Jen on the Edge is hosting a holiday homes tour again this year. I am, due to laziness and an entrenched decorating routine (which means everything pretty much looks the same), using last year’s post. I’ll be around visiting this weekend—in between the baking and parties and airport runs (Saturday is when the older ones begin to return—and then the real fun begins).
I know these are the best years of my life. The ones before I had kids were great and the ones when they are grown up will have a lot to offer, but, really, I'm pretty sure the family-raising years will prove to be the highlight of my life.

I think maybe my kids like it around here for the most part. At least I think that was supposed to be the message they were sending me.

Stockings hung by the chimney with care? Check. Though the fireplace itself could use some updating from it's 1973 glory days. It's on the list.
Have you ever noticed how the oldest child often has the hand-crafted stocking that took forever to make and then you never had time to do another one after the first kid was born, so theirs are all store bought? My kids have.

Grownup Girl's Stocking
I like the transformation of the house for this time of year, so I put a lot of my regular stuff away and it becomes all about the Christmas. I have all of my mom's Christmas decor also, so I take special joy in having it all on display.

My mother was not religious, but she did appreciate a lovely nativity scene. I must thank my mother-in-law for the lovely wall hanging and the Hummel figurines.

Giant Carolers prepare to stomp small village. As soon as the song is over.

I have been eating candy canes (not these same ones) from this sleigh since my mother bought it at the Sav-On on Lincoln Blvd in Venice Beach in 1967.

This is one of my favorite decorations in the holiday season. I gift wrap the door leading from the kitchen to the garage and hang all the cards we get. As it gets closer to the 25th more cards come in until you can barely see the paper. Christmas letters? I love them all, even the braggy ones. I really want to know how you're doing and what your kids are up to!

The tree, of course, is the centerpiece. Ours is artificial and has been for several years. We came very close (firefighters battling flames in our backyard close) to losing our house in the Cedar Fire. Six weeks later, when it came time to get a tree, I had an anxiety attack at the idea of knowingly bringing a fire hazard into my home. Irrational probably, but the feeling was real.

I made this for my mom in Girl Scouts when I was 8.
For all of us, so much of what makes decorating for Christmas special is the memories attached to each ornament, or nutcracker, or candlestick as well as the memories of the wonderful meals eaten off the special plates with the best silver.
Maybe that's the point of Christmas culturally (versus the religious reason); to make us stop at least once a year and think about the memories we have and the ones we'd like to make. And to make us reconnect with one another and with our extended families--it's not always easy, but I've always found it to be worthwhile.
