Christmas Centerpieces

These are pics of my prototype centerpiece for a Christmas 2009 banquet that I decorated for.

You can see the 2010 centerpiece here. 
My 2009 centerpiece is a spin on the pomander centerpiece (pictured below) that I had spied at Martha Stewart.

Where do you find your inspiration for decorating?

Linked to Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Night Special

In Memororium

This picture of my mom's family was taken the Sunday before her oldest sister bravely boarded a boat

to immigrate to Canada (1953).  Later, my mom boarded the same boat to make the same journey.  They would leave the rest of their family in the Netherlands. 
My mom is the beauty on the far right.

As a child, my mom used to say that she always wanted to be able to see the tower in her hometown. 

Our ideas are sometimes so different than God's purposes.  

Love and providence took her across the Atlantic to settle in Canada in 1954. 

Yesterday one of my mom's sister (the one standing in the photograph) in the Netherlands went to be with Jesus.

I only knew her a little bit. 

but I remember her to be kind, real, and full of life.

She will be greatly missed. 

 

3

days left.

In case we don't get back to blogging

before the big day

Merry Christmas

to you and yours.

Christmas is Messy

I have this idyllic image of Christmas in my head.

It goes something like this:

I calmly and peacefully

enjoy each precious day of December

counting down to the glorious day.

I float from stress less shopping at the mall where all the ideal gifts are free and fancifully wrapped,

to effortless Christmas pageant rehearsals where the children and I always remember our lines.

 

Smells of gingerbread mingle with pine

as I wake up to my perfectly tidy and pristinely clean house where the

tree is decorated,

the stockings are hung,

and each hall is decked out in Christmas glory.

But the startling reality bombards me. 

It goes something like this:

I scream through

each exhausting day of December

dreading the impending arrival of the anticipated day.

I race through shopping malls looking for gifts to express my appreciation and love

for mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, dear friends, teachers, bus drivers etc.

wishing that my bank account and I were both inexhaustible.

I arrive at Christmas pageant rehearsal

praying that my children and I will remember our lines

and find a suitable costume

in time.

I wake up wishing I could smell the iced balsam candles

over the lingering scent of last night's supper and wondering if today might be the day that I 

move and throw into the sea

the mountain of laundry in my basement.

I hope that tonight

when I lay me down

there will be some presents wrapped and under the tree.

But as I sit here

far too early this morning

I wonder about

Jesus' mama

and how she felt that first Christmas day.



When a beautifully perfect baby boy was

born into a

stinky

unsanitary

barn

to travel weary parents

experiencing a very chaotic socio-economic atmosphere.

Let's face it:

Christmas is messy. 

So I think I might just

drop the idyllic image in my head

and embrace the reality that Jesus was also

born into this messy life.

He came to make us clean

and free

and full of peace.

I will probably spend the rest of the days of this month

scurrying around trying to get everything done.

I'll probably enter January

utterly exhausted.

But in this moment

I am putting a new idyllic image in my mind.

It's the one above

of Mary and Joseph

holding that precious baby Jesus

in the middle of their messy, chaotic,

and hard to understand circumstances.

I pray that both you and I will

experience the embrace

of the Saviour

this season.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Em-belle-ishing our House this Christmas

 

13 days till Christmas.

Christmas Banquet Decor

This past week I had the privilege of decorating

for a banquet that our church puts on

for the pastors of all the churches in our area.



A friend and I tromped through the snow to find that branch and

Dr. Pepper sawed it into pieces for me.

I like the texture that the natural bark adds.

I always decorate a table for the workers too.

Often, it is slightly different than the other tables. 

I used a rectangular tray instead of the square that I used for the others.  The jumbo tea lights were on inverted water glasses instead of the bits of wood that the other ones were on.

Resource List:

I found the natural cedar and pine, the glittered twigs, as well as the jumbo tea lights at Walmart.

I picked up chestnuts at the grocery store.

The tree ornaments and pine cones came from the stash we have at church.

The white trays were from Costco, but that was a few years ago now.

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