Before...

It occurred to me, as I'm finishing last minute things for Christmas, that this is the cleanest and most orderly my home will look for the next week.  To remind myself and to enjoy the effects of 'after' I determined I would take a few pictures of my favorite spots in my home decorated for Christmas. 

Let's begin in the basement since that is where my camera was located...

At the far end of the family room is the kids Christmas tree.  Bailey wanted to decorate it at Thanksgiving so she and I got this far. Michael helped her get the train to work under the tree.  Hayden has a shoe box full of ornaments he will put on tonight. 

At the opposite end of the family room is my piano.  The pictures on the wall above the piano are my mother's grandparents, or my great grandparents.  Between the two pictures is a beautiful wreath my sister, Junie, gave me.  I admired one she had on her front door when she lived in Naperville, Illinois.  She remembered and mailed me one. I didn't want the weather to ruin it so it hangs above my piano every year. I made the gingerbread house out of plastic canvas for my mother. My mother made the gingerbread people. The little tree is made of pine cones and lights. I purchased it at Sadieville in September. It was made by the daughter of Jackie Baron.  Jackie worked at Whitaker Bank when it was in Sadieville.  The picture of Santa on the right was given to me by Jeff Goldshine, my boss when I worked at CAPREIT in Rockville, Maryland.

 

Then I climbed the stairs to the entry way. When you enter our home, there is a gossip bench.  These used to have a telephone on the one end with a seat to the side. Under the seat is storage for blankets and the area where the phone would have sat is a cabinet for phone books and other things.  Nowadays we don't use the land line phones. Phone books are almost obsolete.  But this gossip bench is a great piece of furniture even without those things.  Each year I put my glass tree full of candy on it.  This year I opted out of the candy for the first time and put beads in it.  The Bah-Humbug side of Gramma decided that she didn't want to be the one eating all that left over candy.  Since the Santa Claude in our family can live life without much sugar intake at all, that means left-overs are consumed by me.  This was my one attempt at self-preservation. I also put my little Guatemalan nativity on this bench.  Alas, I found Mary and Joseph but I could not find Baby Jesus.  I went back through all the boxes that held Christmas decorations to no avail. The Guatemalan nativity stays as I'm sure I'll find Baby Jesus at some point.  I can't believe I lost Baby Jesus.  He is in a little basket and he has black hair.  When you look at him, he looks like Baby Elvis Jesus.  Someone I told this story to assured me that Catholics don't put the baby Jesus in the Nativity until Christmas Eve.  I'm hoping for the Christmas miracle to take place and Baby Elvis Jesus to suddenly appear!! 

This beautiful garland has graced a large open doorway in our home in Montgomery Village, Maryland and our home in Sadieville.  The older I get the more lopsided I get in the streamers down the ends.  Last year it was longer on the other end.  That would have driven me crazy at one point in my life.  Now, not so much.  I just love the red and green with that great gold bow in the sort-of-middle.

One last item of note in our entry way is my mother's Christmas tree.  She loved this tree when she found it on one of my mother and father's road trips.  Papa purchased it for her.  She used it in their home.  When they moved to Kentucky, I dutifully put it up each Christmas for a tree in Papa's apartment.  I would turn on the lights when I visited but he didn't really seem to care.  I asked if I could put it up in our home.  Papa was happy about that.  More happy than having it in his apartment. It was missing a few of the little lights.  I finally found a place that sold them and purchased a bag and glued them in the holes.  There is a light bulb in the inside that gives the little plastic bulbs the impression of being lit.  

This is our dining room. Please note the blue picture on the far wall.  That is the Mini's foot prints.  You will also note the turkeys made of the Mini's hand and foot prints from may years ago. Love those kinds of treasures.  

Every year my hubby buys me a poinsettia.  I used to put it in the entry way.  There was too much cold getting to this tropical plant as we opened and closed the front door.  Now I put it at the end of the counter in the kitchen and it lasts a lot long...if I remember to water it.

This is another of those really important treasures.  Nissa made this for us.  It is cutouts of her children's hand prints.  I'm not sure what year she made it but it hangs on our wall every Christmas.  Love this wreath of Katelyn, Paul and Aubrey's hand prints.

On to the living room.  I still have a few stuffed animals I've collected over the years, some with a holiday theme.  They are out for grandmonsters to play with.

The coffee table has the gingerbread house I made for myself and the gingerbread people my mother made for me.

This end table has a gum drop tree on it.  My Gramma Fisch has a gum drop tree I loved as a child.  When Gramma Fisch went to the nursing home, my mother brought her little plastic gum drop tree to me because she knew how much I loved that tree.  My memory as a child was that it was HUGE.  Not so much.  About 9 inches tall was all.  After I used it for many years the plastic gave way and broke.  I searched and found this metal one and purchased one for me and one for each my girls.  I can't remember if I got Jake one or not. I'll have to check on that.  This year I had the hardest time finding gum drops for it.  I finally found these big ones at the Shell gas station.  I bought the four bags they had and brought them home.  They didn't cover it.  I stopped at all the Shell stations in Georgetown and none of them had any.  I waited a week and stopped back at the first Shell station and they had replenished their stock.  I purchased two more bags and that filled the tree.  I think it is important to me because it brings back memories of my grandparents.  My girls have put everything from Cheerio's to marshmallows on theirs.  The picture frame was given to me by Mr. Gertschel.  He was our next door neighbor in Shreveport, Louisiana.  He owned a jewelry store and gave this frame with a mirror in it to me for a birthday.  I loved this very elderly couple and, when the mirror broke, I saved the frame and eventually put this picture of Mary holding the baby Jesus.  I love this picture and the frame.  My mind drifts as I type this and I remember that Mary and Joseph lost the little boy Jesus when they left Jerusalem.  I'm not feeling so bad now about losing Baby Elvis Jesus.  The little nut container was made by my mom.  It was in bad repair and Claude worked his magic to get it to stand upright again.  In truth, he has to do that every December.  It's a fragile little thing but it is my mom's handiwork.  The scented candle was given to me by my visiting teacher this year.  Thanks Ali Manwaring! 

And last but certainly not least, our tree.  I've already blogged about it when we finished decorating it this year.  So I'll just let this picture speak for itself.

The house feels warm and full of love, waiting to share that love with family as they come this evening and then this weekend.  It won't look this good much longer but that is just fine with me.  This home was decorated to be a home, not a show house.  Everything in it is for enjoyment and use, not just display.  I love that about our home.

Merry Christmas to everyone.  Let's get on with the celebration and building family memories.