Deck The Halls

So many of the feelings of the holiday season are wrapped up in how we decorate.  Growing up my home was always my favorite during the Christmas season.  I love the added coziness and warmth of those seasonal touches.  This year is a little different, as I try to pack up as much as possible I haven't really decked my halls.  And I'm noticing the difference in how I feel, it doesn't quite feel like Christmas.  I know I don't want to try and pack it up again on December 26th, so I'm dealing with it.  

Today I pulled out all our Christmas decor and  have been going through it and getting rid of what I don't love, or haven't used for a while.  I snapped some shots of a few of our favorite things, things my kids love and look forward to, and that speak Christmas to  my heart. 

I always loved the advent calendar when I was a child, so I have taught my children the joy and excitement of the holiday tradition as well.  We actually have 5 advent calendars, and the kids rotate through them (I think I actually have 8 & we use 3 the same every year, and change up the other 2).  Every day each child gets to do a different calendar.  One has mini Hallmark ornaments that correspond to activities-like a gingerbread house, a nutcracker ballerina, a snowflake, and we do the activities that day (if possible-that was much easier when they were all little).

Pictured here are the pieces to a wonderful advent calendar my sister made and gave us for Christmas one year.  The kids love to pick which one they are going to place on the advent tree (it's packed up or I'd show it to you-it's a quilted wall hanging with all different colors and sizes of buttons that these little ornaments hang from.)

Some of the calendars have tradtions within themselves, Quinn's birthday is the 23rd, and it's a rule that he always does the tree advent on that day and hangs up the Present.  In fact, the advent calendars are the only  Christmas activity allowed in our home on the 23rd of December.  No Christmas music plays, no Christmas movies watched, and no birthday gifts are wrapped in Christmas paper.

Another of my favorite decorations is my collection of Santa Claus figures.  Jeff started giving me one for Christmas our first year together, and though he laments roping himself into the tradition, I love it.  I have all sorts, ceramic, wood, cloth, folksy, whimsical, elegant, everything!  This is one of my favorites-

I snapped a shot before I carefully wrapped it up and placed it in a box.


Another tradition that holds a tender place in my heart is our ornament collection.  When I was a child my mom always bought a Hallmark ornament for each of us, and when we left home we took our collection with us to help us decorate our first Christmas tree.  My mom continued this tradition with her grandchildren, and each child has a different series of ornaments, sometimes the series would end and they'd start up a new one the next year.

Kiefer has the biggest variety-with baseball players, Snowmen, and Snoopy.  Quinn has had the whole series his entire life-the Lincoln train ornaments.  Tate has only had one series also-it's called "Sky's the Limit" and is made up of really cool airplanes.  Thane has had a few different ones, but most come from a collection of Gingerbread buildings that make up a little village, and light up when plugged into the tree lights.  Sage started with the sweetest collection of holiday music boxes, and when that ended she began a cute snowman series.  I have the Santa Claus ornaments, and I always find Jeff a fishing one.

I usually pick one or two up the day after Christmas that have something to do with our family that year, when the kids were little that meant Scooby Doo and Veggie Tales, then we added Luke and Obi Wan, and then Ron, Harry & Hermione joined the tree.  We have "New Home" ornaments, and ones to commemorate births, trips, and other special family memories.  We love pulling them out and laughing about why we have a Mohammed Ali ornament, or remembering the year we went sledding and ended up all over each other in a pile at the bottom of the hill-that's why we have Donald and Daisy flying off a sled & it's a favorite ornament.

I love the ones the kids make too, but the Hallmark ones hold a special place in my heart, made even more tender by the passing of my mom 5 years ago.  This way she's with us every December as we remember all the love she shared and the memories contained in those little boxes of decoration.

Linking up with Jen over at the Denton Sanitorium, go check out all the ways people Deck Their Halls!