I managed to get the dining room decorations finished over the weekend. I also decluttered it a bit - and hid what has to stay a bit better. The small Christmas tree I put up in there is up and decorated with the brass ornaments we get with our membership in Colonial Williamsburg. A silverplated tea caddy ornament (we bought the full size caddy on sale one year and the ornament came with it) hangs at the top of the tree instead of an angel or star.
Sounds simple right? To get ready to set up the tree I had to store away husband’s DVDs which have accumulated since last Christmas. The new ones sat on the chest he made to store his DVDs because - yes - it filled a few years ago. We have a secretary (piece of furniture- drawers with fold down front for desk and shelves above it - green curtain inside hides the shelves and what is on them). It was bought to be used as a bar and to hold table linens in the drawer. The shelves held assorted bar and my good glasses. I have been clearing it out as I can to make room for - yes - more DVDs. Most of the bottom of the 3 shelves is DVD storage - I donated unneeded, unused glassware in the kitchen last year and moved most of my good glasses to where they had been to make the room for these DVDs. I just donated a set of small wine glasses we never used earlier this month. I want to get rid of most if not all of the bar ware as it was rarely used when we had people in and that will give him more room. But, back to the chest now. I ended up with DVDs that there was no room for and set them aside. The chest when it was built by my husband was put on wheels just for this - I pushed it from the living room to the dining room. Other than having to jump a molding between the living room and front hall, it is easy to push. It goes against the far wall in the dining room. The table is moved to the center of the room for this - it is normally pushed against the same far wall. This gives room in the living room for the big tree (where the chest was) and a place to put the dining room tree. I put the leftover, homeless DVDs behind the tree and then found a nice throw we received from CW some years ago, folded it in half lengthwise and wrapped the bottom of the tree - and the DVDs behind it - it looks like a nice tree skirt and the DVDs are hidden.
Sunday I also started bringing up the parts of the big tree and stuck them together - and the small tree that goes in our studio. The studio tree gets ornaments we have made - but some also go on the big tree and all are stored together, so they get decorated together. I figured - okay, we are close on time, but not too bad to get done before Christmas. I had planned on Monday night to spread out the branches and make the big tree look nice and add the lights - along with our traditional first 3 items - the angel topper and two angels all stitched by me or my husband.
Then we got an order on our Etsy account. We don’t get a lot of orders and they are mostly of the smallest of the items we sell. This was for a medium priced item and I had to do the paperwork before I started working on the tree - okay, I figured, half an hour. Yeah, right. Paypal changed their website and we got so confused trying to buy postage and print the label that we ended up doing it twice and had to cancel one of them. So the entire evening was gone and no work on the tree.
Tuesday we went to the eye doctor. He is in the next county so we go to together. We can’t come home right away as neither of can see enough to drive that much so we go to stores near him. (Good eye report, thank goodness.) We ended up having dinner out at Ikea on the way home. I did get the tree arranged and the lights and first three items on it at night.
Tonight I took the exam I had to take and now the exams are done with until the middle of next year. But by the time I was done, and taking into consideration doing the laundry and writing to all of you - no time for the tree tonight. Oh, well, at least gift shopping is over - we are done with his nieces and I will mail checks to my niece and nephew.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One can only do what one can do. For the Passover holiday in the spring there is a song which translates to “it would have been enough” - it talks about things that God did to help the Jews leave Egypt and after each item is mentioned the refrain is “it would have been enough”.
If the tree is finished at the last minute it will done then. If it is not finished then however it is, it is finished (and I can always add on after the holiday). My teddy village will be done when it is done. It is often not worked on until Christmas Eve or Day or later (I guess that is why it stays up so long).
My point being that whatever is done when the holiday come is enough. If stuff is shoved into a bag and stuffed behind a bench - that is good enough if that is all there is time for. A few years ago for two years we had one little tree with only a limited decorations - and that was enough.
I take the time now to wish all who celebrate, a Pleasant Christmas (merry sounds too demanding).
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