Christmas Past

It's always so much fun at the beginning of December to pull out the ornament box and start decorating for Christmas. I love the excitement of that first moment, removing the lid and taking it all in before pulling out each ornament and decoration one by one. 

My husband's job is to place the tree in its stand and hang the lights. That's where I come in. My job is to decorate it and I truly relish this task. I treasure each moment as I unwrap our ornaments, tomtar (Swedish Santas), and all of our other ornaments that we have collected separately and together. This year's tree was probably my favorite yet. 

As I sat in the living room this afternoon, admiring a few of my favorite ornaments on the tree, I was brought back to a Christmas from my childhood. My mother had purchased a collection of terracotta gingerbread houses, boys, and girls, and she, my brother and I sat around the dining table painting them by hand. Today these ornaments are still among my favorites. I have a few of them and I believe my brother has the rest. 

I love the imperfections, the splotches of blue or red paint "outside the lines" and the obvious ones mostly likely painted by me, the youngest. 

This gingerbread house is probably my favorite. I love the steep, slanted roof, covered with snow, the red door, the flower box under the window, and especially the heart at the top, signifying a house filled with love.

(An ornament I made Christmas 2006)

It is not the same amount of fun taking down the ornaments and packing them away for another year so it was especially nice to sit in the quiet peacefulness of the living room, enjoying our tree and all of our beautiful decorations, before packing them up for another year of slumber. 

And while the ornaments slumber, we get to move on to the New Year... 

I know the first of January was last week but it doesn't truly feel like the New Year until Christmas has past and been packed away until next December. Now I can truly focus on what's in store for 2014.... 

What do you have up your sleeve for the New Year? Do you still make resolutions? Goals? 

My first resolution was to start blogging again here at Finding Happy. Stay tuned for my other resolutions and goals....

Happy New Year, belatedly! ;-)