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Being Okay Enough to Decorate


clueliss

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So this year I feel 'okay' with Christmas.  Not great.  But okay.  I'll take okay.  The previous 2-3 years were hard.  And, yes, mom and dementia and being burned out from stress had a lot to do with the last 2 years but the year before those (circa 2013) I wasn't okay with Christmas and I had no clue what was coming at me related to my mom. 

Among the things I kept from my mom's was certain Christmas decorations.  The tree, the ornaments I left all of those.  The items I kept were made by my maternal grandmother between say the mid 1970's and maybe 1990.  Every year she gave each of her kids the same ceramic piece at Christmas - so each family had one.  Then each of the grandkids (specifically grand daughters because of the 14 of us, only 3 were boys) got same/similar ceramic pieces as well. 

Due to my crazy aunt dispersing things after my grandmother died in 1995 and her own moving much later I wound up with a couple of pieces that were duplicates/extras.  As a result I have 2 sets of 2 different angels. 

I'm using the space on top of my kitchen cabinets to display some of these pieces year round now.  The Spook does not go up there and I therefore consider it to be a fairly safe place for breakables.  It also keeps me from being a bit too clumsy around things as well. 

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In the above photo the angels at either end, I have learned as an adult, were referred to by my  (Northern) Baptist Church attending Grandmother as 'dammed angels.'  The bowls in the angels hands were hard to clean (in green ware state).  So some have no bowl, some have one and some have 2.  And yes, I know, I'm dealing with Grandma's trademark antique white with gold accents ceramic work against an ecru wall and almond appliances/cabinets with pickled wood.  Welcome to the world of apartments where everything is some form of beige. 

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This is the cabinet over my fridge.  Grandma did the gold Mary/Joseph piece.  Which has been broken and Mom (sigh) taped the ear back on the donkey.  The angel to the right a neighbor gave my mom say 10 years ago (by the way, I like the coloring on it better - don't tell my grandmother) and the other angel is a tree topper of mine living up there for visual balance.

 

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Here we have a card one of my cousins gave me eons ago that I never put away (unless moving), a wooden candle holder that I redid (it had been my mom's from my childhood) with a red candle on it and a few more of Grandma's/Mom's ceramic piece.  I pulled the worn ribbon and plastic holly off of the ornament this year, added garland (gold) of my choosing and tied a new ribbon to it.  And, thank you Menards, I found LED tea lights so that is one of them inside the ornament lit (and I don't have to worry about forgetting it). 

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My tree.  I love this tree.  A coworker gave it to me in 2010 or 2011.  It is simply a wood square base, a square wood upriht and a wood star on top with lighted fake greenery around it.  I added the ribbon (yes it matches the ribbon on the ceramic ornament).  It takes me 5 minutes to pull out of a closet and put out.  5 minutes to put away.  I also don't worry about the cat climbing it and I don't have to rearrange furniture.  (yes, those are presents to myself that I will open later)

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Finally we have a bit that I've picked up from my mom.  The annual festooning of ordinary house (or office) plants with fake poinsettias. 

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PennySycamore

Posted

I love your decorations!  I love your tree, too. That would fit no matter where we put it in the living room.  We may need to move our tree from its usual spot this year.  The usual spot is too near a heating vent which is actually connected to the HVAC system now.  Turns out that some of of our ducts weren't connected.  No wonder our house was cold in the winter and hot in the summer.

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Palimpsest

Posted

I think your decorations look lovely.  Appreciate the history - especially the taped on donkey ear :) and the annual festooning of house plants.

I'm just beginning to think about decorating.  I slapped a wreath on the front door today.  I put up a table top tree (lights only) in a street side window.  I have to dig out the window candles tomorrow.  I am running late this year.

The main Xmas tree (with the good ornaments) goes up on Christmas Eve and comes down at Epiphany.  The inherited Xmas village is probably going to stay in storage this year.  Sorry, it is too much work and I hate that fucker.

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      14 minutes ago, KWLand said:

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