Tuesday afternoon

Having been overseas for so long, this is the first Christmas in at least 7 years that I have had all of my Christmas decorations.  And living in a new house means having to find the right place to put them all.

It has been a pleasure to unpack these treasures and to spend some time with the memories they call up.  I have somehow accumulated an unintentional collection of Santas, many from places we've visited.  I even have one from a cart outside of Russel Market in Bangalore--a Hindu Santa who has his kumkum mark on his forehead.  They are 'organized' around a little sign that spells out SANTA on 5 little houses.  I will never be able to see this without thinking of JLO's high school boyfriend who always rearranged it to spell SATAN whenever he was around.  (JLO is our younger daughter; The Nameless One is our elder.)

I have a collection of Byer's Carolers that represents the husband's entire family at a moment in time--back when we, along with his sister and brother, were the young parents with babies thru preteens, and his parents were the grandparents.  Come spring the husband and I will be the grandparents and his parents move up a notch to become greats.

There are the felt ornaments that I sewed our first Christmas together, because we had no ornaments to decorate with.  The N-O-E-L pillows I made with the E that flops over because its arms are too long.  The tree we bought when we moved back from Venezuela so that we would never be without a Christmas tree no matter where we lived.  And a lifetime of ornaments to put on it, collected year by year so that we would have a way to mark a significant or silly event from each year, as well as all of the ornaments the girls made through the years. 

I have a collection of Santas in vehicles (a Hallmark series) that I have packed away for the grandchildren.  And I brought out, for the first time, my Christmas pop-up books that were supposed to be for grandchildren, but are just too much fun not to have out.

Two weeks from tomorrow The Nameless One arrives, marking the beginning of the entire family's arrival between then and the 24th.  There will be 16 of us here--a command performance for my 4 children (the girls and their spouses) as I want to use my Christmas dishes once, at least.  The rest of the family is joining us so that we can be together for the first time in years for Christmas.  And this year I will light the menorah while everyone is here, and relish the blessing of having my family together at a time of year that is special for all of us, mostly because it brings us together and makes more memories.