Deck the Halls

To say my mother loves to decorate for Christmas is an understatement. All of her decorations would completely fill my one of the bedrooms my house but only if all the furniture was moved out first! She has a big ‘Noel’ sign in the front yard in addition to a big lighted train on the other end of the yard, snowflakes hang down from trellis, Christmas bears adorn the bookcases, Christmas dolls sit a in their own sleigh near the front door which is adorn with wreath, several nativity sets are found throughout the house, the coffee table has four of the Hallmark singing snowman, Christmas throw blankets and pillows are on the couches, and Christmas nightlights light up the hall. It is amazing to see the house decorated in all its Christmas splendor. And she does not have all of her decoration out because of the James (a human wreaking ball waiting to happen).

(Christmas Nightlight)

Somehow, I did not receive the excess holiday decorating gene that mother passed on to my sister Liz. I love decorations when they are up but I it is too much effort on my part to put them up myself. But I wonder if that is more because I have always come to parents or Brigham's for Christmas instead of staying at my own house and the fact that I do not have anyplace to store decorations after Christmas. Not to mention having the aforementioned human wrecking ball. But yesterday, for the first time since I left for college, I arrived at my parent's house in time to decorate the Christmas tree. As I pulled the ornaments out of their boxes I took a trip through memory lane. There were the ornaments I remember my mother painting when I was 4 or 5, the homemade ornaments made by my grandfather’s cousin (she lived with my grandparents until she passed away so she is part of all my childhood memories), there were the ornaments made by me and my siblings in grade school, and then there are the vacation ornaments.

The vacation ornaments are a family tradition that originated with my family’s grand tour of United States (a five week trip in a minivan around the country) when I was twelve years old when my mother started collecting ornaments from the places we visited. As I uncovered these ornaments from their boxes I remembered that trip around the nation to the Tetons, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, Nauvoo, Niagara Falls, Washington DC, Walt Disney World, and the Alamo. Since that vacation my siblings and I have kept up the tradition, we all purchase ornaments to send to our parents when we travel someplace new. So I also unwrapped the Lladro dove representing a family vacation to Spain, a Boston Tea Party ornament from a trip my mom, sister and I took to Boston a few years before I moved there, a blown glass ornament from a trip my parents and I took to Venice, the Eskimo ornament I brought back from my trip Alaska to visit a friend, a kilted Santa my parents bought in Scotland, one from Puerto Rico my parents purchased while there for my brother’s wedding reception, and there was even an ornament from Charleston, SC where my husband and I spent our honeymoon. As I decorated the tree and remembered ornaments from my childhood and vacations we had taken, I realized that I wanted my children to have the same types of memories decorating for Christmas. So I will need to find a place to store Christmas decorations and find creative ways to make my own decorations with my children's help. Of course actually staying at my own home to celebrate Christmas for once might help motivate me to decorate.

Tonight I took James and Anna to visit Santa at a Santa’s village put on by a man who takes Christmas even more seriously than my mother. I have known this man and his wife since high school; I remember staying at his house for Youth conference one year. He and his wife piled the kitchen island with every kind of junk food and basically gave 15 young women the run of the house while he and his wife stayed in the guest house. Every year for the last 15 years he has turned his house into Santa’s Village complete with Santa and Mrs. Claus and invites anyone to come visit. People come from all over San Diego. Not only can kids sit on Santa’s lap, but every child can chose a toy from his bag. James was fascinated by the huge Merry Christmas clock and did not want to sit on Santa's lap. Anna had no such reservations. I was just happy that it was warm out (although all the people who actually live in San Diego thought it was cold).