Merry Christmas!

If I'm going to record the rest of this year's Christmas decorating, this seems like the day to do it!

These swags were a lot cheaper than wreathes, especially considering that I need two since we have a double door in the front, and I think I like them just as well. For us, the most important aspect of the door decoration is that it have that wonderful evergreen smell. I have allergies so our tree is artificial -- this is the place where we sneak in the real stuff. Perhaps, I'll put a bow on them next year for a bit more color.

The nativity scene has a story to go with it. My mother said for years that she was going to get a nativity set when she could afford to buy a good one. The family ignored this comment and assumed she’d get around to it one day. But my fiance (now, husband), when he heard that the first time, saw an opportunity. The next Christmas he bought her the basic pieces of a nativity set and for years after added more and more pieces until she had a very large scene. Mother died in 2005, so now it’s mine. This year is the first time since then that I’ve had the time and space to set it out.

Next year, I think I'll try putting a piece of fabric under it so it's not quite so brown on brown. And I'm still trying to decide if I like the Christmas cards around it or not. That was mostly accidental (I put the first couple of cards on the edge of the buffet and then it just grew), but visitors have paid attention to both together and the cards have certainly added some color to the mix.

Merry Christmas! And God bless us, every one!

Indoor Christmas tree

Last year at Christmas, we didn't have any furniture in the living room, so we plopped the Christmas tree in the middle and appreciated having something to fill the space for awhile.

This year, we have our furniture and there's really no room for a Christmas tree. So, Rick had the idea to put the tree in the sunroom and it's been quite wonderful. We can see it, or its reflection in windows, in nearly every room of the house.

Outdoor Christmas trees

We may never be able to replicate this year's outdoor trees, but I thought I would make record of it. There are three evergreen trees in the part of the landscape design that we're ready to implement. We bought them, potted, early in December so that we can use them as Christmas trees for the season, then plant them.

We put a thuja at the bottom of the driveway. It wasn't stable so Rick buried the pot partway.



He did the same for the one by the garage. We put multi-colored lights on both of the thujas and appreciate them when we come home after dark. We can also see the one at the bottom of the driveway from a couple of windows in the house.



The weather didn't cooperate for us to get lights on the juniper that we put near the front door. But it had pretty natural decoration after our snowstorm.

Autumn Entry

It still doesn't feel like fall here, but they're promising colder weather later in the week so we got motivated to decorate the bottom of the driveway for the season.

Here is Rick artfully messing up the straw:

And, here is our final design:

Back to School

I'm not going back to school this year in any form. Which feels a bit odd. Last year I went "back to school" as a staff member at a university. For three years previous to that, I went back to library school in late August or early September.

I needed to find a new way to employ my back to school energy this year. So, I decided to make my study functional. It's not beautiful, but this old desk and new chair are way more useful than the deck chair and two TV tables I've been using.