baby blocks

First, a quick story. On my birthday weekend, 2006, I was admiring a set of decorative blocks in my mother-in-law's home. "Eileen! I just love them!" I exclaimed. "One day, I'll have to make my own pair. Or if you ever make some again, make me some. Or I'll buy some. Or something. I love them."

While I was gushing with praise for these decorative blocks, beside them sat a bag with my birthday present in it. My birthday present?

A set of the very blocks I envied.

How cool is that!?!

So. I'd like to demonstrate now my awesome blocks for you. I think my goal, in holiday decorating, is to be as simple as possible. Here is one set of blocks that covers me for the whole year. I love that I don't need to put them away and get them back out.

(Tangent: I've actually been doing a lot of thinking on this lately. I think my "decorations goal" for my life should center around the four seasons. If I have a decoration -- say a set of dinner plates -- I should have a set for winter, spring, summer, and fall. And rotate. Every decoration in the house at any time would have three similarly minded counterparts. I love the idea. But, with the four sets comes getting them out and putting them away. That's why these blocks are nice. OK, back to my original post).

Last Sunday was Easter. Our blocks were set up like so:

Beside the "I" is a bunny rabbit and beside the "E" are some cutesy flowers. Gorgeous!

At the end of May is my darling son's First Birthday! I have now set the blocks to say this:

After that, is July 4. The blocks say this:

My very patriotic (political?) sister-in-law sometimes keeps it on USA all year round!

In October, we switch the blocks to say this:

Then, at the beginning of November, we change the blocks to say this, for MY special day!:

Then, after Thanksgiving, we set the blocks to this:

Around the middle of January, when the tree is finally put away, we set the blocks to this:

And then, we celebrate St. Patrick's Day with another one of these for my dearest Shane:

(So, an interesting thought. If more kids come along, the best months are August/September or January. We'll have to see if that works out.)

My wonderful blocks have always sat on the floor in front of the fireplace. Unfortunately, in placing them there I forgot to think of this:

Which equals this:

And this:

So, if you ever drop by, the blocks will probably look like this:

Happy Holidays!