Holiday Decor

These are some of my favorite pieces of holiday decor:

The Nativity Scene in the foreground was handcrafted by Sarah last year in school. This is my first Christmas to display it since last year we had a snow day the last two days before Christmas break and she didn’t get to bring it home until January! The angel behind the Nativity Scene was created by Becca and the quilt you see hanging in the back was made for me by my Mother-in-law quite a few years ago. Every time I take it out of the box I remember her and how she blessed people around the country with her quilting and how each of us in our family is privileged to have at least one quilt that she made.

The star on the top was created by Bethany in kindergarten, and I think the Nativity Picture as well. These candle pictures, created with paper plates, yarn, paint, and glitter are pretty special, too. The two oldest girls made theirs during a Christmas-time sleepover with my mom & dad, probably when they were about 4 and 2 or so. The third one is Becca’s from her last year at my mom’s preschool. Elise asks pretty much every day when she is going to get to make one and since I am pretty sure it’s an every-other-year activity, I don’t think she’s going to get to make one until NEXT Christmas. Oh, how hard it is to wait when you’re 3.

Yesterday I picked up some old yearbooks at school to look through for historical facts and photos for the centennial booklet Ed & I are working on for school. The years I picked up are 1985-1989 and there are MANY people in there that my kids know…including me and their Uncle Randy, and even my dad since he was on school board at that time. In fact, there’s one picture of my dad handing out diplomas at graduation and he’s shaking the hand of a female graduate. I said, “Look girls, there’s Grandpa!” and Elise said, “Is he with grandma?” She said it kind of accusingly, like, that better be grandma he’s with.

We also made some Christmas cookies, old-fashioned butterscotch candy, and ho-ho-hot chocolate mix last night. The cookies we will take to the parade Saturday night and the candy and hot chocolate mix go into gift bags for teachers and other such folks in our lives. We have a few more goodies to create (and more cookie dough in the fridge for another time), but by 9:00 the girls had had enough sugar and needed to go to bed. Pictures to come soon, I hope!

Look around your home. Do you have any holiday decorations that are especially meaningful or that you will never give to the thrift store?