Goodbye Christmas dread….
As a child I looked forward to Christmas-mostly. We didn’t get much in the way of gifts, but we loved the tree and the Christmas baking and the music and the driving around looking at light displays. But I didn’t appreciate what my parents, especially my mother, went through to see that we had Christmas. So until I moved out on my own, Christmas was fun.
Once I had kids of my own, I still looked forward to Christmas, but it was exhausting. I have always kept my schedule full and the addition of Christmas shopping, inside decorating, outside lights, baking, cards and letter, making shell decorations, etc. made me very tired. No matter how I tried to plan ahead, it was always the same. I dreaded Christmas and by January 2, I was exhausted.
After the kids left home, I joined the symphony chorus and now Christmas involves two concert weeks where there are practices and concerts down town for fourteen consecutive evenings in December with maybe one night off. So the stress continues.
This year, right after the Christmas concerts, I got sick. Then we had unexpected company arrive for emergency medical visits at the Mayo Clinic. The cards were mailed, but I had to forgo the shell decorations. Somehow I got the tree decorated and a few inside decorations up. Shopping fell by the wayside. I wrapped whatever I had around. We had a very low-key Christmas.
So when I dropped into the local hardware in early January to pick up a small item, and spotted the little, three foot, predecorated, owl-themed, half priced Christmas tree, I was hit with an inspiration. What if I ditched the six-foot prelit (minus several burnt out sections) tree and replaced it with the little owl tree. I could still decorate the mantle and china cabinet. It’s the large tree that weighs on me. You have to put it together and dust it with the blower outside and bring it in and shape the branches and decorate it and who knows what it would take the fix the failing lights. I could just get the little tree out of the closet and plug it in. On the years the kids come home, they could help find and decorate a real tree. Yup! This was the way to go. I bought the tree.
Then I came across a company on the internet that sells white cutout manger scenes for the yard. I had always wanted a simple manger scene with a spotlight on it, and getting the yard lights up and down has always weighed on me. I watched the video where they show someone putting the manger scene together in five minutes. Yup! This was the answer to outside decorating! I ordered the manger scene and it arrived the next day. It took me 15-20 minutes to put it together. (I was learning.) I am thrilled!
And I can't believe that I am actually already looking forward to Christmas next year!
Site for nativity scene: http://www.outdoornativitysets.com
Once I had kids of my own, I still looked forward to Christmas, but it was exhausting. I have always kept my schedule full and the addition of Christmas shopping, inside decorating, outside lights, baking, cards and letter, making shell decorations, etc. made me very tired. No matter how I tried to plan ahead, it was always the same. I dreaded Christmas and by January 2, I was exhausted.
After the kids left home, I joined the symphony chorus and now Christmas involves two concert weeks where there are practices and concerts down town for fourteen consecutive evenings in December with maybe one night off. So the stress continues.
This year, right after the Christmas concerts, I got sick. Then we had unexpected company arrive for emergency medical visits at the Mayo Clinic. The cards were mailed, but I had to forgo the shell decorations. Somehow I got the tree decorated and a few inside decorations up. Shopping fell by the wayside. I wrapped whatever I had around. We had a very low-key Christmas.
So when I dropped into the local hardware in early January to pick up a small item, and spotted the little, three foot, predecorated, owl-themed, half priced Christmas tree, I was hit with an inspiration. What if I ditched the six-foot prelit (minus several burnt out sections) tree and replaced it with the little owl tree. I could still decorate the mantle and china cabinet. It’s the large tree that weighs on me. You have to put it together and dust it with the blower outside and bring it in and shape the branches and decorate it and who knows what it would take the fix the failing lights. I could just get the little tree out of the closet and plug it in. On the years the kids come home, they could help find and decorate a real tree. Yup! This was the way to go. I bought the tree.
Then I came across a company on the internet that sells white cutout manger scenes for the yard. I had always wanted a simple manger scene with a spotlight on it, and getting the yard lights up and down has always weighed on me. I watched the video where they show someone putting the manger scene together in five minutes. Yup! This was the answer to outside decorating! I ordered the manger scene and it arrived the next day. It took me 15-20 minutes to put it together. (I was learning.) I am thrilled!
And I can't believe that I am actually already looking forward to Christmas next year!
Site for nativity scene: http://www.outdoornativitysets.com