A Tribute to my Mother - Day Six

My mother loves the holidays. I remember every holiday my mom had some form of decorations for it, and I loved, loved, LOVED pulling them all out each year and spending the day decorating. Of course, we would have to straighten up the house first, but then we would put on some music and take our time pulling out the decorations, squealing with delight as we exclaimed "Oh! I love that one!" or "Remember this from last year? I totally forgot it!" It was so fun! My mom had enough decorations for practically every month of the year.

For January there were snowflakes and winter scenes. February were hearts and pink, white, and red crepe paper and Valentine stuff everywhere. Each Valentine's Day she would buy us each a small box of conversation hearts and leave one on the cabinet, or our beds or someplace we would see it. It was so sweet. March she had decorations for St. Patrick's Day so our house was decked out in green, black, and gold with leprechauns, pots of gold, and watching the movie Darby O'Gill and the Little People (still one of my favorites to this day). April brought Easter and bunnies, chicks, eggs, and pastel colors galore. Our Easter baskets always had a solid chocolate bunny, marshmallow peeps and one Cadbury egg. Everything else could come and go but those three things were standard. For May she had flowers and flags and stars and stripes for Memorial day. June was always a graduation month, and we always had at least one person graduating then so we would have little hats and tassels and diplomas, but not too many. July she had flags upon flags upon flags. She had "Uncle Sam" figures and stars and stripes and fireworks and all sorts of 4th of July decorations. August and September were the start of school so she would have chalkboards, apples, school buses, and school books up.

Now, October happens to be one of my mom's favorite months. First, because she was born in October, and second because of Halloween. My mom loves Halloween. I love getting her birthday presents during that time because I know if I can find something really cool or really cute and Halloween related that she would love it. Our house was always decorated for Halloween. I mean, always. She had so many great decorations, and some were really old. I remember these moons, black cats, and witches that looked like they were decorations from the 50's or 60's and she would put them up every year on our doors or somewhere on the walls. My grandma (her mom) also sent her some of the coolest Halloween decorations I have ever seen. She sent a set of all these different Halloween monsters (mummy, vampire bat, Frankenstein, etc.) that were only about 5 or 6 inches high, made from ceramic, and had cool glowing red eyes. There was a button in the back that you could turn on which would make their eyes glow and an eerie sound would play as well. They were awesome. Decorating for Halloween was just as fun as decorating for Christmas.

November brought Thanksgiving and my mom had plenty of decorations for that too. Pilgrims, Indians, cornucopia's, turkey's, and lots and lots of fall leaves. I think my mom's favorite season is fall. Near the end of every summer (even to this day) my mom will point out trees that are starting to turn colors and say "Look! Fall is coming! That tree is changing color, and that tree is changing color, and that tree is changing color." I always look but at first I'm not able to see any color change and I always think she's just anxious for summer to be over, and who can blame her? But then, sure enough, the following day I would see a few trees that had changed color and I would laugh. Ah, mom. You're just a hoot sometimes.

December is Christmas, and if my mom had a ton of decorations for Halloween and Thanksgiving, you can bet she had her fair share of Christmas decorations as well. I absolutely love Christmas, and have many fond memories of some of our Christmas traditions. My mom would have us help her decorate the house with all the Christmas goodness, and then we would bake and bake and bake. I loved it!

Helping my mom decorate the house for all the holidays growing up, really made them all so much more special to me, and now as an adult I decorate my house as well. I don't decorate for all of the holidays, perhaps one day maybe. But for now I stick to the three main holidays near the end of the year. For those of you who have seen my house during Halloween, it is all thanks to my mom. She instilled that tradition in me, and made it such an enjoyable experience that I would be doing her a disservice not to decorate my house now. I love inviting her over during those times so she can see it because I know she will appreciate it just as much, if not more, than me. Mom, thanks for helping me to look forward to such wonderful celebrations each month and passing on your love of decorating. I love you.