No Trickin’……

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I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Halloween!  I’m glad my birthday is in the same month and not too far away from the Big Candy Day that I have often had Halloween birthday parties. Usually I trick my house out with some really cool decorations, do my pumpkin carving, and play my cd with Monster Mash, purple people eater, and such. This year, I  got my light-up signs in the my windows and my string of ghost lights up, though not in their usual place on my mantle,and the girls and I did get a few pumpkins carved, but that was all the trickin’ out I did this year.  And I think that’s why I’ve been slogging through this month.  I’m bummed….

This was confirmed by my friend, Momma Lime.  She said the same thing happened to her last year when she didn’t put up her Halloween decorations. And the 31st was a bust last year. The neighborhood gathering was ill-planned and uncoordinated, which for me, who had gotten my stuff up early and had been pumped all month waiting for the day, was a big disappointment(the kids didn’t care, but I did).  So, this year, it’s me, the Debbie Downer of Halloween Decor.  I think it’s because Halloween kicks off the decorating season in our house, where we regularly change our decorations from October through the new year. And we love to decorate; Halloween, Thanksgiving, and especially Christmas. Our kick-off was more like a stubbed toe this go around. To top off my sluggishness, it snowed today. Truly an Eeyore moment for me.

So, thank you Momma Lime for bringing me into the jack-o-lantern light about why I have to start the holiday season off right with my Halloween decorations up, to light the way into the new year. Getting my fall decorations and spirits ready to go for November and getting giddy about what December brings.

-a Mini-Boo from the Edge

Ornaments…

I wrote this a few years back.  It’s one of my favorites…..

Ornaments

As I lay on my sofa the other night, looking at our beautiful Christmas
tree, I was really moved by the ornaments. 

There are ornaments on there from when my Uncle Roger was in the Army.
 He was one of the lucky ones that made it home safely from the Pacific
Rim, delivering a box of Chinese lantern ornaments to my mother.  We’ve
have had those on our trees since I can remember.  My Uncle Roger, Aunt
Maggie and cousins are on our tree…

There are ornaments on our tree that my grandmother made and some she
taught my siblings and I to make, which are also hanging there.  We
learned our sewing stitches making them.  I called her the other day
and she had just spent the day making her “to die for” homemade fudge
and baking banana bread. She will be 91 in January, is nearly blind and
is my only surviving grandparent.  My children are lucky enough to have
four grand parents and three great-grand parents.  “Grandma Iowa” as my
children affectionately call her is on our tree….

There are ornaments on our tree from various journeys that have been
made by us, my mother, and my mother-in-law. We get them on business
and family trips.  There is the bear from the Navajo Nation, the
steamboat from Seattle, the glitter fish with glasses from North
Carolina, and the phone booth from London. There is the gold ball from
my best friend’s wedding. The world is on our tree….

There are ornaments that are made by my children.  There’s one with my
daughter Nina’s foot prints on it from her first Christmas.  There is
the Nutcracker made from the toilet paper roll, the Wreath with my son
JP’s picture in the center, the Joy one made with dried beans and my
son Grant’s picture in the “O.”  There’s a snowman with Theo’s name and
“2003” marking her first Christmas and reindeer ears made from brown
construction paper.  Our future is on our tree…..

I look around at the other ornaments, through the golf cart, Cherokee
angels, retro glass ones and Santa Claus (that I have had since I was a
kid), and I see one kind of tucked back in the tree.  It is the bell
with the date, July 6, 1996 on the back.  It is the favor from our
wedding.  The love of my life is on our tree….

I think of how rich our lives are and have been….to have traveled the
world, to have our health and to have family and friends that have
filled our home and our lives with the warmth of their light, love,
laughter and joy and I know that we are truly blessed……..

Merry Christmas