Well, another Christmas has come and gone, almost! Except for the decorations! They are all still up and glowing! We have entertained, we have been entertained, we are exhausted!

Our season began back in October at Mellow Mushroom during the Class of ‘65 monthly luncheon, I said, “since December 1 is our December lunch date, why don’t we have a potluck at our house? Everyone thought it was as good idea, so a plan was made.           

I decided to be completely decorated for that event and Bam! The magic begins. But instead of waking up and being completely decorated – I awoke with a month and a half of intense deconstruction and reconstruction of my house. Everything on the built-in shelves in my living room had to be packed up and stored, somewhere. Crates and crates of books and décor.  Do you have any idea how many of these clear “Costco” crates we own?

My Christmas village has grown to encompass 18 large “Costco” crates! I have 3 crates of just trees. There are 76 houses, churches, shops, schools, public buildings, and ranches. We expanded it to cover all the massive shelves in the living room. My mother-in-law passed away in 2009. My Christmas village began in 2013, after her husband passed away and all her belongings were dispersed among the family. None of the other family members wanted the village and I could not stand the ideas of it being given to someone who did not know its history. She had loved it so much. Every Christmas that we visited her, she was so proud of her village display. So, I took it home! It consisted of about 10 buildings and a few accessories – All Dept 56. Of course, being culturally illiterate, I did not realize that Dept 56 was the whoop de do of villages! I started collecting other village pieces from thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales, and the like. Some of them were Dept 56 and some were Dollar Tree. 😊 But, they were all cute to me. The display started out on a large glass coffee table in my living room and expanded to a “ladder tree” built by the magnificent Joseph, then to the “ladder tree” with cardboard roads connecting it to a side bookcase, then to a “ladder tree” connecting it to a side bookcase and roads on the other side connecting to a huge banker’s desk.  Then a couple of years ago, it expanded to one set of the built-in bookcases in the living room. A whole wall of village! Then this year, it expanded to both walls of bookcases and it is impressive. The magnificent Joseph has wired all the zillion streetlights, buildings, and tree lots to turn on with one single switch. He is really magnificent – he has managed to conceal more electrical cables than a Mexican restaurant in Puerto Vallarta. After a couple of weeks, the village is resplendent – its trees covered with snow, little vehicles in the Walmart parking lot, school buses lined up at school, and antique vehicles in snow ruts in town.

 Satisfaction is short lived. The rest of Christmas needs to be displayed – instead of nestled snug in its “Costco” crates inside the 40’ long cargo container (some call it a COMEX). It all awaits me. It sits silently in the backyard until it starts calling my name this time of the year. It contains over 100 more of the “Costco” crates in addition to about 12 huge coffin size black crates that hold big things – such as nutcrackers. singing bears, and giant snowmen; 10 Christmas tree boxes and three HUGE red bags holding oddball trees, garland swags, and wreaths. The cargo container is stuffed. There is a small section for other holiday décor and of course, party supplies – chafing dishes, three-pot crockpots, 5-gallon coffee pots, and of course, the chocolate fountain!

The magnificent Joseph relegates our new car to the outdoors and loads the crates, boxes, and bags onto the bed of his 20-year-old pick-up truck – making trip after trip – transferring all of it to the empty garage.

All the crates are labeled. Main tree, angel tree, bird tree, snowman tree, shoe tree, travel tree, cowboy tree, heart tree, Hummel tree (another gift from Joseph’s mom). In addition, there are crates and crates of miscellaneous décor, garlands, lights, tree skirts, mantle décor of past and future! It is almost overwhelming to see the rows of crates stacked taller than my head in the once empty garage. It is an impressive sight.

