Since I was up I decided to pull out my kitchen decorations for the first time in a couple of years. I'm so happy that we took the time to deep clean the kitchen before the holiday this year. I love how the room feels so much bigger when the counters are clear.
As I went through the two totes of kitchen/dining room decorations. There were so many things I had forgotten about I felt like a kid at Christmas opening gifts. We still need to clean the dining room so I safely packed all my Santas and closed the tote for another day. On the kitchen side of things I actually pulled every item out of the tote and set it on the counter to try and decide what I wanted to use and where. I think I spent twenty minutes trying to figure out what items I wanted in the kitchen window and I'm thinking I want to change it again. =)
Here's the shelf ... I love how the decorations look against the aqua wall.
I finally made the mini Christmas cookie cutter tree. It did not turn out as I was imagining but I'm not sure what is missing. Boyd likes it and with a few tweaks I'm happy with it for now. I'm definitely keeping my eye out for something to add to the tree.
Last year I picked up another slim 4 foot tree for the dining room. I decorated it with red, white, and grinchy green. Again, not what I was imagining and it may change by the time I get to the dining room. =)
I did make a decision about decorations - there are somethings I'm just not sure I want to keep but I have a hard time not thinking I might want them next year. So I'm making a box of the Christmas stuff I'm thinking of letting go. At the end of this season I'll go through it and see if there's anything I for sure want to let go. The others I will pack away and decide next year if they should stay or go.
The afternoon was filled with watching football. My team lost again and after a horrible ref call I'm left wondering if sports are as fair as we think. My gut says no, it's like the high school sports/athletes and who ever complains the loudest/longest is the one who gets the play time or in this case the calls. So sad to see professional sports turning into this.
My day was not all filled with Christmas and football. My mom had called me to say she wanted to go to a funeral visitation and needed a ride. We stopped by a little general gift/craft store on the way. They have some great fabric selections and I was surprised to see some of the fabric I'm using on my mom's gift. She found it and picked it up, I ask what she was going to make and she said she didn't know, but it was too pretty to pass up. =) We do that often - this time it was frustrating until a friend told me at least you know she'll like it. so true.
As I waited for my mom while she was in the funeral home, I thought a lot about how things have changed over the years. How we live our lives so differently than when my mom was a young girl. The woman who passed was the sister of my mom's uncles wife. I asked mom how she knew her and mom said I saw her at all the family stuff growing up. Back when the families of both spouses were invited to everything.
I have an image of what that was like - a house/yard full of people. Tables overflowing, the women wearing aprons to protect their good/Sunday clothes. Little girls in dresses most trying not to get dirty except the tom boys who were in the thick of things with their brothers. Talking and visiting while the afternoon slipped away. No rush or pressure to go off to another task, just taking the time to enjoy life. I experienced some of that when I was younger than 10 and then things started getting busy with everyone being more mobile and on the go.
They say life is like a circle. I hope to someday host events like the long ago summer days - where everyone puts their keys and cell phones in a basket so they aren't pulled away by technology.
No comments:
Post a Comment