I’m a little cynical aren’t I?
Can you believe that someone was willing to part with this giant Santa? They actually left it on the side of the road with a “free” sign on it – in August of course.
Luckily I could see its potential and I snatched it up. It’s like a little part of my 1970’s childhood right here in my dining room! I found another Santa with a full sleigh of reindeer on the side of the road in July. It’s still in the garage. I have to add it to my plastic palace. I have no idea why people would want to throw away such amazing junk? Their loss is my tacky Christmas gain!
Now I have to tell you, I’m very proud of myself. It’s only taken me 8 years, but I am finally able to release control over Christmas decorating. I am a mad collector of vintage Christmas stuff. Mostly from the 1950’s – 1970’s. I have six giant computer boxes filled with all sorts of things I find – in August!
Here’s where I confess: For the past 8 years I have allowed my kids to “decorate” but when they weren’t looking, I moved it all! My inner control freak just couldn’t handle it.
You know, it’s like when the kids add all the Christmas balls to the bottom of the tree all on one bough….You just can’t help but want to fix it!
I think I am at the point though, where I realize I have only one or two more Christmases where the kids decorating will actually be entertaining. They are getting older and a little more savvy, so I better cherish their crazy ideas of Christmas splendor before they wind up OCD and overly methodical about presentation, like their mother!
With this said, I opened the proverbial floodgates. Cardboard boxes actually and let them have at it.
There is not a surface of my down stairs that doesn’t have something Christmasy on it. I have to say, I secretly kind of like it. All of my stuff is EVERYWHERE! I feel like my home is a really cool thrift store. I have to search around and find cool artifacts amongst the piles of Christmas rubble.
It’s not the way I would have done it and after 8 years of the same old same old, I LOVE IT!
Christmas has hit the Walsh house with a vengeance and we’ve only gotten started…there is quite a bit more to bring forth.
As for art, today was one of those days I dreaded coming to fruition. A day when I had way more planned than time. This upcoming month is going to be one big bowl of too much planned in a short duration.
I began a watercolor at 8 am and left at noon to volunteer at my kid’s school. The art teacher needs some extra hands with the younger grades. That brought me to 3pm. We came home, puked Christmas all over the house, ate dinner and then we were off to the official dress rehearsal for The Christmas Carol play my daughter is participating in. It was awesome to see my kid singing and dancing. She’s already braver than I ever was at that age!
We were home by 10:30pm which brought me to blog writing and now hopefully I am close to hitting the “publish” button.
Is it Christmas or Ground Hog’s day? Something tells me that I’m going to fall asleep, but when I wake, I’m going to do this all over again!
Mom is doing a 365 Day Creativity Challenge and her daughter will be participating in 15 performances in the next three weeks.
January 1st seems so elusive, but something tells me it will be here in a blink of an eye… I just pray I make it to the finish line!
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