The former Merriman Park Elementary librarian is hard-pressed to find a holiday she doesn’t enjoy decorating her home front to back for. Between Halloween, Easter and even Valentine’s Day, it’s difficult to imagine the storage space required to hold all of the plastic witches, pastel-colored rabbit sculptures and pink heart wreaths.
Growing up, she says she doesn’t remember many decorations around her house past a tree. She can’t exactly pinpoint when her love of decorating started, but certainly took to it in her teaching days.
“I always did my classroom cute and painted the walls because they let us back then. I don’t know if they do anymore. And then I became the librarian at my school,” Terrell says. “I made the whole library a jungle.”
Her home became a seasonal highlight of the Moss Haven neighborhood after moving in 20 years ago. Around Halloween time each year, she flung all sorts of eerie creatures across the property.
These days, however, things have gotten a little more subdued.
“I have two big skeletons that were out(side), but one of the grandkids didn’t like those skeletons last year, so they’re just in storage for now,” she laughs.
Christmas is her favorite holiday and she isn’t shy about showing it. Santa statuettes, reindeer prints and mini villages adorn almost every corner of the home. Glass decorations have been phased out also to accommodate the grandsons. Trees, however, aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
A blue spruce goes on top of the stairs. There’s a travel tree sporting ornaments from Terrell’s travels. A pink one for a guest bedroom. A purple one for the office. And that’s not even including smaller decorative trees.
“It is hard to manage,” she concedes.