To say that I’m excited about Christmas would be a colossal understatement. We haven’t had our three girls under the Christmas tree, at the same time, for a couple of years. This year our family will be together, and I am over the moon!
I thought it would be fun to share a little of what I’ve being doing to get ready. Welcome to our Victorian home at Christmas time…
Decorating our Victorian house is an absolute joy for me. Miles of garland, ribbons and tiny white lights deck our halls. Owning a flower shop had its advantages. I was able to find over-sized decorations to suit the scale of our home and buy them wholesale! The first Christmas we spent on Carmathen Street, it took me two, over-whelming, weeks to finish trimming the house. Now, it’s all up in two days. It’s all about labeling the storage boxes…
When the girls are home, all of our meals happen in the dining room. It’s the only place we can comfortably eat and story-tell together. One of our favourite things to do, is to sit for hours after dinner chatting about whatever comes to mind. Our daughters are wonderful communicators and more importantly even better listeners.
The fireplaces in our home were coal-burning at the turn of the century. We decided to plug the flue in the dining room thinking it would be too warm with a fire burning. The mantle is decorated with a gold flecked pine cone and evergreen garland. The hearth is filled with white pine logs from our farm.
An over-sized clock invites you into the front parlour now called the living-room. This mantle has a more modern look with just a touch of red!
The girls want to spend some time at the farm over the holidays, as well. I completely understand them wanting to pack as much in to their, precious, time at home as possible. Next week, I’m heading up-country to turn the farmhouse into a Christmas card! Knowing that being together for Christmas means as much to our daughters as it means to Ralph and me makes climbing up and down my ladder nothing but fun!
Getting ready for Christmas fills me with comfort and joy. No matter how old my daughters grow, they will always be my little girls at Christmas time.
Thanks for reading.
photography by Michelle Hooton
