A Pretty Little Christmas

This is a very long post so hang onto your santa hats and grab a cup of cocoa and enjoy!


In our house we have a very traditional christmas decor. I would love to have a shabby christmas room but since we don't have a den, we will stick to all our many loved christmas treasures because they are very special. I am fortunate to know many creative people and have many handmade items that I cherish.


This quilt was given to me by my great aunt. Her sister made it-all handstitched.



We just got the tree up tonight and I will just show you a couple of our treasured handmade ornaments. Of course we have all the wonderful child made ornies from the kids...Only a couple of our photos turned out and I need to go to bed so I will show you some special one's that did turn out.


This beautiful angel was made by a family member who moved up to Northern Calif. and since we don't see her much, we still have wonderful memories of our get-togethers over the years...Love you Sharon




And this little bootie was hand appliqued, hand embroidered and beaded by a wonderful lady that I adopted as my grandma when I was a child. Each year I put a branch of our christmas tree in it to smell the next year.


Now, on to my mom's Santa collection. Here are just a few:


And a few more:

She loves her Santas!
Here is a quilt she made for Ben when he was a baby and pillows she made for each of the kids a couple years later:

And here is Marissa's quilt:

This is just a little vignette, I love this doll with the seed pod hair:


Here are the kids stockings hanging on the front door. My mom made them big enough to put them in when they were babies..oh the memories!

We stopped buying gifts for the adults in our extended family, instead everyone brings a $1 stocking stuffer for each person at our family dinner. It can be really fun and silly but I also like it because it makes it affordable to do a little something special for someone if you like and you don't break the bank! My mom made everyone a stocking...here are mine, Micheal's and Moms:

Here are some sweet angels. They will be nestled among angel hair with twinkling white lights...just haven't finished yet!

And here is my favorite angel, she was given to my mom from my dad one christmas:And my last picture has a special story with it:

In November 2 years ago, my dad was living in a nursing home. He had too many health problems for my mom to be able to care for him anymore. He was a brilliant man but at this time he had suffered from so many strokes that he could not longer remember the proper words for things.

I used to push him over to the little drug store next door and we would explore. Well, they had just put out the christmas decorations and my dad spotted this santa. He reads the Night Before Christmas. My dad couldn't even say Santa, but he knew that he needed to get this for my mom. He insisited that I buy it right then and hide it to give it to her for christmas. Of course I bought it and then he insisted it be wrapped right away and I keep it until he was ready to give it to her....

At this time, he couldn't remember what he had eaten for breakfast, or what his own name was but each day that I visited him for the next week he found a way to communicate to me that he wanted to make sure that santa was in a safe place. Finally at the end of that week, he couldn't stand it any longer and asked me to bring it and my mom...he had to give it to her.

She was thrilled....I think it made her feel so good that he showed such thoughtfulness . He passed away on January 20th, a month after that christmas but we still have that special memory of his tenacity and love toward my mom even in his fragile state.

Treasure your loved one's, they won't always be around!

Thanks for stopping by, Please go visit the other participating bloggers

here and thank you Heather for hosting this pretty little christmas party!