30(+) Days of Thanksgiving, Day 35: Christmas Decorating…sort of

In our family customs and traditions, we have postponed the sights and sounds of Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving in this way:

1. NO CHRISTMAS MUSIC in the house, offices, or cars until AFTER Thanksgiving dinner has been served and cleaned up. (We made one (1) EXCEPTION TO POLICY this year when the Thanksgiving Turkey Chef—Doug—requested his favorite Christmas carol while preparing the turkey & fixings in the kitchen. We played one version only of the carol.)

2. NO CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS until the First Saturday in December.

After that, Kelly goes into a Christmas decorating frenzy. My chores:

• help put the Thanksgiving/Fall decorations away in the attic,
• carry the Christmas decorations down from the attic—a seemingly never-ending freight train load of large plastic totes carefully labeled “Christmas Decorations”,
• assemble our Christmas tree and string the lights on the tree, and then,
• optionally, string lights on the outside of the house.

In recent years, the boys (especially Matt) have pitched in to help me complete my list.
Meanwhile, Kelly is:

• rearranging the strands of lights on the tree
• puts the garlands and ornaments on the tree
• places the various other Christmas crafts and decorations strategically around the house
• puts the garland and lights on the stairway bannister
• lights the scented candles and scented wax burners
• puts the garland and lights around the front door
• packs away the packing materials and debris from the decorating blitzkrieg
• throwing away the Christmas lights from last year that don’t work any more. (What happens to them in the attic between January and November?)
• shopping for replacement and additional strands of Christmas lights
• and etc.

Photo 1: Berlin, Germany, 1990

Photo 2: Walden, NY, 2011

This process usually takes 2-3 days to complete, though Kelly will continue for a couple of weeks to adjust, move, add and take away from her collection. The crafts and tree ornaments are, I think, her favorite part. Each one of them is a unique treasure, valued not for their appraised worth, but rather for the memory each evokes. Some have weathered the years with us—29 Christmases as a family now—and some remind us of places we’ve been. The small framed portrait of the three boys with Father Christmas, taken in Berlin, Germany, around 1990, (see photo 1) is especially dear. The little stuffed Christmas bear clothed in the red suit labeled “Baby’s First Christmas” goes back to 1984 and the Baby Derrin’s first Christmas. The bear for years moved continuously in and out of the tree; I put it in, then Kelly would take it out and put it on the floor under the tree, or in the little wooden rocking chair. Finally, a few years ago, Kelly gave in to my whining and now is resigned to leaving it in the tree (see photo 2).

  Each year it seems new decorations appear: an ornament here, a craft there. Part of our tradition is for Kelly to wait to see how long it takes for me to notice the new addition. (As detectives go, Kelly is the keen, sharp-eyed observer like Sherlock Holmes, while I am more the disheveled, clumsy oaf like Columbo, who seems to fall into my discoveries accidentally.)

It is a wonder to behold, as Kelly gradually (but remarkably quickly) transforms our home into a Christmas fairy tale set. The result—a welcoming, festive and comfortable place in which we cherish the message and the memories of Christmases past, present and yet to come.

I expect that this will not be the only entry I compose here this month that references our Christmas customs and traditions. Since Kelly is home today working on the Christmas-ing of our home, it is foremost in my thoughts of thankfulness today.

Thank You, Heavenly Father, for giving us so much to celebrate as we anticipate our renewed joy at the Birth of our Savior, Christ the Lord. Thank you for the beauty of the lights and colors, the aromatic fragrances, and the cheerful memories that attend this custom of decorating our home.

Technorati Tags: Thanksgiving,Thanks,Thankfulness,Christmas,Decorating

30 Days of Thanksgiving, Day 24: Family Gatherings

Today here in the United States it's Thanksgiving Day. In addition to the general thankfulness I've been trying to articulate in this project, Thanksgiving DAY has the following special significance attached to it: a day off from regular work, great food, usually cold, crisp weather, football, AND family gatherings. While I enjoy everything about Thanksgiving Day, it is the family gathering, some from several hours distant, that has come to mean the most to me.

Thanksgiving has always been about family gathering for me. Other holidays feature family gathering as well, but even Christmas family gatherings might be postponed and scheduled for a more convenient date. But Thanksgiving never gets postponed: it's Thanksgiving Day or bust (or maybe, Thanksgiving Day AND bust!)


Earliest memories of Thanksgiving play across the High Def screen that is my memory. I'm in the car (probably in the "way back" of the family station wagon) on the way to Grandma Ashley's (funny...it was always "Grandma's", as opposed to "Grandpa's" or "Grandma and Grandpa's"). We're going to Thanksgiving dinner. Uncle Willard and Aunt Millie will be there, along with cousins Blizzie, Sharon, Milt, Mark, and Becky. I'm at the kid's table, again. We're enjoying cranberry ice made in the old aluminum ice cube trays without the separate ice cube shaper/separator. Too little cranberry ice in my dish; I've got to con little sisters Debbie and Dale out of theirs. Big mistake there--I'm still paying for that after all these years!

These days, the participants at our family gatherings have changed, in the ways that all families change. Today, we're not loading everyone in the car for a long ride to Grandma's house. Today, WE are Lolli and Pop (a.k.a. Grandma and Grandpa, a.k.a. Kelly and Dennis) and our family, both Ashley and Haney, are gathering here, 29 strong! (May I say that Kelly has been remarkably calm through all of this!)


Thank you, loving Father, for allowing and enabling our family gathering again this year.

30 Days of Thanksgiving, Day 22: Our Home

Today I am writing for the first time this month about a "thing" rather than a person. Even so, I am full of thankfulness and wonder for the home that God has provided for us and the remarkable way in which it came to be our home.

We "began purchasing" our home in the year 2000, when our circumstances and means were quite different than today. Even so, we were pre-approved for a mortgage, thanks Veterans Administration, and began house hunting. We knew the school district we wanted to live in, and that narrowed our search dramatically. We looked at many houses in our price range, and couldn't find anything that we liked well enough to invest in. A few that we did like were sold before we could put in an offer, and we began growing anxious.

Then our realtor showed us this property, that had just been listed earlier the same day. We could scarcely believe that this was in our price range. "There must be some mistake in the price, or there must be something wrong with the place that isn't immediately obvious," Kelly and I were thinking. We quickly prayed together and decided to ask our realtor to put an offer in on the house while we were still standing there in the back yard.

Several days later we got the news that our offer had been accepted. We were, and are still, overjoyed. God had provided us a home with character, with enough room (just!) to accommodate our family, and with a beautiful yard providing room for our children, their friends, our friends and family to play.

In the years since, Kelly has made this place our own. Her decorating sense is extraordinary, and I enjoy hearing the many compliments she receives from those who come to visit. As every homeowner knows, you are never "done" with repairs, improvements, enhancements and so on. It's part of the joy of seeing a home evolve with its inhabitants. We have enjoyed offering hospitality to family and friends here, and we look forward to doing so for as many years as God allows for us.

Thank you, heavenly Father, for giving us this comfortable, warm and dry home in which to live while we're here on earth.