there was no evergreen this year. . . but a whole lot of holiday!

i confess-- we don't have a christmas box, we officially have a christmas cabinet.  (we do have a thanksgiving box, a halloween box, easter, valentines and yes i officially gave in and made a mini st.patty's box).  of course i'm sure this is no big surprise--my own brother exclaimed (peeking in my closet, by the way): you have a lot of stuff!

but i defend my stuff.  true, i have more or less a ribbon and paper cabinet and an ever-encroaching "craft" closet (thanks to a garage that is no longer a garage but a haven for "stuff"). i like to think of our house as defenders of the "reuse" R in the "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra.  closing argument:  owen found an empty cardboard wheel of ribbon on the table and said: mom, we should put this in the recycling bin and then we can do a truck project and this could be the wheel!

i mention this because today i was confronted with a whole lot of holiday "stuff" as we continued phase 4.7 (or 12.3?) of re-rorganizing (or re-nesting? really, we haven't technically been "home" a whole heck of a lot in the last few years) closets, shelves, cabinets, and crawl spaces.  and as much as i was eager to live in a simpler aesthetic and box up several dozen glittery and glass bird ornaments, now five artificial trees (none of which look remotely like an evergreen--my rule for "fake"), and a whole herald of angels i was already plotting next year's holiday explosion.  there's a great moment in elf when ed asner santa comes back to santa's workshop and all the elves do a self-congratulatory jig and then quickly get back to work for next christmas.  my elf, of course, is owen and just as the day after thanksgiving he said: ok mom, time to put away "thanksgiving time" and start "christmas time" he kind of tsk-tsked me for "putting away" december when "it's not even JANUARY yet!".  he, of course, is already plotting for "januarytime."

this year, owen took on many more elf duties: he decorated his own mini-tree (complete with paper garlands made with nana, and felt ornaments made with brooke & ellise); wrapped his own presents (ribbon and lots and lots of tape!); painted clothespins for holiday magnets; stamped and stickered our holiday cards; decorated--or ate?--a gingerbread house (with lots of help from gramma & grampa!); and wrote a long letter to accompany cupcakes for santa and rudolph . . .

while we didn't get a "real" evergreen tree we did have a kind of gumdrop forest with unique conifers such as a pink bird tree and a leaning truffula tree.  michael brought back some gorgeous handmade angels from artifex in aalesund; our clothespins dressed up our fridge with a collage of holiday cards; and santa scored with owen's super-sprinkled vanilla cupcakes.

next stop: janumas!!