you capture - holiday decor

Well I kinda fell off the You Capture wagon there for a while. I'm not quite sure why. I was planning on posting about my favourite holiday decor anyway, so this seemed as good a time as any to get back into it.






When we were kids Uncle Dave and I always had a Charlie Brown tree of our own. My Mom painted these wooden ornaments from a kit for us to hang on our little tree. There used to be more, I know I gave some to Dave. Our tree actually fell over (twice!!) a few years ago and we lost a lot of ornaments, so maybe they perished. I still have this one though.



My Mom is a freak for Christmas. When we were kids she used to turn our house into a winter wonderland. She'd paint the windows and decorate the heck out of the rest of the house. In our dining room that we never actually used as a dining room she would drape the ceiling in crepe paper streamers in red and green, dropping them down to encompass the light fixture that hung in the room. This year I decorated our chandelier, it's my homage to her.



This is Maya's creation from her first trip to Kids Club. She painted it and picked out the doodads and then in typical bossy Maya fashion told me where to glue them. Pretty cute, huh?



I was a huge fan of Barbie back in the day. I played for endless hours with my vast Barbie collection. I had Sonny and Cher, Diana Ross, the Barbie with the tan lines ('member her?) and the one who had hair you could curl with a little plastic curling iron. I haven't quite gotten over never getting the Barbie camper, my cousin had it and I was oh so jealous. She was older than me and I was sometimes on the receiving end of her hand me downs, but she never did hand me down that Barbie Camper. Anyway I still love Barbie, so each year my Mom buys me the Barbie ornament from Hallmark. I just love seeing them scattered all over the tree in the fanciest holiday dresses. Call me wacky, but it makes me smile every time I look at that tree.



My Mom buys us all an ornament every year, but it was my Big Grandma who started this tradition. A little side story first - when I was small I labeled my Grandmothers Big and Little. My Mom was likely horrified at this because my Mom's Mom was on the larger side while my Dad's Mom was more petite. My child's mind didn't quite work that way, though. You see my Dad's parents lived a few blocks from us in the city. My Mom's parents lived on the family farm out in the country and you had to go up the mountain to get there. Big hill = Big Grandma. No hill = Little Grandma. Anyway, my Big Grandma buying us ornaments usually meant her opening a package of balls and writing your name on it in black marker. Those as well have dwindled over the years, but I still have this one. PS - yes I'm aware it's a horrible picture.



I have a real fondness in my heart of Charlie Brown's Christmas special. So a lot years ago my Mom picked up this little set for me. It sits on my desk every year and it makes me smile.

And that friends is just a small portion of what makes our home all Christmassy. I definitely inherited that gene from my Mom. Thanks Mama.

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