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life{in}grace

live with more presence, passion, & purpose

A little Christmas Cheer…….

I’m on of those people……that my brother-in-law hates…..that decorates for Christmas before Thanksgiving.  Always. Every year.  Since I can remember.  And it’s not that I don’t love Thanksgiving.  I do.  It’s my favorite holiday.  But I have a lot of Christmas decorations.   And if I waited until after Thanksgiving,  I’d be stressed trying to get it all up.  So in the name of having energy and sanity left for thankfulness, I do it early.  Furthermore, we are Lutheran so we follow the church calendar….and certainly want to have our decorations up when we start our advent calendar.  Which is quickly approaching. It makes me cheerful and gives everybody in the house a little spring in their step to see all the decorations going up so soon.  So I make no apologies: I decorate and bake with thankfulness in my heart!

I also ‘host’ my extended family for Thanksgiving, so I love decorating the dining room table and coming up with fun ideas for the kid’s table…..and cooking.   Lots and lots of cooking.  So I take my cues from my mother in law who is the queen of cooking lots of wonderful holiday food.   And her secret:  start early and freeze what you can.  So tomorrow,  I bake pecan and pumpkin pies.  
 I’m also working on my placecards and making sure all my linens are laundered and ready to go.  I also put up 4 Christmas trees today.  Don’t throw things at me through your computer.  I leave several of my trees decorated all year and store them ‘ready to go’ in the basement.   So let me rephrase that:  I carried up 4 trees today.  There, is that better? So here’s the tour so far.

The tree in my breakfast room….
oh look , a beautiful cardinal flew in and nestled into the ribbons…..
I love birds by the way…..and have them tweeting around everywhere…..
This sweet little table top tree is in my living room.  It’s mint green and I love it with all my heart.  This is it’s 3rd Christmas with me…..and it’s third different spot.
Meet my banister garland….not yet finished but getting there……
see how much more fun after I add a pair of peacocks…….(my version of two turtle doves)
and probably my signature Christmas decorating ‘move’ is ribbon……lots of ribbon…..everywhere.   And this year I added blue to the mix.   Don’t ya love it?
I love to layer with ribbon….different colors, patterns, sizes…..with extra long ‘tails’…….

I always look for whimsical patterns….polka dots or something similiar,  and mix that with more majestic colors or textures.
and this my friends is a little gift I gave myself today.  New makeup and lip gloss bags from TJMaxx.   I love the pattern.  And since as you know all my personal belongings got stolen,  I needed a little ‘pick-me-up’…..not bad for 9.99.  Now all I need is lip gloss.
and for all you purists out there,  I’m decorating my dining room table with traditional Thanksgiving Day fare….complete with a menu…….printed out and featured on the plate.   I’m completely obsessed with silhouettes too and am working on a tree decorated with mostly silhouettes…….and lots of ribbon.
Be creative. It doesn’t have to be expensive.  Last year, I was in a Christmas home tour and decorated a tree in my son’s room using playing cards, poker chips , large bulb lights and a piece of burlap for a bedskirt.  I did something similiar in the little girls’ room with flashcards and ribbon.  Think outside the box…..and make it your own.
Hope you’re inspired to put on some Christmas music and tie some ribbons. Â