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Today is one of endings and beginnings. The year’s
Thanksgiving ends as many people will be on the roads returning home after a
long weekend. Today is the first Sunday in Advent, the traditional beginning of
the Christian season before Christmas. The endings always seem harder than the
beginnings, don’t they?
This year our holiday was a quiet one, and we faced recognizing
that our holidays will be on the quiet side from now on. Parents are gone
either figuratively or literally, siblings scattered, far-flung children are enmeshed
with their own lives, and friends aging along with us showing us changes we don’t
really want to see. Soon it will be memoires that sit at our tables in the
winter months; holiday will mean any day and any place during the year that we
can be with our loves ones.
Once we waved goodbye on Thanksgiving afternoon, I started
putting autumn décor away. I took my time this year and tossed out a few things
rather than repack. Ah…do I admit that there are still five boxes and two
crates of autumn pumpkins and pilgrims? Autumn is a special season to me. The
next morning I dragged out the Christmas stuff…another big ordeal.
I weeded Christmas things last year, but I did more plucking
and tossing this year too. I still have much to use for decorating. Like last
year, I am going to leave the decorations off the tree and rely on only the
twinkling lights. I so enjoy the tree this way, a visible “less is more”
feeling. I enjoyed the poinsettia trees, the family trims, the tea pot themed
year, the red/white/blue year all in their day. But this year with Christmas
only 23 days away, I am going for simpler stuff sitting around the house.
Believe me, there is still plenty of red and green about!
I have huge ceramic nativities, but I am setting out a more
modest one. The local Catholic Church does not decorate until week before
Christmas. The local Episcopal Church does not put anything out until right on
Christmas and the baby does not show up in the manger until Dec. 25 with the
Three Kings arriving a week later. I like to have mine up early in the month to
remind me in the bustle of busy days why we do all the holly and stuff in the
first place. Then when January comes I want things put away for winter reflection,
restoration, and writing days.
6 comments:
Oh....we're in an increasingly similar situation to you - parents gone (literally or figuratively) & our children at a distance with busy lives, etc. We DID manage to be together with our children and 11 grandchildren overnight at Thanksgiving. One of the families will not be here at Christmas, so we counted this as both Thanksgiving AND Christmas....
I love a simple tree, too. White lights is enough for me. (I DO admire others, too, but have never been really satisfied with my attempts....)
I may decide to decorate this week. Right now I feel overwhelmed, and I agree less is best this year. I usually put out my snowman collection before I put up the tree. Your little snowmen are cuties.
Hi Bookie! Love your blue dishes. The chenille snow boys are cute, too.
I have not learned simple, yet. ha ha ha Because I love decorating so much, I do it to the hilt! But I'm sure the year will come when I go for simple. (maybe. ha ha)
Take care and have a nice Monday. Susan
I am going to try to simplify this year. Wish me luck...
We always put up our Christmas decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. We do a lot of decorating, and it seems silly to me to go to all that trouble if we're only going to enjoy it for a week or two. This way we have it up the whole month of December into January. :)
I start out simple and then... but I think I will run out of time this year since Thanksgiving was late!
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