Christmas is a very big deal in our house. It begins the day after Thanksgiving when the first thing to come out of the high storage area in our garage are the multiple bins of Christmas decorations.
To access the storage area, we have to pull out the cars and assemble the ladder to reach the built in rafters. One person climbs the ladder to the top, this job usually falls upon me since I am the shortest person in the family. I pull one bin and hand it off to my husband or one of me sons until all the decoration bins are on the garage floor.
The outdoor decorations get set on the front porch. The bin filled with snowmen are taken downstairs to the basement. The bin filled with stocking and red Santa decor are set in the family room area. Then finally, the front room, where the tree is set up, is where we place all the silver and gold decorations.
The front room is probably my favorite room to decorate because it has so many representations of Christ intertwined into it.
My husband and I took a mini-ceramic class the first year we were married in 1993….yes, a very long time ago! In a quaint ceramic store on main street in Bountiful, Utah is where we created simple, but beautiful Nativity Scene together. Believe it or not there are only to minor visible chips on the entire set after all these years. Typically this set is placed in the front room. However, our schnauzer and malti-poo seemed a little too interested in these pieces that they were set up on the dining room table this year.
When you enter our front room that is decorated in a “Joy To The World” theme, it’s different from other rooms in our house. One of my favorite things is the garland hanging over the oversized armoire. It’s rather bulky and needs to be put together from scratch year to year, but I think it’s worth it. The snowflakes dangling, the poinsettia intertwined and the golden floral picks all make the armoire stand out.
Decorating the Christmas Tree is the best part of it all, according to my son Zach. He puts all the intricate ornaments on one by one. He always makes sure the backside also has ornaments so neighbors can see them from outside. I fill in with the bows. Then, he finishes it all with the star on top. It may be leaning to one side, but we never tell him.
The tree is placed in the bay window of our front room and next to it sits a comfy chair to cuddle up in to read a book, sip on hot chocolate or just take in the Christmas joy.
Right before Thanksgiving, I posted on our Ward Facebook Page if anyone wanted our couches, they were comfy but a little worn. Within 20 minutes, someone replied, “Please save them for me.” So, we did….which turned into a whole other story. I asked Kendra to help wrap gifts this year. She said that she rather not because she thought that she wasn’t any good at it, but I insisted she try. It just took a little bit of practice and soon she got the hang of it. The wrapping paper used was white, silver and gold. The ribbon wasn’t ribbon at all. We used white tulle and a little bit of gold flecks to tie off the bows on the packages. They were beautifully wrapped gifts and this was a great couch to sit on while my kids exchanged gifts with one another.