Its Time to Get Ready for Christmas.............

I love to get the house ready for the Christmas season. It's so much work now though. I decorate the whole of downstairs and so that means putting away our every day things till January. I think this year I will paint some of the rooms to freshen up before putting things back out.
Anyway, we got the tree up and decorated on Sunday, Saturday was spent packing things and exploring the Christmas things again. Its lovely to go through it all and remember people and who made some of the things. I gave a lot of the hand made things to Laura and this year will give some to Danielle. Then the things I have will just be purchased things, and thats just fine by me. There are really cool things out there now.



Some of the ornaments on the tree, its always fun to rearrange after its all done



Then to decorate and redo all the surfaces in the house (smile) at least downstairs. There was a time when the granddaughters came home for Christmas from North Carolina, I would put a tree in each of their rooms, they didn't notice the effort though. I collect snowmen and santa's now and the older ones as they get ragged get to sit outside.



The living room needs a few more touches but this is what we have so far.......



I put holly and poinsettias in among my real flowers and replace the summer flowers to give everything a festive look.



I foumd a use for the little chair that I found this summer. Didn't know what to do with it and it's been sitting empty. So now Santa has a new place to sit. Seeing as how we don't have a chimney.



I had to bunch all my plants up basically in one spot, so I loaded them up with poinsettia and made them festive. It's the only place I could put them and not kill them



I am trying to put some sort of lighted tree in each room, so far I only have this one going on.


The stuffies I have had for years may not make it through this year with Mr Sticky Fingers in the picture.


One thing I found useful was old jars I found at resale/thrift shops. Other years I have put candy in them but glass balls look so sparkly and pretty.

Christmas may not be the real birthday of Jesus but it is His official birthday. I am sure He does not need to have a birthday but we need to remember why he was born into this world. Maybe we do need to remember that more than once a year, and I do, but the "world" does not. If nothing else it is a joyful season and people have the opportunity to wish people well and think of others. That too should be done more often. This though is the real world and people get busy and quite often just do not make the effort. Please do not say "Happy Holidays' it is Christmas!. otherwise why bother? I especially do not like Xmas. That is just lazy and it is also taking Christ out of Christmas. Not everyone is a Christian, I do understand that but the "holiday" IS Christmas no matter what people think. No one HAS to celebrate it. Let us all make an effort especially Christians, to put the whole meaning back into this Christmas season. All the miracles of His birth, His life and His gift to us of eternal life and the whole reason for his coming. Think how those shepherds felt when they saw the heavenly choirs announce His birth. Think of the priviledge and the fact they came to the lowly ones and not the Kings of the earth to give their message of hope. Have a wonderful Christmas.