Joyeaux Noël
I went to my first Christmas party of the season last night...and it was an amazing time! This party is hosted by an incredible lady I used to work with and the guests are all women I used to work with as well, some still work there, some have retired, some, such as myself, have moved on to explore other avenues. Regardless, these are the women that true undying friendships are made of. All our personalities cover the entire spectrum. I know you know what I'm talking about...like in the movies...we're like a combination of Steel Magnolias, Ya Ya Sisterhood, The Book Club, and God only knows what else. You have the forever married, the divorced, the never married, the cusser, the non-cusser, the one who has it together, the one who doesn't, etc. , etc. But the one thing we all have...HUGE HEARTS OF LOVE and LAUGHTER. This annual party literally has at least one person if not all laughing so hard they cry...some may even pee their pants...which will undoubtedly have someone else laugh so hard they pee their pants. We play games, tell stories, eat incredible food, and always and I do mean ALWAYS go home with sweet and fabulous gifts from the hostess. It truly is the one thing I try my darnedest every year not to miss. And I just hope with everything I am that it doesn't end anytime soon. 🎄
Since I brought up "annual traditions", I wanted to share with you one of my favorite traditions that literally feels like I just started it just a couple of years ago. In reality, I started in back in 1991 when Bill and I celebrated our one year Anniversary. It's a Christmas Memory Book. I'm not exactly where I purchased this, but I'm sure at the time I didn't think I would actually remember to do it each year. Little did I know that it would become one of my favorite traditions and one that has meant so much as time as gone by.
This book holds 25 years of Christmas history for our family. Yes, 25 years!!! It's one of those fill in the blank books giving each year two full pages of the statements for you to complete such as: Where we spent Christmas this year___________, Who we spent it with________, etc., and then there are places to add pictures and/or Christmas cards. Every January, after all the Christmas decor is put away and life is back to our new normal, I pull out the book and start highlighting the past holiday season. One of the areas I love to complete is the area where it allows you to write about the last year's events. No matter how hard you try, you always end up looking through the book and recollecting events, pictures, memories... like these! Our babies aren't babies anymore and it just amazes me how time has flown by and how incredibly blessed Bill and I were to be able to give them such beautiful memories.
It's so funny looking at the pictures and remembering certain things like, "I remember that coat" or "people always asked if they were twins". And literally, all my kids loved Santa! No one was ever afraid of him...although one or two of them did clam up when they were asked what they wanted Santa to bring them. It was always hilarious that they knew what they were going to say in the car ride to see Santa, but when finally asked, their poor little minds went blank😂
Then they got older...Santa no longer became their highlight...
Adolescents had taken over...electronics, clothes, and sports had taken precedence, not Santa...then before you knew it, they were out of the house... but HOME brought them back for Christmas...
So as you can imagine, this book is very precious to me. So precious that I absolutely worried what I was going to do after 25 years was completed. Fortunately, we have AMAZON. In 2016 I was so incredibly excited to be able to find the exact same book on Amazon. So I scooped it up and am working on another 25 years! And for those of you who don't think Christmas cards mean much....how wrong you are. In addition to adding the pictures and yearly highlights, every year I narrow down all the Christmas cards we receive for the season to about 3 or 4 and I have the family (who ever is around anyway) vote on their favorite. The winning/chosen card gets placed in the book! Some cards come from family, some friends, and some have come from overseas! Sometimes we just can't pick one so two end up going in the book!
And speaking of special cards, this one below was hand delivered to me from one of my hair clients. She has been "dabbling" in water color for over a year now posting some of her work on her personal FaceBook page and it's beautiful. Last year she drew the cutest snowman and had it turned into a regular picture and mailed it out as her Christmas card...of course it was chosen for our memory book!! But this one I am having framed because it was made especially for me, lover of the French/Parisienne decor that I am! I have the most talented and beautiful (inside and out!) friends ever!
Seriously, is it not the cutest?!?! It just gets me in the holiday spirit!!! I sent out my cards and since my kids aren't together (until Christmas this year!) I decided to include our "other" kid in our Christmas card...
Lol, don't ya just love her scarf? She looks so regal (hence her name Kimber Reign). She just turned ONE this past November so I wanted to make sure I got her something to keep her warm this winter 😂. Her daddy won't let me buy her "outfits"... And being the good puppy that she is, she hasn't bothered ONE Christmas decoration yet. I'm pretty sure if I rolled an ornament towards her, that would be a different story since balls are her favorite!
And since I'm all finished decorating for the season, here are a few pics to share with you. Tonight St. Nick visits our house!🤗 Yes, St. Nick even visits 20 something year olds☺️ So our stockings are hung by the chimney with care...
#stockings #christmascards #memorybook #christmas #christmasparty #decorations #holidayspirit