Indoor Decorations DONE

Our celebration of Christmas is a bit unorthodox. As Stacia indignantly proclaimed, when hearing we don't celebrate Christmas, "We DO celebrate Christmas on Christmas. We give gifts on New Years or St Nicks day or something."  A very nice summary. We have cut the giving budget way back. Shopping is a breeze. Our focus is Jesus through this busy month...and on the 25th we have a great big party for Him, open stockings (a concession to Stacia) and discussing ways to give more of ourselves to Him in the upcoming year.  We ring in New Years with a family gift exchange - and more.

All that to say, when it came time to downsize and move into the trailer, I didn't think we needed a lot of "Christmas Decorations." They didn't seem that important to our celebration. I brought one item.....it could serve double duty...useful in both our Advent and Lenten journeys....

The journey begins

I quickly discovered the problem - aside from this table -  we have two other flat surfaces in the trailer.. That's it. I'm not exaggerating. 

I cannot give up my only cooking/counter space

Possibly cover the stove top with a butcher block (something I've been
thinking about anyway) and move it all as one when cooking?

 We are toying with somehow mounting it on this wall. For now, we'll pull it out each night, but that will make it hard to watch the progression of Mary and Joseph through the season.

 Stacia began asking about a Christmas Tree weeks ago. It became apparent this mattered to all the kids. Nolan suggested we hang one from the ceiling. An outside tree was considered - but the winds are ferocious. I looked at wall trees - but was unwilling or unable  to pay the price. ::snort::  She suggested wreaths, window clings - and some small tree. We usually decorate the day after Thanksgiving - followed by popcorn and Muppets Christmas Carol. We didn't do that this year. Evidently, we must keep some old traditions while we forge new adventures.  Today, after church, we headed to Lowes and Wal-Mart to see what we could find.

We found the perfect little tree on our way into Lowes. Michael doesn't want a bunch of stuff to haul around with us. This one is real (which I hoped for) and we'll just put it on our table. We have dreams of planting it out in the wild, marking it with geocaching coordinates, and coming back to visit it in future years.....

We briefly considered this to go OVER the Trailer.

Christmas would really be special with a 6 ft singing bass mounted on the side of the Caboose (trailer). NOT.

Stacia safeguarded the tree and we headed home to decorate!

Whilst the men-folk took care of winterizing our water supply.....did we mention it's been cold....

It's not snow - but when you packed for 70* - it's COLD. 

Stacia and I streamed Pandora's  Chris Tomlin Christmas station and began decorating.

The guys came in and rearranged the clings on this wall - to get everything to fit. I thought this was a window cling - since it needed to be on a wall, we have some more window space.

 

We  were relieved to have our little tree dressed for the season, and celebrated with the sought after popcorn and Muppets Christmas Carol. 

 Stacia and I will probably go to the BX after school and look for a candle for our Advent Wreath (none at any store we went to) and a few bows or something for a bit more color in the trailer. If you have a brilliant solution for what to do with the wreath - please do share.