So It Begins!

  I have had to kick myself in gear!  Christmas holidays have crept up on me with an alarming rate and I am fully not prepared at all!  Usually by November 1st, all of the shopping is complete and gifts are wrapped.  Ha!  Not this year!  Usually by Thanksgiving, the decorations are in place.  Ha!  Not this year!  Usually, I start getting excited about the whole holiday hustle and bustle in June.  Ha!  June, July, August, September, October AND November slipped by without ever jostling a notion of eagerness.  I am not prepared....AT ALL!  Don't get me wrong.  I am ecstatic about this Christmas since this will be the first time that I have celebrated with my grandchildren.  As matter of fact, this will be the first time in years that the entire family will be back on the Bayou!  Oh, happy days!  But, instead of doing anything to get the place ready for such shindigs, I have done diddlysquat!  Nothing!  Zilch!  Until...

  Well, yesterday, it began!  I plunged into the upstairs closet that houses the billion or so items called  decorations.  Box after box, crate after crate, bag after bag...everything that could remotely be used for bedecking the Little Bayou House came out of that closet and...now sits in a huge heap in the middle of the guest bedroom.  Yes, that very same bedroom that is to house visitors soon is full to the brim with garland, trees, balls and baubles of all sorts.  Lights are mounded on the bed, garland is strewn on the floor (complete with pine cones rolling under the bed) and sparkly ornaments are sifting glitter everywhere! It is fun!  I think..I hope.  Help!

  Then came my little bit of peace in all of this chaos.  The first box smelled of cedar and held a treasure.  I pulled out the Christmas quilt that my sweet daughter-in-law sewed for me.  She makes the most beautiful quilts and gave me this one several years ago.  Since then, Joanna's quilt is always the first bit of Christmas cheer that I display. The quilt makes me happy and gives me inspiration to carry on with the massive job of decorating the Little Bayou House.  I say massive since it is usually up to me to decorate the entire house.  When Mark is home, he is great about doing the heavier things and stringing lights about the place but as he says, he does not know where to put other items.  Son claims to have no decorating sense whatsoever and will gladly haul boxes downstairs or erect the tree where I have directed but pulling the rest of the stuff together in some semblance of order is entirely my doing.  The decorating gets a bit daunting at times but that is ok...I have my bit of sanity in the form of a quilt.  I can look at it and pull myself together.   By the end of the weekend, at least the Little Bayou House will look like a Christmas wonderland or Santa's workshop or a rustic cabin Christmas...I have not decided which just yet.  It will happen...soon.  Then comes that shopping...ugh!  And the baking....and the crafting...and.....whew!  Thank you, Joanna, for not only the beautiful quilt but for the smiles and love that come with it!