Rewind and Remind: Adventures in Decorating the Fidler Church Manse

First, I would like to start by telling you that when we did the Preacher's Wife's Scavenger Hunt one of the ladies overseas referred to their parsonage as the "church manse". Don't you love that? I do. So, we are now officially living in the church manse. Today, I am joining in again at The Preacher's Wife for This Is How We Christmas Thursday. You can still link up there if you would like, but I am winning the drawing this time because it is jewelry from The Vintage Lane and I picked out a necklace I want to give someone weeks ago. So, I'm just sayin'. :) (The truth is that it's a random drawing and the only random drawings I get chosen for are surveys. I'm not kidding. I get randomly picked for every census and survey known to mankind. My opinion is highly valued. :)

Anyway, I wasn't sure if I was going to join in on this particular day because to be honest, I have been struggling with the Christmas decorations. I started out the month feeling pretty under the weather and having no energy for normal life much less the strenuous rigor of decorating. But, I had a moment with my 4 year old that inspired me. You will most definitely not be inspired by any great decorating ideas I have, but God used the curiosity of my preschooler to help me chill out and focus on what this time is about. You see, I so much want to have a Better Homes and Garden house. A home that is perfectly clean, decorated and classy. And it looks like grown ups live there. But alas, it is not meant to be.We have this little problem. We have to live here... *sigh*

This year I was feeling kind of frustrated because I wanted new stuff, fancy stuff, stuff that goes together. All of my Christmas stuff is a mismatch of things that have been given to me. Well, Eli was laying on the couch one day and asked, "What does remind mean?" I thought he meant rewind, because he was waiting on a movie to rewind. He said, "No, what does remind mean?" I told him it is something that helps us remember.



Then, referring to this ornament he said, "That dog reminds me of Abby." Abby was our cocker spaniel that passed away 2 years ago. It was like a light bulb came on in my head. As I had been putting out different decorations they would remind me of certain people or places or events. God began to show me how much love fills my house every Christmas with decorations and ornaments that were chosen especially for me by people who care for me. I needed to rewind and be reminded of that.

This is the first year EVER that I've had a real tree!! I'm so excited I about can't stand it. We had so much fun going to pick it out. I've shared before that we had a seven foot tree I got on clearance before Josh and I were married. Before we had furniture or a place to live. I also shared that it never did fit anywhere we lived. We often had to leave the back of it off or the top. Finally, the year we moved to Mississippi it went up one last time. It actually went up several times because again we could only put half of it up and it was very front heavy. I can't tell you how many times it fell down and we had to put it back up. Then, we got called to Montrose and moved the week before Christmas. We finally just said good-bye to that tree and bought a very petite pre-lit tree that I named Peggy Sue. I noticed in the pics from last year that Peggy Sue was looking pretty pitiful. So, now we have a real tree!


I don't have a pic with the lights, but I have to tell you that my husband and children convinced me to get colored lights. We had colored lights when I was growing up but since we've been married we've always had white. It just feels so peaceful and calming to sit by a lit Christmas tree doesn't it? It used to. Until Josh decided we needed moving lights. Mercy. They were really stressing me out during the decorating phase, but now they are growing on me. You can even put on Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" and they move right on beat with the song. Just thought you should know that. :)


The lights remind me a lot of this little girl who is making Christmas quite the activity this year. Here is Kate with one of her daddy's ornaments. Isn't she cute? Let me tell you though, she moves quicker than those lights! We just decorated Tuesday night and we've already re-decorated 3 or 4 times.



Sarah put the manger at the very top and said it should be up their "because it's Jesus' birthday". Right on babygirl! And how cool is it that her 1 year spiritual birthday is tomorrow!!

These are some ornaments that my friend and church member, Shelly, has made the past three years. I stand in awe y'all. Aren't they amazing? I'm planning one day to just have a "Shelly Tree" full of her ornaments. She assures me that one day when my kids are older I too can do things like this. Ummm, I'm not very hopeful...

This is my homemade ornament. The lighting is terrible. But this is what I can do with some wood glue and a kit from Oriental Trading. :) Speaking of wood glue I feel like I am running an infirmary for broken ornaments. As I write this I have a ballerina healing on my kitchen counter. Decapitation. Horrible. I thought I was gonna lose her. And I love ballerinas. Thank goodness for the wood glue...

And who doesn't love a clown? This is Josh's ornament that his great-grandma "Mo" made him.

This ornament was given to us at my friend Pao Ying's wedding which just happened to be November 27th. Unfortunately, I never get this ornament out in time to remember that. This was the favor from their wedding and I just love it because 1. It reminds me of their anniversary even if I am late and 2. It's neat to feel like they are part of our Christmas every year. And, they do have faces I promise. My camera obviously does not have a Christmas Tree setting on it. (Or more likely, I just don't know what I'm doing...)

This is my absolute favorite ornament. F.A.V.O.R.I.T.E. I have put this ornament on the tree every year of my life that I can remember. It's not Christmas for me until the red ballet shoes are hanging on the tree.

This is another favorite of mine. Again, I was having camera issues. My best friend Karen gave this to me a few Christmases back and do you see the "F" on their songbook? I just love it. I need to find another little snowgirl to add since we have added Kate. Nothing a little wood glue couldn't handle. :)

I had a picture of our mantle on here and it just disappeared. But that is okay because it is still a work in progress. I can't find our stocking y'all. Or mine and Josh's first year of marriage Christmas ornament. I am convinced that I packed them somewhere special so they would not get lost or broken. Now I just have to remember where....

This will be our third Christmas here and this is the first year it has occurred to me to put our stockings on the mantle. It's a mantle from a fireplace that was taken out of the den and when they asked if I wanted to keep the mantle I had them put it in the dining room for all of my pretty decorations. Or, for a bunch of random stuff that gets thrown up there to keep it out of Kate's reach. :) Anyway, I have no idea why I never thought to put our stockings there. I guess I was too busy looking for places to hide things like our very important ornaments...

I really wish I could show you that ornament. It is a very pretty glass ornament. My mama had bought me tons of ornaments and we had a dear family member (this will be the first Christmas since she went to be with the Lord and I am thankful for my tree full of "Liz" ornaments) who got us ornaments every year. So, I had plenty for our tree. And they all came with red yarn to tie them in bows to the tree because that is how we always decorated at mama's. Well, when it came time to hang our new ornament I didn't have any pretty ribbon or hooks to hang it with. Never fear, we had a bread tie. Josh had just started working as a breadman for Sara Lee and that was our life. It was only appropriate that the pretty glass ornament be hung by a bread tie. It still is. :) Or it will be as soon as I find it...:/

If anyone is still reading this, I hope I haven't bored you to tears. Thank you for letting me share a very small part of the decorating here at our church manse. :) I look forward to seeing everyone else's decorations and pray that we will all make the time this season to be reminded of why we celebrate!