Until Next Year

I guess it's time to say goodbye to Christmas for this year. I'm actually ready to reclaim my house and look forward to the things this time of year brings... organizing, crafting, decorating. My plate is full with lots of projects. I have curtains to make and more curtains to make, and even more curtains to make. We're really good at doing the major projects (like a kitchen remodel, for example) but never do get around to the finishing touches. Bear with me on this little story, which actually leads to another story, but I'll save that one for a bit. Here's a picture of our old house, or as Emily likes to call it, our "old, OLD house."



I loved this house. Still love this house. Isn't she pretty. We painted it... well, had it painted. I chose those colors. We rebuilt the porch b/c it was falling in. We gutted much of the inside... the meaty stuff... kitchen, laundry room, bathrooms. We replaced a good chunk of the old knob and tube wiring. We got all new plumbing from the street in. We finished up after many, many, many months of hard work with a beautifully remodeled home. A brand spanking new kitchen. Brand new (and enlarged) bathrooms. Fresh paint. Gorgeous refinished original wood floors. I could go on... But it was stunning. Worth all the effort. I MISS my old house.

But, as is the usual with us, the big stuff got done, but it was never really decorated. I had incredible curtains. I love fabric. And I had a few accessories. But that was about it. Well, as it would turn out, we sold that home (at the right time, I might add) and eventually moved to the East coast. And, on a trip back to Ohio to visit family and friends that first summer, coincidentally, the new owners of our home were opening their doors to the Historic Home and Garden Tour the same weekend I was there. Side note.... we had done the same tour a couple of years back, and actually, the couple that bought our home went through it on that tour and fell in love. When we put it on the market, they jumped. Good thing, 'eh? So anyway, I got to go back through my old house. They had hardly touched a thing, inside anyway. All my paint colors were the same. My beautiful curtains still hung in the windows. But they DID decorate. The one thing I truly wished I had done. And it was beautiful.

So, this time around, I'm decorating. Our big kitchen and family room remodel is almost finished. I'll share pictures of it, maybe my next post. But, I have curtains to make. ;) And I have projects. Hopefully I'll get around to sharing those projects as they happen.

In the meantime, I'm sharing a few of my Christmas details before I pack up my decorations and store them away, until next year.

I liked the twinkle effect to these lights:



And that ornament has quite a story. Mom sends the kids ornaments every year for St. Nick's Day. That beautiful ballerina was one of them. Well, sort of. One yucky Sunday morning, the kids and I took Nick to the airport and when we returned, our lovely tree was laying across the floor amidst a pile of shattered glass. Well, the ballerina was among the casualties and poor Anna shed quite a few tears over that one. But after a 'shot in the dark' plea to my "pea" friends, my friend Farrah located a replacement in CO and shipped it to us. I can't even tell you how excited Anna was.

Here are the rest of the ornaments Mom sent this year. A rather befitting Irish Dancer for Emily. My mom is awesome!



But mom doesn't stop with ornaments. Last year she also started a collection for the kids of Dickens' Village collectibles. She added The Prescott Hotel this year (on the right). It's another tradition I look forward to building on...



My experiment with lights:



And finally, our 2009 Christmas card. The photo was taken by the beautiful, inside and out, Michelle Leighton. She kindly met us for what turned out to be a fantastic family session. I vowed to have a family picture taken this year and I got it, and so much more.



Now, about that other little side story... As I was first writing this post, I decided I wanted to go look for a photo of our old house. Well, almost all my photos of the old house were taken back in my pre-digital days. In digging through my old prints and negatives, I ended up spending hours looking back and reminiscing about a much younger Emily, a newborn Anna, and about how different our life was back then. It's amazing how different life can be even in just 5 years! There's a part of my heart that aches for those old times, and yet, with all of my heart, I can't imagine my life any different than it is now. Even when it's crazy. It just reinforced my goal to stop worrying about the perfect pictures, and enjoy life, enjoy it's moments, and record them so in a few years when things are even that much more different, I can look back and remember these times as well.

Good times!