Giving Thanks . . . and Christmas-ing

Thanksgiving is always the beginning of all the winter holidays for me. Since I used to always take the Christmas decorations down the day after Christmas, I’ve gotten in the habit of putting them up before Thanksgiving. It makes the house look so festive for guests who come for Thanksgiving dinner too.

This year, our daughters and their families are coming for dinner on Wednesday evening. So after finally writing “The End” on a novel last week (finishing final edits, actually), I spent Friday decorating the house for the holidays.

Just like last year, because we now have a piano taking up the space where our Christmas tree used to go, I set up the tree out on our screened porch. A couple of my Facebook friends gave me the idea, and I think it’s brilliant! Not only does the tree fill in for all the plants that had to come inside for the winter, but it adds sparkly lights to a rather dreary winter landscape and we can still see it from the living room. (You may remember that last year after Christmas, I decorated the tree for Valentine’s Day and left it up most of the winter! I’ll probably do that again this year too.)

Except for the tree, we don’t do a ton of decorating, but I do love getting out this Christmas quilt (a $20 Pioneer Woman find at Walmart a few years ago!) for our bed.

When we lived in Kansas (and didn’t have toddlers running around at Christmas!) I made this cute bookish Christmas tree in my office.

Do you have your Christmas decorations up yet, or are you a wait-till-after-Thanksgiving decorator? I’d love to hear what special decorations or traditions your family enjoys during the holidays. You, dear readers, are one of the things I’m most thankful for this year. I pray you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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Deborah Raney

DEBORAH RANEY's first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the World Wide Pictures film of the same title and launched Deb’s writing career. Forty books later, she's still creating stories that touch hearts and lives. Her novels have won RWA's RITA Award, the ACFW Carol Award, the National Readers Choice Award, and the HOLT Medallion. She is also a three-time Christy Award finalist. Deb is on faculty for several national writers’ conferences and served on the executive board of the 2,500-member American Christian Fiction Writers organization for 18 years before retiring in 2022. She is a recent transplant to Missouri, having moved with her husband, Ken Raney, from their native Kansas to be closer to kids and grandkids. They love road trips, e-biking, Friday garage sale dates, and breakfast on the screened porch overlooking their wooded backyard.

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