Finally, the house is in Christmas glory!! Much later than other years for two reasons. Well, my previous posts already revealed that on account of that crazy long summer weather my seasonal clock was a bit confused. Kerry’s fantastic blog helped to get me in the mood and I shared many memories and thoughts with her…might as well use them here to accompany the many photos I made this year ;o)
The other reason is, that the Walker Boys are coming home for the Holidays!! These hardworking, studying lads normally have to work all through the season and we travel to Toronto. But this year, they made it happen! The Oldest Walker Boy is arriving on Boxing day and the Youngest Walker Boy on the 30th!! We will have a proper Christmas on New Years Eve. And of course, by that time, I do not want to be bored with our decked halls and trimmed trees, the young menfolk love the Christmas decor!
So here goes…the Walker Residence in Mid Century Modern Christmas Style! Some photos look a bit weird because I used a wide angle lens.
My dearest ornament is this strange glass bear-like creature. It was given to me when I was a little girl in the sixties and my sisters and I had our own ornaments and of course a big part of the holidays was spent on moving the ornaments in such a way that our own hung most prominent ;o) It hangs since a few years in my own tree and its a tiny miracle it survived many moves, attacks from pets and curious little children hands!
A lot of our furniture and nicknacks I found at garage sales and the likes. But Ikea understands Mid Century Modern too ;o)
Christmas music: I love of course the fifties golden oldies but my favorite Christmas song is Faye Lovski, “Christmas was a friend of mine” https://youtu.be/GnXdnUZmJ_o. She is singing about the Christmas of my youth! And I really like Jonathan Jeremiah’s “Happiness” https://youtu.be/ZjsbbdsFOOU because it reminds me of our long distance family traveling to each other for Christmas !
Horrible Christmas Memory: I was once in a Christmas pageant, I think I was 8 years. I was a rather clumsy little girl, due to late developing motor skills. Oh how I wished to be the Angel but the teacher for saw many troubles with me so she decided I could be one of the shepherds. Disappointing for me, but still at least I was ‘in’. Alas..I managed to get my robe hooked on the manger, it tumbled over and baby Jesus (thank goodness represented by a baby doll) rolled of the stage. Everybody was in shocked horror and I could add another moment of shame to my long list.
Splendid Christmas Memory: Years later I was head of the ‘children department’ in the church where we lived at that time and together with the other moms we started Christmas celebrations for the tiny toddlers. It was just 15 minutes (taking short attention spans in account) and there was always the delightful squeaky old wooden donkey involved who would bring Mary on his back, pulled by Josef into the church. A little story, a little song and a treat…and than outside for the live Nativity Scene. Oh those shining little faces!!. Within a few years hundreds of people came to it. It made me really happy and when people complained about tumbling toddlers in the church, you can understand they were met with stern reproaches and a quote of Jesus himself who stated “let children come to me!”.
(I grew up with many different churches and beliefs…to me its quite simple: as long as Love and Peace is the message, I am happy.)
Christmas Reading: I like to re-read “Miss. Buncle’s Book” by D.E Stevenson..not really Christmas, but so cozy. And of course never a Christmas without a good Murder Mystery of the Nice Kind:Snow storms, chique family, big mansion and butler are key ingredients. And the sweetest Christmas book of all: The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien. On our honeymoon in Great Britain in 1988, we searched high and low for a copy which in itself was already a joy. But we finally found it in gorgeous bookstore in Edinburgh …one with dusty windows and mahogany bookcases. It was the best!!!
Love and Liefs, Johanna
