There are rumors afloat that I have somehow thrown caution to the winds and done a "theme" tree.
Let me put that rumor to rest once and for all. If you come to our house, you will note that any "theme" apparent would be something like "Making Do" or "How to rob the pantry and trim your tree is 1 easy hour!!"
This is what happened. As Christmas got closer and it became apparent that Harry and Dawn would be spending it with us, I decided that we should just get a tree, put lights on it and decorate with some homemade ornaments - that could just be discarded when we were done.
The more I thought about it, the more the idea appealed to me on many levels. I really do not enjoy driving over to the shop - it's not in the best neighborhood - going through boxes and digging out what I want to take back to the house, schlepping it out to the car and then into the house, bugging Dad to get the tree up, hoping someone will want to help, staying up late trimming the tree.
And then on January 1st, I start resenting everyone watching the football games and not helping me take down and pack up the Christmas decor. Tossing nearly everything - all biodegradeable too - seemed the better choice!
And I didn't relish the idea of having to keep the living room off limits. I didn't want some family treasure to get broken or damaged and then feel bad about it. We haven't have small children around her 24/7 for a few years, after all.
Harry F. said, "Well, you had decorations when you had little kids and nothing bad happened." What he doesn't remember is that I had lots of very unbreakable, fabric type items in those days.
At any rate, the ease of this new plan of mine just took over my mind - alia jacta est (which is Latin for "the die is cast")and voila - we did it last night.
I started by getting greenery and poinsettias for the mantle and we've made do with the chocolate grocery store advent calendars. I did get out the Christmas linens and dishes and pitchers. Everything else is fresh and new - at least relatively fresh and new - things do dry out!
Then I found some magazine articles for making ornaments out of pretzels and cookies with holes in the middle. Eve and Porter got some ornaments as favors at a birthday party, and I got some on my Mimi cake last spring. I also bought some from Henry's school fundraiser and added them. The Santa on the top was a freebie you got for buying 3 American Greetings cards.
After celebrating Dad's birthday last night - with homemade spaghetti sauce - on spaghetti noodles of course - and pineapple upside down cake - sans the maraschino cheeries, since I forgot to buy them - we went to work. And a fine time was had by all.
Almost too fine a time - Harry F. kept razzing me about making ornaments out of Oreos - America's favorite cookie he kept saying - and he made one all right - I'm sure you'll find it in the pictures!
Porter has been taking bites out of the cookies within his reach. And Eve's contribution was a parade of candy canes on the bottom row. We are quite festive around here.
And I'm thrilled to think that we mostly just have toss it all on January 1st!
