Decking the Halls at the Rippy’s

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Merry Christmas!

For the past 10+ years, Rip has met his buddies for their annual duck hunting trip. He LOVES duck hunting and looks forward to this one particular 3-day trip every year and I have to admit, so do I!

And here’s why — every. single. year. I have some kind of “homey” surprise waiting on him when he gets home. (He knows…he knows to expect “something!”) Either painted the entire house – or got loads of yard work all done – or deep cleaned and organized his shop – scrubbed out the garage and re-loaded it in an organized way — some kinda’ something that I knew would mean a lot to him. Well, this year we both knew our work schedule was rather full up until December 22, and we wondered when we’d be able to decorate our home for Christmas. So, while he was away, I got 2 clients all taken care of and woke up on Thursday (the day Rip would be getting home) and just got busy!

Boxes of decorations in our family room lined up behind the sofa all got opened, and I stood there and looked at all the decorations, ornaments, garlands, etc. And … ended up closing 3 of them. I just wanted to simplify.

I saw boxes full of garland and beads and ornamentals. Boxes of table settings and figurines and art and candles and little knick-knacks. But the few boxes that remained in the house for me to work from had our children’s ornaments in them that have been hung on a tree either since they were born or for many years. The few boxes that I really pulled from stored items that our children had either made and given to us, or had been in our home placed about that we both knew had special meaning to them, too.

So, after setting aside the specials, I took a drive to Callaway’s Lawn and Garden and filled my trunk with fresh evergreen clippings, got back home and got busy! Using all fresh clippings, it was time to have some fun! You can imagine how our home smells…love the fragrance of Christmas pine!

You see, for me and Rip this year, we both really wanted our home to have an aroma, a feeling, a very special tree, and to have very simple things that would make the word, “FAMILY” stand out to us this Christmas as we celebrate the One who made eternal family possible!

Rip and I have something to say to other blended families … you are not discarded from God. You are not a second class family and you are not “less Christian.” You are loved deeply by God and He is a forgiving and restoring Father, Who has not washed His hands of you and has not lessened His acceptance of you. He has beautiful plans for every member of your family. Rip and I choose this Christmas to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior with “FAMILY” as our focus. We will be around my parents table this Christmas Eve with FAMILY and so in this house, we celebrate with CHRIST and FAMILY in our hearts.

But after working all day, he walked in the door around 11:00pm and found a happy wife and a home with arms!

Merry Christmas, y’all!

Posted in

lisa rippy

2 Comments

  1. Angie Sharp on December 11, 2016 at 9:56 am

    There is a video box, but no video to play. Just letting you know. 🙂

    • Lisa Rippy on December 12, 2016 at 12:00 pm

      Thank you Angie….got it fixed!

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