Give me real tree even if the ones we cut on our property have holes and droopy branches that must be wired up to hold heavy ornaments.
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| Very simply decorated this year since we will be spending Christmas with our daughter and her family. Had to leave a tree for the house sitters, who are dear friends, however. |
Today I am working on transforming three ugly faux wreaths from Hobby Lobby bought for the second time three years ago. (That story at the end of this post!) I was looking for something that we could hang in the church on a huge blank wall in the sanctuary that would not be too heavy. They have to be hung sixteen feet in the air and we do not want to rent scaffolding to hang the wreaths. The solution was to buy faux plastic wreaths and add real greens to hide the not so real look of the green plastic. This considerably reduced the weight of an enormous (four and half feet across) wreath of real greens.
The first year I made these for the church, I spent hours cutting pieces of wire to secure the greens to the faux wreath. The second year, in a light bulb moment, I used two of the individual faux stems to twist around the real greens. I twist one place on the base of the real steam and one at the top of the real stem to secure each of them. I cut real stems about 12 inches long. Be sure to work in the same direction hiding the new piece's cut stem under the top of the last cut stem.
Not only do these look much better, they bring a wonderful fresh Christmas scent into the church.
POST CHRISTMAS DISASTER
Now for the disaster story! No these did not fall on anyone's head thank you very much. However, I was late getting to church after Christmas when it was time to take these down. Our maintenance guy very helpfully did it for me and threw the wreaths (forms and all) into the dumpster. I had made three separate trips to Hobby Lobby to purchase these faux wreaths with 40% off coupons to reduce the price of $159.00 each. The dumpster had already been emptied by the time I got to the church. Do you blame me for driving around to try to find the garbage truck to retrieve them? No luck. I called the city to see if I could get them back and was told they would have been mashed beyond salvage as the truck was filled, and did I really want to dig through dirty diapers and rotten table scraps? NOT that they would allow me to do it anyway because of liability issues. So the next year, they had to be purchased again. LESSONS LEARNED... 1. Do it yourself to be sure. 2. If you cannot do it yourself, be very specific in instructions to helpers. 3. Never be late. (okay, I did not really learn the last one too well)
Christmas Services at St. Mark's, 431 Richmond NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Christmas Pageant & Festive Potluck
Sunday, December 17, 5 p.m.
*Worship Followed by Farolito Construction and Placement
Sunday, December 24, 9:30 a.m.
Christmas Eve Family Service
(Children's Christmas Story)
Sunday, December 24, 5 p.m.
Candlelight and Choral Midnight Mass
Sunday, December 24, 10:30 p.m.
*Carols, Kegs and Nog: A Festive Carol Sing and Potluck
Wednesday, December 27, 6-9 p.m.
