Feeling Better

A VICTORY!

Things are looking up. Fiorella finished her major holiday decorating yesterday evening--the groupings on the mantels in the front room (la sala formal) and the den (la sala), the wreaths (las guirnaldas) on the front door (la puerta principal) and front windows (ventanas delanteras), the swags along the railings of the stairs (la escalera), over the kitchen door (la puerta de cocina), over both sides of the double doors between the front room and the dining room (el comidor), and over las ventanas del comidor. Fio put the tree (el arbol) together, but, thank God (gracias a dio) Husband, Minnesota son, and his wife were kind enough to decorate it.

Now comes the small stuff--finishing touches like decorating of the wreaths, shelves, and table tops, then the final surevy and the cleaning up. After that, Fio intends to give herself Sunday (domingo) and Monday (lunes) off. But her hectic life begins again bright and early on Tuesday morning (martes en la manana).

Pre-Christmas

It's that time of year when 5:30 isn't daytime any more. Fiorella had grabbed her pruners and journeyed up the south driveway to check on the tinsel garlands she had hung on trees along the way  and to move her bag of supplies further on down the row. She'd been out maybe half an hour when she suddenly realized that the woods had fallen silent, the air was still, and night was coming on fast. Looking around, she hefted her pruners and beat a quick tattoo back to the house.
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H-E-B is really cleaning up on firewood this year. A puny stack of short, shaven, anemic-looking sticks costs almost six bucks.  Good thing Fio and Husband harvest their own fireplace fodder--not that they've had much of a chance to use it this "winter."
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Fio's Christmas shopping is done because all she does at this point in her life is write checks. However her decorating has just begun because she was born art through-and-through and always will be. Yes, you will soon be seeing photos of her creative endeavers.

Progress on the Christmas Prep Front

Fiorella is, as she predicted almost through with decorating. Last night she packed away all the left-overs except the new tinsel she bought to take the place of the garlands along the road that the storm had beaten to a pulp. She'll make those repairs and replacements today, add more decorations to the outside tree, and to pick up some butterflies at Hobby Lobby to finish off an inside wreath. Definitely, she'll be through by tomorrow evening, and that's the best time she's ever made. And if you're wondering, everything stays up for a couple of months to make up for all the intensive labor.

Tis the Season

Step four of Fio's Christmas decorating. She decked the driveway with strands of tinsel last weekend, got all the storage bins in during the week, and yesterday she put together the twenty-year-old family Christmas tree. Come afternoon, Austin son and his wife drove up from Bastrop to put up the lights and decorate the tree, which is a monumental undertaking because Fio has MOUNDS of ornaments. She posted a photo of the wonderful results on FB this morning, but she still has to roll her mother's embroidered tree skirt under the branches. Step four will be the swag along the staircase railing, which will take at least a day, and step five will be hanging the plastic snowflakes from the little tree out front, which Husband usually is kind enough to help with. Later will come the swags over the living room door jamb, the dining room door jamb, and the dining room window. By Christmas day, every shelf and surface in the house will be loaded with tinsel and Christmas what-nots. Yes, Fio is a decorating fool. ENJOY!

Christmas Day

Minnesota Son and wife arrived about six yesterday, Fiorella finished her decorating by about seven, and the rest of the evening was spent cleaning up and planning for today.

The kitchen crew will have its hands full--ham and turkey and salmon, green beans and broccoli and mushrooms, potatoes and dressing, salad, pies and pudding.  Husband, Daughter, and Daughters-in-Law will take care of most of the cooking, with Fio boiling the potatoes and baking the salmon--she already made the pudding last night (smart girl).  

God bless our table and our family. And God bless you and yours.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

One day to Go

Fio has just one day left to finish decorating, and Husband is breathing down her neck to hurry it up. She's had to cut back a lot this year, which curls her soul, but thirteen people will be sitting down at her make-shift Christmas table, and right now it's still covered with her decorating debris--ribbons, greenery, birds, butterflies, ornaments of all sorts.

Wish her well.

Adieu

This will probably be the last time that Fio decorates the house for Christmas. It has always been a joy to her to construct the tree, supervise the placement of the lights, hang the ornaments, and fling the tinsel.  For years, she has wrapped the banisters with ersatz greenery, then added ribbons and ornaments.  She's tied red bows around everything she could, hung wreaths, put up one swag of birds,  butterflies, and ornamental fruit and vegetables, and another swag of exotic birds.  She's even decorated the bathroom closet door.  And, of course, the windows got their share of attention too.

