Remember last year when I made Katie cry because I wanted a scrawny tree?
This year I didn't even go along because I wanted Katie to pick out the tree she wanted and I probably would not have been able to hold my tongue.
So Katie and her daddy picked out a perfectly sweet tree. It smelled better than any tree we have ever had. Emma was home because the girls were planning on going to the Packer game on Sunday. But they ended up NOT going because Katie has not been feeling well...and it was snowing like crazy.
But they did decorate the house for Christmas and I love that they did it. I guess I have reached the age when I'm fine with doing as little as possible in the decorating department. I've been like this for a few years. Katie knows where the decorations are and she brings them out for Halloween and Christmas and Easter.
I have two new ornaments due to the Christkindlemarket. A pickle and a pretty white, red and green bulb. And I have been working all year to collect glass jars. I have pickle jars and cheese wiz jars and a few mason jars. I poured Epsom Salt in the bottom and added a white candle. I like how they look.
So I'm kind of a Scrooge...but gosh....I sure enjoyed watching the girls take charge, haul out the holly, and trim the house with Christmas memories and cheer.
This just may be the new tradition.
Hope your are staying warm and safe!
Feeling thankful this morning,
Donna
Let's not call it scrooge...let's call it being promoted to CEO, leaving the middle management to do the work (-: Claire is my Tree Day girl, so I know how this change goes.
ReplyDeleteI love to see favorite Christmas things appear on bookshelves and on the table. I think I will be ready to take back the job when the kids move on, but for now I am happy to see how Claire chooses to set the holiday feel in the house.
Happy Monday. Must.Have.More.Coffee. Feeling sleepy, but happy about the 9ers win over the Seahawks yesterday. How is Rogers' collar bone healing?
Love,
DI
way too slowly!!!!! Aaron should be back next week. Please dear lovely sweet heavenly Father.
DeleteI love to decorate other people's homes for Christmas, but mine? - not so much. Your tree and candles, look great. Emma and Katie did a good job.I think the best part of Christmas is my family together and celebrating our Savior's birth. That's pretty much all I ever need.
ReplyDeleteIt's so lovely that Emma was home to decorate along with Katie. The tree is wonderful! :-)
ReplyDeleteI don't do a tree, but am happy to have my Christmas lights in the windows. And lots of candles. With the addition of Christmas music (and occasional favorite Christmas movie nights) it feels festive (even if it is far from the fam).
Where are you putting the candles in jars?
Looks wonderful, Donna, and can I say AMEN! to having the girls do the decorating? I'm feeling the same way here. Just let me light a bunch of candles all over the hosue each night and I'm happy :-)
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Tammy ~@~
I like Diane's promotion for you to CEO!!! I am in a bit of a funk with decorations. No one is here, nor will they be and we are going out West to see Graham, so it does seem like a lot of work for just me. I may do a couple of little things.... I don't know. I haven't decided.
ReplyDeleteI love your tree. And that the girls did it together!! That's pretty special! xoxox
What a pretty tree. : ) I bet the girls had fun. I kept my decorating simple this year. We have our tree, one little decoration hanging from a doorknob and a Little Tikes Nativity set displayed. That's it. I like it. I really like your candles in the jars. I have done that with coffee beans. I am a candle lover. I light them almost every day in my home.
ReplyDeleteHope Katie gets to feeling better. : )
Sarah P. from Iowa
Thanks Sarah - now I see the jar next to the cutie Santa. I was looking for them in the photos. I'm like Di - I need more coffee perhaps :-)
DeleteI love how Ginny looks in front of the tree.
Pretty tree!! I love when the house is all decked out, but I do miss when the kids were little and got so excited about it -- and we all did it together. It was just me and Greg this year as Jamey's moved to the city and Molly had musical rehearsal. It was a nice new tradition, although there was a minor hitch when I wanted Christmas carols playing as we worked and he (feeling he was doing his part by decorating) saw no reason why we couldn't have the history channel on. It was not pretty. :)
ReplyDeleteMary Z
heh. heh.
DeleteWe love the pickle ornament. It's well hidden on Christmas morning and each child who finds it (can point it out) gets a little candy. Keep in mind my children are 12, 21, 25, and 25 and do not all come in at the same time!
ReplyDeleteThat's a sweet tradition!
DeleteBeeBelle, your children are about the same ages as mine - 11, 22, and 24.
DeleteI'd never heard of the pickle ornament tradition until I started reading blogs. ;)
Is that a Muffy Bear Angel???
ReplyDeleteYes. That's Muffy :o)
DeleteOH MY GOODNESS!!! I have a muffy bear that has more outfits than I do from when I was little. She is such a great tradition!!! LOVE IT!
