Christmas at Home-Part II / Old Nativity

Here we are on the 6th day of Christmas, and we’re still celebrating on low gear. I must admit, a little bit of the Christmas blues have hit.  Not to take away one bit of the joy in celebrating the birth of Jesus, and all that that means for us.  If nothing else, that’s what helps me somewhat keep some perspective. But there is something about Christmas that can bring you down to earth about extended family.  You know? You spend the whole Christmas season with them in mind.  And I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to fabricate and embellish in my mind, the reality of some of those relationships all year…but especially in the pre-Christmas season, when I am especially full of light-hearted spirit. Except for the relationships that you know barely exist, and somehow, Christmas seems to bring those to light, and a little heavier in the heart, as well. Thank goodness – Christmas also brings to light all of the  gifts and blessings we do have.

But never mind all of that. I know…we know….we are greatly blessed, with not only a treasured few who love and support us deeply, some of whom would be here in a heartbeat if we ever needed them. But here under this roof, family is one of our greatest gifts of all. Without our family, this house would not be home. There would be no reason to put my heart into it, or make Christmas’, and the other 364 days of the year, ones to remember with fondness, smiles and warm hearts.

So please come in once again, and take a look at the Christmas corners of our home we have not yet shared with you all.

Above, as the header, is one of my favorite decorated parts of the house.  Trust me when I say, it’s really so nice.  It was just very difficult to photograph.  It’s the area over our breakfast bar, and it’s pretty wide.  I realized real quick in trying to take a photo of it, that I was not going to be able to do it justice with the lens I had.  It was a challenge really capturing it.  But I just didn’t want to let the notion go.  See the chain of hearts in the middle?  That is there all year.  Each one has each of our names on it. It’s one of those little things in my home that I really, really, really love.

Now, when most people arrive to our home, one of the first things they have to take care of, is to use our bathroom.  So if you are one of those people, that’s where you are in the photo below.  So now is the time.  We’ll wait.

That statue you see was a wedding gift.  At the time, I thought it was a little bit crazy. I used it for a number of years, and then put it away for a number of years.  I’ve taken it out again, and I think it’s rather grown on me. I like all of the seasonal things she can hold. : )

Below we are in the sunroom. Such a simple decoration, but I love it anyway.  This jar sits on a wood/coal stove that was once Michael’s beloved grandmother’s.  You may have seen bits of it here on the blog before.  I would have snapped a larger view of it, but to be honest, it is a mess all around it at the moment.  Ceiling dust from the ceiling being cut into, boxes of parts everywhere….just not a pretty picture.  You don’t really want to see a mess, do you? My husband has been working on getting it piped out to the outside so that we can use it for heat.  He was really trying to get it done sooner, rather than later, because we thought we might be hosting a post-Christmas family gathering  in a couple of weeks, and needed all the comfortable space we could come up with, because right now, it’s freezing in this room.  But, turns out some of the family decided to celebrate on their own without us.  Go figure. Another Christmas light bulb moment. Nonetheless, he’ll get the stove in working order soonish anyway.  We really look forward to using the sunroom year round.  In the warm weather, the kids spend LOTS of their time, when we’re home anyway, in this room.

This photo below I love, because I love my french doors.  : )  I really, really do.  But the photo was actually taken because I also loved the shadows on the wall at the moment, of some of the paper snowflakes on our front door, that our kids made.  Last year, I know our little ones were a little young to grasp the visual of which ends of the folded paper you do not cut off.  But this year, they got it, and they were ALL over that project.  Every day.  For many days…”Can I have one more piece of paper?  I want to make another paper snowflake.”  Because they had been through ALL of theirs, (which was a lot), and half of my printer paper.  Suffice it to say, we have lovely (and I mean that sincerely) paper snowflakes on the windows all over our house.

Here’s more on our back door.

A close-up of one of my favorites. (I didn’t tell the kids that, because I love everything they make equally.  Right? : )  Of course I do!!

I love this window area of our home, in the photo below. It’s in our school room, and also where we sit together for meals. On the left at the end of the table by the window there, is MY seat. That is where I sit when I teach the kids, do projects, and eat. I love that window seat.  Over Christmas, my father kept sitting there. The first time he did, I stood there looking at him, with my plate in my hand, and had to decide how much I love him.  I decided I loved him a lot, and sat elsewhere.  He kept sitting there over the next few days too.  Must be it IS the best seat at the table, and must be I really do love him a whole lot.   Anyway….as you can see we hang some of the kids work across that window too.

