monique

Christmas Decorating

I've begun the Christmas decorating. I have my own system.
First I take everything down from the last season and pack
it away. Then I take out all the boxes of Christmas things
and put them in the living room. I chose one corner or
table I want to work on and then play with it until I finish
it and then move on to the next one. For example, there's
the mantlepiece. The bookshelves. There's the wall above the
sofa and also the end tables.

I can take days doing this, moving the nutcrackers from the
mantlepiece to the bookshelves and perhaps back again.
Today I put a lace cloth on an antique dresser in the living
room. There's a large, ornately framed print of the Lord's
Prayer with Jesus and angels which belonged to John's great
great-grandmother on the wall above it. I covered the
dresser with a lace cloth and placed a feather tree which I
decorated with antique ornaments on it and surrounded it all
with a little white wooden picket fence.

I also started on the black walnut table in the entryway
which has an oak framed rectangle mirror above it. Both the
table and the mirror also belonged to John's great great
grandmother. I've put some lace cloths on the table, a
crystal bowl filled with antique Christmas ornaments, a vase
in which I'll put greens and holly and add the little paper
angel Jack made when he was four, a tiny little feather
tree, a basket in which I'll place ornaments I've made
(little wreaths of strung rosehips tied with wired ribbon;
angels made of cutter quilts). I may add a glass container
with upright candy canes and jars of hard candies too. I
also want to put greens around the mirror.

Well, it's a start.