Come In & Sit a Spell

Santa Claus is a lucky guy. He gets an invitation to peek into living rooms all over the world. And he doesn't even have to knock.

(I brought this Santa home when we cleaned out my Grandma Leonard's house.
We had the same one at home, too.)

'Tis the season to glimpse holiday cheer through picture window frames. Christmas trees are lit. Ornaments dangle from branches like fancy earrings. Stockings are hung by the chimney with care.

On excursions to look at Christmas lights, we see little glimpses of family celebrations through curtains flung open and lights twinkling a welcome through the darkness. But wouldn't it be fun to see more than just the little tidbit captured in the picture window?

So, come on into my living room.

No, our stockings don't match. I made Randy & my stockings. The kids and their Grandma Marie made theirs, the ones with red and white stripes and Christmas trees. Eric has the snowman and this is the debut for Smalls' Santa stocking. It has a sonogram photo in the frame. Next year, it will be a real photo!

I like sitting in the living room with only the Christmas lights shining. If I take off my glasses, I get the starburst affect without any fancy photo manipulations. It's about the only time that poor vision is pretty.

Some people are white light kind of people. I'm a multi-colored girl myself. It goes with the eclectic mix of ornaments and decorations, things collected over a lifetime.

I know I wouldn't win any decorating awards. But the smattering of memories truly does "make the season bright" as The Christmas Song says.

My mother-in-law Marie stitched this little sampler that sits on my piano during the holidays. It's a good reminder when I get a little caught up in the quest for holiday perfection. Hmmm ... maybe that's not the most important thing, especially when it leads to frazzled nerves and aching back.

Marie was Mrs. Claus. Almost every year, she came up with a new Santa to share. Looking around the living room is like having a visit with her, even though it's been 15 years since she died.

Jill had her version of this old-fashioned Santa by the front door of her house. (Marie made the one by the fireplace in the stocking photo, too.) She didn't make the one below, though I got it at a Fritzemeier Christmas grab bag exchange long ago.

The Christmas tree ornaments are a mishmash, too. My folks gave each of the grandkids a new ornament each year from birth through high school. Jill's now hang on her own tree. Brent's are still scattered among the branches of our tree. Some of my ornaments tell the tell of trips we've taken, including new ones this year from Idaho, Yellowstone, South Carolina and Georgia.

My house doesn't look like the ones on HGTV. And that's OK. I'd rather have the memories than perfectly matched holiday finery.

There's a mix of the secular and the sacred.

Is it perfect? Nope. But it's ours.

So welcome to the celebration. And may your homes be filled with joy, laughter and peace this Christmas season and always! Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Keeping Christmas

Decking the halls always seems to be such a big job. Though I love the end result, I dread the mess of pulling the plastic tubs of Christmas decorations from their hiding place in the basement storage room.

And, for a few days now, I've dreaded taking them all down. It doesn't have a thing to do with the mess or the work.

I waited a few days to do it. I know there are organized people who promptly pull out their Christmas decor the day after Thanksgiving and then pack it away on the day after Christmas.

But I'm not one of those people.

After several weeks of twinkling lights decorating the living room, I'm never quite ready to give up the multicolored dreamland.

Even as a kid, I remember the letdown after Christmas. It didn't have anything to do with whether I'd gotten everything on my wish list. It was just that slight feeling of melancholy, a sadness at saying goodbye to that "hap-happiest season of all," as the song goes.

It's the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle-belling
And everyone telling you
Be of good cheer
It's the most wonderful time of the year

It's the hap-happiest season of all
With those holiday greetings
And great happy meetings
When friends come to call
It's the hap-happiest season of all

It's the most wonderful time of the year
There be much mistletoe-ing
And hearts will be glowing
When loved ones are near
It's the most wonderful time of the year.

So, as I pack away the Christmas angel tree topper ...

and say goodbye once again to the Santa who counts down the days to Christmas Eve, I need to remember not to let go of the spirit of Christmas.

Even if I must take down the twinkle of lights in my living room, I can let the Light of the World continue to shine in my heart, mind and soul as we enter a new year.

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6

Hallelujah!

Deck the Halls

Nestled there in the bubble wrap were years of memories. And I didn't even have to have a series of nightmares like poor Ebenezer Scrooge to unwrap them.

Once I got the six tubs of Christmas decorations toted upstairs, it was like Christmas came early as I opened the ornament boxes and hung each one on the tree for another year.

I know the household organization gurus all say you don't need "things" to have the memories. And while I agree, it's kind of like visual "Post It" notes, a way to jog memories from a lifetime.

That's why my Christmas tree is not like the designer trees on HGTV this time of year ... no matching balls, no coordinated ornaments, no color theme.

Instead, it's filled with a haphazard jumble of memories.

This is the oldest ornament on the tree. My Grandma Leonard made them for each of us, and they used to hang on our tree at home.

When she died, each of us chose one of these bejeweled balls that she made. I inherited her lefthandedness, but I certainly didn't inherit the craft gene.

My parents began a tradition when their grandchildren were born. Until the kids graduated from high school, they received a new ornament to hang on the tree each year.

After Christmas two years ago, I packed Jill's ornaments up in a plastic tub and later packed them in a trailer for her move to Omaha. It was my parents' intention for the grandkids to have a start on their own holiday trees and traditions.

Last year, as I unwrapped the ornaments, I kind of grieved that I was no longer seeing Jill's ornaments. I know they were hers, but they were such a central part of our tree, too. I missed the ornaments that were hers - the girl talking on the phone and the girl with the shopping bags and all the others.

When I pulled Brent's K-State football player from the plastic wrap again this year, it took me a minute to remember that the K-State cheerleader now lives in Omaha.

Someday, Brent's Teenage Mutant Ninja shell and his golfing Santa and Santa's pickup truck and the Crayola crayon sled and all the others will all be decorating a different tree.

But for now, until he's ready, they still find a place on the County Line.

It's not as though my tree will be bare. I have collected my fair share of ornaments over the years, too.

Some of my favorites are the photo ornaments, the ones that reveal the stages of Jill and Brent's lives as surely as the height marker in the dining room.


When we go on vacation, we always bring home an ornament to hang on the tree. There's a new one from our visit to Mount Rushmore this year, along with a memory from our 26th wedding anniversary trip to San Francisco.

And there are reminders all around of my mother-in-law. From the Santa who guards the fireplace ...

to the ceramic nativity scene on the dining room buffet ...

to angels on the Christmas tree ...

to the Santas that decorate the tabletops ...

to the stockings she made with the kids ...

her love of crafts and sharing them is reflected in pretty much every corner.

No, I don't need the "stuff" to remember. But I do appreciate finding memories in the twinkling lights around every corner this time of year.