Don’t Do It

Every year around this time I get a scratch I can’t itch….

This year, the itch appears to be gone….and instead it is filled with a yearning for quiet….turn off the noise….quit participating in the need for more and the want for things that look like everyone else.

Whatever happened to doing things uniquely? What happened to less is more?

I look back at my childhood Christmas and they were nothing but magical.

This year I will have this beautiful manger scene that I have loved since I was very little. My Mom told me I would sing and play with all the characters constantly…I have no idea…I just loved it…and still do.

Christmas was magical because my mom made our house beautiful…she would sew amazing stars around candles…she would make our own ornaments and my sister and I had our own tree in the kitchen with Hollie Hobby ornaments. We put actual tinsel in the tree and Christmas morning we got new books at the breakfast table and Christmas present magic….and I never felt like I missed out…I very much look back at those times as magical.

But in the magical….there is work…and until you do Christmas you don’t realize what happens to make those magical moments.

We have done the Christmas lights…the programs…the gingerbread houses…the handprint ornaments, the homemade Playdough , the angel popsicle sticks…the hand print Christmas trees…the caroling, the nutcracker, the Christmas movies and all the things….and can I just say….I am tired.

This Saturday I decorate my store and I have to make it better and bigger than the previous year….and one of my staff members has a family emergency so now I have to work on Saturday and decorate….and Sunday I do colonoscopy prep…..because this is my life and of course that’s what is happening. I also got a call from the nursing home that my Mother is sad so tomorrow I need to go see her….

So, this year….I have given away to a charity half of my Christmas decor and will probably give them more….I want a real tree….my other tree will go to the store and have two glorious trees now.

I am making homemade candles, vanilla, embroidery projects, and thrifted beautiful knitted blankets in thrifted baskets with homemade soap and homemade apple butter…:because I am so sick of crap that I just donate and never use….

Because I want slower….I want well thought out…I want to relax and enjoy not sit there and dread the thought of taking it all down….because no one but the haters judge me anyway…..and I certainly am not inviting them over.

My house will be lovely….but it will be less….and next year even less….because…..

I can only be so “extra”

Here are some pics from last year that I hope to do again this year….