‡ Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly  …  Falalalala-lalalala ‡

It’s that time of year!  The carols are playing in small towns, the nativities are set up, gifts are being wrapped, shoppers are out in hoards, and the feeling in the air is festive!  Today I’m sharing my dining room decked out for Christmas as part of the Holiday Homes Tour Blog Hop.  We are each sharing one room, and I’m sharing my dining room decked out for Christmas – make sure you check out the links at the bottom of the post!

And now, welcome to my dining room, and welcome to a tale I’ve woven just for you.

Once upon a time there was a little girl who loved Christmas so much she could hardly wait till the day arrived.  She looked forward to it all year long and it seemed to her that the days dragged more slowly the closer it got to Christmas Day.  She gazed out the window every day in December, watched snow flakes fall, pressed her nose to the frosted windowpane, and wished upon the stars at eventide.  Oh how she wished time would move more swiftly!

But no matter how slowly the days seemed to move, Christmas day did arrive each and every year.  Usually Christmas began before Christmas day for this little girl and continued on, right up through New Year’s Day.  The little girl’s Christmas with her little family usually was celebrated on an evening after a Christmas dinner, sometimes on a Sunday for lunch, but usually in the evening.  Steak sizzled under the broiler and seasoned the green beans in the pan beneath the steak.  Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without the steak and the beans.  Home canned beans – grown in the garden out back during the summer, picked by Momma, and snapped by the little girl and her siblings under the shade of a big Hickory tree. (but that’s another story for another day)  French fries – hand cut from potatoes grown on Grandpas farm and deep-fried.  Nothing could ever top those french fries.

The little girl loved the Big Christmas at Grandma’s house.  The whole family was there – 5 sets of aunts and uncles, and a multitude of cousins and the fun just never stopped.  Lots of great food, plenty of gifts, oodles of party mix, and the love and laughter of family.  Christmas was wonderful and life was good.

For years the little girl enjoyed each Christmas and excitedly looked forward to it, quite impatient at the slowness of the passage of time.  Some years it was so warm only a light jacket or sweater were needed.  Other years the cold was so deep the ice skates were pulled out and everyone headed to the pond at Grandpa’s house.  Memories were being created without the little girl even realizing it – she thought she was just having fun!

And then something quietly started changing.  The little girl wasn’t quite so little anymore.  She still loved Christmas, she still waited impatiently for the days to arrive when she could hang out with her cousins she didn’t get to see very often, but she didn’t run and play quite so much.  Running and games slowly turned to long talks that only young teenage girls understand, hair styles, clothes, boys, and plenty of laughter.  And the years rolled on.

Suddenly the little girl was not even a young teen but a young adult.  And one Christmas was destined to forever stand out among all the others.  For this Christmas she was introduced to a young man she’d never met.  And if you’ve never believed in love at first sight, this young woman could most certainly assure you that Love-at-First-Sight does indeed exist!  She didn’t realize it right in the beginning, but that Christmas marked the end of a single life and the beginning a wonderful life shared with the most wonderful of men.

Less than a year after that special Christmas, the little girl, now a grown woman, became a Mrs. and a couple years later Christmases started including some new little people.  The young woman still loved Christmas, but somehow now it didn’t seem to take as long for Christmas to arrive.  And the year between Christmases seemed to grow shorter each year.

As the little people in the woman’s life grew bigger, the woman started a blog, which eventually morphed into more than a hobby and she started doing crafty stuff and tutorials and sharing her home decor.  Then she started a handmade business and the time between Christmases now shrunk even more.  There just wasn’t enough time in a day and she always ended up feeling like she needed at least one more week to accomplish all she’d set out to do.

This year the stress of feeling like she couldn’t measure up to the ‘big bloggers’ and the angst she felt over not being able to do all she wanted to do threatened to take the fun and joy out of Christmas.  But then she remembered how blessed she was, how healthy her children were, how wonderful her husband was and how thankful she was to be able to be a stay-at-home mom who now owned her own business, and blogged fun projects and home decor and she threw stress and angst out the window, snuggled down under a warm, plaid blanket, sipped her hot coffee, and edited her photos so she could share her Christmas home decor as part of a Holiday Home Blog Hop.

She looked around her living room, over the top of her computer screen, and had to smile at the clutter of living that was accumulating among the decor she’d worked to make ‘perfect’.  There were Playmobile dinosaurs under the Christmas tree, school books scattered across the coffee table and couch and a myriad of blankets tossed hither and yon.  Did all of that ‘mess’ translate into lovely photos that could grace the pages of a magazine or bring oohs and aahs from readers across the globe?  Not likely.  But all those ‘imperfections’ spoke of a life being lived, memories being made, and the love and laughter of HOME.

And as the woman (who used to be a little girl who could hardly wait till Christmas arrived) contemplated it a bit longer she realized that her children were now the ones making memories and building traditions they would someday look back on in fondness when it was THEIR houses that boasted the toys, and papers, and chaos of children.

And the woman looked heavenward, breathed a prayer of thanksgiving and asked God to help her keep her perspective on the things that matter most.

She still LOVES Christmas, that little-girl-gown-into-a-woman, and she still eagerly looks forward to it.  But she no longer thinks the days drag – she has those days packed full and overflowing – and now she enjoys the whole journey of each day instead of wishing on the evening stars that Christmas would hurry up and get here!

 Now that you’ve had a little peek into my holiday home and have a bit of a glimpse into the life of the girl behind the blogger, it’s time to go visit my friends and see the rooms they are sharing today!

Be blessed this Christmas.

Jill

1. Casa Watkins ~ Winter Home Tour, Part 3

2. Kolb Corner ~ Christmas Dining Room Tour and Holiday Homes Blog Hop

3. Green with Decor ~ 5 Must Haves for Christmas Decorating: The Family Room Christmas Tour

4. Karen’s Up On the Hill ~ Holiday Hallway and Holiday Homes Blog Hop

5. Twelve on Main ~ Farmhouse Christmas Dining Room Tour

6. The House Down the Lane ~ Holiday Homes Blog Hop: Red and White Christmas Dining Room

7. Creatively Homespun ~ A Vintage Christmas Dining Room

8. 2 Bees in a Pod ~ Guest Room Christmas Home Tour

9. Sew a Fine Seam ~ Dining Room Decked Out For Christmas

10. Knock It Off Crafts ~ Holiday Homes Blog Hop: Festive Master

11. Vintage Paint and More ~ Christmas Home Tour 2015, Part 1

12. Inside the Fox Den ~ Candy Coated Living Room

13. Penny Love Projects ~ Holiday Home Tour

14. Made In a Day ~ Mini Holiday Decor Tour

15. Refashionably Late ~ Holiday Home Hop

16. Pretty Practical Home ~ Simple (and Cheap) Holiday Porch Decor – Holiday Homes Blog Hop

17. Intelligent Domestications ~ Christmas Traditions Home Tour 2015

18. Our Crafty Mom ~ Outdoor Holiday Decor: Front Entry

19. Lehman Lane ~ Green and Gold Christmas Dining Room

20. C’mon, Get Crafty ~ 2015 Holiday Homes Blog Hop

21. My Pinterventures ~ Holiday Home Tour 2015