Tuesday, December 13, 2022

A Casa Kittling Christmas 2022

Decorating for Christmas has been one of my obsessions and delights since I was in my twenties. I blame it all on my Great Aunt Mary Ann. I loved going to her house for Christmas because the entire house was decorated. I loved the fact that Mary Ann didn't limit herself to a tree and a few other little knickknacks. 
 
Granted, Mom didn't have much money, but I really don't think her heart was in holiday decorating. Her Christmas colors were blue and silver, and her favorite song was Elvis's "Blue Christmas". I found it depressing. In my mid-twenties, I finally found myself in charge of decorating, and boy howdy, did I go to town. When Mom saw the finished results, she looked at me and said, "Mary Ann lives," a compliment I still hold close to my heart.
 
My colors? They tend to be red and gold. My song? "Feliz Navidad" because the lyrics loudly proclaim what is in my heart. When Hallmark came out with a sombrero-wearing, guitar-playing snowman ornament that played "my song", I was thrilled.
 
What truly bites is when your mobility begins to desert you, and you have to scale down the decorating. BUT, even after downsizing (a lot), there's a blessing in this after all. I have enough decorations to do something a little different each year, and I find that using my imagination to devise different ways to decorate almost entirely makes up for not being able to go all-out. (If you'd like to see what "all-out" has looked like in the past, feel free to take a look at this post from 2011 as well as this one from 2013. Or just do a search for "Christmas Decorations" in the search box on the sidebar.)
 
Now let me take you on a little tour of Casa Kittling this year.
 
 
 
The play of light is one of my favorite things about Christmas decorations. This year I decided to line up my finial collection along the tops of the bookcases in the craft room. I also used sequinned table runners and LED tea lights. By the way, LED candles are my Find of 2022. I love candlelight-- especially during the holidays-- but I've grown nervous about having lighted candles everywhere since neither of us can move fast. Better safe than sorry, eh? I didn't realize until this year that there are LED candles with remotes in many styles and sizes, and you'll see them in various places throughout the pictures I'm about to show you.

 
Finials look great regardless the lighting.

 
Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without these carolers my mother made in the mid-1960s.


The Christmas table in the dining room, complete with nutcrackers, LED candles, fairy lights, and the small carolers Mom also made back in the '60s.


Christmas afghans. Yes, they are used!

Gasp! I have bookshelves with no books on them!

And another one!

This display is just below my Walt Longmire keeper shelf.

The daybed where I blog, read, watch the birds... and nap.

I insist on a good view from my "HQ"!

Bookshelves can be fun to decorate, although Denis did make me nervous when he insisted on putting strings of lights along the top!

Christmas teapots in the kitchen... looking a bit murderous with those knives.

Of course, I didn't leave those new shelves in the kitchen alone!


Some of my favorite decorations where I can see them from my recliner in the evenings.

My Santa cake stand. I thought I had crumbs to wipe off the counter until I realized it was the reflection of Santa's lantern. Doh!

I can also see this from my recliner where I knit and watch TV in the evenings.

A closeup of my knitting tree. A dear friend gave me the lighted blinking snowman, and another knitted the tiny sweaters on the tree for me.

Ugly Christmas sweaters as a tree skirt.

Ugly Christmas sweater for a topper.



I tried to mute the sound on this video. My apologies if you can still hear the blasted hearing aid commercial!

I think one of the things that has made Christmas decorating even more special to me is that I have creative and loving friends who know of my obsession and have been willing to enable me over the years. Tiny knitted sweaters. Blinking snowmen. Tatted snowflakes. Nutcrackers. Ceramics. The list is a long one, and as I look at the decorations, my heart fills with memories and love, and I smile.

Happy holidays, everyone!

18 comments:

  1. How lovely and festive it all looks, Cathy! I'm so glad you've got enough mobility to decorate; I know how important it is to you. I like how inviting everything looks, and you've got some really clever little touches here. Thanks for sharing with us!

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    1. You're welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed the photos, Margot.

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  2. How wonderful. Even a "scaled-down" Christmas at Casa Kittling is still lovely. That knitting tree is great. Now I know what finials are, and they are beautiful. All those touches are so nice. The use of those new shelves and bookshelves for holiday displays is perfect. And am glad to see that both of you are up to doing these displays. Must brighten up life at your home.

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    1. With Denis's improving health and mobility, laughter has returned to this house. It had been greatly missed.

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    2. That's great. Hope for more laughter and merriment during the holiday season. I am very impressed by your mother's craftiness, too.

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    3. I come by whatever skill I have honestly-- through several generations of the women in my family.

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    4. You are very lucky to have had such talented women in your family. My mother was very musical, a talented pianist and a lovely soprano voice. My sister inherited those traits. She sings beautifully and plays the piano and learned the guitar in her teens. We would all sing together (not my father who was reading) and they both would harmonize.

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    5. That sounds really nice, Kathy. I've always thought that generations of women in my family taught themselves their talents with various needles because they were too poor to go shopping. ;-)

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    6. Oh, interesting. I hadn't thought of why women taught themselves to learn so many crafts. I have friends who are more crafty than I am, who knit and quilt. The quilting they do because they love to
      do it and it's art to them.

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    7. I would imagine that, for many of us, the necessity has gone, and we create things because we love doing it. If we get useful things out of the process so much the better.

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  3. Wow! Your Christmas decorations are amazing. I don't do that much decorating for any holiday because I don't really have that talent, but I admire those who do. :D

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    1. Any pet I ever had stayed out of all the Christmas trees and decorations-- except for one who would eat any tinsel that fell on the floor. LOL

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  4. Love your decorations, especially on the fireplace. I'm sure Mary Ann (and your mother) approve!

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  5. Michael Bublé's Christmas album concludes with a duet with Thalia on Feliz Navidad, which is one of my favorite versions of that carol.

    Love your Christmas teapots! Very appropriate for a mystery fan to have them near the knives :)

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    1. I thought so, too, about the teapots and knives. ;-)

      And I'm going to have to find that version of Feliz Navidad and listen to it. Thanks for the heads up.

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  6. I just noticed once again the proliferation of K/Cathys, Kathleens (my birth name) and Kate. Happy Holidays. I wonder if this means a high percentage of people with English/Irish/Scottish heritage.

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    1. It's possible, but if we're all in the same general age group, our names were among the most popular. There were 39 children in my 6th grade class, and 7 of us were named Cathy,

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