It’s — finally — beginning to look a lot like Christmas at my house.

Although I had hoped to have everything in order to welcome family and friends to visit a couple of weeks ago, life got in the way. Under the heading of “it never rains but it pours,” Mike and I had car trouble and truck trouble and sinus infections and unexpected obligations to fulfill.

On Thursday, though, we started our day determined to turn our home into a bit of a winter wonderland. We both took the day off so that we could help each other with the project and check several items off our to-do list.

Because the weather was nice, step one was getting the exterior of our home decorated. Although I had purchased some brand new lights that I thought we would use, we ended up finding some tried and true treausres around the house that we installed instead. From what I belive was our first articifical tree to holiday lights my parents purchased when I was a teenager, we found some ecclectic pieces to make our entryway seem bright and cheery. I even pulled out a wooden snowman that I helped to make when I was in college, along with a very nice artificial pine garland that I had persuaded my mother to buy so that I could string it with lights and hang it up year after year.

Inside the house, we moved some furniture to make way for Mike’s mother’s very large Christmas tree that she no longer has room for. We did add a new set of 600 twinkling lights to that 7-footer and covered it in a wide array of ornaments from both of our childhoods.

We also spent some time cleaning and rehabilitating some old favorite decorations to be placed around the house. It’s amazing what a little Pledge and a new bow can do for a wooden reindeer who has been around for 25 years or so.

To set the mood, we played some classic holiday special on TV while we worked. From the animatronic “Rudolph the Red-Mosed Reindeer” to the tale of “Frosty the Snowman,” the dialogue and songs of those programs made us think back on how many times we have watched them and how they have become such a big part of the soundtracks of our lives.

We lit a candle I received as part of a recent white elephant gift exchange I participated in with some “girls” I graduated with. The warm scent of German chocolate cake filled our home as we worked. That probably had a lot to do with me giving in to the urge to make a big, steaming cup of hot cocoa topped with marshmallows.

Once we had all our baubles in place, we cleaned up all the containers that store those items throughout the rest of the year, ran the vacuum to clean up the fallout of our project and then took a few minutes to survey the results.

In the end, we were both glad that we had used a lot of what we had rather than hanging all new decorations. While newer items might create just the look you’re dreaming of, those familiar pieces from years gone by provide a certain level of comfort and conjure up fond memories.

Many of the gifts we intend to give have been obtained or at least ordered, and we have started planning for a small, casual feast that we will share with anyone who stops by on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I belive we are nearly ready.

So, it’s time to let the merrymaking begin!