Little Christmas Joys

Little by little, it is beginning to look and feel more like Christmas around our home.

I found those cute snowman plates at the Dollar General, and even though they are plastic, they are cute and make a fun little lunch or salad plate to use through the holidays, as well as adding a whimsical happy face to my kitchen display.

I decided to make this area a hot chocolate section, although my beverage of choice is  Hot Ovaltine, the original malt chocolate flavor.  

I know I already shared these two photos on Facebook, and visions of

"A Christmas Story" and the Ovaltine Secret Decoder ring came to mind for some of our friends...(excuse the naughty word if you watch this video)

"Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!"

Ha Ha, a little levity to brighten our morning...

Now, please excuse the messy look around this tree, but have to tell you this was the most beautiful sight I've seen in a long while...I've been struggling to get our Christmas tree put up, and somehow I pulled some muscles in my neck and shoulder in the process, and every reach and stretch became a painful chore. I managed to get the tree put together (ours is an older variety...you have to physically insert each branch into the trunk and fluff them out. No one else will do it but me. I'm thinking about watching for an end of the season sale this year and getting one of those new ones that just open up and have the lights on already and everything...but for now we still do it this way) 

So anyway, I managed to get it put together, but had no time or energy left to put the lights on the tree. (Saturday afternoon.)  So the tree sat there dark and dreary.

When we came home from church on Sunday, we opened the front door and stepped into the house and our son Scott jumped out from the kitchen and said, "Merry Christmas!" And that is when I realized the lights were on the tree! I literally stood there and cried, I was so happy.  Scott works at a golf course doing lawn maintenance and he has to work most weekends as well as the week, but on the weekend he mostly just does touch up work on the greens and then comes home, so he had gotten home a little earlier than usual and took it upon himself to to put the lights on the tree to surprise me. I was so blessed by this "gift", that I truly was overcome with joyous tears.

So now I could finish the job of decorating the tree, little by little, as the pain in my right side of the neck moved over to the left side and I am having to be careful what I do.  That is why I am also behind in reading your posts, dear friends...I have to limit my time on the computer as that is contributing to the pain...and I apologize for being out of touch...I see there are many good and interesting posts piling up and waiting for me to read...I will try to get caught up today now that I finally got the rest of the tree decorated yesterday:

Now I can begin to concentrate on gifts and baking and other things that make Christmas the most wonderful time of the year!

A little side note here, as I was hanging the ornaments on the our tree, I opened the box that had this particular little ornament inside, and I discovered that somehow his arm had gotten broken off:

And so I glued it back on with some Elmer's Glue (it is a wooden ornament) and then I had to stand there and hold it for a few minutes until it dried. But I didn't mind. You see, this little artist figure belonged to my son Matthew, our beloved son who passed away over six years ago from cancer. And as I stood there holding this precious little figure in my hand, the strains of "Silent Night" began to play on the CD of Christmas music I was listening to while decorating the tree.  So as I stood there, holding this sweet little guy in my hand tightly so his arm could mend, I swayed back and forth to the music, singing softly as the tears rolled down my cheeks, rocking this little guy in my arms and wishing it were my sweet son and that I could have so easily have mended him as I mended this little broken ornament.  But God had other plans for Matthew...plans that I still don't comprehend, but I trust in the One Who created him that His plans are right and good and someday I will understand. And I know that he is totally "mended" now in heaven, and that gives me great peace.

See, he's smiling again! And so was I.

And here he is on the tree, good as new.

My mother had given our boys these ornaments when they were young, and each one represented what they liked to do at that time in their lives. Yes, Matthew was an artist. He loved to draw and paint and was very creative. So that ornament was perfect for him.

Our son Scott at that time was playing soccer, and so his ornament was a soccer player:

And our oldest son Benton at that time was a football player, and so here you see his special ornament:

Do you have special ornaments that have particular meaning for you? I love to think about each and every ornament when I put it on the tree, and try to remember where it came from and who gave it to me. Many ornaments were gifts through the years from all the different places we lived.

Some speak for themselves

When we moved back to Florida, I have a dear friend who loves to "gift" me with pink flamingoes at the most interesting times and places, and so it stands to reason that she would also give me pink flamingo Christmas ornaments:

After my mother passed away, I started looking for special little angel ornaments playing a violin, because my mother loved to play the violin. She wasn't what you would consider an "accomplished" violinist, but it was something she always wanted to do.  I like to envision her playing the violin in heaven in God's magnificent orchestra:

These two birthstone angel ornaments represent my parents with their respective birthstones:

My sister likes to think of me as a little angel I guess, as she gave me this ornament:

Funny, she never thought that about me when we were growing up! LOL.

This cute pig ornament actually came from my husband's cousin Janice's home after she passed away a couple of years ago very unexpectedly.  We were helping my brother in law clean out her house and this was something I saw that I wanted to remember Janice by, as she collected pig decor items, so this ornament now hangs on our tree in loving memory of Janice:

This cute little vintage choir boy bell ornament was a gift to me from my Grandma Mursch when I was a little girl. So it is probably the oldest ornament I have:

And last, but not least, I discovered a note tucked in the bottom of this angel ornament when I was getting ready to hang it on the tree.  I didn't realize it was there before. My husband had written a note that says this ornament was a Christmas gift from his mother, "Nanny", when she was 90 years old. Somehow I had forgotten that. Nanny lived to be 95, but I am sure this was probably one of the last things she gave us for Christmas as she wasn't able to shop or give gifts much after that, even though she did live with us a good bit of the time and was a gift to us in many other ways.

So this was a special little angel to hang on the tree and made us smile as we thought of Nanny:

I guess this is why I have to put up a tree every year and pull out all the boxes filled with so many different old ornaments. There are many many more, but I won't bore you with all the stories.

To me they aren't boring at all, but are loving reminders of the people they represent and the places we've been, and the love that we've been shown throughout the 51 years of our marriage.

Oops! That thought triggered one last photo:

This humble walnut ornament hanging on our tree is a reminder of our very first Christmas together as man and wife.  We didn't have much money for ornaments and things as hubby was still in college and I was working at a low paying job just so we could survive, but we were very very happy.  I decided to be a little creative and so I made some ornaments out of walnut shells. (We ate the nuts first). I glued the shell back together with a little wire coming up out of it for a hanger, and glued glitter on them, and hung them on our first little Christmas tree.  Only this one has survived all these 51 years, and so it is a real treasure! 

I will close with a scripture reading from our devotions this morning:

Luke 1:37

"For with God nothing will be impossible."

Remember that when you feel you are up against the struggle of life in this season.

Enjoy your little Christmas joys!

For previous posts about Christmas JOYs and special ornaments, Click HERE

I have also linked with Sandi over at Rose Chintz Cottage for your Christmas "No Place Like Home" Party this week!  Please go visit and check out the other members of the party!