Christmas Past…

Not so far into the past really.  It’s still hanging in our house right now.  Tomorrow, Clare and I’ve decided, it will all be put away.  OK, not everything, we always manage to forget at least one item that goes on top of all the boxes, because we’re not about to move them around to get to the box where said item really belongs.  Can you relate???

I like to leave our Christmas decorations up each year until the Epiphany, you know 12 days after Christmas, the day the 3 wise men found baby Jesus lying in a manger.  They were led by the North star.  How can they find Him without our Christmas lights to lead the way?

 I’ve mentioned before how I like to photograph different areas in our home to remind me how I’ve decorated them from year to year.  I can then print out the photos and put them in the boxes with the decorations and see the next year how I might want to display them again.

This is my favorite Christmas spot it the house I think.  I plug in the lights first thing in the morning and unplugging them is one of the last things I do before I go to bed.  A Santa cookie jar gifted to us by a special cousin, ME tins from my mom, a couple of buckets of lighted trees that were left-over from one of my Christmas open houses. I added a couple new items this year can you find them?

Next in the kitchen, my favorite wall.  This is where I first stared photographing years ago because I had so much stuff on this shelf and I liked it so well, I wanted to be able to recapture the same feeling next Christmas.

We pared it down this year…Clare, my 14 yr. old helped a lot with the decorating.  She did most of this shelf.  It started with another Christmas open house left-over, the red glass bead garland.  In it I always nestle one of my all-time favorite ornaments, gingerbread kids made by a special friend.  Several years later I found the pinch clip candy canes.  A stocking bought at a guild auction (made by another friend), etc.

I added the new metal garland. Before I put that away I’m getting a pair of pliers and swapping the middle green and red ornaments.  It’s been bugging me since I first saw these in a cute little florist shop with cute little antiques tucked here and there.  Why they would put the greens next to the reds and not alternate them I have no idea, but every one (made in China I’m sure) was made the same.

 It’s funny how on Christmas day there was a discussion about how whoever made that should have alternated them!!! I don’t remember now who brought it up, but it was a house full of my family, not David’s.  It just goes to show how much of us really is in our genes, huh?

My new Santa’s Pockets Christmas countdown is still on loan for a trunk show in Pennsylvania.

These are my kids’ advent calendars that I made probably 13 years ago.  The nativity came from a pattern that I purchased, then I made my own pockets to accept Hershey’s Kisses and did my own hangers.  I made 9 of these, 3 for my kids & 6 more for my nieces & nephew, hard to believe now.  My oldest will be 20 next month and even she still does the Kiss-a-day until Christmas, go figure!

This is our laundry room dessert buffet on Christmas.  I wish I could show you the photo from Christmas day, but I only took one and it’s too blurry, darn, it was fantastic! This is a Polar Express Santa that I received as a gift from Santa’s workshop one year from school.  A candleabra that fits atop a wine bottle, birthday gift from a friend a couple of years ago. I draped it with silver mardi gras beads.

Anyway, I put a tablecloth over our washer and dryer and add lots of cute stuff and sweets!

In my sewing room.

I keep adding to it with finds and gifts from friends.

 Just stuff I love and set together!

My mother-in-law made these bears (from scratch, and not just the clothes!) for my Christmas open house one year.  I gave her cute coordinating prints to use for the coats & hats and she let me pick my favorite.  She’s perched on an antique chair next to our maniquen in our entry. She’s sporting a little quilt that will some day be a pattern.  I made it a few years ago while preparing for, you guessed it, a Christmas open house!  And you already saw the book here…

Here she was last year

I don’t even remember dressing her last year with my 3 Little Words pattern sample, much less photographing her…  Good thing for artificial memory!

These angels were a pre-Christmas gift from my parents.  Clare  arranged them around the curved base of our TV with a small piece of garland.  Lola Pearce’s indigo blue signature-block-turned-pillow was a Christmas gift from Clare.  (I whispered in her ear that it might make a nice Christmas gift for her mom when we were at a bridal shower last October at My Just Desserts in Alton, IL.  Despite its wonderful reputation I’d never been there, delicious food and decorated with old stuff, some for sale!)

Can you tell yet that I LOVE Christmas?

This table in our living room was decorated by Clare in a big way.  She displayed the crochet angel collection made by my grandma, David’s aunt and few by other special friends, along with Santa and a primitive church.  Later when she and I were at Michael’s she spotted this foam gingerbread house kit.  It was half off and she had a birthday gift card, so she bought this and came right home and built it in an evening.  It’s now sharing the table with the angels.

I hope you enjoyed this year’s Christmas photo tour.

I now have record of our decorations to put in the decoration boxes for next year.

Perhaps you’ve gotten a few ideas of your own?

Until next time,

Susan