But lately she's realized that she's the only one who enjoys her efforts.  After all, the children are all grown and they've seen their mother's miracles before--year after year, in fact.  Somewhere along the line, Fio thought there would be more children whose eyes would look in wonder at Fio's decorations, like she did at her own mother's.  But such is not to be.

Hang up the Santa hat, Fiorella.  Your time is past.

Christmas Morn

Fiorella did finish off her decorating last night.  She also finished off a handful of Christmas gelt to keep her alert and active after Husband had gone to bed.  Yes, the whole world slept, but Fiorella wrote checks and wrapped presents and contemplated putting just a few more ornaments round and about.

But this morning, there's no time for decorating.  The house must be cleaned up for Christmas guests.  And although Fiorella is never trusted with the main course, she is expected to make boiled potatoes, chocolate pudding, and a gingerbread cake.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  CHRIST IS BORN!

Count-down

Congratulate Fio.  She's finished her decorating--almost.  The tree is glowing.  All the swags, drapes, and wreaths are up--even the wreath that had to be wired in place because several passes with a Command hook didn't hold. The birds, fruit, vegetables, and butterflies will go up tomorrow, and then the dining room table will be cleaned off.  After a final trip to the post office and HEB, Fiorella will be prepared for Christmas.

What about Christmas dinner, you ask?  Well, Husband and Daughter will take care of the turkey andixin's.  All Fio will have to do is set the table. And be decorative . . . as is her nature.

Christmas Frenzy II

One week till Christmas and, in traditional Fiorella fashion, our heroine is only halfway there. She worked on the cards last night and hopes to finish them this morning.  Then there are the outside snowflakes to hang on the little tree--still.  But after that, it's all inside--the wreaths, the swags, and the drapes.  And Minnesota Son and his lovely wife arrive on Saturday. Not that everything will be done by then, but Fio knows she can rely on them for help, especially with the can lights that need replacing.

My heavens, you say--all this, and you also have time to write on your second book?  Well--heh-heh--not quite, but Fio figures that if her editor can take a week off for Christmas, she can too.  Besides, whether Fio has her laptop open or not, the ideas keep popping out of her subconscious--and she always has a notepad handy.  

Relief Is in Sight!

Fiorella's finished her Christmas decorating!

Well, not quite--she can't stage the mantel over the fireplace in the den until Husband connects up the lights on the little houses, and there's a plateful of clip-on birds sitting on the dining room table that she has to put somewhere, and the mailbox that needs to have a bow tied around it, and the tinsel garland at the entrance to the driveway that has to be repaired.  But after all of that is taken care of, Fiorella can sit down and relax.

Relax?  No--she has presents to wrap, a contract relating to the family business to get signed by Husband and Nephew, and her own publishing contract to find and sign.

Still, she's more up to date than most years.

Prayers Needed

Twenty-one days left to dress the house, the tree, myself.  Twenty-one days in which to design a card and write a poem.  Twenty-one days to decide on gifts and plan a family dinner.  Fio's survival will be a Christmas miracle.

Especially since Austin Son 's birthday is just eight days away.

Christmas, 2012

Fiorella loves decorating for Christmas.  She loops den windows with red and green paper chains.  She hangs ersatz greenery from the big dining room window and loads it with her beloved fruit and vegetable ornaments, interspersed with butterflies and birds.  Greenery also festoons the front door and the kitchen door and the door to the guest room hall and the double-door opening between the front room and the dining room (on both sides) and the display cabinets between the kitchen and the den.  Then Fiorella loads the greenery with her other special ornaments--miniatures and paper storks and feathered birds.  In the upper hall she nestles redbirds in the greenery draped from the railings.  And, of course, snowflakes, which she cuts out fresh every years, decorate every window pane downstairs and even some upstairs.  The front door is treated to wreaths back and front, as are the front windows, the area over the door to the guest room hall, and the tall window at the top of the stairs.  Three nativity scenes are tucked into the mantel decoration in the den, two more in the extensive buffet decoration, but the mantel decoration in the front room must make do with "Twelve Days of Christmas" bells  plus more butterflies and lots of tinsel.

Fiorella's light-up deer bit the dust last year, but she still has big snowflakes and for the trees outside and a plastic bow for the mailbox.

Then there's the Christmas tree--aah, the Christmas tree, laden with so many garlands and ornaments that Firoella can scarcely see the the sturdy iron(?) boughs that have sustained the tree for ten years.

Fiorella usually spends hours and days and weeks on Christmas decorating.  It's her love, her splendor, her artistic achievement. But not this year.  Recovery from hip surgery, which Fio didn't realize would take months rather than weeks,  precludes climbing ladders and carrying in boxes of ornaments and greenery and lights and all her other decorating goodies.

And Fio is very sad.