A 2-Foot Christmas?

I'm a thinker.  I'm a pre-planner.  I'm a six-P'er.  (Previous precise planning prevents poor production.)  I'm an imaginer.  It's usually pretty well set in my mind how things should go - but always with room for flexibility.

In my mind I imagined getting home and putting up our outside Christmas lights - a log cabin is really, really pretty with icicle lights hanging all around!

In my mind I imagined going to shop for our biggest tree ever because we haven't been home for Christmas in three years, and I told Granpa that this was NOT going to be a 2-foot Christmas!

In my mind I imagined going to the shed and pulling out all of our ornaments and decorating the tree with Christmases past...  Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men...

It's the day after Christmas and the lights never got put up -- but, ever the optimist -- we haven't left town yet!

We went tree shopping and the stores were all sold out of giant trees.  I was truly crushed.  It looked like it might be a two-foot Christmas after all.  When we got home I was lamenting this (almost in tears) to our daughter-in-law who lives on the land and cares for things while we do our Heritage Travels.  Suddenly her faced lit up.  She said, "I have one!  I have a huge one from when we lived in Dallas!"  She and our son went rummaging in their shed and, sure enough, in two enormous boxes, there's her tree!  Granpa loaded it in the tractor's front-end loader and, before I could finish thanking our kids, he had it set up in our great room!  Oh, joy to the Lord and Lori!!

Now for the ornaments.  Granpa rummaged and rummaged and rummaged.  They're nowhere to be found.  Into the house he went, upstairs to the sleeping loft.  Nope.  He looked on every shelf in the 10' tall closet in our bedroom.  Nope.  The best laid plans...


Once again Lori comes to our rescue - albeit a tiny one.  One of her gifts to us this year were two Christmas ornaments - a bear and a moose - and two Christmas stockings to match!  (Those stockings hung on the tree take up a lot of room!)

Then I remember that Granpa has been collecting Christmas ornaments as we traveled and is keeping them in his cabinet.  I raid the cabinet!

Tombstone, Mount Vernon,  Mount Rushmore, 

Chimney Rock, Blue Ridge Parkway...

 

There's some "slippas," a decorated palm tree and a lei-wearing turtle!

The Grand Canyon and Chimney Rock look great - along with some pine cones from the yard!

 
And then, thank you, Lord!  We happen upon some of my most treasured of ornaments...

It's not all of our grandchildren -- only about half -- but at least it's a few of those old family memories on the tree, and now we have new memories:  The ornaments from the "almost" two-foot Christmas!

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