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2016 Home For the Holidays
LINCOLN DAILY NEWS November 23, 2016 Page 9
Her inspiration came from her grandmother,
Letha “Bea” Wise, who passed away in 2008. “I
would probably have to say my Grandma Wise,
my mom’s mom, inspired me. “She just always
decorated,” said Rentmeister. “I mean she had
stuff everywhere. Big wreaths were always
outside and even the light poles were decorated.”
She recalled her grandparents living in a large
house that was previously a nursing home in
Canton, when she was just a little girl. “They
had a big house and that’s where we all went,”
said Rentmeister, noting that the home was
always filled with aunts, uncles, cousins, friends,
boyfriends and even relatives not on the Wise
side.
Everyone was welcome to celebrate the holidays.
“It was just fun. So all of our Christmas’s were
there,” she said.
“And then my mom, Sue VanMiddlesworth,
always decorated a lot,” she added. “So I think
my mom and grandma is where it came from.”
Through the years as Rentmeister’s own family
has grown, she is the mother of five boys, so has
her passion for the holidays. She admits, “I think
I’ve gotten a little more on the crazier side with it.
“The kids aren’t going to admit to you that they
like it, but this is what they know. This is how
I do the holidays. They all have a tree in their
room.
“Whatever their room decoration is that year,
their tree coordinates with their room. If there
is anything special they want to put on it, they
can. They don’t do that so much anymore since
they’ve gotten older. Now they are like, ‘You do
it.’ But when they were little they liked to put
their own stuff on the trees.”
Jo’s favorite tree is the Victorian tree decorated
in the dining room.
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