Christmas is Coming

November 27.

On a cold, spitting-rain afternoon, the guys indulged my desire for a Christmas tree.

It's a beautiful tree, and once its branches settle down I'll decorate it.  Now to wait...


Back to life,
Christine

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Our 2015 Christmas

We anticipated a very simple Christmas again this year, with a quiet day spent with family at my brother's home.  Quiet = peaceful and calm, without any "rush of the season" or excessive gift-giving. 

At the beginning of the month, after we came home from California, I appreciated the simplicity of this year's Christmas season.  But, I really wanted a tree, simple yet beautiful to fill our home with a Christmas-y atmosphere.  And a few weeks before Christmas Day, Fernando surprised me.

"Let's go out and get a tree--right now!" he said one balmy afternoon.  We drove to a local farm which rents their space to a Michigan tree farm each year.  A friendly employee greeted us, and within literally two minutes we had found our tree--a little bigger than I wanted, but it had just been put out and was perfect.

Fernando and Joseph carried it in and got it set up.  This year, we located the tree stand first, before heading out to get our tree.  *Ahem*  It's much easier this way, than having to stand in the living room holding a tree while someone runs around searching for the stand, only to find it exactly where I thought I had put it (its logical resting place) the year before.

I collect ornaments, just one or two each year--snowflakes, leaves (my new obsession), and glass icicles.  I'm slowly adding beautiful pieces to my collection, until our tree will one day be covered with unique and memorable ornaments.

The weekend before Christmas, Fernando and I headed out in the car to see some local homes decorated for the holidays.  Here are are few of my favorites.

Christmas Day was spent at Jeff's; although he's a bachelor, he can certainly make his home look festive.

The day was spent playing together, eating (pretty much all day--brunch, snacks, more snacks, main meal, and dessert!), going for a walk, and lots of conversation and laughter.  Jake had to work, so he drove over mid-afternoon, and our little clan was complete.

My sister-in-law gave a goody bag, filled with sweet and salty treats, to the boys.  My parents gave each of the boys gift cards to their favorite restaurants, plus Andy's Custard (the lucky dogs!!).  I gave my Mom a Pampered Chef gadget she had wanted, and I gave Fernando tickets to see Brian Regan in concert next month!!  (Maybe that one was more for me than for him...)

After a fun- and food-filled day, everyone headed home.

We hope you had a beautiful, peaceful and calm Christmas Day with your loved ones!!


Back to life,
Christine

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Ornaments for the Tree

Kinda random here, but I took some macro pictures of some (mostly) new ornaments for our tree this Christmas.

This first one I found when we got our Christmas tree.  In the little gift shop at The Growing Place, I almost walked right into a display of hand-crafted ornaments--all snowflakes!  Since my aim is to cover our tree with snowflakes of all kinds, I splurged and bought it.

My younger brother Jeff bought me a few ornaments, too, once he heard how I'm collecting snowflakes for the tree.  Here's one he bought for me.

This next one, tin and painted with a whitewash, I found in Alexandria Bay when Mom and I visited there. There were four different ornaments, and I bought one of each pattern.

Here is the second ornament Jeff bought me:

A hobby horse thrown in here, just for fun and just because I took a picture.  :)

A glass ball with silver "snowflakes."

I love snowflakes!  They proclaim the glory of the Lord!!


Back to life,
Christine

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The Search for a Tree

November 29.

This year, I was determined to get a tree.  I knew it would be about $60 or so, but since we didn't have a tree last year, I was more determined than ever.  It would be a splurge!

I had a coupon to The Growing Place for 10% off, and my brother Jeff thought it would be a great idea to go to this nursery with me, and share in the coupon and the fun of getting a tree.  Mom decided she wanted a live tree this year, too, so she and Dad came with us.

I wanted a tree no taller than six feet, small enough that it would cost too much, plus hold all my lights and ornaments.  Our front living room space is not, well, spacious, so this size would be perfect!

An employee pulls out my tree to prepare it for the roof of our car.

Dad and Jeff sized up a large tree for Jeff's living room--which is small but he loves the biggest tree possible.

We helped Jeff pick out a monster!  Here's Dad holding it out for Jeff to inspect.

Dad doesn't seem to realize that 82-year-olds shouldn't be carrying Christmas trees to their cars.  :)

Jacob having a little fun getting the tree into the back of our car.

Back at our house, Jacob hauled the tree right out of the car and carried it into our living room.

Jacob and Joseph were standing there, holding the tree, and I asked, "So, where's the tree stand I asked you to pull out a week ago??"  The hunt was on!  Joseph stood there holding the tree for a while, until I helped him get it over to a wall so we could lean it.  It took us 20 minutes to find the tree stand, nice and organized on the garden shelf in the garage where I figured we'd totally remember, but it was hiding behind something else that got shoved up there...

I wanted one shot of the tree--and Thomas photobombed it.

