Decorating for Christmas 2024

We decorated for Christmas, as usual, the day after Thanksgiving, so that we are ready for our Advent traditions that start with December.  

At this point, most of our decorations carry potent memories. They are things the girls have made through the years or things we have been given by family and friends over decades of Christmases, so it's always a time of remembering and giving thanks as we unpack and place the items around the house, and the thankfulness and remembrance goes on all through the month as we move through the house all day long.

Avril crocheted this angel last year. She learned to crochet from a godly woman at our homeschool co-op. She also paper-quilled the tiny angel sitting next to it on the shelf a few years before that.  I bought her the paper quilling set as a reward one homeschool year for doing all her Analytical Tasks Sheets in Essentials at Classical Conversations. 

My college-friend gave me the first few pieces of our Christmas village. Through the following years of early marriage, I collected more. And now, the village decorates our dining room window sills.

The younger girls painted the winter-themed pictures on the mantle in previous years. 

Norah built that tiny clay nativity set. She sells these on her Etsy store, but my set is unique, since it includes two sheep and an adorable donkey. 

I purchased the pewter nativity in Boston, and I think that was the same year I was invited to try out for the Les Mills presenter team. With my health in a downward spiral in previous years, those memories of good health and fitness were once bitter, but now, they are sweet. Now that I am feeling better, I'm just thankful for the health I have, and I'm hopeful that excellent health and strength may return again someday. 

Every nativity set here represents some precious memory. I've had one of them since we were newly married. A few were made or painted by the girls during their young childhoods. The middle, miniature, wooden set belonged to Dwayne's grandmother, and it remains my favorite nativity of all. Much of our furniture belonged to Gerda. She and I had similar tastes. 

The bright yet potent red of poinsettias inside is always a welcome cheer to the dreary landscape outside. 

Dwayne always places the angel on the tree. Speaking of items gifted by family, my mother gave me that angel approx. twenty years ago. 

This year, we added a smaller tree with colorful lights to in our classroom, and we filled it with the over-abundance of homemade ornaments the girls and I have made at home and church and homeschool co-ops up to this point. We also put our Classical Conversations or collegiate ornaments there, and again, though the time for those things is past, we are thankful for the good things those institutions brought into our lives when we were a part of them. Norah and I made some of those decorations on the classroom tree when she was only three- four years old! That was a long time ago now, but also, it seems like just yesterday. 

The star on our classroom tree is the exact same star that was on my classroom tree when I was a teacher our church's private school before having kids over twenty years ago. I just kept my star in a small box with our other Christmas decorations until now. I'm glad to finally use it in my classroom again, glad it still works!  

Sitting up late with the tree lights just thinking or praying is one of my favorite things to do in December and January and sometimes February, too, depending on how long we keep the Christmas decorations up!