Deck the Halls

Christmas has come to our house. We usually decorate after Thanksgiving, but this year we realized it would take longer. Sure enough, our bins have been down from the attic for almost 2 weeks and I'm only 1/2 done decorating. But, Christmas is here. Now Evie stares at the Christmas tree instead of our tulip lamp. When she's bored, all I have to do to entertain her is carry her over to the tree and start talking to her about all of the ornaments:

One of my baby ornaments:

Because all of J's have his name on them, I'll show off one of his many car ornaments. We need to adopt a boy next, a boy who will appreciate that we have over a dozen car ornaments on our trees (yes, we have 2 trees because they are small and we have lots of ornaments). OK, that was sexist, sorry. I'm sure Evie will get a kick out of the cars in a couple of years:

Here's another of my birth year ornaments. It's hard to see in the picture, but it was broken and glued back together. Probably from one of the times I pulled our tree over on myself when I was a toddler:

And here is one of Evie's baby ornaments. Of course, it's Classic Pooh:

Here's another one. Look familiar? It's what my mom used to create the applique for the center of Evie's quilt:

Here's an ornament from 1998:

And another one that has a place of honor, top and center of one of the trees:

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...making these felt applique stockings must have been a hot craft in the 1970's because J's mom made him the one on the left in 1973 and my mom made mine in 1977 (OK, maybe they didn't actually make them the years we were born, it could have been a bit later, now that I think of it...). I get all kinds of warm fuzzies about my stocking because it's one of those things that takes me back. I remember how lumpy is was on Christmas morning, stuffed with presents, and I can still remember how it felt to reach my whole arm into it, digging my fingers into the soft toe, to find the gift that always went in first: gold foil-wrapped chocolate coins. Yum. Anyhow, isn't it interesting that J and I have matching stockings from our childhoods? It's just one of the many serendipities in our relationship. But that's another story. So, I was excited to hear that my mom found an old-fashioned felt applique stocking kit that she's using to make Evie's stocking! It's not done yet, but I'll post a picture of it at Christmas.

Finally, a bit of memorabilia from J's childhood. These elves were handmade by J's grandma, Evie's namesake. I love how they look mischievous/evil when you get up close to them. Of course, they are supposed to spell out "Noel" but J and his younger brother spent December impishly rearranging the elves when adults weren't looking. J still does this. I put these up just today, but by the end of the week they will say "Leon" or some such:

I am still begging for help choosing my Creme post. Pretty, pretty, please.