Lights All Aglow and other such festivities

Light the candles, it's Christmas time!

I love the warm glow of candlelight. At our house, when candles are lit, two things happen: Hazel rushes in shouting "Birthday!" and immediately tries to blow them out, and Steve wanders through the house, sniffing the air and asking, "Is something burning? I smell smoke." Needless to say, candles don't stay lit at our house for very long.

Hazel will stop at nothing to blow out a candle. Here she is, on the table, extinguishing the solitary flame from this centerpiece as I was trying to photograph it.

Maybe I should light candles everyday and let her blow them out all the time so it becomes less of a novelty!

I've had this cinnamon-scented brick candle since we were first married, and it always comes out at Christmas.

This year it's illuminating a portrait of Christ. Sorry about the glare on the glass...guess I should have taken the time to find my polarizing filter.

For more candle centerpiece ideas, you can go to last year's post here.

When I was growing up, one of my most eagerly-anticipated Christmas decorating events was setting up the Nativity scene. My mom had a porcelain set much like this one, but she had meticulously painted her figurines with amazing detail in the most gorgeous colors. Someday I'll make the time to paint my set, but for now they will have to settle with being pure white. Anyway, Dad had built a manger out of wood, and the figurines were carefully placed on the shelf with reverence and respect (that is, when we weren't fighting over who got to put which character in place...gotta keep it real). There was even a clay star that was suspended above the scene from the top of the window frame. In Mom's set, the baby Jesus was separate from the manger, and we wouldn't put the baby figurine into the manger until Christmas Eve = a very exciting event for me. I remember being fascinated by all the beautiful details in the figures, and would sit and study it for a long time every year.

Christmas Eve was also when we'd wrap towels around our heads, put on bathrobes, and act out the Christmas Story while my dad read the account in Luke. I think our kids are old enough to start doing that at our house...hmmm...do you think Hazel would hold still long enough to be the baby Jesus? Not a chance. Better make her a shephard. She could be a Wise Man, but she probably wouldn't want to give up her treasure to the baby!

I don't have a star suspended above my Nativity scene, but I do have this Silent Night sign that I painted several years ago on display above the shelf the scene rests on.

Here's a sweet little wreath that is hanging on one of our interior doors. One year I made a bunch of wreaths and had them on display all together on one big wall in a large arrangement. This year they're just adorning our doors because I don't have the wall space for them as a group.

I've had this beaded wreath forever, and in this house I have it hanging on a wall year-round. I put one of my hand-painted plates that I did a few years ago in the center and it fit perfectly! Love it when that happens.

Here are some more plates that I painted at the same time as Mr Snowman above.

This one is among my favorites.

I always start singing the "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" tune in my head when I see this one.

In case you were wondering, I made all the little circle dots you see with the tip of a Qtip dipped in paint. The tips get fuzzy after a few dips, so it's necessary to go through quite a few Qtips to keep the circles uniform and non-blotchy.

And this whimsical tree always makes me smile. I may have adapted this tree from a stylized tree I saw elsewhere, I'm not sure - it's been too long ago. Of course, it's hard for me to remember what happened yesterday, let alone 2 years ago, so that's not saying much! :-)

Even the tree sculpture my Dad made for us (see the link to his site in my sidebar) is feeling festive!

I didn't take pictures of our "family hodge-podge" tree this year - the one my kids help me decorate. I haven't made any new ornaments for it yet. To see a bunch of handmade ornaments we put on our tree, you can go to last year's post here.

Little Frosty is wishing you all a very Merry Christmas...either that or he's cheerfully endorsing Holiday Bulbs - but only the pretty but durable, Made in the USA kind (wink).

Comments

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I really love the 11th photo and I think this one fit to my new home. I'll buy on too. :)

Deirdre G

Posted by: homes for sale philippines | December 08, 2009 at 07:41 PM

If you take all the cotton stuff off the end of the Q-tip, it still works (for making dots)and lasts even longer! I've even used the flat ends of ball-point pens, chopsticks and old dried-out markers for making dots.

Posted by: Michele | December 09, 2009 at 04:51 PM