My lack of domestic skills (and lack of interest in domestic skills) is no secret. Cooking and cleaning just aren’t things I enjoy. We can add decorating and craftiness to to that column too. Since we moved back to our condo 14 months ago, I’ve ignored the screws and nails protruding from our bare walls where things could (and should) be hung.
My recent addiction to Pinterest has encouraged me to find simple and cheap ways to spruce things up. There are so many cute ideas, and most of the things will likely stay just that…ideas. But every once in a while, I get the hankering to try one of the ideas and it’s not a disaster. For instance, over Thanksgiving break, I got some new things for our bathroom to add some character. I bought a new shower curtain, towels and rugs to add some bright colors. I found some nice frames on sale at Hobby Lobby and put scrapbook paper in them, hung them in a column on the wall, then using dry erase markers, wrote something on the glass of each one. Using dry erase markers on the glass allows me to change out the sayings from time to time. Right now, one frame says” Rejoice in Hope,” one says “Be Patient in Tribulation” and the final one says “Be Constant in Prayer.” (Romans 12:12). Finally, I added one of those sticky vinyl wall sayings that says “Be your own kind of beautiful.” It looks pretty nice, and I’m proud of myself.
The one time of the year that I don’t mind decorating is at Christmastime. I love Christmas. Each year on the day after Thanksgiving while all of the crazy people are out shopping, I hole up in my house and spend the day putting up our tree and other decorations while Christmas music plays all day long.
There’s nothing fancy about our tree. After a few years of paying crazy Florida prices for a real tree (and yes, paying $80.00 for a tree is crazy), we bit the bullet and switched over to artificial. I don’t love fake Christmas trees, but I do love that it’s pre-lit and I don’t have to mess with strings of lights.
But what I love most about our tree is that it has a lot of our personalities in it. It’s not all “matchy-matchy” with colorful glass bulbs, bows and ribbons. Instead, our ornaments are a collection of figurines and bulbs that describe who we are, both individually and as a couple. As I put up our tree each year, I reflect on how we’ve changed and grown. We’ve discovered new interests along the way (running and diving, for instance), but some things haven’t changed at all. There are a lot of other things on our tree that have meaning (and some that have no meaning at all), and there are many very important aspects of our lives and personalities that don’t have Christmas ornaments to represent them. Here are a just a few things that represent us:
1.) We are runners. A lot of our free time is spent running/racing and cycling.
3.) We’re both kinda techy. At any given time, you can be pretty certain that one of us is on our iPhones, our laptops or my iPad. It’s not always a good thing, but it’s the truth.
4.) Being from Indiana, I have a couple of John Deere ornaments that remind me that I’m a Northern girl at heart.
5.) We love Gus, our Yorkie. He’s incredibly spoiled and gets a lot of our attention.
6.) Ben’s the main gamer in our house, but we do love to play games together.
7.) I LOVE dill pickles. Love them.
8a.) I also have a slight addiction to coffee.
8b.) As my coffee of choice, Starbucks is a big part of my coffee addiction.
9.) Ben is a certified scuba diver. Thankfully he doesn’t dive in a glittery blue Speedo.
10.) We are huge Boston Red Sox fans. There are probably no less than 15 ornaments on our tree dedicated to the Red Sox.
Yes, our tree is a random hodge podge of mis-matched ornaments, but I prefer it that way. I like the timeline of our relationship and the growth it represents. I like that we add new ornaments each year–some that reflect old interests and some that reflect new ones. I hope that when we’re 80 years old, our tree is so jam-packed with ornaments that you can’t even see the tree! And I hope that every single one of them says something about us, our faith, our family, our lives together and our interests.
