Monday, December 29, 2008

A Christmas Rewind…


For the first 42 years of my life Christmas Eve was spent at Gran and Howard’s house (my Momma’s parents) with extended family, filled with traditions, such as oyster stew, date nut pudding, the quietest kid got the first present to open, playing pool in the always-odd-smelling basement and a metallic Christmas tree with color wheel, just to name a few.

So when Gran and Howard both passed away some years ago we didn’t know what to do with ourselves on Christmas Eve. Gran had said “When we are gone you can make your own traditions!” But, we aren’t ones to accept change very quickly....so for years we have floundered.

Until last year when my brother and sister-in-law had us all over to their home in Wheaton on Christmas Eve for food, fun and family!

And again this year, being followed by a re-gathering late Christmas morning at my sister’s house in Geneva, where you will be surprised to hear that we ate and hung out amid my sister’s lovely decorated-with-vintage-Christmas-decor home.

I thought you might enjoy seeing some of her holiday decor:

....her angel tree; and

...her miniature glass ornament tree; and....

a metal Christmas card list box that held handwritten index cards long before computers and labels; and....

these two vintage bobble headed guys that are kind of cute.

So outside of an early (6 a.m.) Christmas morning startle-to-end-all-startles courtesy of my 20-year-old son, who unbeknownst to me had gotten up to see what all the racket was (it was me!) and then screamed upon seeing my back view in only a cami and underwear at the kitchen sink preparing the ham to put into the oven so that it would be thoroughly heated to take to my sister’s by 11 a.m......

it was all grand.

im a big (getting even bigger, just ask my son!) Christmas fan

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loved this post! It reminds me of my grandmother who also had a metallic tree with a rotating color wheel. I LOVED that tree and all the great memories that came along with it. Thanks for sharing!

... Paige said...

Too funny. You know my aunt Mimi had one of those fancy metal trees with hot turning light.
Happy New Year

Diane Vogel Ferri said...

The trees are lovely in their simplic.ity

DarLie*~ said...

Love all the holiday decor and I love that old photo. I miss the days where women wore corsages for special evens and holidays. Having my mom get us our Christmas corsages was one of my favorite holiday happenings. We put them on our coats and when we went inside to visit someone, we would take them off the coast and put them on our dresses.
smiles
Darly