After getting the tree in its stand, we picked up pizza--I "oops" ordered the ultra-huge sizes instead of the extra large ones--we drove over to Jeff's townhome to help him get his tree up.

After pizza, we relaxed for a bit, watched Dad and Jeff get the tree up, then relaxed some more before going home.

Again, Fernando was working, but we were getting used to it.  Work is good, and his weekends end up falling on Monday, Tuesday, and/or Wednesday, so it's nice to spend weekdays with him.  We end up spending more time together than if it were really the weekend!

A few weeks later, I realized I hadn't taken a picture of our finished tree.  Here it is!

Back to life,
Christine

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Jacob's Tree

October 21.

This tree has followed Jacob around since he was three months old!  We received it from my dad (who got it from an Arbor Day event April 1991), and planted it at our little duplex, our first house.

When we moved temporarily to an apartment, we dug up the little yardstick tree and replanted it at my parents' house.

Then when we moved to our current house, we dug it up yet again and here it is, 23 years later.  Isn't it just so pretty?  I think so too.


Back to life,
Christine

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Indian Summer

End of October.

I suppose this is what they mean by Indian summer--one last "warm" gasp of summer at the end of autumn.  It brought me outside to admire Jacob's maple tree with its brilliant colors.

Indian summer also brought out all the ladybugs, looking for a warm afternoon spot in the sun.  That spot ended up being our southwest-facing family room window screen.

Back to life,
Christine

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Simple Christmas ~ Making Tabletop Trees for the Mantel

Caveat:  I am not a craft-oriented person.  If you're new to my blog, remember that.  If you're an old friend, roll your eyes and keep reading.  :)

One day around Thanksgiving, I found a bag on my front porch.  A bow adorned the top of the bag.  Hmm.  I peeked inside--four strands of wire garland were tucked inside.  Ooh--a gift from an angel!  I said, "I guess the Lord wants me to decorate for Christmas!" out loud to myself.

Each strand of garland was 15 feet.  Remember that for later.  I took one of the strands and wrapped it around the small portion of staircase, and Christmas decorating officially began.  Note that I don't do much in the way of decorating for anything--I'm just way to practical, I'm afraid.  I hate storing all that stuff--where do I put it?  Why is it taking up so much space?  And on it goes.

One day soon after receiving that angel gift, I was on Pinterest and saw this post about making your own tabletop tree decorations.  All the trees were so pretty, and none looked that hard to make.  I knew I had limited funds, but since I had the garland, the green garland-wrapped trees looked like a good choice.

I bought Styrofoam cone shapes at Hobby Lobby (love that store!) because I couldn't find the cardboard cones featured in the Pinterest blog link.  Later, someone told me I could just make cones from posterboard or another heavy paper.  I may just try that next year.

I chose three, and of three different heights, because everyone tells me you need odd numbers of things, and I could group these three together on my mantel or my dining room table.  Most everything I purchased was half price, so don't get wigged out at those prices.  ;)

Since I wasn't sure the Styrofoam wouldn't melt when the hot glue touched it, I covered the cones with some brown wrapping paper.  Funny thing--I used hot glue to affix the paper to the cones!  (And had no problems.)

When you wrap the paper around the cone, you get some extra, like below, unless you're an expert pattern cutter.  I just guesstimated what I'd need, and carefully trimmed off the excess at the bottom.

Below are the covered cones.  Since they were flat-topped when I started, they became taller after I covered them.  I ended up cutting off some of the point when I realized that four strands of 15-foot garland may not actually be enough.  The garland will cover them, so the pointy top doesn't matter.

I started at the bottom, of course, by affixing the start of the garland with hot glue.  Being a novice, I learned that you have to hold it in place (please don't burn yourself!) for a minute or so but it will hold nicely.

I continued wrapping the garland around the cone, pushing down as I went to keep it covered.  I also added hot glue at various points along the way to keep the garland in place.  One other thing--the hot glue will melt the plastic garland, but just a little and not enough to notice.  Just in case you hear a slight crackling noise as you're gluing.

As I quickly used up the garland, I started pushing it down on the cone a little less, with no adverse effects visually speaking.  ;)

Guys washing and drying dishes while I work on the trees.  *happy girl*

As I wrapped the second tree and started on the third, I started to run out of garland.  So, I went over to the foyer and unwrapped that one strand of garland from around the railing.  Perfect!  I used every single inch of the garland--exactly sixty feet.  Who would've known?  (The shortest tree was about 9" tall, and the tallest tree was about 18",  just so you can plan.)

I actually finished the trees!  I think they turned out great.

Since blue is a prominent color in my family room decor, I also purchased some blue and white sequined decorative vase fillers.  I hot glued these randomly on my trees.

I was so proud of myself for doing a craft that turned out so nice!  I put the trees on our mantel; aren't they pretty?

They need stars, I think.  But that's another whole project for next year.  I was content to leave these up as is.  Oh, and notice the flower vase on the mantel to the left?  I filled it with the leftover blue balls!


Back to life,
Christine

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