Christmas Notebook

This was our 25th Christmas Open House. We began with an open house to introduce a missionary family to our church family. The afternoon was so much fun that we decided to have another open house for our church family the next year. And the next. And so on. Each year we invited more poeple.

We start in October with preparation. Putting up trees. Decorating. Baking. Yes, it’s a lot of work. We depend on my sister Genny, on our family and on our friends to help. We all work together to make it happen. Thanks to each of you who helped. And thank you to my husband who works hard to make it happen just because it makes me happy.

Here is DH, greeting our guests at the door.

We were presented a beautiful poinsettia from dear friends.

Just inside the door is a little Jesse tree. I have made some ornaments for it, but have more to make. Might need a larger tree if I ever get them done!

Across the hall from the Jesse tree is a small dresser that usually holds the guest book. During the open house, the guest book was on a table on the porch. The little tree on the dresser was decorated with candy canes for the littles who came by that day.

Next to the dresser is the staircase where we hang our family stockings.

Across from the stockings, guests rest on the old church pew, taking some time to visit.

This year, I used my Liberian nativity set in the living room. Older Daughter brought it home for me after a mission trip several years ago.

The family tree sits next to the fireplace in the living room. It holds all the family ornaments we have collected over the years and all the ornaments the kids have made.

This Christmas cactus belonged to my mother. She got her start from my grandmother’s house. It lives in the corner of the living room and has beautiful fuchsia colored blossoms. It always begins to bloom during the first week of December. I can remember my grandmother’s plant, heavy with blossoms. A favorite memory of her house.

We set up the cookie table in the dining room. I made large Putz houses from boxes…cracker boxes, butter boxes, medicine boxes…whatever worked. I used Christmas cards for the roofs. They turned out better than I thought they would. The frame on the left tells our guests which treats are gluten free. The one on the right gives all the truffle flavors.

The buffet in the dining room was used as the coffee station.

In the kitchen, my sister Genny (in the blue shirt) entertains guests and keeps the cookies coming. My thanks to her and to those who gave her some help during the afternoon.

We call this room the “music room” because this is where the piano lives. But it’s basically a hall from the kitchen to the library (family room) and from the main house to the addition. This fall we moved a small sofa into this room and also a desk where I am able to craft without taking the long staircase upstairs when my knee isn’t cooperating. Since then, the room is being used more often than it had been in the past.

Of course, I’m not able to craft at the desk right now because it is currently displaying the bubble light Christmas tree. This will probably be the first tree to come down!

The room also has our large chalkboard where Genny and I draw our chalkboard tree each year. This year, the theme was toys.

The next room is the library, which functions as our family room. This year, we put the glass tree up in the library rather than the upstairs bedroom. Middle Daughter is using that room right now. I gave both the girls the option of closing their rooms to the open house, which they chose to do. The glass tree is my favorite, so we put it in the library where I can enjoy it.

It was a good spot for some guest portraits.

The nativity tree is usually displayed where the glass tree was put this year. We took some of the nativity ornaments and decorated what had previously been the Three Kings tree.

My favorite nativity was displayed in the library. My mother gave me this one in 1983.

Here’s another nativity in the window in the addition hall.

Upstairs we go. The first thing we see is the mouse house. They’re decorating their tree!

The bedroom to the right is the smaller guest room. The old iron bed came out of the barn on my in-laws’ farm. We took it to an auto body shop and had it sandblasted and painted with white auto paint. I made both the quilts.

The Victorian tree in the smaller guest room.

We have a room for our eight year old twin grands. They stay over quite often. Their tree is a spiral of color. It’s a nine foot tree.

Even the stairs to the upper bunk were decorated. We put a garland across the steps so guests wouldn’t climb them. Snow White didn’t want anyone in her bed.

At one end of the upstairs hall is a bathroom. An iridescent glass ball tree hangs in the window.

At the other end of the hall is my wonderful craft room.

A vintage 1970s Sears nativity is displayed on the counter.

I made a lot of ornaments for the mission tree. We gave out ornaments as a thank you gift to anyone who gave a donation to our church’s mission fund. Thank you to all who participated!

Then it’s back downstairs for more cookies!

This post is getting long. I’ll try to get more pictures soon. Some with details of the rooms that you might enjoy seeing. I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour!

My thanks to Peggy and Susan who shared some of their pictures with me!

~~Rhonda