Halloween is meant to be fun. It is meant to be a bit scary. It is meant to be so chock full of candy that you get sick to the tummy but Halloween, itself, is not meant to be sick. Ok, so that seems to be going in the direction of how some folks decorate or celebrate the holiday but it was not meant to be a prim and proper chastisement to others. Nope. I really meant that Halloween got sick...nauseated...and puked all over my entryway..literally. Actually, that was Son's description of my decorations this year. The "Man of Few Words" stated "Looks like Halloween ate too much candy and threw up out here." Well...sorry! Poor Halloween.
Actually, I did intentionally "over-decorate" if that is even possible for the holiday. Each October, we have a grand time with the Annual Clue Hunt on the Bayou. This is the sixth year that the clue hunt will be held and I am late! Our first running has been postponed until this next week but back to those decorations. During this hunt, we needed "color stations"...that is all I can tell you at this time! One of those color stations just happened to be orange! Woohoo! Orange! Halloween! Yep! A myriad of Jack-O-Lanterns would adorn the entryway! Every orange item in the house (which just happened to be Halloween themed!) was pulled into the entryway and plopped in any available spot. To top things off, orange glitter seemed to rule...much to the vexation of Son. He hates the stuff! While I am not particularly a fan of glitter, it seemed to fit in perfectly with this total orange-out of a room. All I can say is....I cannot wait to do the purple station! Again...woohoo!
When he was pulling down the masses of Christmas decorations, Son offhandedly made the remark that he hated glitter. This is a funny statement since just about 90% of all decorations nowadays is plastered with the stuff. It is hard to find basic ornaments any more. Even with the sudden interest in burlap and other natural fibers, everything is edged with a bit of glitz. Speaking of this craze of using burlap and unbleached muslin everywhere....folks, that ain't nothin' new. Folks have made use of oyster sacks, feed sacks and flour sacks for generations. Your "new" idea is not so new. But back to Son and his distaste for glitter. He knew that each large box of Christmas decorations he was toting down the stairs probably contained at least a pound of the sparkly stuff. "Mom, can we just go a bit plain this year?" he asked. Alrighty, then! Plain it would be.
The tree went up in a hurry since this is one of those new-fangled things that comes in four pieces and already has all the lights in place. Whew! What a breeze that was! Usually at this time, I start unwrapping the thousand or so ornaments that have stood the test of time and many little hands but his words rang in my head. Hmmm, it was going to be hard to choose what ornaments would make the cut and be hung on the tree. How could I decide which were better than the others? Well, to make a long story short....none did. Nary an ornament graces the branches of the tree. Bunches of red berries and pine cones were nestled in among the limbs and then three strands of raffia in the colors of gold, red and green were simply unwound and draped on the tree. A stuffed angel sits high on the top branches and completes the whole look. Quilts are resting on chairs, greenery bedecks the stair rail and is held in place with some (yep!) burlap ribbon and greenery dotted with a few wooden nutcracker soldiers rounds out the decorations. All I have left to unpack is the Nativity Scene which will be placed on the buffet in the dining room and the Little Bayou House will be fully ready for Christmas.
This bit of simplifying things is a grand idea. While pulling what I needed to give the house just a bit of holiday spirit, I carefully put all other decorations aside for Darling Daughter. She and her husband have a new home to decorate so I am in hopes that they will be in need of lots of glitter!
