Oh my, I started this blog post two weeks ago and never got around to posting it! For some reason (conducting a certain little sheltie dog hunt) I never got around to finishing it up...
So better late than never!!
Here was the finished product, but I will go into the step by step with some quick paragraphs, mostly pictures!
The day after Thanksgiving the some of the grandkids were off school and decided to come over and give us a hand. The weather was warm and we were able to get up a lot of the outside decorations. We are outside in light jackets and sweatshirts.
Clayton was in charge of our electrical connections and was figuring out everything to put up the lights and the garland along the front porch.
When the kids were all done unloading the decorations, they even carried all the empty boxes back into the garage for me.
Chelsea arranged the bows and Claire helped hang up the stars and tie the strings. Pretty soon we had everything back into place just the way it was the year before.
Our skinny little Rudolph is standing guard between the two dining room windows.
The red tinsel bristle brush tree is set up in the corner. It's quite vintagey looking and really cute in the corner of our red and white farmhouse.
The stars are made from dollar store hangers and wireties as connectors and glued on sequins.
Chelsea balanced out all of the swag garlands and arranged the bows.
Some bouquets of silk flowers were plopped into the ceramic planters by the she-shed windows.
The grandkids wound velvet ribbons around the columns of the pergola. After we were done, we realized one side was wound in the same direction as the other. We wanted them going in opposite directions! I tried to leave it the original way for that one day. It drove me nuts. The OCD in me had me go back out and unwind it and put it in the opposite direction!!
Tah dahhhhhh all lit up at night!
The little tree is really red, but in the photo it shows up as pink. We found this at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore a couple years ago..
Inside, I had cleared all of my dishes out of the china hutch. This is where the grandkids help to set up the Christmas village on all three glass shelves.
Everyone pitched in and helped. Each child took a shelf and they added all of their extra little delightful statues and trees and clumps of batting for snow.
And here is the finished Christmas village for 2023.
All lit up at night for dramatic effect.
Now it was time to haul in all the parts of our artificial tree. Littlest Claire made sure she knew which part went first second third fourth and 5th. With her handy dandy tape measure, she had it all figured out!
Chelsea and Clayton took care of assembling the tree section by section. The tree is actually taller than this when it's up in the main part of the house where the ceilings are 9 ft tall. But this year we decided to put it together down in the She Shed where it's closer to maybe 8 ft tall at this end of the vaulted ceiling. So we had to omit the bottommost section to make the tree shorter.
Way up up to the tippy top! Sure is nice to have grandkids to do all this assembly for us.
The ornaments went on a little bit at a time. The grandkids had to go home so I finished arranging them here there and everywhere. Each one has sentimental value and has a story behind it. There's a lot of great memories included on this tree.
At night, Steve plays with the remote control for these LED lights. He can make them flash or alternate between white or colored etc.
Upstairs in the living room, I finished hanging the little snowflakes from the open arch doorways. The stockings were all hung by the chimney with care...
Last year, Chelsea measured out the exact distance of the openings and then divided by the proper number of snowflakes. We made tiny spots with push pins so we know every year now we can evenly spread out the snowflakes. She is a little OCD like Grandma!
I added a few more things to the top of the buffet. Steve changes the light bulbs into flickering flame bulbs in both of the light fixtures. The candy dish was filled with treats, waiting for the next visit from some of our grandchildren.
Bit of decor here and there really makes the house feel festive and bright.
Across the top of the mantle I have pine garland with little colorful lights woven into it. Along the front edge I have my wooden rocking horse collection. Every year I look for a few more. My "stable" is just about full.
The stockings are all hung, as well as the little teddy bear is waiting in the sleigh with a stack of Christmas story books.
The silly little metal tree with magnetic ornaments we fondly call the "Grinch Tree". It looks like something straight out of Dr Seuss. There are tiny seed lights that flicker and flash in alternating patterns in strands strung around the tree for at night.
These adorable little wine bottle cork deer were made by my friend Vicky. Totally adorable as well as the cork pine tree next to them on the shelf.
My mama's little toy soldier nutcrackers that I got after she passed away. These are the gold and silver ones....
And these are the more colorful traditional ones.
Some cute little reindeer made from pine garland. I forget where I got these or homemade them but they sure are adorable.
Stained glass holly and berries carefully hung on the mirror in the center of the dining room. I love stained glass!
This delicately cut out tree was made by a fiber friend in my weaving guild about 25 or so years ago. It's made out of stiff cardstock cardboard and she cut the entire thing out with an exacto knife. If you look close at the top it's the partridge in the pear tree, and each row down is from the 12 Days of Christmas. I folded it up flat every year and store it away carefully. Such a treasure.
Steve hung up our mistletoe. We don't get fresh mistletoe every year, so this little artificial one does the trick just as well. I still get kisses----
These silly jump up toy ornaments are made out of wood in an old fashioned manner. I know they are newer but they are really cool. I used to try to hang them on the tree but they wiggle too much if you try to pull the bottom knob to make them jump. So instead we put them on these command hooks for the grandchildren to play with for the season. Someday they will get back on the tree again if there's nobody around yanking on them.
On the kitchen table bar top we have to have a scraggly old Charlie Brown Tree. Doesn't everyone? It has little teeny tiny ornaments and the kids like looking at it if they come over to eat a snack.
The last tree in our house is a fiber optic one. We had this one for in the motorhome when we lived in full time for a period. On this tree there are stuffed ornaments each one personalized with the name of all of our family members and extended family. Of course, we call it our "Family Tree". We keep this one right up in the front of the house by the dining room windows and turn it on and off each night. Since the main tree is down in the she shed, this is the only one that can be seen from the road.
Before Christmas, I spend time painting all of the grandchildren little village houses of their very own. I've been doing this for years. Every year they get a different village house and I have to make sure that I never give the same one to the same child. I keep a spreadsheet. Lol.
While I paint, I have some of my most favorite music playing. I remember this album cover when I was a child in the 1960s.
Well, that's it for my belated post on Christmas decorations around the house.
It still seems like "before Christmas" here, because everyone was sick on Christmas .... we did not have a family gathering yet. So instead, we are all going to get together when we have our epic bowling day in January with all of the kids and grandkids. We will exchange gifts then.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
As an update on our newest family member, Little Nicholas is fitting right in. We had our newest vet appointment on Monday, which gave him great results. We have a neutering appointment set up for early next month. He is recovering from his ordeal. He was severely starved and dehydrated during his time alone in the woods.
Our house is now filled with the joy of another canine family member. (Look how skinny he is!)
Binney is absolutely delighted to have him as part of our pack.
Happy New Year!!!
