Redmer Family Christmas

Work was pretty much the same as yesterday. It was quiet for most of the day, except for the usual spurts whenever we'd get people coming from work. Once again, there were a couple of annoying beginning-of-the-month people, but otherwise no problems, and my relief was on time. I bought a pizza to share with my sister Jessa and headed home after that.

I enjoyed my little tree-trimming party with my 17-year-old stepsister Jessa so much last year, I decided to do it again this year. I put up the lights and the garland while she was in art class. I'd just finished the garland and tossed the pizza in the oven when she arrived. We had a lovely time, putting up my boxes and boxes of ornaments and eating pizza, gingerbread, and the loaf of French Bread I'd made earlier that evening. She wants to a be a commercial artist when she graduates high school this spring, and she does have a wonderful eye. The tree looks great, and once again, we did it in half the time it takes me alone. It was a lot more fun to have someone to talk to and tell all the stories behind my many ornaments, too. Some of my ornaments were presents from Mom that came from Winterwood and Cape May gift shops. Some came from thrift shops; others from yard sales or Acme after-Christmas sales. A few came from dollar stores. There's a very few I've had since childhood.

We did so well with the tree, we decided to dress and organize the bears after it was done and we had our gingerbread for dessert. Every year, I dress up my teddy bear collection and some bears kept specifically for this purpose (along with a couple of other animals) in old winter and Christmas baby clothes and put them under the tree. We both dressed them, and Jessa largely arranged them. She has such a wonderful eye. They look fantastic, not too bunched. She's such a sweet kid.