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| Old . . . |
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| Dollar store Santa face |
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In
the 13 years we have lived in this little modular home, this is the first year we’ve
had a Christmas tree here, mostly due to lack of space. We happened to be at
K-Mart after Thanksgiving when I spied a nice pencil tree, and we bought the
last one they had in stock.
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| . . . even older |
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Now,
my extensive collection of Christmas ornaments – more than will ever be placed
on a tree at one time again – is in storage and wasn’t available. The only ornaments
I had on hand were my mother’s most antique ornaments which I had carefully
stored inside this house, several that had come my way through sister Harriet (also
vintage), and just a few new ones collected from here and there.
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| An all-time favorite |
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| Vintage ornaments |
During a pre-holiday phone visit with daughter Hallie, I mentioned my belief that tarnished
vintage ornaments aren’t so pretty on the tree. She laughingly said that she
had seen pre-tarnished new ornaments in the shops. So, with newfound
confidence, I put the old ornaments on our new tree. Faded and tarnished, they rose
to the occasion. I love it!
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| Gown from JoAnn |
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| Renewing the lighted scenes |
In
the same conversation, I mentioned to Hallie that I can’t seem to part with my
string of pre-1960 lighted scenes, even though the lights no longer work. So, she
brought with her a battery-operated string of colored lights and spent some
time Christmas Eve installing the old scenes onto the new string. It was
wonderful to see them glowing again, though now faded. It was too late to
put them on the tree, but there’s always next year. KW
What a lovely Christmas tree! The vintage ornaments are perfect, and the memories add to its beauty.
ReplyDeleteThat Hallie is one clever girl!!
Thanks, Chris. A pencil tree won't hold many ornaments, but it could have a few more -- another year, that is.
ReplyDeleteSister Joni and I recently discussed the need to sort our ornament collections. She said she's going to start by getting rid of any she doesn't absolutely love. Sounds like a plan.
Hallie has always had a way of seeing through to a solution.
A few years ago I sorted my ornaments and did the same. I had tons that I'd gotten from students over the years and finally realized the most important ones were those I remembered from the beginning of our marriage, ones my own children had made, and special ones acquired over the years.
ReplyDeleteSo many things can be saved rather than tossing. It's fun to save things. The vintage ornaments are especially lovely when the whole tree carries the theme. Nice work!
ReplyDeleteI took our tree down today. I guess that's a story for another post.
ReplyDeleteI’m delaying one more week. We’ll take ours down this Friday or Saturday. I’m ready.
Delete