Thursday, December 04, 2008


Ahhhhhh.

I love Christmas.

I love the music and the lights and the gift-giving and the food.

And I love decorating my house.

My Five Favorite Christmas Decorations:

1. Christmas Trees. Plural.

One in the front room, with white lights and lots of silver ornaments but with splashes of cool colors (blues, greens, pinks.) Icily elegant.

One in the family room, with colored lights and sentimental ornaments--from the collections of kids' ornaments brought home from school over the years to olive wood ornaments my husband brought back from Jerusalem to my personal favorites, the stuffed felt ornaments my grandmother made that hung on my childhood Christmas trees. Brightly nostalgic.

2. Nativity.

I have several, including a cornstalk one I bought in Kenya last year, but my favorite will always be the white matte porcelain Nativity that my parents gave us the Christmas that we got enaged. It has been through multiple moves and not a piece has broken, including the oh-so-delicate shepherd's staff. I especially love that Joseph has his arm around Mary while they look down together at Jesus in her arms.

3. Stockings.

I made them. Enough said.

Okay, not quite enough said. I only made the stockings for the children. Cross-stitched: 3 different Santa versions for the boys and 1 Angel for the girl. Each child added to the family was progressively older before they got their handmade stocking. By the time I'd finished the third stocking (she was 6 at the time) I just couldn't face starting one more for the youngest. So I took the one I'd made for my husband, carefully unpicked his name off the top, and put the baby's name on it. Voila! I'm an amazing mom :)

Oh, and Chris and I have plain velvet stockings from Target. I'm over the whole handmade thing.

4. My gilded pinecone. You'd have to be me to understand--or have a good knowledge of the most recent STEPFORD WIVES film.

5. Pictures with Santa.

We didn't quite begin this tradition early enough--the first picture we have is when our oldest was 2--but we've been going steady ever since. We're starting to run out of room to display them. But nothing makes me happier than seeing the progression of our children through the years. We're off this Saturday morning for the annual picture and breakfast. Maybe I'll post it when we have it. For now, enjoy the photo at the top, the first one which has all four of our children, taken in 2001.

Merry Christmas!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, it's funny, but I've actually been feeling good about being in Dubai for Christmas for quite the OPPOSITE reason. We only have our one Christmas tree and I've bought a few other decorations, but I love that I don't feel like I have to go all-out with the decorations here! Christmas can be much more low-key and there's no pressure to compete with anyone else. I fully admit that it was self-imposed pressure when we were in the States, but still. It's nice to have a low-key Christmas and not feel like I have to buy buy buy and decorate decorate decorate. I guess I'm a scrooge!

LAURA said...

Not a Scrooge--but I don't think I'm decorating for competition's sake. I just genuinely adore Christmas. And the memories associated with the decorations I pull out. And those memories apply wherever you are and however you decorate :)

Anonymous said...

What a classic picture! Merry Christmas!

Evanszkbw said...

What a classic picture! Merry Christmas!