DeleteDonna,
ReplyDeleteI let my almost 16 yr old and her friend do all the decorating this year. I like being the CEO! More time for reading and hot chocolate, I say!
hmbalison
I love having the kids help, it'll be a sad day when my Christmas tree isn't full of ornament groupings right at waist height.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great idea, Donna. I was always itching to decorate the house when I was young, but then life (and some sadness) set in and I just didn't give a hoot anymore. Oh, I always do it and I always manage to get in the spirit, but it would be lovely to have some willing accomplices!
ReplyDeleteThank you for a Christmas Spirit lift with such outstanding photographs.
ReplyDeletelove and prayers, jep
Yes, thank goodness for the girls. Hannah was the big push this year and I am so thankful. Her boyfriend belongs at the top of our tree because he was an angel to help us out this year, as Dave was working. :)
ReplyDeleteI love the Epsom salt candles!!
And sweet, still Ginny!! <3
My husband and I got married on Dec. 17, 36 years ago. We came back from our honeymoon on Dec. 23. We had already decided we would not worry about decorating for Christmas. But we woke up on the morning of the 24th, and I could not stand not having a tree. So my dear sweet husband went to all the tree lots. No trees, not even a Charlie Brown tree. He ended up buying an artificial tree from a local store. Got it for 1/2 price and that included all ornaments and lights. That tree lasted 3 years, and was our only artificial tree.
ReplyDeleteYour tree is beautiful. Until I read your post, I thought maybe yours was artificial too. Such a perfect shape! I have more Christmas tradition stories but I don't want to hog your comment space!
Merry Christmas, QL friends!
Jody, that is a lovely memory. Come back to share more :)
DeleteWhat Donna Said!! More! :-)
DeleteI love reading Christmas memories like this.
Donna, perhaps you could publish a post of some of your Christmas traditions and we could put ours in the comments? It would be so special to read everyone's traditions!
DeleteI LOVE that idea!
Delete-- mary e. from wheaton
My parents have a pickle on their tree and my kids love to find it. It's kind of funny thing to think about -- a pickle on a tree....I should go look up how that got started.
ReplyDeleteLove the image of Ginny in front of the tree! :)
I have seen pickle ornaments before - it's one of those things that I do not know the meaning of (or even if there *is* meaning to it!). I just thought it a strange ornament. Off to Google!
DeleteI think it is a symptom of being in your 50s. I feel like Christmas exhausts me more than it used to- the shopping (thank goodness for the Internet!), the decorating, the cooking. I still love it, but wow, the work. We have a book called A Treasury of Christmas Joy. I am determined to take some time to read from it this year, or better yet have someone read a few excerpts to me while I quilt. There are Christmas selections from Laura Ingalls Wilder, Charles Dickens, O. Henry, etc., and passages of scripture. Wonderful. Quiet time by the Christmas tree with such readings and a cup of tea or coffee. Now that sounds lovely.
ReplyDeleteDebbie Z.
I decorate like that as much as possible...let the kids do it. But two of the kids have moved out and I don't think I'd want my 11yo boy decorating for me quite yet. ;) The tree is precious. So pretty.
ReplyDeleteI really do not have any energy for decorating for Christmas. I have a small tree that I bring out a couple of hours before my adult kids arrive then put it away (decorated) until next year the day after Christmas. The Christmas nativity display is the only item that stays out for a long time. Ginny and the tree is Christmas card worthy!!!
ReplyDeleteOh I so agree Donna! As anonymous said, maybe it's a symptom of being in our 50's. We're not OLD but I feel old, wanting to decorate only the minimum! This year we're using a small artificial tree because we won't be home on Christmas ... headed south to be with ALL our children/their spouses and our 5 grandchildren. Yippee! So ... what's the point of decorating? Then I feel like such a scrooge. So we spent about an hour on Sunday assembling the tree and putting electric candles in the windows. Sigh!
ReplyDeleteI like your tree!
ReplyDeleteMy girls and my son decorated our house this year. My one contribution, was hanging a gold ribbon across the mantel for our Jesse Tree ornaments to hang on and buying some pretty gold scroll hangers for ornaments. I love the the gold scrolls, they are so pretty.
I saw all those Pickles last year at the market.
ReplyDeleteThat jar idea is so nice. I am totally going to do it. I think.
ReplyDeleteI just have had no interest in decorating. Is it because I am tired? I hope so. I want to be a mom who has a lovely home that welcomes all...and right now, all it welcomes are teenage boys : ). I think all of Kaishon's friends moms decorate. I really have to do something. I keep thinking I will decorate when I finish editing...which may be never! : )