No place like Home for the Holidays Paint Party Friday

 

 Paint Party Friday

Revamped advent Calendar in the style of a box. Still needs some finishing touches!

As I thumbed through my address book  I realized how different this era is than when I was raised.  So few people  stay in one place for a lifetime. There's something to be said for living in the same house most of your childhood, getting married then returning home during the holidays.  Sauntering through the old rooms, eying familiar items from  childhood, opening the fridge to the same condiments and traditional Christmas foods from holidays past! It seems people made more sacrifices to stay put  during my parents era than they do  today! 

When you open the doors there are 24 little drawers to pull out. The original is too ugly to show!

With a  fifty percent divorce rate and a few dips in the economy things have gone awry. There is just not the same stability that past generations enjoyed with  their families, where grandpa and grandma lived in the same house until they died and all the  aunts and uncles did the same! Back then  home was the same place for decades! 

People seem to want bigger and better, or they split and can't afford the family home. Only a hand full of the people I know have lived in their homes ten years or longer! The majority of my  old neighbors living in elite homes  are all now divorced and moved on. It seems the ones who struggled to hang on to their modest homes during tough  times, ones who have renovated from the sweat of their brow, or raised several children, are still in their homes twenty odd years later!

Save a few addresses, sadly my address book is now defunct. Some people are only in our lives for a season, I guess  it's the ones that count  that stay a lifetime.  Even though things get  old and overlooked, renovations are put on hold, there is something so comforting about being in the same familiar place for years! 

Beardos parents have been in their three bedroom basement  home over fourty years. They  raised ten children and even though certain rooms have been renovated there is one  room  that still has the same curtains from the seventies. Curtains my mom once owned too! All the children come home for Christmas with their families.There is something so loving and comfortable about being there! It's a feeling that can't be bottled into words!

Digital Color edit

When I was young I wanted things to look perfect, surround myself in beauty, to stay current. When I was married the  longest we stayed in a home was nine years. There was always a reason to move.  Having been in my home sixteen years now I realize for me there is truer value in  permanence and stability. I am a homebody, some people have more of a gypsy spirit and need change often, others are economically forced to move whether they want to or not!

Life is ever changing, with technology, morals, and attitudes. Still  there is something to be said for going home and knowing things might be a little tattered here and there, but it's filled with love,  good memories and comfort that fill your heart with joy like no other!

Do you love your home as much as I do mine?

 Didn't get cards out in time this year. Inside its says Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!
Click on the photo for a better affect!

Wishing all my blog friends a  Holiday filled with Love, Peace

and snippets of Joy where possible!

To those suffering loss, or illness, be kind to yourself and remember 

the season is short and a New Year is around the bend.

In that, there is always HOPE!

May you ALL be blessed with good things!