A special Crafternoon Treats Christmas

This Christmas in 2014 is the first one since I started my Crafternoon Treats blog, and since I got seriously into crafting and crochet. One of the greatest things about a blog is that it makes you think in more detail about the everyday happenings in your life and, this Christmas, its helping me live for the moment and do more crafty decorations around my home.

Christmas past…

Christmas 2012 was the last family Christmas when my mum was still with us. Last year, we couldn’t face the traditional Christmas without her so I took my son and daughter and their girlfriend and boyfriend off to a villa in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote for 10 days from 19-29 December.

It was a wonderful holiday and so good to be in the sun, warmth and near to the sea. We had a great time splashing about in the pool and sunbathing on Christmas Day. It was my treat, so this was the only Christmas present I had to buy and I didn’t put up a single decoration at home.

It was great – like having a holiday from what is quite hard work for mums! And this volcanic island was fascinating, with stunning and unusual landscapes like this one of a bright green lake…

Christmas present…

This year, Christmas will just be me and my son, home from university in Sheffield, and my daughter, home from university in Boston, USA. Their partners are joining us for New Year but are spending Christmas with their own families. Having my daughter home is, in particular, a huge bonus. When she first went out to Boston in on September 1st to study for her third year, it wasn’t certain that she would come home at all at Christmas.

This year will be special. No, grandma will not be with us as she has for every other year of their childhood except last year, but we must make good and happy Christmas memories.

Christmas future…

It will not be too long until my children want to spend the season with their partners and their own children – I will become the visiting grandma. Yikes, definitely not old enough for that yet! (I am really but don’t feel like it.)

This year’s Christmas preparations

In the last few weeks I have really enjoyed putting time into getting everything ready for the great homecoming on 21st December. To make the most of the time we have I’ve tried to get most things done by that afternoon rather than be running around like a headless chicken shopping and wrapping presents.

I invested in a new Christmas tree this year – well, two actually. The larger one is going in the family lounge, decorated with a mixture of new and vintage decorations.

Going through a box from the top of a cupboard at my mum’s house when I cleared it out after she died was a real box of treasures. Carefully wrapped in tissue paper and very old newspaper was this little glass bird. He is very delicate but I remember him from forever. He was on the Christmas tree when I was little and when I put a pic of him on Facebook, some other people have similar birds and he could be about 60 years old.

Nestled in the box was also the fairy that we used to have on the tree when I was little – I remember mum putting her a new pink crepe paper dress on when I was about 12.

Other vintage baubles have become a little worn but are still beautiful.

Some of the decorations are new this year. The two new ceramic decorations of a Christmas tree and a Russian doll were from a stall at Yarndale and the glass stars and angels were from a little gift shop in Alnwick in Northumberland.

And this heavyweight bauble is from Boston USA, brought by my daughter when she came home yesterday…

It all fits in well with the new chimney breast colour – I painted it a light grey a couple of weeks ago and then added some festive sparkle.

And two new prints by Jo Grundy…

In our big farmhouse kitchen I’ve put up coloured lights and the vintage Chinese lanterns I also found in my mum’s Christmas box. These are also more than 50 years old and are still perfect, not a torn piece anywhere.

Our farmhouse has a second sitting room and I have a second Christmas tree in there – with all of the presents ready for the big day. Bit of a grainy photo because the lights on the tree seem to dazzle the camera…

This room really lends itself to Christmas and we have used it every Christmas day for the last decade… I have a very old fashioned dresser in here and its a bit like a Victorian parlour…

We even have some Christmas decorations upstairs on the bannisters and all of our rooms have Christmas lights or tinsel around the bed.

Whatever else this Christmas will be, it will certainly go down in our family history as the year mum went mad with the decs!