Tuesday, December 1, 2009

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!










Well I have been wanting to get my tree up for several days now, but I just didn't find the energy until today...December 1st...but now it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house!

I put in some Christmas CD's, lit the fireplace and drank some hot cider as I sorted through the boxes of ornaments and decided which ones I wanted to use this year.

It was a long process. It seems that the older I get, EVERYTHING is a long process!
But it does look festive and has put me in the mood to wrap some gifts and write some Christmas Cards.

To me it just doesn't seem like Christmas without sending and receiving cards. That's because when I was a little girl I would always enjoy helping my mom with the Christmas Cards. Then we'd lick all those stamps and envelopes and take our stacks of cards to the post office and mail them.

But the best part for me was getting the mail everyday during the Christmas Season and opening the cards that people sent to our family, and reading the notes and letters inside, and going through the pictures that people would send us. Then we would string the cards around the doorways and across the windows on ribbon.

I loved the variety of cards we would receive with pictures of snow and Santa Claus and his sleigh, and Rudolph...or the ones of children playing in the snow and building snowmen. I loved the Nativity scenes with the manger and baby Jesus with the big Star hanging in the sky above. And the Shepherds too....and the Three Wise Men bringing their gifts to the Savior. All of the Christmas scenes would give me warm fuzzies and such happy feelings. And my momma enjoyed them just as much as I did.

Since I have been married and had kids of my own I have always done Christmas Cards. However in recent years we have lost our granddaughter, John's parents and his sister, and my sister, several friends and other family members, so during some of those times of grief we missed a year here and there. This year I am glad to say that we are resuming the life long tradition. I used to always write handwritten notes in each card, but now I type a Christmas letter and print copies of it to put inside each card. I didn't use to like form letters, but it does save a lot of time...and it helps me not to get writers cramp! (:>)

In this fast paced life of email, and cell phones and texting, and facebook... and with the ever increasing postage prices, some people don't use "snail mail" as much
as they used to, but I say it is so worth it to evoke the happy childhood memories from my Childhood Christmases.

Do any of you enjoy Christmas cards as much as I do? To me it is just as important as singing Christmas Carols,...or watching Christmas movies.

Well I have stayed up way too late, so I had better call it a night and go on to bed. I just wanted to include a few pictures and maybe cause some of you that haven't put the tree up yet to pull it out and get started. Christmas will be here before we know it...and I think we need to enjoy every minute of it.

Good Night! God Bless You My Bloggy Friends!

20 comments:

Stephanie said...

I LOVE getting Christmas cards! The first two years we were married I made cards, but after V was born that was almost impossible to do. So last year we did a picture of V along with our Christmas letter. This year, I made a cute photo card using Scrapblog.com and will add that to our Christmas letter. I started writing Christmas letters after we got married, because it's a fun way to remember the year and count our blessings.

Jenilee said...

Christmas cards are a lot of fun. I usually do a Christmas postcard but this year I did picture cards. I need to get them out soon! :) Your Christmas decorations look beautiful!

Kelly @ Sufficient Grace Ministries said...

I love Christmas cards! In fact, I hung my Christmas cards on a little Christmas tree last year. (Can't remember where, but I got the idea on the Christmas Tour of Homes over at BooMama's blog last year.) I can't wait until the cards start rolling in so that I can decorate my tree this year! I love your decorations...looks so warm and inviting. Hope you enjoy this wonderful season as we celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Love to you,
Kelly

Unknown said...

Oh, so lovely! I can't wait to see it in real life. :)

I love receiving Christmas cards - but I'm LAME about getting them out. It just seems to take precious time that I don't have much of. I did order some (free) photo cards though, so I'll at least send those out.

Have a lovely day mother - after you wake up and I hope it's not for a few more hours with our late night.

Love you.
Lynnette

PS You need to take the dates off of your pictures (don't you think?).

Sarah Robbins said...

It looks so beautiful! I can just picture you, you described it so well.

I love getting Christmas cards, but ours always seem to end up being sent out as Happy Holidays or New Year's!

Unknown said...

I love getting Christmas cards in the mail! It makes me so excited! I love your decorations and I love the photo of Anna, she is an angel! Enjoy!

Kristin said...

