Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year.
This is the time of year to show gratitude for your bounteous blessings. I've been sharing on IG this month a few of those blessings, but I want to include one on my blog today. My sweet, height-fearing husband has been climbing up on a tall roof and putting up Christmas lights on our house for 30 years now. It's not an easy thing for a person who would rather keep his feet planted firmly on the ground at all times. Not only does he string the lights around the top of the house, but he goes the extra mile by putting them up the peaks of the roof also. And, as if that's not enough, he color codes the lights. . . five red, five green, five white, etc. A true work of art! I'm not going to pretend that no complaining is heard along the way, but I will say that it's relatively minimal. A little moaning and groaning for about 15 minutes and then up he goes. And, when the house is done, he starts on the trees. . . an even greater sacrifice. So, this year I wanted to make sure he knew how much I appreciate it. Thanks Bob for loving Christmas as much as I do, and for not being a Scrooge about putting up the Christmas lights. Another 30 years and we'll call it good. I Promise.
This is my favorite pic from Christmas. My kids have been all grown up for awhile now, so it was great to have little ones around this Christmas season. My grandson Tate wanted a "big Buzz". So naturally, Grammie had to make sure he got one. I couldn't wait to give it to him. For months now, he's been admiring Buzz Lightyear every time he's at the store. I knew he would be excited, and sure enough, Buzz was a hit.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. May your day be filled with love, happiness and joy. And, may we all remember the true meaning of Christmas.
Gifts have been purchased and wrapped. The stockings are hung. The house is filled with the smells of yummy food and the sounds of Christmas music. The family is gathered. There is excitement in the air. And, the final touch has finally arrived. It's going to be a white Christmas after all. Perfection!!
When He was a little boy, he loved to go fishing. Still does. One year we bought Mike this fish ornament. Notice the tail of the fish has long since fallen off. No matter, we still hang it on the branch, above the ornament... spring and all. No part of our vintage ornaments are left unhung. It's silly that it matters to us, but it does. Every ornament stays, no matter what.
Today's blast from the past features a lovely vintage 1997 "Rudolf" ornament made from tongue depressors. The artist is my youngest daughter, who was 7 at the time. Take special note of the missing left antler, which has been missing since about 1998, but still makes it on the tree every year. We aren't picky about the condition of our vintage ornaments. In fact, the less intact, the more precious. Which is exactly why I never bothered repairing the left-side green bow. Okay, maybe that's not the only reason.... laziness may have played a small part in it.
I've been busy all day "decking my halls" with all kinds of Christmas decor. Things are looking quite festive around here. I'm a little late getting everything up this year, but I made up for it today. It's finally the Christmas season at my house.... my favorite time of year:)
We set up our "downstairs" Christmas tree over the weekend. It's the tree that Santa puts all the presents under. The one that nobody sees except family and close friends. The sentimental one with all of the kid's homemade ornaments they made in school when they were little. It's the tree with the ornaments I bought the kids each year to remind them of what was important in their lives at that time. It also has the ornaments I have collected on my travels and ornaments we received as gifts from friends. In all, there have got to be 200 ornaments on this small tree. I am not exaggerating!! We have a "pretty" tree upstairs, but this is by far the favorite. I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you over the next few weeks. This is installment #1. It's 19 years old, and still makes me smile as big as it did the first day I received it:)
I'm not one to promote or try to sell things on my blog, but my guitar teacher has a CD out for the Christmas season and it's really, really good. All Wrapped Up, by Nancy Hanson is the title. If you're in the mood for some fun holiday music that includes some awesome guitar, check it out. It has some of the great classic Christmas songs on it, but also includes a couple of originals that Nancy wrote. If you're like me, you can never have enough Christmas music.
We decided to change our outdoor Christmas lights to LED lights this year. We knew it would be a little pricey, but we thought it would be worth it in the end. We went out and bought new bulbs for all of the sockets on our strands... and we are talking about a LOT of strands here. We (and by we I don't really mean me) brought the bulbs home and changed every last one of them over to the LEDs. Job complete, right? Wrong!! Our "white" lights looked blue next to all of the lights in our trees. Now we had red green and blue Christmas lights. Not my favorite color combination for the Christmas season. As it turns out, there are white, pure white, clear white, and bright white lights, each having a different hue. After another trip back to the lighting store, we are finally sporting red, green and white lights on our house and trees this year. Who knew it would be such a big deal to find white lights? Be warned, if you are considering a switch, make sure you get the right white.
It's December and that means it's time to break out the Christmas tree and decorations and make the house look all festive.
I love this time of year, but. . .
one of the unfortunate things about being an "empty nester" is that none of your kids are around to help you decorate the Christmas tree.
I decided this year I would document the tree decorating in my blog so that my kids could feel like they were right here with me helping me out (or just eating Christmas candy and busting out the Celine Christmas tunes at the top of their lungs.)
My tree is pre-lit so I don't really have to string the lights each year, which is really nice.
I start by running some thick gold ribbon down the tree at a diagonal.
I don't have much of this particular ribbon so I start a little ways down and try to gauge things right.
This year I started a little high and didn't make it down as far as I would have liked, but it's not a big deal.
I follow the gold ribbon up with
a thick red ribbon. I wind it around the tree a few inches below the gold ribbon, making sure to keep the same angle.
I think the red ribbon really makes the tree stand out.
I add one more gold ribbon to the tree which may seem like too much ribbon, but in the end it will look great.
I try to tuck the ribbon into the branches a little to make it look like it is lying naturally on the branches and doesn't look too stiff.
Next comes the red berry garlands. I only have four of them and they are very fragile, so I try to be careful when I put them on the tree.
I just let the tiny branches fall where they may so that everything looks a little imperfect.
Next I put on the ornaments. I have deep red, ivory, silver and brown ornaments. They are all different shapes and sizes. I add a few rusty balls and stars for variety.
I also put a few berry sprigs and flowers here and there. And, of course, a star on top.
The final step is to add a tree skirt and VOILA!! The Christmas season has officially started.
Over the next few days I will "fine tune" the tree moving ornaments around as I see fit. It's never perfect on the first day. It takes a few days to get it just right.
By the time the kids really see it, it will be a masterpiece!