Here’s a closer peek at the paper mosaics they worked on over our pre-Christmas break. I just printed out some coloring pages off the computer, and gave them instructions of how to color these differently, with colored construction paper. Rip, glue, rip, glue, rip, glue.  I love how they came out.  They got a lot of nice comments and attention over Christmas too. It takes about as much tedious work as they look like. They loved the project though.  They made for wonderful Christmas decorations.

Below the artwork is our completed advent calendar. Boy do the kids LOVE this calendar. They take turns each day, taking the piece out of the little numbered door, and adding it to the scene, and the thrill every year never wears off.  I loved this advent calendar so much, I got one for each of my Godchildren. I like to think of it as something they’ll pass on to their own children with their own families, someday.  I guess my kids will have to fight over it. lol

Here’s what feels like a little confession.  We went through great efforts this year to find a really great advent wreath prayer or activity book to follow, to go along with lighting our advent wreath at prayer time each day.  Our parish gave us a great book to follow, so we were happy about that. But we needed more candles, because what was left of last years melted in the attic.  We could NOT for the LIFE of us, find purple and pink candles in any store, anywhere.  For miles and miles, and days on end, we looked.  I like to think every store was quite simply ‘sold out’ of those colors, because of advent season. If I knew for sure, that would make me a little bit less…..irritated.  We’ll be better prepared next year. And when we find some, we won’t be storing them in the attic.

Outside of our school room windows, we thought it would be nice to decorate the feeders of our feathered friends. It’s hard to tell, but we think they appreciated it.

So now we come full circle back to our sunroom, where we have displayed the 50+ year old nativity set (see photo below), that I mentioned was so thoughtfully given to us.  It has been in this friend of our’s family for as long as she can remember.  But she has no family left, and really wanted a family to have it, that would care about it.  Care not only for it’s significance, but it’s history to her.  We certainly will, but also let her know should she ever want to display it again, for a year or more, she knows where it is.  This woman has become so dear to us. It saddens me that she has no family left-because she is so full of love and faith, and so has so much to give. We are blessed to have her as a part of our life. She adores the children, and they adore her too.  In thinking of her circumstances, I have wondered which would be harder:  to have no family left to care about, or to have family left, many of whom don’t much seem to care about you.  Huh?? I think either must be rather difficult.   As I told her, she at least has us anyway. And others who care about her- as she’s quite easy to love.  And we all have each other, as a family, here in our home.  We try to count our MANY, many blessings, and not so much the crosses we must bear. Every family and their extended family has their issues I suppose. (I think?)  But Christmas can be such a test of that faith, can’t it?

I love this shepherd boy, and I love the ladder of the stable, too.

Here is a closer look at the Holy Family.

It has been so much fun walking around taking these photos for you all.  Just to have work slowed down enough, in my slower work season here, and have time to PLAY myself, is nice!  You’d think I’d take a break, but it really is such a part of me.  I must admit, I’ve caught an afternoon couch nap or 2.  That’s something I haven’t been afforded the time to do since…spring!  It’s amazing what a 20 minute cat nap will do for you!  Try one for yourself…you’ll see!!

It’s also been nice sharing our home with some of you. We love our home. We’ve put so much of our time and efforts into it, and there is much left to be done.  I especially, am by nature, a homebody.  The kids love home too, but they get cabin fever this time of year, at their young and energetic age.  So we’ve got lots of adventures on the agenda to pull us through winter.  We only need be gone for a day or so, and we hear one little tired voice or another say “I miss my home.”   I despise the cold, and winter in general. But I find when I embrace this season, without fighting the fact that it is here,  I have quite a bit of fun myself!  And if nothing else, I can have fun photographing my kids, having fun.  Works for me!!   So if you have a bitter cold and sometimes snowy winter like us, what sort of activities do you do with your children over the long winter season?  We’d love you to share any ideas with us.  Just in case we run out before the season ends. Because last winter felt literl\ally, never-ever-ending.

Well that was a long post.  Hope it didn’t feel that long to you though! lol.  Thanks for dropping in for our little Christmas decoration tour. : )  It won’t be long before it’s time to pack it all away. But we hope you can come back soon to see what else is happening in your leisure computer time, as we carry on, and prepare for a whole new year.  SO much to look forward to!