Santa Party - Part 1

Growing up, on a Saturday at the beginning of December we always went to Grandma Savage's house for her Tree Trim party.  Dinner was set out in the kitchen and we would eat in the front room or the back room.  I remember there were always deviled eggs and "little hot dogs," cheeseball and jello.  We couldn't all fit in one room so we would just spread throughout the house: sitting by the fireplace in the back room, or near her singing Christmas cowboy by her front portrait window.

After dinner we went to the backroom and decorated her Christmas tree.  It was always so overwhelmed with decorations that you could hardly see the tree.  Some of the older cousins would hold out the bulbs while the younger kids would put them on the tree.  At the end (at least in recent years), Aunt Rose would cover the whole thing in metallic streamers until it looked like it was fairly dripping with love.

In Grandma's back room on the wall there was a leather belt with jingle bells on it that someone would ring when Santa came to give us presents.  What a magical sound those clanging bells made for us!

Grandma Savage passed away two years ago: I still miss her.  My mom has worked her tail off to keep the Santa party going each year, which I so appreciate.  She puts so much work and thought and planning into that thing, coming up with a theme each year and planning everything around it.  This year the theme was "White Christmas."  TJ was too sick to go (I missed him a whole lot) but I was so glad to be there.  I went over early to help decorate (with our big family we have moved to a local church).

My mom's poses crack me up:

She was pretty set on an all-white Christmas tree that she could dress like a snowman:

Lots of snowflakes for all the walls, a craft table (see that cute snowman the kids could make), and a poem about our family.  I'm telling you, this is quite a production.

 Next up, the party itself.  :)  I took so many pictures (and Matt took my camera and doubled the count) it will take me a bit to get through them all!