It's Beginning to Look {and Sound and Smell (sort of) } Like Christmas
No two Christmas seasons are alike despite a few traditions that we have. This season seems particularly different for a few reasons. I think it's why I'm enjoying the familiar things as much as I am.
The following are a few "fails" of the season; don't worry, I'll conclude on a positive note :).
1. We missed church on the first Sunday of Advent. Missing church is something that happens (none too infrequently) but I hate to miss during the Christmas season. Fortunately, we can watch missed sermons online as a family. Unfortunately, we don't do that as often as we used to when we missed church. We just got a Chromecast which will make viewing online sermons easier. Now we just need to do it when we miss :). Anyway, we missed the first service of December because of the afternoon performance of the fall play that Abby was in.
2. We didn't send out Christmas cards this year. I enjoy the tradition of sending and receiving cards. While I find creating a Christmas card to be stressful, it's also a creative outlet and I'm usually pleased with the final product. Sometimes I think the tradition of sending a photo card is a bit steeped in narcissism (the fact that I'm not sending Christmas cards does not mean that any narcissism on my part has abated :)). "The Savior is born!" Also, "Look at how adorable/ attractive/ accomplished our kids are!" don't necessarily seem like natural fits. Not that that's stopped me in the past :). I just didn't have a good family photo this year and I didn't have the energy to muster up one for a holiday photo. If I were a better person, I'd have sent out non- photo cards merely proclaiming the good news of Christ's birth and omitting my family's visages. Maybe if I hadn't missed that church service in early December...
The Rineer Family's first Christmas card with a photo (2001): How could we resist sending out holiday greetings without including this little guy's face?? We included our own faces, obviously. Someone had to hold the baby :).
Pre sisters, Jacob ruled the roost. It's not hard to imagine, is it? He was pretty much amazingly cute (moms have bragging rights, right?). He's still cute- just 130+ lbs. and many feet taller about 16 years later. Pre digital cameras, you never knew what you were going to see when you opened the photo packet after you had pictures developed. Pretty sure I did a happy dance when I saw this one :).
3. This is the second or third year of fail regarding Christmas music. It's a long boring story but I lost most of my Christmas music during a computer malfunction of some sort. The good news is that I found a Pandora station- The First Noel (Maranatha! Classics)- that plays a large number of the exact songs that are among my "lost" music from the computer malfunction. The bad news is that I have to listen to those commercials on Pandora (I'm too cheap to buy a subscription). Also, I don't like having my phone connected to our speakers which means that music is only coming from my phone and so the rest of the family does not get to listen to Christmas music unless they are near my phone (all but Abby consider this to not be a problem; she and I are the only ones who love Christmas music).
4. The scents of the season: One child when I heat a cinnamon scented wax melt. "That smells so bad. Please, please get rid of it." Another child when I heat a pine cone scented wax melt. "What is that awful smell? It's hard to breathe!" (that last part was hyperbole on the child's part- no airways were constricted (restricted?) as a result of a pine cone scented wax melt). All the kids when I heat a vanilla scented wax melt. "It smells so good in here!! What did you bake? What do you mean you didn't bake anything? It smells like you baked something. You mean you really didn't bake anything?" I can't win for losing in this department.
Ok, the good: I LOVE how the house looks at Christmas time. No complaints from the peanut gallery is an added bonus.
We have three full sized Christmas trees in the house now. This is the first time we've had a tree in the dining room. The tree that is in the dining room (pictured below) used to be in the entryway but I made some changes this year. The decorations on this tree are coordinated. They're either white angels, red bulbs with glitter or white/ clear bulbs.
The entryway tree: The tree itself is new but all of the decorations are the exact same as what always adorn the hallway tree. The tree that used to be in the entryway is now the tree that's in the dining room. I really wanted a pre- lit tree for this space. So, even though it's contrary to my frugal nature to buy a fake Christmas tree before Christmas (I normally try to anticipate my future Christmas décor needs and buy all Christmas stuff after Christmas when it's drastically reduced in price), I did it. Thanks to Walmart and the People's Republic of China, I was able to get this tree for only $39. The quality of the tree is not great but the price was right. Also, I kind of like the juxtaposition of a crappy(ish) tree and the beauty of the ornaments. The ornaments are the crowning glory, not the tree.
This tree is comprised of many photo ornaments of the kids and our nieces. The ornaments are all blue, red and or green so all of the bulbs are either gold, red, green or blue. I love the primary colors of the ornaments and the bulbs.
The tree also has some sentimental based ornaments. The nativity scene ornament was given to us by Donnie's aunt our first Christmas as a married couple. Donnie's aunt died last month so I appreciate the ornament even more this year.
My aunt gave each child this snowman ornament although we are inexplicably down to two. I like them a lot.
The dining room tree and the entryway tree
A partial view of the two trees and the hot cocoa bar
This is the second year that I've decorated the mantle like this. In years' past, I experimented with a number of looks. I like this one (for now...).
