decorations

We are finally ready to welcome Christmas. The house is decorated and we have a selection of SiriusXM channels of different types of Christmas music I can play on my iPad or through our internet radio (I am enjoying Acoustic Christmas). We have the subscription on hubby’s truck that allows us to play it on other devices. Nothing left except just enjoying the holiday.

Yesterday was my grandson’s birthday. It is so hard to believe he is 8 years old! He was always my little cuddler, but I am afraid after the pandemic is finally over (I am hopeful) he will have outgrown me snuggling with him on the couch.
Speaking of hard to believe – We have 6 grandchildren. 3, 8, 11, soon to be 14, and soon to be 17 and soon to be 19. Time is moving at a rapid pace and there is simply no way to slow that clock down.
So, yes, we are decorated and ready for Christmas. Most of our packages are being delivered directly to their destination this year so we have relatively few to wrap. Good for us, bad for the parents.
Speaking of packages, we ordered a starter electric guitar for one granddaughter as a combination birthday/Christmas gift. The shipping was a mess. After days on chat with The Guitar Center, the package arrived! You would think that was a “Yay” moment, but unfortunately it arrived in pieces. Long story short, it was returned for a credit and a new guitar selected, but what a mess! This may be an insight into part of the reason they are filing for bankruptcy – or perhaps this is a side effect of the filing.
I am hopeful of getting back in the jewelry studio today. I had to order a “third hand” because the one I had somehow disappeared. I am hopeful this one will do the trick. The base contains a strong magnet rather than a wing-nut to adjust the angle. It comes with cross-lock tweezers to firmly hold an object in place for soldering. Fingers crossed.
My decluttering and cleaning is progressing. I hope to keep things orderly. What is it about horizontal surfaces? Some scientific principle I am unaware of – that any horizontal space must be filled? No? Just my house?
The virus continues to rage and there is no leadership currently in the US to combat it. I saw an article this morning about a mass hospitalization of 300 people in India. Not Covid or any of the suspected possibilities. Some thinking this could be water contamination. Suddenly very thankful for my little independent well.
I was helping a friend get back into her WordPress blog after being absent from blogging for a while. She came back to the block editor. I had forgotten how frustrating it can be for people who started with the good old original WordPress.

That’s it for me.

Day 32

We really enjoy a cozy atmosphere around the holidays. Yesterday, I pulled out a couple of small Thanksgiving things, like table cloths and our Publix pilgrim salt and pepper shakers our daughters bought us years ago. It helps get the season off on a positive note.

Department 56

I married into a family of collectors. Everyone in the family had Department 56 villages. Some Dickens, some Christmas in the City and some North Pole. We decided we would collect the New England Village. It is more holiday-like rather than Christmas-like.

Over the years we were gifted pieces or bought pieces. We do not have a huge collection like others, but we have 12 buildings and a few accessories. Eventually we stopped buying them because we did not have practical space to display them.

In years past, hubby created a village base with ice ponds and rivers complete with street lights that always housed the village. Now, in our retirement years, we have a smaller space so the village gets displayed above the kitchen cabinets. It is mainly ambiance and the lights at night give you a really cozy feeling. Just enough to make you smile.

Decorations Are Work

Today, I unpacked the buildings to the village and put the lights in them. Hubby is busy rigging up extension cords with timers to make turning them on and off easier. The smaller grandchildren love getting to turn the lights on when they come to visit. Such small joys make sweet memories.

It starts out a mess, with everything piled on the table with bits of styrofoam falling everywhere from the unpacking. This is how it begins, but it is short-lived and then the joy is there to enjoy every night thereafter.

Lifting Our Spirits

When life gets us down, sometimes a small thing like this allows you to put your cares aside and focus on something more joyful. It is a choice we make to enjoy the holidays especially when families are so scheduled and so busy that we do not get to see them as much as we would like.

So, it’s not a Christmas village, it is a New England Village. We know many of our friends celebrate holidays other than Christmas and we like that. We aren’t rushing Christmas or skipping Thanksgiving or anything like that — we just plan to enjoy every minute of the upcoming holiday season because, well, that’s just how we roll.