Tag: #Christmastree

Because It’s Fun

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Life is supposed to be fun.

It took years for me to realize this and the only thing that kept it from being fun was me.

Someone said they appreciated my optimism. I forgot there is a word that describes my outlook. Optimistic. It goes far beyond that my darling. I see everything in a positive light. When something negative occurs, I wait for the positive outcome, because it always comes.

As long as I let it be and don’t try to fix it.

I want to spend this last month of the year feeling all of the accumulated happiness of 2019. It wants to be released and enjoyed.

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I made a giant ball of yarn for under the tree.

My daughter loves it. It began with a picture on Pinterest, as so many fun things do! The Christmas tree had Vintage toys around it. This ball is for a cat, but I figured out how to make it. (We don’t own a cat) It softens the seriousness of life and makes us laugh.

Life isn’t as serious as the mind makes it out to be.

Make yourself laugh.

Spend time with those who make you feel loved.

Because it’s fun.

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Drink the Glitter

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“There’s so much glitter”, she said.

“I’ll take that one”, was my response.

“No, it’s okay. I’ll just drink the glitter!”

This is a normal conversation between my daughter and me. This is also the second time this week she’s made a cup of tea, only to find glitter floating in it. The glitter is from the garland hanging across the coffee bar. A sprinkling landed in the cups.

I’m still pondering why that’s a bad thing.

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The tree went up before Thanksgiving.

We bought one the day they were delivered to the store. This one fits the house instead of overtaking the house. The tree stands quietly in the corner of the den offering additional warmth and sparkle to our lives. A small tree in a small house is more inviting than a giant tree in a small house.

My daughter researched how to flock a tree and good ol’ Amazon helped. She did a fabulous job with it and now we have enough flocking left over for 10 more trees! I believe she wants to flock our wreath next. We give ourselves permission to sprinkle some extra goodness into our life.

But you don’t have to drink the glitter.

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I Feel This 😁

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From the Heart

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Do you ever feel led to buy something, and not sure why?

I was in an antique book shoppe, and found a copy of one of my favorite books. It was beautiful, and I wanted it, but I already owned a copy. So, I left the shop without it.

Not getting the book bothered me for weeks, but I didn’t need it. Then God revealed it wasn’t for me, I was just supposed to buy it. It was to be mailed to one of my dearest friends. I called the shop, thinking it might be gone by now, but it was still there, and has been mailed to my friend.

This happens to my daughter too. She was in a coffee shop in Austin, TX, and saw a newly released book about brewing the perfect coffee, at home. She felt led to buy it, but we know how to brew coffee in numerous ways, so it wasn’t for us. She brought it home, laid it under the Christmas tree, and waited for God to reveal who it was for.

Our favorite coffee shop is Chaparral Coffeein Lockhart. It’s right down the road from our house, and we go there frequently. The coffee is excellent, but we love the people who work there. They take such good care of us, and we feel loved. The book was to be given to the owner, Austin.

You never know what day and time he works, but we trusted that today was the day! God had it all lined up.

We walked in with the book, and there he stood behind the counter. We ordered our drinks, and he made them in our favorite house mugs. I paid for the Chai Lattes before giving him the book. I didn’t want him to feel obligated to give us our drinks. He loved the book, and was very thankful.

We had just caught him before his shift ended, but as he was leaving, he walked over, and stood between us, as we sat on stools. Wrapping an arm around our shoulders, he squeezed us and said, “Merry Christmas girls! Take those cups with you.” We were stunned, but hugged him back.

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You just can’t out give God when you give from the heart.

Full of Stars

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When my daughter was small, I imitated Martha Stewart.

She doesn’t remember much of the grand lifestyle, but the one thing she remembers, and misses, are the stars on the Christmas tree every year. I find it humorous this would be the one thing to stick with her. The stars were made of paper, and sold in a kit created by Martha Stewart.

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During my mammogram appointment, they asked me to lay on a table for the sonogram. I did so, and looked up to a view of paper flowers hanging from the ceiling. They were simply beautiful, and reminded me of these stars.

When I left my marriage, Christmas ornaments were not a priority, so the box of stars were left behind. There is no telling where they are today, but the great thing about a material object is… It can be replaced.

A year ago, I searched, found and purchased a kit on Etsy.

It has been 20 years since making them, so I had to follow the instructions, and refresh my memory. It went smoothly until the part came where the paper stands up in fours points. I couldn’t get it to do it, and it was very frustrating.

God placed people in my life who taught me patience.

I’ve been sitting in the middle of my bed making stars.

We will have a Christmas tree once again, full of stars.

 

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Make Life Fun

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I was pressing coffee this morning, thinking of how fun life is. Waking up each morning, and viewing the day as a blank canvas. I get to do whatever I want, within reason of course.

My daughter has started a new tradition. She likes the concept behind that little ‘Elf On A Shelf‘, but he doesn’t excite me. We went shopping earlier this week for tree lights, and she spotted this crazy snowman hat. It is getting colder in Texas, and my hair is growing, but it’s still quite short. Knowing my head was probably chilled, she placed it on my head.

She looked at me and burst out laughing! It felt like everyone stopped and looked at what was so funny. We both started laughing so hard we could barely breathe. The hat felt soft, and warm to my head, so I continued wearing it as we finished our shopping.

It was $5.00, so I paid for it, and enjoyed watching my daughter laugh all the way out of the store.

