Tie One On and Love Your Holiday Home

Today’s Better Homes and Garden healthy countdown task is “Tie One On,” a theme that will resonate with a lot of you. Yep, it’s about donning a festive holiday apron to get you in the mood for delicious Christmas baking.

I made this simple Christmas toile apron last year and the oven mitt this year. It makes me happy to use things I make myself. As I look around my house this holiday season, I am somewhat surprised and certainly delighted to realize that most everything is homemade—by me, my husband, a family member or a friend. Blessings indeed!

Loving Your Holiday Home

Karla’s Cottage is hosting a “What Do You Love about Your Holiday Home?” party today.

I’ve been thinking about what I love most about my home at Christmas. The major thing is something that I can’t photograph—that special sense of divine spirit. In lieu of that, here are a few tangible things I love.

Originally, a Christmas tree in all its evergreen finery represented the life cycle and the stamina required to survive winter. Although surviving winter here in Tucson isn’t challenging, the symbolism of the Christmas tree isn’t lost on us and still resonates in our hearts.

Our tree is representative of the full and blessed life my husband and I have and is chock full of ornaments we’ve collected over the years from family, friends, and our travels.

This is a simple glass ball ornament I painted using a gold calligraphy marker and then tied with a gold bow. I love the spiral symbol as it means the continuity of life and that is what we are celebrating this time of year.

I already shared the hand-blown glass ornaments that I make each year in a previous post.

This is one of a large set of southwestern clay ornaments especially made for us by my talented mother-in-law when we got married and moved to Tucson. They are hand-formed and cured in a kiln. I so love gifts from the heart.

I’ve been collecting Annalee nativity pieces over the years. We found the stable at Costco years ago that perfectly accommodates the nativity figures, each of which is about 7-inches high. I have a few more pieces to find and then I’ll call it done. Most especially I need Mary as poor baby Jesus hasn’t any mother right now—how sad is that?

My house is decorated and overflowing with the joys of the season but the best part of Christmas is what it all means. The tree and the nativity—what more can I say?

Most of all I love my holiday home because it is just that—my home and sanctuary—no matter the time of year.