Hello, Vixens!!!  Welcome back to the countdown!!!

Today’s post will also feature some of my decorations.  I hope you enjoy them!!!

After I put the ornaments on the tree, I light it up to see how it looks before I add whatever topper I am going to use. It’s like my seal of approval that the tree is ready.  This was the first picture I took to check it and I was so happy with how pretty it turned out.   I love real trees, especially the chubby ones!!!

Here’s a look at it during the day,  I usually do not do themes for Christmas.  I prefer to focus on the colors of the season that I enjoy the most, like green, silver, white or natural hues like from the raffia bow.

I absolutely A-D-O-R-E adding some greenery to an Ironstone pitcher.  The color of the pine needles just pop in the neutral container.  It also adds some wonderful fragrance to whatever room I put it in.  This is one of my bed side tables so I can inhale the heavenly scent all night long!!!  And I love the contrast of the rich white pitcher and the rusty goodness of the cabinet.  I found it exactly like this and could not resist the wonderful patina.   Swoon!!!

I used this child’s Windsor chair-my very first purchase from my very first Brimfield trip in 2005-to give a few cherished items a place of honor.  Many, many years ago I went to my first day-after-Christmas sale.  I lived near a Fortunoff’s store and they had an entire second building next to the main store dedicated to Christmas for the last three months of the year.

Since it was 100 years ago, that was unheard of…..and a sight to be seen.  When I went for my yearly decoration search, the clerk at the register mentioned the big sale the day after Christmas.  I do not know why I had the day off-perhaps Christmas fell on a weekend like this year.  Anyway, I knew that meant I was going to the sale.  I spent Christmas day with my grandmother and my aunt, and we all decided to go together.

The snowman was the first thing I saw at the sale that I wanted, and luckily there were a number of them so I had no problem snagging mine.  We looked at decorations for hours, just taking in all the exceptional items the store carried while making our way through the hordes of other shoppers doing the same thing.  Then my grandmother spotted the Holy Family figurine (mixed in with other religious statues) and she became a woman obsessed.  She got right in the middle of the huddle and was tossing boxes side to side trying to find the one she wanted.  My aunt and I started helping her, and finally my grandmother found it-at the same time my aunt found one for herself.  Success all around.

After our shopping trip, we decided to have lunch at a nearby diner.  As we were sipping our hot beverages of choice, my grandmother pulled the figurine out of the box to give it a closer look….or so I thought.  She placed it on the table between our plates, then reached for the box and placed it in front of me on the table.  Then she slid the figurine over to me.

“You take it home,” she said.

I told her no, that she wanted it and worked so hard to get it, that she should treasure it.

But she shook her head no.

“I have a nativity set.  I bought this for you,” she said.  “You need to at least have the Holy Family in your house for Christmas.”

She was like Linus in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” reminding me what Christmas was all about.

My grandmother raised me.  She cooked and cleaned for me, took care of me when I was sick, listened to Bruce Springsteen with me and taught me how to cook.  She shared my joys and my heartaches with me.  She also made me nuts and gave me gray hair.  But I know she loved me without question.  When I think of her pushing through that crowd and digging through those boxes for me, I remember how she fought to give me back my faith when I was struggling with it.  And it was not through her well honed tactics like guilt, lecturing, yelling or fighting.  It was important enough for her to to show me by making a gesture.  A quiet, enormously grand and loving gesture.  And one of my most cherished Christmas memories ever.

Hence, the place of honor 🙂

Today’s song is from “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer”.  It is one of two songs sung by Sam the Snowman, who narrates the story.  I know he was not real, but to me he seemed so much more “alive” than Frosty.  Sam was wise, kind and very smart.  Frosty just melted.

I love both songs Sam sings, but this one I love just a bit more.

Burl Ives:  Holly Jolly Christmas.

I do not own the rights to the song but all the pictures are mine.  I like to share some of the  things that I love with you   🙂

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?

Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!