Decking the halls

It's all about making do with what we have this year. Fortunately, Larry and I are both still working; he even switched jobs this year. I still am working a 40-hour week even though several have been laid off where I work. Despite the dismal economic climate, we are positive and thankful for where we are at and for what we have.

We are trying to cut back on expenses, and our Christmas shopping list reflects that. Every year I tell the kids "this year will be a bit smaller than last" in terms of what's under the tree. But every year when I start wrapping and filling stockings, I find that we seem to maintain about the same quantity of gifts. With 10 of us now celebrating Christmas together, the living room will be a mess of gifts and wrap. God has been very good to my family.

I'm trying to look at my stash of Christmas decorations and rethink displays. I haven't used my alpine tree in a couple years, but I've got it in the dining room this year. I wound a red berry garland around it, and I'm hanging my collection of primitive candy canes on it. It looked a little bare, so I got out some paper mache red/white peppermint patties I won at a quilt retreat one year. I'm hot gluing some red ribbon on each one and will fill in the bare spots with these.

Our big tree in the living room will go up tonight. For years we've hung every ornament we owned on that tree. Last year I changed out the look and hung only red or green balls and white snowflakes. It looked so plain. Larry missed the ornaments the girls made through the years; and I admit I did, too. But this year, again, we're going with the same idea only I'm adding either the angel or the snowman ornaments for the bare spots. Maybe next year we'll go back to the old idea.