Merry Christmas!

We used to have a very large artificial Christmas Tree that I scored at an auction for $4. My girls used to leap up from the Thanksgiving table and immediately put up the tree and do all the decorating. Then they got married and left us. I used the tree for a year or two after that. Then I donated it to Goodwill and bought this relatively scrawny one. Plenty for one older woman to put up by herself.

Today was the day. I got out all the decorations, lights and the tree. Ready to go! Then nearly all of my lights failed. Ugh. This afternoon is the slot of time I had set aside. So, I just used what was still working. :) Not only that, but I put on the hand made ornaments that my girls had crocheted years ago and just added some pretty glass balls and the little angel at the top.

Next, I couldn't find my tree skirt. Of course, I found it later, but when it was time to put it there, I just decided to use an little old quilt that my mother had made.

If you look to the right, hanging on the curtain, you'll see a Santa that I made in school in the 1st grade. My sweet mother (who I miss every day, even after 28 years) saved it and always tacked it to the trunk of our Christmas Tree. We had real trees. She always made Christmas so special for me... and my birthdays... even up to a month before she passed away.

I have been feeling the Christmas Spirit since well before Thanksgiving this year. Ever since I watched this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyviyF-N23A

The other paper things on the curtain were made by two grandchildren, when they lived here with their momma for a year several years ago.

I love Christmas. I love how so many of us pause to really contemplate our Savior, and then reach out to others.

Thank you to each one of my dear readers for being, in a small way, a part of my life.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!