It's that time again. Time to put away all of the Christmas things...
I find that by the end of the season I am so ready to move on, ready for a fresh start. Over the past few years I find that I am even more anxious and eager to put away our Christmas ornaments and decorations (of course, at the beginning of the season I find myself anxious and eager to get them out!)
To be honest, I think it's the kiddos. Before we had children I didn't mind lingering over our Christmas decorations, even when we were living in a tiny one bedroom apartment. But, our space is cramped a bit. We've enjoyed them for over a month. I feel overwhelmed by a tree taking up so much space in our fairly small living room/dining room area, there is much less room to move around. It's time to put them away.
I do have to say though, that this year I am more anxious than ever to put them away. One reason is because on Christmas Eve the lights at the top of the tree went out! On Christmas Eve! Boo! So, it doesn't look quite as pretty as it once did...
Another reason?...last Friday we had a squirrel in our Christmas tree! It was traumatic. Well, it was for me anyway.
I have no problems with squirrels, in fact I think they are kind of cute and fun, but only when they are outside! Inside is another story.
The scene was very much like the scene from National Lampoons Christmas vacation. I managed to get the cats out of the room and into the basement. The kiddos stayed upstairs in their rooms, safe. And there we were, well mostly Brad, trying to shoo the squirrel out the door. It's still unclear how he got in, down the chimney or from our newly cleaned out crawl space while the door was open. We are in the process of figuring that all out. In the meantime, I'm still a bit freaked and can't go into the crawl space and feel like I might be greeted by a squirrel every time I walk in the door. Oh, and, this is what he did to one of our windowsills when he was trying to get out, before we realized he was here.
So, as I was saying...It's time to put away Christmas. But, first, I thought I'd share some of this year's handmade ornaments. Brad made me this awesome star ornament this year using his scroll saw (I guess after his tree he is feeling more confident!)
Want to see some stars that he has made me in years past? You can see them here.
Violet had fun coming up with new ornament ideas and adding them to our tree.
Henry helped to make these beaded icicles.
This was a Christmas star I made, but never had a chance to write up a tutorial...perhaps I will get to it for Christmas in July...
I made this peace bird ornament for Brad this year.
I traced the shape onto card stock and origami paper from a cookie cutter and then used modge podge to glue it all together and make the paper hard. Of course, it needed some glitter too! I made a bunch more of these to give to family members too, you can see the others here.
My bee hive ornament made it to the tree...
This noodle ornament came from our cousins.
And, a little scrappy stocking from Jenny arrived in the mail as well...
There you go, that's a good reason to let the decorations and tree linger a bit...more time to enjoy new handmade ornaments!
