite ornaments?



4 comments:

Freckled Hen said...

Your tree is so pretty, I love how you love your decorations. That's what Christmas decorating is for me, too. My favorite decoration is probably a nativity set I bought while shopping with my sisters 20 years ago. We each bought one and I love setting it up and thinking of them setting theirs up, too.

KiteFlyer said...

A tree isn't fully decorated if you can see any needles. Yours is just about right.

My Sweetie collects nativity scenes. She leaves most of them out all year long. It's a nice reminder throughout the year.

I have a couple of favorite decorations. The first is a ceramic Frosty that my grandmother made many years ago, that holds a small light inside it so his eyes, mouth and buttons light up. The second is one we purchased about 17 years ago called the "Christmas Nail." It's so heavy it has to hang against the trunk of the tree, and that's the point. It's there as a reminder to the family, it's not a "showy" ornament.

Also, I must be going blind as I get older. Our "analog" TV had a 32" screen, and that was fine, but I tried watching a 40" HDTV from the same distance, and it seemed so small!

Still say the balls need to go.... 8^)

Marilyn said...

The crocheted ornaments you have were handmade gifts from your grade school music teacher...Miss Hughes. She made one for all of her students every year. I love your tree and I think decorating with things that are meaningful to you are far better than having a new theme every year. I guess that is why they have to make so many new ornaments in China...so people can have a new theme. I love those that leave a memory.

Emily Sue said...

I have no Christmas ornaments in my house at all, unless you count the nativity snow-shaker that my friends bought me as a joke (because it's so hideously tacky) or the "dashboard Jesus" that another friend bought me... again, as a joke. I'm not sure if this says something about me or about my friends.

I live alone and I am usually invited to share Christmas with a family from church so I don't see the point in decorating my house. I don't have anyone to give presents to anyway, since I don't see family at Christmas, so it's not like I need a tree to put them under. (And for those who are jealous that I don't have to do any Christmas shopping, I'd like to point out that I don't receive any gifts either, so there's a payoff.) Also, now that I have two cats, one of whom likes to climb EVERYTHING, I think it would just be asking for trouble. ;)