Everything looks beautiful! For some reason, I am not motivated at all to decorate. But, this weekend we will do it because I know the girls have fun. I let them hang the ornaments wherever they want on the tree and my OCD self resists the urge to move them to make them more even. LOL! They love that they get to do it. I was trying to decide if I wanted to do cards this year, but you convinced me to :) I love getting them too.

September said...

Linda- Your home decorated for the Christmas Season is absolutely beautiful! I love it. Will you come and decorate my home - (please keep in mind that everything will have to be baby - proof!)
I am enjoying your Holiday posts...
I will have to send some of our favorite shortbread/pecan cookies to you.. ( minus the pecans, of course!)
Enjoy your Christmas celebrations!
Thank you for sharing your home with us.

Julie said...

The decorations look beautiful! I love getting Christmas cards although I'm not as good about sending them. Since we had kids I love sending the photocards, but unfortunately this year we don't have the money to send them via "snail mail." I made some myself this year & will just have to email them. Oh well...

Verna said...

Lovely decorations!
I love sitting by the tree and just staring at it. My nativity is under my tree this year. It not only reminds me of the birth of Christ but also of my husbands Aunt who made the nativity for us. (She is no longer with us here on earth, but I feel her presence as I look upon her handy work.)

I know what you mean about taking us older people longer to do things. I love getting cards, and normally I send lots of cards.
(I come from a very large family and just doing cards for my brothers, sisters , neices and nephews takes me a long time.)
Now we also have a post office set up at the church so we can give our church family cards without spending for postage.
I have to wonder--do I have the energy to do 500-600 cards or will I simply pass this year and skip a year.
If I decide to do them, I will have to go to the dollar store to buy my cards since postage just keeps going up, up, up.

Holly said...

You're house is so Christmasy! I love it!! Christmas is my favorite holiday.

I enjoy the Christmas cards, both giving and receiving. Last year we did a Hawaiian themed Christmas card since we went to Hawaii. Last year was the first year for a card b/c I usually do a Christmas letter and then a family pic. But when I saw that card I just had to get them!

This year I had a postcard created for Carleigh to send in all our letters. I still have to write our letters and get the postcard printed. I need to get that done!

Deanna said...

Hello Linda!
Your home looks beautiful.
So pretty.

I'm running way behind, but then I tend to do that. Grins.

Last night we started getting the wreaths unpacked from the garage for the doors. Boxing up Harvest stuff. Through out this week, I hope our trees are up.

I have kept all my Christmas cards that I have ever received. I hope to display them on ribbon someday soon.

God bless you. I enjoyed this post! Warm wishes to you this December.
d

Kathryn said...

Wow! Yes, it is always fun to get cards in the mail, & Christmas is when they usually come.

Your decorations are so beautiful. Such a serene look. :)

Aspiemom said...

Your home looks beautiful!

Caroline said...

Your home looks so beautiful, the pictures are awesome.
I always do Christmas cards. I need to get mine done. Maybe tomorrow.
Have a great day !!!
Caroline

Manuela@A Cultivated Nest said...

Your home looks lovely! We haven't even picked out our tree yet! Hopefully this weekend. We don't do Christmas Cards anymore. It started feeling like a chore so we switched to New Years cards. It was just one less thing to do in a very busy season.

Manuela

Lois Christensen said...

We have always sent out Christmas cards. Growing up we would take a family picture every year and that was the card my parents would send out to quite a few people. My dad was a pastor and we sent a card to every family in the church, there was over 500 members and then all their other friends. It seemed like it would take weeks for those cards to get off the dining room table and in the mail.

Last year was the first year I didn't send out cards. My dad died six months before Christmas and I didn't have the heart to send out cards. This year I'm not sending them out again. Hubby is leaving for Afghanistan next week and I just don't have it in me to do it. Maybe next year.

Love your pictures. Your house looks beautiful!

Lauren said...

your home looks beautiful!!! I love it!! :)

Thanks for stopping by today! :)

Nutmeg said...

Oh, Linda, it looks so cozy and inviting at your home!

I wanted to thank you for your kind comments on my post about nursing Emmy. It was so beautiful to me to hear of your own feelings about breastfeeding and how special those memories are to you. Thank you.
Amy

Three Against One said...

Very pretty I just did the same thing on my blog today! It is fun to share what our houses look like for the holidays!!