It is getting close to Christmas time again and this means digging out holiday decorations and lights. This is my favorite time of the year so I have accumulated many decorations. Each year I think that I need to go through the boxes and discard or donate things that I no longer use, but it is difficult for me to part with the items. I also like to buy something new every year to add to the collection and to have a variation on the decorating. My husband is telling me that we do not have room for anything more in the storage area so I either need to not buy anything or get rid of some things. We decided that we would pull out all the decorations well before Christmas this year so we could sort through what we have.
I discovered that I had purchased a Christmas wreath at the end of the season last year. I had forgotten about buying it at the end of the season sales. It is a pre-lit Christmas wreath and is suitable for indoor or outdoor use. When I bought it I had thought we would use it by our light post at the front of the house. My husband could not believe that I had forgotten about this because we had just ordered a Christmas wreath from the boy scouts. I told him that this was no big deal because we could always put the Christmas wreath that we had ordered on our front door.
We went through the many plastic storage container filled with ornaments, lights, figurines and other holiday decorations. We managed to fill two bins with items that we would donate to the local Goodwill store. The Goodwill store was very pleased that we were bringing in the items prior to the holidays. They said so often people made their donations after the holidays and then they had to store the items. This way the items would be available to the needy in time for the holidays. They were giving special appreciation gifts for those that donated any items. We had our choice of a Christmas wreath or evergreen garland. The wreaths and garland were donated by a local tree grower. We decided on the garland since we had the pre-lit wreath as well as the fresh Christmas wreath coming from the boy scouts. The garland was six feet long and would be a great addition to our mantel. My husband could not believe that we went to Goodwill to get rid of decorations and then came home with a new item. I of course was thrilled with the addition of the fresh garland for our home.