Saturday, November 28, 2009

Christmas Decorating 2009

Well....formerly....EVERY room of our home was decorated for Christmas. There were Nativity sets in each room. The lights were amazing....and I even had music last year. ::snort:: We purposely left 99% of our Christmas decorations in storage in the states. We knew we wouldn't have storage here....but WOW what a difference it made when we started to decorate.

It usually takes us 3 days to get the decorating done. One day on the interior, one day on the exterior, and one day for the tree. It took 3 hours to do ALL. ::snort::

The JESUS STOCKING, the Jesse Tree Banner, the Advent Wreath, all of Nolan's Photo ornaments, all wreaths and bows, Christmas movies, most Christmas books... are missing. I know they were packed to come...but aren't here. I'm praying we find a box - though we've looked everywhere....or that the packers sent the box to storage.


We bought a small pre-lit tree - that sped things up!
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The kids enjoy the books that DID make it
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The tree is decorated SOLELY in children's photo ornaments...
Stacia took this photo
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This is the FIRST time we've had a child who was old enough to remember that the youngest child gets to top the tree. There is usually a new one before they remember.
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This is ALL the outside decorations we have - 5 strands of light, an outside nativity...
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and a sign...Thanks, Deja.
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Jared and Mike were happy to have less decorations....Thanks, Rodney and Windy for the use of your ladder.
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We couldn't find the Fisher Price Nativity for the longest time. We were RELIEVED to find it....Stacia slept with the angel.
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....and took this photo of her TIVITY to show Grandma.
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Lots less fripperies....but more time to relax this weekend. That's been good and just what we needed. I really am going to have to look for a few things...like something for the door and maybe make an Advent Wreath....but even with these few decorations one of our neighbors made a comment expressing shock that we'd put up Christmas lights...so it's best we didn't have the whole arsenol....we no longer live on Christmas Lane...and I miss it. ::snort::
For a list of various Advent ideas and activities that we do around here....visit All Things Advent.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...



7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dearest Stacia:

Thank you for the picture of your special NATIVITY. Grandma has almost all of her nativities up. I put them up for Thanksgiving Day to surprise everyone.

Your two sisters, Bre and Krista, made the remark that they haven't see our own home decorated ever. G'Pa and I still have the outside lights and windows to do. Next weekend or sooner.

Sure think you took some real neat pictures......

I can hardly wait until your are around ten and older when you Daddy tries to lift you to top the tree. :):):):):):):):):)You sure did a good job this year.

love you so much and pray for you every day. G'Ma T.

Anonymous said...

Sis:

Tears are in my eyes as I think about your tree decorating and the rest of Christmas decorating. Our signs go up today. Just think aruond 25 DAYS only and your 1st Stateside child will arrive. Yippie!!! then soon after that the other 3 will arrive. Tripple Yippie!! Then after that our hearts will be even more in Japan..... Then of course there is China too!!! BUT WE ARE PROUD OF WHAT MIKE/YOU and NATHANIEL/HEATHER ARE DOING SO........NOT A BAD CHRISTMAS AT ALL.

I have always loved the various years of the foto's of the kids as they aged..... We have and will continue to always put out the foto plague of the last Christmas you spent with us in the Philippines before returning to the States for College. We also have those two drawing B & K made when they were real young of the tree and manger. Can't remember who made what and neither can the girls of course........ they have never see them since you gave them to us......... :):)

Well, enjoy the Advent and Christmas and then after Christmas when your last three arrive.... Goodness your Christmas day celebration will last a bit of time...... FUN and how special.

We don't know exactly what day we will have our early Christmas get together yet but it will be before Bre leaves.

HARMONY will be arriving sometime before Christmas and Tony/Amy, especiall Amy, hopes it is sooner than later. Amy is rather large and I'll be surprised if Harmony dosen't weight a lot. So excited to see our 1st great g-daughter.

love/prayers --- Mom T.

Cynthia said...

I was wondering what the locals will think of all the outdoor lights.

Cynthia said...

I think you already know that we used to decorate every single room in the house including trees in each of the kids' bedrooms and winter/Christmas bed coverings, garland over the bathroom mirrors, etc.... I gave that up quite a few years ago and now we just have the tree, fireplace garden, Christmas stockings, and a few outdoor things in the yard not on the house. It does make the clean up much easier!

Debbie said...

We have never done a lot in the decorating department. We do a tree...live, so that doesn't go up until a few weeks before Christmas, nativities set up in different places, our advent wreath, a basket of books, a wreath on the door, one table in our entry for decorations and lights if we manage it...some years yes, some no. We do not have much storage, so we don't have room for much more. I do enjoy friend's homes that go all out...very festive.
We pulled the box of books and videos out yesterday and will put up the advent wreath for tomorrow. It is a slower process in our home...a bit here, a bit there.

Darshia said...

Ah, the decorations may be minimal, but the effect is delightful! How do you get the ligthts to show up so well in the photo? My light shots come out as blurry colored splotches.

I put lights on the upper and lower portions of the back balcony this year. I also hung longer colored icicle lights in the upper portion of the childrens' playfort.

Yesterday we had a perfect wet snowfall and we started building snow brick walls around the base of the playfort. We got two walls done before the wind started drying out the snow and it wouldn't pack well anymore. I'm going to put colored lights in today and the next snowfall we'll get the last two walls built for our "snowbox". This was a fun team project!

-d. said...

Whoa! Just re-read...praying you find the missing box.