Its Christmas, but just not feeling it without the wee ones

This will be the second Christmas here in southern California.  While the weather has been wonderful, I do miss the snow.  I miss my white Christmases, I miss the fires in our fireplace.   I miss seeing the stockings hung up and sneaking out at 4:00 AM to fill them all with goodies that I've hidden in my closet all year.

My husband and I moved out here for my job.  While I love the company I work for and have no regrets changing jobs, I miss my kids and my grand kids this time of year more than any other time of the year. Donna who is dressed in lights (of her own doing), turned 5 in August and this will most likely be the last Christmas that she believes in Santa. While she will always believe in the meaning of Christmas, she won't be in the awe she is this year.   Wish I could be there to see her open up her snow globes from Grandpa and Grandma and her My Twin doll from Santa.

I know I over spend on getting the perfect tree, but I budget for it in our Christmas savings because I love the smell of fresh pine.  The ONLY thing I've never really had is a tree skirt.  Someday, I've planned out plenty, but just never really get around to making it.  One year I'll surprise everyone with a quilted tree skirt.

 

Christmas started with decorating the tree, or the grand kids.  Our tree was always as big as we could fit into the living room.  Over the years this has been from 5 ft to 10 ft.   If the tree wasn't hitting the ceiling it was too small :)  And on top of the tree is my angel.  I got this angel from my Mom and Dad when I moved out of the house and started my own life.  The first time this angel graced my tree was in 1973 when I was married to my now x-husband and we lived in New Jersey.  While the marriage didn't last long, the angel has seen 39 Christmases now.

I also have ornaments that were my Grandmother's, but they don't always get put on the tree.  With the kids, cats and dogs in the house, they have been kept in the ornament box for safe keeping until the grand kids are older.  I wish I had pictures of them, one day when we pull them out again, I will take pictures.  In my box are also ornaments that my kids have made over the years and they are always on the tree.  I've never been one to pick a "theme" for Christmas.  If I had to pick a theme it would be family.

Our ceiling at our house in KY is maybe 12 feet in the center of the room, the trees are usually just to side of the center. We move the couch and chairs to make room for it.  It generally takes up the middle of the room.

You can just barely see the stocking on the mantle behind the undecorated tree above.  My Mom knitted each of my kids a stocking and I added home make stockings for my husband, step daughter and always kept 2 additional (one male, one female) for company.  One day maybe I'll make a stocking for myself.  But for now I use one that the kids got me with a teddy bear on it.

When our children were young my sister and I would get them together every year for a picture - I think there was one or two after the one below, but once my sister moved to another town and I remarried, it was harder and harder to get everyone together so the annual pictures ended all too soon.  My parents have been very good about annual pictures, some years we are all in the pictures, other years it just my parents or whom ever they could get together.  Which I would have been better about this and done the same with my kids.

Another thing that I love are my Naivety scenes.  I usually have 3 different sets out.  I would have one where the grand kids could move the pieces around, and then my originally one, that was very small from my parents - it came with the angel.  The needlepoint one was done through a local shop, I think one of them is in the threads that came with the kits, the rest we revised for my own tastes - I know Mary should be in all blue, but I love purple, so she got a little bit of purple in her dress.

This is our tree this year. It's not real :(, I put it on a table so it would look bigger and my angel is back in KY gracing the top of my daughters tree.

Since this picture we've added more lights, can never have enough lights on the tree :)

I hope you all have a blessed Christmas and give an extra hug to all of your family and friends for those of us who are not close enough to hug those we love.

Sandy