Who is Rachel? She's the daughter of the wonderful woman that God has provided to us to do a bi-weekly clean of the house, and then do my grocery shopping for me. This provision has saved me this month. And Rachel is her 18-year-old daughter who loves to decorate for Christmas, so she went into the attic and picked and chose the best of my decorations and spread them around the living room. I was insistent that ALL the snowmen be put out. However, there is still one box of snow-people -- a whole village, including a snowman doll house -- which I can't find, and is still buried somewhere in the attic.
Well, here are just a few pictures of what Rachel did to my home for Christmas.
The top picture shows what we did to the landing where the stair-way turns, and from where I fell down to the bottom of the stairs, hitting my head on the hard floor of the foyer. I saw stars, then felt no pain, and figured I was paralyzed. But I wasn't. All my padding protected me (actually it was God) from breaking anything. Anyway, this was my vision for the landing, and Rachel worked it so that it turned out exactly as I had seen it in my mind's eye.
The middle picture has the tall glass vase -- it's three feet high -- filled with tiny lights and glass Christmas balls, next to the wash-stand, partially hidden by my silver tea set which Rachel's mom, Tamara, so lovingly polished for me. This is the view from the love-seat.
The bottom photo is the view from the large sofa across the room. I love the look of the table with many of my snowmen on the floor in front of it.
So, you have a small idea of how just part of my home is decorated. The porch is well lit and I finally got the timer to work so that the lights go off after midnight. I still can't figure out the outdoor lights' timer, so for now they are on 24/7. It's only three strings, so our electric bill shouldn't shoot up too much.
When I lived in Runnemede our outdoor decorations were a wreath on the front door and a wreath on the back door. My mom made them fresh every year from cuttings she took from the YEW plants that grew wild in front of the house at that time. She later included holly. The holly tree she grew from a "start" from the holly tree we had at our first home in Cincinnati.
I remember her working on the kitchen table on those wreathes. She loved doing that, and the smell of the greens was wonderful. The only decoration on the wreathes she made was a big, red bow, which she tied herself. I've never been able to do ribbons or bows. When I tie a bow it looks like I tied a bow, now like a professional did it. Same with ribbon draping. I haven't gotten the hang of that either.
Indoors mom put greens around and interspersed them with angels and Christmas balls. And we had the tree, with lights -- those big things that when one went out the whole string went out. Poor daddy, he would work on those lights to make sure they all worked before he strung the tree, and then without fail, by Christmas day one of the lights would break and we'd have a lightless tree for the rest of the season.
So, for now, and until I find that missing box, that's it from our home in Northern Kentucky and a little remembrance from our home on Second Avenue in Runnemede, New Jersey.
ttfn
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