Christmas was always my mom's favorite time of year, too. Her house would be decorated to the nines--she had 5 trees of various sizes around the house, plus garland around all the doorways and handrails through the house. She loved nativity sets, as well. She had a nativity set that she would put out, one piece every day--with baby Jesus arriving on Christmas morning. Her Christmas dishes were a beautiful highlight, too. Every time we went on a vacation, we would look for a Christmas ornament for our trip, and mom would find a shop that sold dishes to look for a Christmas place setting. I think she has about 20 settings overall, all different, all beautiful.
It was hard for me to get into the holiday spirit in the Christmas after mom passed away. It took me several days to put the tree up, because it would make me sad to think of the tree being up and getting into that celebratory spirit without her. But as the years have passed, it has slowly gotten easier. This year, the joy returned, as I thought about decorating the tree and sharing the beauty of the season with Avonlea.
It was so fun seeing this time of year through her eyes. She's not old enough to "get" any of it yet, but watching her eyes light up when she saw the tree and the ornaments was so heartwarming.
We spent the week before Christmas in Ohio, celebrating with Nick's family and my family two subsequent weekends. Avonlea did such a great job. She figured out how to unwrap presents, and she especially loved playing with the tissue paper. Most especially I enjoyed "sharing" her with all of her aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas and grandpas. She won't get to grow up with them close by, so I was so glad we were able to go back to see them while she is still young. There will come a time when she might think that gifts are the most important thing, but I hope that Avonlea truly values the time that we get to spend with family, and celebrating the birth of Jesus.
Mom had a tradition that she got from my Aunt Barb: she would give us a new Christmas book each year. I loved getting the books out of the box and sharing them with Avonlea. She's still too young for most of them, but I look forward to sharing them with her in the future:
I started that tradition this year with Avonlea. I got her the book "The Smallest Gift of Christmas", and inside I wrote her first note:
(I also got her a Christmas "touch and feel" book that she could actually "read" this year.)
I also got out a little bit of mom: I used her Christmas dishes for breakfast at the Hume family get-together. The table wasn't as pretty as Mom would have made it, but it was a little bit of her, and I think she would have appreciated that her dishes were still being used.
To prove that I am not Debbie, take a look at the strawberry/banana "candy canes". Saw them in a Taste of Home magazine, but they proved an epic fail in the execution. Oh, well. Makes for a silly story.
I am so glad Avonlea was able to spend time with her great-grandma and her great-Papaw, as well as her Grandpa (PawPaw, as we call him), Grampy and Grammy, and Aunt Ashley.
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