Christmas Lingers

The Christmas tree has been down since New Year's Day, and the fallen needles vacuumed up many times over. But if I breathe deeply (or visit my front porch),  the wonderful scent of Christmas lingers.

Decorations are all (almost) packed neatly away, relabeled and reshelved, except for one that 

didn't get the invitation to the reorganizing party.

Our dining room server no longer has this arrangement on it. But it was nice while it lasted.

  

The ornaments--and I used almost every single one of the treasures amassed over 27 years--have been loving wrapped and stored for another year.  But a sweet question lingers in my memory, asked by my grown daughter on Christmas Eve when everyone was here:

"So, Mom, did you cry when you were hanging up all those little ornaments we made when we were little?"

(To which I answered, "No, but I'll cry when I have to take it all down by myself! Ai, yai, yai, the un-decorating is daunting!")

 Lingering thought...

Sad thought  ...where was that baby I was so looking forward to holding and spoiling on Christmas Eve?

Well, her momma get wickedly sick to her stomach an hour beforehand. She missed her own Christmas Eve service. She missed taking baby to her first Christmas celebration.  She simply brought a loaf of bread over, apologized, held back tears, let us pass the baby around, and then left.'

Goofy thought...

I bought a fresh green swag and added my own touches.  Judging from the look of this bird, you'd think I was drinking too much eggnog. I said to him, "Oh, bird, you are being held on by a wing and a prayer."

Woops!  Now just a wing.

               I made this a two-sided window pillow. One side has big flakes, the other small. Because, like the old saying goes, "Some of my best friends are flakes."

I called this pillow design "Sashing Through the Snow."   My daughter loves it and says it looks great in her room.

Joel grew a beard for the occasion.  Ambrey excels in finding perfect gifts that bring out a lot of laughs or oohs or aaahs. 

Dee really liked the girly, pink croc wrapping paper I picked out with her in mind.
 Here she is pretending to be a QVC personality: "And if you call now, you'll get this lovely bonus gift with poinsettia and rose-colored cord!"

The girls are always thinking of each other and making things as gifts for each other. I am so blessed that they love each other in tangible ways.  Dee made this for Sarah's room. Notice by her 

clothes that she likes the color combination. 

Paul got a pick guard for his guitar that had to be demonstrated. 

Sort of.  We begged him to play a little tune while 

he had his baby out.  And he did. 

He also had prepared a fun little quiz about Christmas carols and trivia that he passed around before gifts were opened. 

The recent graduate, his collegiate wife,  and his sister/teacher on break were moaning in jest.  "Come on, Dad, really? A quiz? Don't your realize...??"  But there was a prize for the winner. 

That happened to be me.  Goody, goody!  Growing up Baptist, we always sang the first, second, and last verses . So the second-verse questions of the quiz didn't stump this ole gal!

(And no, I didn't know about the quiz or prize ahead of time. My hubby did a good job of keeping the Dunkin Donuts gift card and the quiz a secret until  show time.)

We had a little photo shoot. Sit? Stand? Where? Who? Why?

On a chair, is little brother yet as tall as big brother? 

All the girls, including Dee's mom.

All the guys. 

 And then there were other thoughts that lingered...but that's enough for now. Wrapping can't all be done at once.