Or not. Well, in terms of what this time of year stands for, it absolutely is. In terms of the cold and extra pain that accompanies it, it's not.
I promise I have been around. I was working on a blog post for a while, and I still am. I am trying to figure out the best time to post it, since it deals with a sensitive and controversial topic.
Anyway, What's new in the BLWSquared household? Not much at all. We rearranged our living room tonight, and it looks great. Since Brian did most of the legwork, unloading everything out of the bookcase and TV stand, I was able to push a little bit instead of lift, and we were able to get everything in position. I then reloaded and organized everything in the display areas, and the books. We dismantled the 55 gal fish tank, which will go into storage; the fish is now in a 10 gal tank. The big tank was just too big, and took up too much room in our tiny place. Once we get a house with some more wall space, we will put the big tank up (and perhaps add some more fish to our lonely ciclid...perhaps).
This now allows for us to put up the Christmas decorations! YAY! Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year. And not just the day, but the period before- Advent, the time of waiting and watching. It started today, and sadly because of my pain level this morning we missed the first service. There is just something so mysterious and marvelous about Advent. Lighting the Advent candles on the Advent wreath, placing the treasured figurines in the Creche...all of it brings back cherished memories for me.
I love decorating for Christmas, especially our tree. One of the things that I absolutely loved about our tree at my mom's was that we never had ornaments that didn't have a meaning. No boring balls, no "kits" from Wal-mart. Every single ornament that was placed on that tree had a story, a special meaning or event that it represented. From Meg's and my First Christmas ornaments, to the wooden ornament with one streak of marker on it that I "colored" when I was a baby, to the various nurse ornaments that my mom has received from both us kids and patients, to the ornament for each and every trip we have ever taken, the homemade ones that my mom treasures so dearly, the Hey Diddle Diddle cow and moon ornaments representing my favorite nursery rhyme, the I Love Lucy ones that my sister collected during her craze for that show (she still loves them). There are so many, and all of them have a story. Some are worth quite a bit, like the ones my mom brought back from Germany (made in West, bought in East) on her trip there when she was in her mid 20s, and others are just colored paper, like the paper one my older sister Kelly made for me when I was a baby. When we unpack them, the stories are often told, memories are shared, laughter and smiles abound. There are certain ones that only that person can put up- like my baby ornaments for me, or the angel getting its wings ornament for my mom (that's a special, personal story). I love our tree, each and every year, because it tells a story. There is nothing boring about our tree, and at night, when it's lit up and the house is quiet and you just look at it...it's truly inspirational. I love how personal our tree is, and I personally think every tree should be that way. It's one of the reasons I give personalized ornaments to people as gifts- every tree should tell a story.
Last year, when Brian and I bought our skinny little pre-lit fake first tree, we didn't have many ornaments. He got his personal and special ornaments from his parents, and I brought over mine. We had some friends give us some old ball ornaments, that we decided to use for color. We also bought some fun ones- like the Sock Monkey one that reminds me of the Sock Monkey I had growing up. There were not many, and it looked a little bare. But it told a story of a new family starting out, and I loved our first tree just for that reason.
In other areas, I am desperately trying to finish the thank you cards for the wedding. Then I get to start in on Christmas Cards :) I love sending Christmas Cards- people today so rarely send things in the mail. The world today has gotten so impersonal with the world of technology. Yes, an email is quick, but a card of any type shows caring. That person cared enough to buy it, write it out, get stamps, stick it in the mail box. We so infrequently get that nowadays, but Christmas and the cards that get sent out take us back to pre-technology for just a wee bit. They distract from our busy worlds, both as they are being written out and as they are being read. I love what it all stands for! We haven't found ones that we like yet- usually we have to go to Hallmark and we haven't made it there yet- but I can't wait to send them out this year.
I was getting ready to type about the wedding, but I figured I would instead do a whole separate post dedicated to that. I'll go do that now :)
No comments:
Post a Comment