Starting New

I love everything about Christmas.  I love decorating (inside and out), baking, singing carols, crafts, visiting with family and friends and the general joy of the holiday season.  When I was a child we didn't have a great amount of spare money.  We lived well but money wasn't a luxury we had.  But when Christmas came mom and dad would do it up big.  We would pull out the record of Conway Twitty and the Twitty Bird and while it was playing we would decorate the tree and then the rest of the house.  We didn't have as many ornaments as what they have today but to me the house was magical.

These are ornaments that have been passed on from my mom and dad.  The boxes are original but only a few of the ornaments are from the past.  On the box there was a sticker that the price is reduced from $0.79 to $0.49!  Can you believe buying a whole box of quality ornaments for $0.49?  These were purchased about 45 years ago.

This is one of my favourite ornaments for our tree now.  It was purchased as a gift to me from my dad a few years ago.  It is made completely out of glass and has beautiful leaf patterns on it.  I hope to pass this ornament on to my children someday.

So the first thing to getting organized is to have an organized space.  I usually like to leave all the Christmas decorations, tree and lights up until about the middle of January but not this year.  I have been busy putting everything away in their special boxes and spaces and realized that I actually reieved a number of new decorations for Christmas this year.  Now I need to find spots to pack them away, in a house that has 2 closets and a basement that may flood or may be damp and mold items.  But I am making this committment and getting organized (and quickly!) so I have until tommorrow to get all the Christmas things packed and put away. 

We had a gorgeous tree this year.  The kids and I and my dad all went out to his bush and picked it out and cut it down ourselves.  I am well on my way with all the decorations off the tree.  I think that a 'real' tree is so much more powerful and beautiful than an artificial.  Just knowing that it wasn't made in a factory somewhere, using who knows what to make it.  This tree was a part of the earth once and will now be recycled back to mother earth.  Thank you to the earth for providing us with such a lovely Christmas Tree and also the wonderful smell that comes with it. 

What are your favourite memories of your childhood Christmas?