Boy, Do I Need To Catch Up

So hold on to your hats.

First catch up on the Challenge questions.

Question #5: Do you hang mistletoe?

I don't ever remember my husband and I hanging mistletoe. But I remember mom hanging on the doorway going into the hall. I still can remember mom and dad embracing and kissing under the mistletoe. It's a good memory.

Question #6: When do you put up your decorations? Tell about your traditions, hopes, plans for decorating?

I start putting up my tree on Thanksgiving day. I also decorate the mantle that day. The rest of the house goes up as time goes by. Traditions on decorating at our house is mainly our Christmas Memory Tree and the manger scene somewhere in the house. Jim always puts on the angel top of the tree. I often lay on the floor and look up at my ornaments from my childhood and remember the fun we have on Christmas morning. We do not open family presents until Christmas morning!!! The kids are not allowed out of their bedrooms until I call them. We still need to decorate the back porch and our Cyprus tree to the side of the house. Maybe Monday afternoon.

Question #7 is: What's your favorite holiday tradition?

Since I answered my favorite tradition in Question #6, let try another favorite. On Christmas Eve we go the the Christmas Eve service at church. Afterwards to we go to my son's home and either have a fun snack or like this year, a light supper. The grandkids share with us the new ornaments which are "theirs!" Later, at home, I read two stories: The Night Before Christmas and the Matthew account of the real reason we celebrate Christmas. The readings we have been doing since our first child was born!

Question #8 and #9 is: What's on the top of your tree? Do you have a nativity displayed through the holidays?

The top of our tree has always had an angel. This is a tradition from my childhood that we have kept up. I've have maybe only 3 different angels in Jim and our 30 years of marriage. And we do have a nativity displayed on our fireplace hearth. We have about 10 different nativities, but this year I felt like one is enough. Well, maybe two. My son made a manger scene out of foam, so we do hang that up every year. (Below is our Bailey)