Oh, Christmas Tree

My mother made me this ornament the year my first child was born.  It is her own design and sewn entirely by hand.

For the past 16 years my husband and I have occupied our Century Home, now boasting age 119.  Each of those 16 years, every spring, like clockwork, the organizer of the Summer Century Home Tour has appeared on our doorstep asking if we'd like to put our house on tour.  Every year our answer has always been the same.  No.  The thought of readying our half-acre yard that by mid-summer bursts with herbs, vegetables, and colorful blossoms, but looks rather bleak in June, not to mention cleaning and sprucing up the interior after a rather slothful winter seemed daunting.  "Ask us for the holiday tour," I'd call after her as she dejectedly descended our front steps.  My reasoning was that this would only require a cleaning of the interior, the placement of our holiday decorations, and that would be that.

So, the day after Thanksgiving, when my husband and I were delirious from exhaustion, the organizer of the Holiday Historical House Tour showed up at our door asking us if we'd like to participate.  Before I could stop the words from coming out of my mouth I'd said "yes."  We had a little over two weeks to prepare.  Initially this sounded like a lot of time.  It wasn't.  Cleaning and decorating takes time.  Lots of time.  Finding the decorations takes even more time.  If not for my son who gave up his day off and another free afternoon to the cause, we'd never have made it.

As a consequence, I did no cooking.  We ate out, or scrounged in the freezer, sometimes warming the food, other times just popping it out of its container and licking it like a beef-flavored Popsicle.  I'll be back later in the week with recipes, and tomorrow with my table setting, but for today I'd thought you might enjoy seeing some the ornaments that grace our tree.

When my boys were small Christmas was always dazzling.  I went to great lengths to transform the house into a holiday wonderland.  Each of our nine rooms had its own tree, each with a different theme.  Life and age has since caught up with me, so now each  tree is represented on the main tree in the living room.  This ornament featuring Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim was a part of the "Christmas Carol" tree, full of Dickens ornaments. Interestingly enough my youngest son gave an award-winning performance of Scrooge in his High School play.  I like to think this tree helped influence him.

I doubt there are many trees in the city of St. Louis that don't feature some form of Cardinal to pay homage to their favorite team. The sheet music behind represents our extensive musical background.

I collect an ornament from every place we visit.  This one of the St. Augustine Lighthouse is a pleasant reminder of a fun trip with friends.

This lovely ornament was a gift from my friend, Marilyn.  She rubber-stamped the top piece, cut it out and affixed it to a glass ball filled with a crystal snow-like substance.  She mailed it to me in a small Christmas tin filled with red and green excelsior.  The tin was NOT in a box, just taped shut and a label and postage attached directly to the tin.  It's always fun getting mail from Marilyn!

A lifelong lover of mysteries, this is but one of about two dozen ornaments that used to adorn the Sherlock tree in the Sherlock theme guest room.
 

Thanks for your visit.  What ornaments will grace your tree this year?
"I am sharing my holiday home decor for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls and Great Cleaners."

This post is linked to:Seasonal Sunday