Christmas Makeover

I expect the coming days to be merry and bright, but I also suspect they’ll be somewhat demanding.  The Christmas season has officially begun!  With Thanksgiving in rear view, I spent the rest of last weekend straddling the line between productivity and recreation.  I listened to my Pandora holiday station as I puttered with cooking, cleaning, projects, and gifts.  Christmas is surely the filter through which the next three weeks will transpire. It's finally time for our house to make it's annual transformation -- but before you picture a quintessential scene with icicle lights and a voluminous tree in the picture window,

let me clarify… 

Ornaments, Lights, and Stockings, Oh my!

A humble pair of boxes stores all my Christmas decorations: one for lights and one for everything else.  People tell me to enjoy it while I can because these two will multiply like rabbits after Weldon and I have children.  For now, I’m content to err on the paltry side.  I don’t mean to be a scrooge when it comes to yuletide ambiance; in fact, I often dream about themed décor that will trim our future home at family Christmases to come.  It’s just that our cozy space can’t handle too much fanfare.

If we’re lucky, we borrow a tabletop tree for which I’ve made a foil-covered cardboard star.  The majority of ornaments we’ve collected in our three years of marriage are too weighty for the petite shrub, so I hang half a dozen snowflakes from frames on our living room wall – the rest are waiting for their debut on a full-sized tree.  An olive wood nativity, no bigger than a VHS, sits serenely on our bookshelf.  Blinking battery-powered candles bid welcome from our two front-facing windows.  Because we don’t have a mantel, our stockings hang on loosened screws in the metal wall by the wood stove.  I figure if Santa’s willing to shimmy down our blackened stovepipe, then surely he can turn around to find our expectant socks.  The most elaborate of my holiday adornments (which also happens to be borrowed) is a sumptuous wreath the size of a truck tire that graces the long expanse of our shop exterior.

Our domicile may be a bit lacking in Christmas flair, but I’m far more attentive to the transformation that goes on behind another closed door…

Beware: Craft Central

Nonchalantly lurking toward the rear of our living room is a metal door that separates our apartment from the rest of the building.  This “other half” is affectionately known as the multi-purpose room because it is our garage, attic, spare bedroom, dining room, tool shed, and pantry rolled into one. 

For the next 23 days it will also be Craft Central.  You’d think we’re vying for a position as a southern branch of the Elves’ Workshop.  The mountain of supplies strewn on my dining table will put the kibosh on guests eating there, but hopefully it’ll all be worth it when they receive the fruits of our labor on the 25th.  At any given moment there are crisscrossing cords, bottles and boxes, stacks of paper, bags of materials, sketches, and lengthy lists.  Tools and ribbon, glue and beads are spewed from their hiding places as Weldon and I create item after item on our Gift List.  Not only are homemade gifts often frugal, they’re endearing and fun!  We make 50% or more of our gifts each year.  I’m always eager to get my creative juices flowing, but Weldon is a reformed non-crafty person.  I spearhead most of the output and he tackles most of the wrapping.  This season we’re trying our hand at a number of new ideas: tile coasters, kids’ t-shirts, custom clipboards, and glasses cases.  If you’re in the family…Shhhh, don’t tell!

There may be days some years from now when I trim the tree and deck the halls with gusto, but for the moment, I’m glad I can radiate Christmas cheer and close the door behind me as I go!