Tuesday, December 2, 2008

DECORATING FOR THE HOLIDAYS



The night before Thanksgiving Day I decided to round up the kids (nephews Vinnie and Tony along with their younger sister Nicole...and her friend Skylar) and decorate Mom and Dad's house for Christmas while they were still away in Florida. Since Dad's ankle is broken and Mom would be exhausted having driving all the way home, it was to be a win-win for all...
  • Mom and Dad get to have all the decorations up,
  • the kids get a Pizza night & have something to give their Grandparents,
  • and I get to spend time with the kids (and could not have done it alone, my original plan, considering all the decorations are stored up in the loft of the workshop...those stairs are way too steep for me to carry down such heavy boxes, thanks boys).
Of course Vipin and LuLu were there to help too (LuLu was in heaven...so many boxes to run around and sniff!)... it was so much fun!

I really enjoyed unpacking all of Mom and Dad's decorations. I have such found memories of evenings in the past when we were all young girls doing it as a family of 6. Our tree and house decorations always made me so proud! One year Dad cut little trees down so that each of us could have our very own mini-tree in our bedroom! Our house was featured in the local paper once, and our tree was often viewed by local clubs and organizations because it was an 'international tree' with hand-made decorations from all over the world. My parents often hosted Christmas parties because their house was always decorated so wonderfully for the holidays (and everyone loved it).

As I unwrapped each ornament and handed them to the girls (because the boys had already stopped helping by this point and settled into the master bedroom to enjoy Mom's last year Christmas present from Dad - massage chair from Brookstone and watch TV...can't blame them, Star Wars was on)...I would tell them, 'this one is carved out of wood and from the small German village of Oberammergau, this one is made from straw and is from Peru, this one is a type of mosaic from Spain, this one is made of lace and is from Venice, Italy, this one....." it was great and we only hung a few...there are still two more unopened boxes full of ornaments!!!

I also got out the little church with the red windows, the one that used to be Grandma Lenz's...it still lights up and it is so delicate and sweet...very vintage, made of a sort of plastered-type paper....and the little wooden farm house with the fence and tiny animals (Nicole set it up on the piano)....and the little clip-on birds that wear the little hats, there were only two - a red one for Susan and a white one for Wanda (I was always envious of them because they clipped on the tree and were so easy to put up, but they were for Susan and Wanda to put up....well, the clips don't work anymore, but I got them on the tree!)...and of course, many little hand-made ornaments produced by 'the lovely little Lenz girls'... from little mice made out of walnut halves to wooden clothes pin deer to bottle cap thingy-s (I don't remember what they were supposed to be, but we loved them and made them with care!!) to the plastic beaded things we made with Mrs. Foote. They are all there, some without eyes, some in parts, I found a thing that I think is just a big Elmer's glue blob (the actual featured item is gone but the glue is holding strong!!).

It was a great night! Good memories. Happy Holidays!

4 comments:

Wanda said...

I got to be there too while reading this entry. And I cried. Whoa...what a surprise. I remember the church like it was here in my home. What a trip down memory lane that evening must have been. How wonderful.

Wanda said...

Hey..great pictures of your happy little family!!! ha ha ha ha

Shauna said...

I'm new here! What a great blog :) ♥ Hugs!

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful surprise! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We are blessed to have such loving and caring children and grandchildren. Mom