With the kids going to work and college, we have less time for Christmas festivities, so we squeeze in all the fun we can.
Thus, we went to the Christmas tree farm on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, this year, since the kids worked Friday and Saturday.
Walking around to choose the tree, my kids wanted to find the tallest one possible that would fit in our living room.
When my kids found an abandoned bird’s nest in one of the trees, they insisted that was the tree for us, just like Mary Ellen Walton’s in The Homecoming.
Since we watch The Homecoming every Christmas, and we had visited Walton’s Mountain earlier this summer, this was a big deal!
The Waltons is based on the life of Earl Hamner in central Virginia during the Great Depression, who wrote the book, The Homecoming, which was produced as a movie in 1971.
The movie was so successful, it became a popular weekly television show.
When my son measured the height of the tree, he said it was the perfect height, not too tall and not too short.
ORNAMENTS
A few of my favorite crystal-like ornaments for the tree, of which I love the effect when the light glistens through them.
This graceful angel has pearls.
DECOR
Wanting to find more decor pieces reflective of the Reason for the Season, I’ve been collecting stars, angels, and nativity scenes, like this one for the dining room.
Along with all our favorite cookies, I made the fruit cake.
CHRISTMAS EVE
And then it was Christmas Eve…
Another nativity set for our chess table.
A new arrangement of Advent Candles.
Another nativity set for the family room.
Meanwhile my kids have been campaigning for more Christmas trees throughout the house, for years, like our neighbors.
Since they promised to help (and they did), I found an extra tree for the family room that is prelit, that we top with a giant red bow.
My son easily set that one up in a few minutes.
One day we might make ornaments for it.
The Christmas bags under the family room tree, near the fire place where the stockings are hung, are full of the stocking stuffers! 😉
I love this train set and village.
Forgot to take a picture of all the Christmas pillows, but they are gorgeous like this one…great Hobby Lobby finds that we’ve had for years.
For the basement, the kids pulled out the old artificial tree we brought from Texas, upon which they strung candy-colored lights and hung some extra childhood ornament collections we had that tells the story of Christ’s birth.
CHRISTMAS DAY
For dinner we enjoyed our favorite Old English Christmas dinner, with roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding.
Hoping the Yorkshire Pudding remains poofed long enough for a picture, I’ve started baking them in individual ramekins.
