About Me

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Indiana, United States
I'm a mother of five of my own children, very blessed adoptive mommy to one, step mother to three! Married to a wonderful man who forgives ALOT! Grammy to 6!I also have the best "kids in law" that I could have! I am blessed to be able to baby sit for our grandchildren a few days a week. I am blessed to be able to NOW stay home full time to take care of our home, children, and grandchildren!!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Our Indiana Christmas Decorations!!

Yes! Believe it or not...all those stockings belong to our immediate family. Eight kids, three in-law kids, two grandkids and mine and Roger's...for a total of fifteen stockings hung on our mantle. Lord willing, there will be AT LEAST two more for the little babies due to be born in 2010! We always fill stocking for the "dating" people in our grown but not gone kids' lives, too but they aren't hung on the mantle yet.
These are my "Old World" Santas. I keep them on the top of my hutch in the family room with greenery and lights and such. The bunny is just a strange little thing that I add to them. I have REALLY come under the conviction of the Lord lately that I am putting too much emphasis on the Santa aspect of Christmas so I'm going to start cutting back and adding Christ oriented things to our decorations from now on. I read a blog from the Maxwell family and they have inspired me to be more meaningful in our Christmas decor. However, my hubby and I have discussed it and he said that he thinks it's ok for us to keep some of our Santa's but just maybe cut back on the ones we don't really care that much for. These are some I will certainly be keeping. The one in the middle I just bought from Goodwill last week and the bunny was purchased at Goodwill as well. The Santa on the left has been in our decorations since before I got ROGER, so I will keep him, as well! (AND Roger....) The Santa on the right was a gift from my "not so crazy about Santa husband"...but since I really like old world Santas, Roger bought him for me anyway! We just really want our focus to be on Christ!!

This is the "real" Christmas tree we cut down as a family. Notice my doggie, Precious, in the corner? Yeah, her eyes don't really glow. She's a sweetie, part shepherd and collie, I think. She's getting old...about 11 or 12, I think and we really really love her. We got her from a neighbor who was going to take her to the Humane Society and I had already fallen in love with her so we adopted her!!!!


This is the new tree that my husband won from Circle Center Mall in downtown Indianapolis. It was the Nordstrum tree and came with gift certificates!! WOOHOO! It has all these odd looking wooden bird all over it. We like it because it is unusual. It just was delivered on Monday. (Our woodwork trim isn't done yet...hmmmm...it's been two years......oh well.....) It is in the corner of our dining room.

This is our tree in my favorite room, the living room. It's kind of hard to see but most of it is decorated in white. I received Christmas keys from my secret pal from church last week and they are hung with red ribbons...I'm planning to change them. There are three keys on the tree. The first is the Shepherd's key and is supposed to represent the lowliness of Christ's birth (you hang it low on the tree), the middle key is the Magi key and placed high on the tree because they followed the start to find Jesus. The third is the Christ key and is to be hung in the center because Christ was hung in the center...between you and me. I have some crocheted ornaments to put on this tree yet and I'm planning to spend time with the younger kids and make some more whitish ornaments for this tree.
Thanks for looking our our Christmas trees! Merry CHRISTmas!!!





7 comments:

  1. Beautiful decorations!!

    Thanks for the comment. Ive been posting more on my other blog (www.ahomekeepingblogbycandy.blogspot.com) which you can find on my profile page.


    Merry Christmas!
    candy

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  2. Wow Beth, your home is so lovely! And I love all of your trees too♥ Interestingly enough I had that same growing sort of dis-ease with my Santa themed decorations a few years ago. I did end up gradually getting rid of most of my Santa decorations.. it was really hard because some of them were soooo cute, and some of them had been gifts:( But I found people who loved them as I did and passed them along so they all found good homes (just like your dog, right?;)) Well, I shouldn't say all, as I have kept one Santa: an old pencil that had a Santa face carved into the wood. I still guiltily hang it on my tree every year;)

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  3. Dear Persuaded, I am planning to regift some of our Santas as well this year as we give out our Christmas cookies. I'm sending verses and "tracts" as well, so perhaps that will offset the whole Santa thing???
    Kind of a funny...maybe...my husband told me last night that when he taught in a small Christian school, a man came in as a speaker in chapel and rearanged the letters in Santa and came up with Satan. Now I wouldn't go THAT far....!!!!!!

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  4. Hi Beth,
    Love your trees and how blessed you were to win a tree. We have always made Jesus the focus of our Christmas celebrations. I do not regard Santa as the 'enemy' but he is a powerful distraction and a very useful marketing tool for advertisers wanting us to spend up large. I do not take the children to see santa or have photos with him, as I saw that each year, more and more, santa was becoming the 'hero' of Christmas and I didn't want my children to think this is what Christmas was about. I teach my children the history of the legend of santa claus and we read books about St Nicholas. We have lots more books about the birth of Jesus though (and of course the Bible!) and I always love to set out my willow tree Nativity scene. I have just painted some wooden letters silver and put them in a prominent high place - they spell out Jesus! I do have a pair of 'old fashioned' ceramic St Nicholas style tree decorations and I purposefully position them behind my wooden 'Jesus' Heart - see this at my Christmas blog! We do have stockings too which are filled with small gifts and other beautifully wrapped gifts under the tree - not from santa but simply given to each other to remind us of the greatest gift of all. My children are not deprived because we don't give santa the credit and they have never suffered any hang ups as a result! Their child like wonder is given over to the fact that a tiny baby born in a stable would be the Saviour of the world and that He is also their best friend - all year round! They absolutely love Christmas and their anticipation and joy is always evident. When people ask them and that includes Christians 'What is santa bringing you for Christmas?', they look at them with a puzzled look and say 'Don't you know? - Christmas is about Jesus! This is quite convicting for the Christians!
    It does sadden me that some Christians are choosing not to celebrate Christmas because it is dedicated to the 'gods of greed, commercialism and spending' citing that it was once a pagan festival and Jesus was not born on 25th December. I am glad that the Christians of the time reacted to all the pagan celebrations going on around them and decided to shine their lights in their darkness. I have a poem about what happened to Christmas at my Christmas blog which reflects my beliefs about Christmas and proclaims why I choose to celebrate it with passion!
    BTW I am still waiting for my Christmas baby to arrive - could it be on Christmas day?

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  5. Beth,
    Your decorations are beautiful. You are blessed to have a large family. I wish you the most wonderful and blessed Christmas ever. I am so thankful that I have met you this year. Love and caring radiates from you.
    Sincerely,
    Marie

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  6. Wow, your house is so pretty in all those decorations! I love ALL of the stockings!

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  7. Merry CHRISTmas! I loved the comment about Aaron that you left on my blog. I laughed and laughed! :-)

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