There is a crate of angels, but there are more angels on this earth. My dear friend, Sara came over to lend a hand – every day for more than 2 weeks. She totes and decorates, one tree, then another. She insists on being the one on the ladder for the tall trees and garlands. She has never decorated like I do. She has ONE beautiful tree! A reasonable girl, but she is eager to learn my ways. She learns about fluffing, fluffing and more fluffing! She is amazed at the difference it makes. She learned how to hook heavy garlands to the mantle and door frames using wire attached to the structure with screws. She learns about picks and how great they are to fill holes in the greenery. She worked so hard for over two weeks – saying she is learning a lot. I think she just says that so I will not feel so guilty about using her. At last, all the trees, garlands, wreaths, angles, candles, bells, – oh yes, BELLS, and rocking horses are placed – it is done! Her eyes actually glow. She loves it. So do I! It is all ready, thanks to my angel friend, Sara, before December 1 – the big reveal.

On December 1, about 25 of our class of ’65 classmates, and their spouses come, laden with delicious cakes, roast, dumplings, peas, and other fabulous food. The magnificent Joseph fried a turkey and baked a ham. I made dressing and giblet gravy. We all have a wonderful time eating, reminiscing, talking about our families, our life experiences- and mostly about our grandchildren!

After about 2 ½ hours of friendship chatter, everyone is gone. It reminded me of cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 3 days, then 2 hours of eating and talking, then everyone is gone. So much preparation for so little reward but wait! We have more use of this Christmas décor. We held a dinner party and I got to use my treasured estate sale “12 Days of Christmas” dishes for the first time!

Then there is the Christmas Eve party – and oh, what a party! The whole community seems to congregate at our house for Christmas Eve. We have never-ending food, sometimes guests play the piano and sing carols, many enjoy the “drink of the evening” – sometimes fuzzy navels, sometimes peach bellinis. But even more enjoy the fabulous coffee punch and the chocolate fountain. The table bulges with charcuterie trays, boiled shrimp, eggrolls, wings, sausage balls, celebration smokies, Alabama caviar, fondue bread – and the coup de gras – a Butternut cake from my friend Pat and a peanut butter cake from my angel friend Sara. 65 of our friends and relatives enjoyed the evening. It is the highlight of my year! And it has been for 38 years.

We began this party tradition in 1986. Joseph and I had just started dating. My son was gone to his father’s home and Joseph’s son was gone to visit his grandmother. We were each alone and we decided to put together a few munchies and invite a few of our single friends with no place to be on Christmas Eve. We continued the tradition, growing each year.

When we moved to Portland OR, we connected with a formal ballroom dance club, called Portland Height Dance Club. The club had 65 couple members. Many of them were transplants to Portland and had no family nearby, our parties grew to over 100 in attendance. During that period, we began asking our guests to bring food for the food bank of Washington County (the suburb of Portland where we lived). It was tremendous, we became the largest single-family contributors to the Washington County Food Bank and were even written up in the Oregonian. Our friends were very generous!

After leaving Oregon, our food bank contributions dwindled, but we continued, anyway – until COVID. We did not have a party in 2020, so we stopped collecting food after that. It got to be too much for us – heavy boxes, storing from Christmas until the New Year for the food banks to re-open. Nowadays, we contribute 10-15 food bags at the Piggly Wiggly in Geneva, instead.

This year, our youngest grandson, age 19, surprised us for Christmas. We enjoyed having him – he was a tremendous help moving chairs, helping make appetizer dishes for the party and serving as “Greeter in Charge.” He greeted our guests and made sure they signed our guest book.

Our oldest son, who suffers from schizophrenia, was living out of the state – in Oklahoma – for about 17 years. He moved here about 3 years ago. He was almost mute from being so isolated all those years. He had no friends and the only verbal exchanges he had were at the grocery store, fast food joint, or when we would visit him. He has improved dramatically. Being social with the family as often as possible, as well as, being included in as many social engagements as possible has made a dramatic improvement in his behavior.

I do not know how many more of these Christmas parties we will be able to have, but when I look back at them all, I feel so blessed by the friends and family that have shared their Christmas Eves with us.  Having both  my guys with us this year and seeing them both enjoying Christmas was my special Christmas blessing.

When I look back at my long life, (I seem to do that a lot these days) I think of all the many blessings I have received. There have been hardships, sure, but the blessings are winning!