I am sOOO not my mother, in some ways.

In other ways, like where we store our fat, our need for a treat after all meals, and our obsession with sprinkles, we are just the same.

However our major difference lie in two of her favorite things, wallpaper and decorating.

She loves wallpaper. From one vantage point in her house you can count 6 different patterns. My walls are all solid lovely colors - not a stitch of the sticky stuff in sight.

As for decorating, this too she does to the 'enth' degree. I remember in my teenage years being on the phone with someone (this is back in the prehistoric years when we had a phone, attached to a wall, with a cord - and at our house it was a very long, stretchy, tangled cord - all surrounded by a decorative phone shelf complete with seasonal tiny knick-knacks)... Anyhow, on the phone one day I walked as far as the cord would stretch counting pumpkins (it was pumpkin season). From one stretch of the phone cord I counted 116 pumpkins!! (All of various forms, materials, sizes and shapes). When I decorate for 'pumpkin season' I hang a fall towel on the front of my stove. (A towel purchased by my mother). But it is the 'holiday season' when you truly see the difference between my mother and I.

She starts about 10 seconds after the Thanksgiving pie is put away, and continues the process until New Years (I say the process continues because she can't stop buying more adorable festive decor and shuffling it into the mix.) She has trimmed down the stuff - it used to be something like 25 giant rubbermaid boxes - and now she's down to 15 (I think she just packs it better). With all the 'stuff' she decorates EVERYTHING. There is not a room that doesn't have some sort of festive garb.

Now, for those of you who don't know my mom you may be envisioning piles upon piles of plastic tackiness. This is not the case. Though hard to admit, her house is beautiful... magical... during Christmas. People come in and smile because they can't help themselves. At night, it sparkles in every room. It truly does embody the Christmas spirit.

Perhaps it was years helping her unpack, unload, mess-up, and then put-together the house; perhaps it was the massive project of putting it all away; perhaps it's the lack of visitors - either way, I am SO not my mother when it comes to Christmas decorations.

Yesterday (half-way through the season) we finally got our two boxes out. We went and picked out a wonderful smelling tree. Art put on the lights - we moved no furniture. I put away my 10 'general' knick knacks. I dusted my shelves and spread out my small little pile. We do gather an ornament each year so we enjoy pulling those out and remembering our choices. So, after 2 hours (including the trip to JoAnn's for more lights, a garland, and our first creche (Art picked it out, it's cute)). Now the house smells lovely, the tree sparkles, and it is beginning to look a bit like Christmas.

If it weren't for the pine tree in the living room, you might not notice it was Christmas at our house. But as I've learned, Christmas is not in the decorations - but it does glitz up the place a bit!