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She has started placing it in different locations before she goes to bed. One morning I strolled to the coffee maker, and he was sitting on top of it. This morning, he was sitting on top of my bag. Now, it’s my turn to move him for her to find him. You can make life fun.

There is a lot of pressure we put on ourselves this time of year. Buying presents for people we normally see only a few times a year can be stressful. Throughout my life, I have given things away, so maybe this idea will work for you too. God wants us to give our very best, and that doesn’t mean expensive. It means to give away something that brings you joy.

When shopping for holiday gifts, or browsing online, I usually see things that I want. Now come on…You know this happens to you too. I have to restrain myself from coming home with things for me! So, when I see these things that bring me joy, I think to myself, “Who can I give it to?” If it brings you joy, the person you give it to can see it’s from your heart.

The holiday season is not about gift giving at all. It’s when our Savior was born, and a time for celebrating that with the ones we love. The world creates chaos with Black Friday sales, and gets us all in a frenzy about buying big gifts on sale. Life should be fun! Giving should bring joy to the giver and receiver. Give from your heart!

Something was brought to my attention after posting my last Blog entitled, Make It Pretty.

I talked about this massive tree my daughter picked out at Elgin Christmas Tree Farm. What I failed to do was post a picture of it, so here it is. For the past three years, my daughter has had a vision of how each tree should be decorated. They are never the same. We use the same ornaments, but the lights are different, and this year was her first year to do garland.

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If your life is not fun, it’s time to stop long enough to enjoy what is happening right in front of you. Thanks to my daughter, and her idea of fun, we get to enjoy this guys presence all day. She even gave the tree a name. We love The Gilmore Girls, so she named it Paul Anka, after Lorelei’s dog. She has made this tree part of our family, at least for a little while.

Before leaving the house yesterday to go into town, we left the tree lights on, along with the porch light. When we got home after dark, Paul Anka was beaming so brightly, you could see him from the street. Walking up to the front door, she peered through the window and grinned. He was shining light all over the den, and in both our hearts.

Make life fun.

 

Make It Pretty

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I woke up this morning and walked through the den to see a ginormous Christmas tree sitting there. My daughter has been in charge of our tree for the past three Christmases.

That is something I had to let go of. She doesn’t remember my past life of the perfect tree. It was artificial, and pre-lit with hundreds of white lights. There was usually a theme for the tree and the house. I had a florist that would arrive shortly after Thanksgiving to decorate.

It had to look good. That was my motto in life. There is a difference between ‘looking good’, and being pretty. We can cause almost anything to look good with enough help, even ourselves, but to be pretty. That is when I just stroll by and something catches my eye for it’s actual being. It’s just there being pretty.

When my daughter and I moved out on our own, we knew holidays, and special occasions were going to look different. I left a lot of things we were used to seeing, especially this time of year. The giant Santa that sat by the front door, elegantly robed in red velvet with precise attention to detail. He was the perfect vision of a Santa, and he cost a small fortune.

I recall walking up to the barn, which housed our Christmas paraphernalia, before we left. I can still feel the sense of overwhelm when thinking about it. Just seeing all this Christmas stuff we had collected for 25 years, laying everywhere. The ginormous tree was laying in three pieces, and looked sad and broken. I drug that tree out to the street for the trash man.

My life at that point and time felt totally trashed. We could make it look pretty with all these things, like we had for years, or I could walk away and begin again. It was time to get real.

My daughter and I started a new tradition by going to a Christmas tree farm for our tree. The house and life we had was all new, so choosing the right tree was a challenge. I still recall the look on her face when she found our tree. After walking the field for what seemed like forever, she came upon what she thought was a big, fluffy tree. It was actually two of them.

Two trees had clung to each other while growing, and they had grown together. The guy at the tree farm thought we were crazy for sure when we asked him to cut them both down.

They gave us a really good deal on the trees because it was obvious they weren’t completely whole by themselves, but together they were pretty amazing. That is how I saw our new life.

Last Christmas is a blur to me. I’m sure we had a tree because we looked for a very long time to find one. My daughter didn’t find one she liked at the farm last year. We were walking into the grocery store, and one was standing out front sorta alone. She looked at it again on the way out, but kept walking to the truck. Needless to say, we went back to get it.

My mother passed away last December, so we drove to North Carolina to be with family.

That within itself was an enormous adventure, and with it being Christmastime, it felt completely out of the norm. I don’t remember much about last Christmas because we were not home, but this one will be different. We are home, and she found her perfect tree at the farm. Again, walking the field, but this time in the rain, and wind, she eventually found it.

Let’s just say, “Thank God I drive a truck.”

This tree takes up half our den in width. I had to let go of my ideas, to embrace my daughter’s creativity. The size and shape didn’t matter as long as I could get it through the front door. This only happens once a year, so I let her run with it. I’ve never had a tree like this before, and she chose a theme that I was unsure of at first.

Cool white LED lights is what she chose. I was used to soft white, but let it go. She chose this garland that is way too much fun. It looks like strips of iridescence, glitter and taffeta.

Then she saw the icicles. I had rather dark memories of icicles, so I steered clear of them until now. They are messy, and yes, I see some this morning on the hardwood floor. I’ve been picking them up and throwing them on the tree like, “Here, these belong to you.”

I spent years with no glitter in my house because of the mess it made. The same with the icicles. My daughter was gazing at the tree lastnight, admiring her handiwork, as the heat started blowing through the vent above.

She said, “I love the way the icicles sparkle when the air hits them.” This year is different, but it sure is pretty. I hope you have lots of glitter.