Until next year....
I hate taking down our Christmas tree and decorations and have been known to keep them up until March (okay so that was last years record but I had a good excuse being a new mum and everything) ....but fast forward a year and Louis has managed to undress the bottom half of the poor tree. Only yesterday he tried out a new trick whereby during the time it took me to whip up some lunch for him in the kitchen - he had managed to climb up onto the fireplace ledge, then on top of the TV table and I caught him just as he was reaching over to pick a prized glass bauble from the tree.... - I think it's best for everyone's sanity if the decorations are put away pronto...
Here you can see a selection of my treasured tree ornaments including a 30-year-old Santa (who graced my own tree when I was growing up and my dad recently reminded me that every Christmas I would ask him to lift me up to kiss Santa...), a Chrysler building decoration given to me by my stepmum which I treasure as she spent over 8 months in NYC whilst receiving chemotherapy, and hand painted paper-mache hearts and baubles which we brought back from our honeymoon...
Every year I try to buy a decoration to add to our collection - and this year we were very lucky to pick up a few decorations at the brocante including these gold reindeers and tree...
...and this crèche and traditional Provencal santons from Gateau & Fils de Marseille - which we got for 10 euro - and I've only just realised each Santon can cost on average 12 euro each....so we got a real bargain and something we will treasure always!
For those not familiar with Santons - the word Santon is Provençal for 'Little Saint' and they are hand painted, hand crafted figurines. In a traditional Provençal crèche, there are "55 individual figures representing various characters from Provençal village life such as the scissors-grinder, the fishwife, the blind man, and the chestnut seller. My parents-in-law have been collecting Santons for years and craft a huge crèche every Christmas (Louis managed to break a santon this year within 2 mins of arriving in their house...)
