Happy New Year!

Our Christmas photo from a few years ago, when Spunky was just a pup!

Our New Year begins with Christmas Eve & Christmas, followed by our wedding anniversary, our grandson's birthday, New Year's Eve, the New Year & finally, my husband's birthday. After all that celebrating, it was time to remove the Christmas decor and return to a simpler style. So during the twins nap time yesterday, the ornaments were removed, the lights taken down, the celebratory items that had been scattered around the house all were rounded up and put away in appropriate boxes.

I'm always saddest when I remove the Christmas music from the current style electrical player and put it away for another year. Christmas music, of all the different genres, brings back so many memories - most of which are very good. In high school, I was a member of Freshman Choristers & then the celebrated St. Joseph's Academy Glee Club. Each year we sang the Messiah in the school auditorium, and we sang with many other singing groups at the St. Paul, MN Auditorium annual Christmas concert. Our family loved music and music was always a large part of our holiday celebrations. Dad played the concertina/accordian and everyone sang along.

Or mom played the old upright piano while everyone sang along.

Above is the family Christmas Angel tree topper - in the family for as long as I can remember! Below, our Christmas Village, which began in 1937, the year our parents married. I have a larger version of the village now - but rarely set it up, since it's SO large, takes So much time to set up (& pack away) and we now have 17+ month old twins in our home!

The village church, which I've since donated to my younger sister's village collection.

This is a shot of my village - just the open fence in the front. Can't find the full photo of the whole village, complete with ice rink, skiing mountain, singers, trees, etc. all in the 1940-50's vintage, with a few newer items

And a quick shot of our 2013 Christmas tree, the smallest tree ever for our family! The twins are primarily responsible for the size of the tree, and just maybe our aging bodies!!!

And every January 6th or so, Feast of the Epiphany, our holiday decorations disappeared to the attic for 11 long months only to return, bit by bit, at the beginning of Advent. So, too, this year, our decorations have disappeared into the closet, our little tree graduated to the front porch, the vacuum has absorbed most of the pine needles, and all is well on Mayberry Lane.

Wishing you and yours a very Happy & Healthy New Year, 2014!