Alyssa says that this print reminds her of social studies :).
Donnie pointed out that this print contains a superfluous "a." It reads, "Unto us a A CHILD is born."
Despite the prints' reminders of school subjects and/ or mistaken syntax, I like them.
And, of course I like our Big and Tall Tree
Ornaments on it include ones that the kids have made, large bulbs, some from our travels and some that coordinate with my other set of Christmas china
It snowed (a little) on Saturday to give us an almost winter wonderland feeling
The following are a few "fails" of the season; don't worry, I'll conclude on a positive note :).
1. We missed church on the first Sunday of Advent. Missing church is something that happens (none too infrequently) but I hate to miss during the Christmas season. Fortunately, we can watch missed sermons online as a family. Unfortunately, we don't do that as often as we used to when we missed church. We just got a Chromecast which will make viewing online sermons easier. Now we just need to do it when we miss :). Anyway, we missed the first service of December because of the afternoon performance of the fall play that Abby was in.
2. We didn't send out Christmas cards this year. I enjoy the tradition of sending and receiving cards. While I find creating a Christmas card to be stressful, it's also a creative outlet and I'm usually pleased with the final product. Sometimes I think the tradition of sending a photo card is a bit steeped in narcissism (the fact that I'm not sending Christmas cards does not mean that any narcissism on my part has abated :)). "The Savior is born!" Also, "Look at how adorable/ attractive/ accomplished our kids are!" don't necessarily seem like natural fits. Not that that's stopped me in the past :). I just didn't have a good family photo this year and I didn't have the energy to muster up one for a holiday photo. If I were a better person, I'd have sent out non- photo cards merely proclaiming the good news of Christ's birth and omitting my family's visages. Maybe if I hadn't missed that church service in early December...
The Rineer Family's first Christmas card with a photo (2001): How could we resist sending out holiday greetings without including this little guy's face?? We included our own faces, obviously. Someone had to hold the baby :).
3. This is the second or third year of fail regarding Christmas music. It's a long boring story but I lost most of my Christmas music during a computer malfunction of some sort. The good news is that I found a Pandora station- The First Noel (Maranatha! Classics)- that plays a large number of the exact songs that are among my "lost" music from the computer malfunction. The bad news is that I have to listen to those commercials on Pandora (I'm too cheap to buy a subscription). Also, I don't like having my phone connected to our speakers which means that music is only coming from my phone and so the rest of the family does not get to listen to Christmas music unless they are near my phone (all but Abby consider this to not be a problem; she and I are the only ones who love Christmas music).
4. The scents of the season: One child when I heat a cinnamon scented wax melt. "That smells so bad. Please, please get rid of it." Another child when I heat a pine cone scented wax melt. "What is that awful smell? It's hard to breathe!" (that last part was hyperbole on the child's part- no airways were constricted (restricted?) as a result of a pine cone scented wax melt). All the kids when I heat a vanilla scented wax melt. "It smells so good in here!! What did you bake? What do you mean you didn't bake anything? It smells like you baked something. You mean you really didn't bake anything?" I can't win for losing in this department.
Ok, the good: I LOVE how the house looks at Christmas time. No complaints from the peanut gallery is an added bonus.
We have three full sized Christmas trees in the house now. This is the first time we've had a tree in the dining room. The tree that is in the dining room (pictured below) used to be in the entryway but I made some changes this year. The decorations on this tree are coordinated. They're either white angels, red bulbs with glitter or white/ clear bulbs.
This tree is comprised of many photo ornaments of the kids and our nieces. The ornaments are all blue, red and or green so all of the bulbs are either gold, red, green or blue. I love the primary colors of the ornaments and the bulbs.
The tree also has some sentimental based ornaments. The nativity scene ornament was given to us by Donnie's aunt our first Christmas as a married couple. Donnie's aunt died last month so I appreciate the ornament even more this year.
My aunt gave each child this snowman ornament although we are inexplicably down to two. I like them a lot.
The dining room tree and the entryway tree
I set up a hot cocoa bar in the dining room. I did this as much to display some of my Christmas china as I have a desire for people to drink hot cocoa in my house. Don't get me wrong, I hope people drink hot cocoa- I made a huge batch of homemade hot cocoa mix. My MIL gave me her Christmas china last year which I love. I've since purchased some additional pieces on ebay and Craigslist.
A partial view of the two trees and the hot cocoa bar
This is the second year that I've decorated the mantle like this. In years' past, I experimented with a number of looks. I like this one (for now...).
Donnie pointed out that this print contains a superfluous "a." It reads, "Unto us a A CHILD is born."
Despite the prints' reminders of school subjects and/ or mistaken syntax, I like them.
And, of course I like our Big and Tall Tree
Ornaments on it include ones that the kids have made, large bulbs, some from our travels and some that coordinate with my other set of Christmas china
It snowed (a little) on Saturday to give us an almost winter wonderland feeling
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