Holidays are for Entertaining Story by Someone | Photography by Another Person
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Ginny & Dr. Hilary Hunt
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or Ginny and Dr. Hilary Hunt, the holidays are a season for entertaining family and friends. It begins at Thanksgiving, when 34 guests are seated for a typical seasonal dinner. From then until Christmas, the house is a warm and festive setting for at least three luncheons, a brunch and an extended family of 24 for dinner on Christmas Eve. In the meantime, the couple opens their home to visiting hunters in town for the hunting season. “Last year, we had three hunters for three nights,” Ginny said. Such a hectic season would be daunting to you and me, but for the Hunts, it’s just another reason to open their home to family and friends. And Ginny rises to the occasion by decorating each room appropriately. To do so requires organization, and if she is anything, Ginny Hunt is well organized. So much so, that she does most of the work herself. She has two efficient helpers, Sonia Travis and Cathy Coffelt, for this herculean effort, and she is so organized that by the time they arrive, the procedure is speedy and effortless. This has been achieved by storing the decorations in specially labeled boxes
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stored in the attic and placed in specific rooms below. Thus, dining room ornaments are in a box appropriately marked and placed in the dining room, kitchen decorations in a box in the kitchen, and so on. “They come at eight and by two o’clock, everything is basically done,” Ginny said. The Hunts reside in a 16room house, but decorate only 12. Still, the work is challenging. The solution is two-fold:
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organization and renewal. The decorations are organized in a box but are displayed in different ways each year. The result is that when visitors tour the house, they are convinced that the decorations are new. Actually, they are displayed differently each year, giving the feeling of newness. “You learn to deal with what you’ve got.” Ginny said. “You learn to improvise.” She has learned by her
professional experience, when she was a hospital nurse. “We try to be cost-effective in a hospital,” she explained. “That’s the way we do things here.” For example, she continued, “You can just change a ribbon and make it look new.” Seldom do you see anything new at Christmas. It just looks new, thanks to Ginny’s expertise at “freshening up” old decorations.
‘I’ve collected over the years,” she said. “Some things have been given by family and friends, so they have meaning.’” And that, she said, is preferable to “just going out and buying something.” Each holiday season, the Hunt’s decorations look new and refreshed. Achieving such a look comes easy to Ginny. “There’s really not anything expensive,” she said. “I like to be creative.” n
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