These Are a Few of My Favorite Things...

 

"I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad." ~ from the song 'My Favorite Things'

🎵 I have discovered another label for myself: "maximalist interior designer".  That's right, it's pretty much the opposite of the minimalism that is so trendy now.  Note the difference at Christmas with decorations:

                                                                                                                

                                                          Minimalism: 

                                                     (from House Beautiful)

Maximalism (a Taylor room). Yes, it looks like Christmas threw up at my house - no apologies. 

Many from my generation have a lot of 'stuff' and can be the target of judgment, but I think it's more misunderstanding.

I call it self care.  Nothing speaks to my soul more than being able to look around my home, my haven-after I've been in battle with 8th graders, highway drivers, news, bad weather, etc.-and feel hugged by my memories. 

my Christmas village I've been collecting since 1986.

🎵"When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feel so bad" are not just incredibly famous lyrics from an incredibly famous song in an incredibly famous movie.  They are statements that are drenched in research facts.  

  ornaments I made from our 1st year of marriage 

Psychology Today says positive memories decrease stress, while Psychologies says it boosts happiness and self esteem that can "even stave off death".  Being nostalgic is a therapy used to counteract loneliness and anxiety, according to another study.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Ornament from our many trips to the Hotel Del Coronado with our large family, where Great Grandpa baptized some of our family in the ocean there.

🎵 Anyone who knows me knows memory is not my strength; visible reminders help me.  I'm not alone in that-as our parents or others around us age, we need to be kind and allow them to surround themselves with the evidence of their lives they've lived & the people that are most important to them.  

tea set from old May D & F in downtown Denver shopping with Grandma                                                              

🎵 My husband & I have built a business on nostalgia- we find treasures that remind people of a time in their past.  People I know who are older delight in gifts that are personal to them because of the reminiscing benefits.  So be gentle with their memories- their 'stuff'.

                                                           new memories at the Brown Palace

🎵 Our lives here, however long they be, are anchored by stones of remembrance.  Our journeys with God should be anchored by those as well.  Whether through journaling, notations in my Bible, or stories told, I want to remember all the times God has been faithful to me and never left me alone.  Every time He carried me, guided  me, disciplined me, accepted me, forgave me.

stones of remembrance (from Joshua 4:9)

The first stone of remembrance is the act of God sending His one & only Son from perfect heaven to an evil flawed earth, in the form of an innocent human (without sin His whole life), to grow up, be tortured and killed so we can return someday to be with God in Heaven forever.  That is the story and meaning of Christmas.

                                

🎵 Remember this act of love from Your heavenly Father.  Let it wrap itself around you this Christmas as you give your gifts of love to family & friends.The gift of Jesus.  My favorite thing.

✙ Dear Lord, as we go to bed on this Christmas night, give us a grateful heart for Your incomprehensible gift of Your Son.  As a parent I can't even fathom giving up one of my children, and yet You have done so with a never ending love, even when it is rejected by some, or by all of us some of the time.  Help us to put the "Christ" back in "Christian" so others can see love that can only be from You.  Help us to be more like You. Mend our hearts, expand them, and increase our faith.  Amen.