Yule Log on the TV & I Haven't Killed the Amaryllis

I have long struggled to find my voice as a Christmas decorator. When I first bought my house, way before Dave and I married, I wanted to be just like Aunt Grace and Billie Darby back home. Aunt Grace and Billie always had wreaths on every door, themed lawn decor, and lots of big red bows (which actually looked like bows, unlike the ones I tried to make). But at the time, I was single and working long hours, so I'd try to pull off this Christmas fantasy in a single afternoon over the Thanksgiving vacation. I'd wrestle a ginormous artificial tree (which didn't look nearly that big on the Walmart showroom) into my dining room and cover it with as many ornaments as I could afford (bought by the box at the aforementioned Walmart or given to me by friends and family). I'd remove all the pictures and what-nots from my entertainment center, which was the closest thing I had to a mantel, and hang my stocking from it with care. Faux garlands around the iron railing on my stoop, a mailbox badge that kept sliding upside down till it fell off . . .  Let's just say there was no mistaking my home for Martha Stewart's. Once Dave started helping me, it got a lot more fun. I realized that what I like best are lights and flowers. So I have a Christmas garden on my dining room table. (Grew an amaryllis and paperwhites from bulbs, and they are still alive, thank you very much. AND I have one orchid that's actually reblooming. There is hope.) I'm a sucker for tiny white lights. And once I put them up, I don't want to take them down. So I don't. At least, not the ones in the backyard. We take pity on the neighbors and take down the few we put up out front. But once we strung them around our deck, they were so festive that I wanted to see them on summer nights when we cook out. And then we added a tiny back porch off Dave's office this year, which is now home to some purple pepper lights I unearthed in our storage shed. We bought them in New Orleans, and I know without thinking twice that they ain't comin' down. I put some more of them around the big window in my Story Shack (probably there for good) and some icicle lights on my arbor (which just won't look the same without them, so they're probably there for the duration, too). I write this by the light of some cool little globe lights, wrapped around the silk ficus tree in my living room. (Even I can't kill a silk ficus . . . but I probably need to dust it.) The globe lights went up one Christmas years ago and never came down. I guess I've decided that whatever makes you smile should be part of your decor. And so with Hank the Cat snoozing on the sofa next to me, my silk ficus all aglow, a Christmas garden on my table, and a roaring fire on the televsion, thanks to a "yule log" DVD that Aunt Grace gave me . . . "it's Christmastime in the city." Wishing you many little pockets of joy this season.

 

Comments

[candy hicks]

This is WONDERFUL ! ! ! I bet your house is a master piece of joy and love. Hugs Cuz and Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy, Happy New Year :)

[valerieluesse]

Thank you!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, too! If I get my act together over the next few days, you might actually receive a card! (Haven't mailed the first one. But my intentions are very good:)

[Darryl Moland]

Fake trees and silk ficus? Bring some fresh greens in da house! That smell says Christmas more than anything. Here's your guidebook: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2804026

[valerieluesse]

Shoulda known better than to confess that:) Thanks for the info!

[Karen Watkins]

I'm a lights person, too. No tree this year, even though it's the first year in 19 that there are no cats in the house. I will admit to the TV yule log, though, with an electic soundtrack of gospel music and Christmas carols. Almost put me in the mood . ..

[valerieluesse]

Oh dear. Did you lose kitties this year? Nannette and Junior lost a beloved pet, and none of us has been quite the same. Mama asked me just the other day, "Have you heard from Karen this Christmas?":) She always wants an update on you!