Blogger's got a picture issue...

When you click on the latest blog photos - you get an "open as" message instead of the larger photo...

They're working on it.

Beginning to look a bit like Christmas...

Our Christmas decorations are mostly up. A few things here and there still need to be done, and of course I am making a few more items to add. This year we donated quite a bit to a charity shop, and our daughters took some items for their own homes. Our decorating has changed over the years... no more piles of teddies dressed in holiday hats and scarves... No more candy canes and big trains around the tree, but the changes we have made fit this time in our lives just right.

Our front hallway furniture is topped by a choir of angels, and a German candle arch is on the right. I love vintage angels almost as much as I love vintage Santas - so when I see them at thrift shops they always come home with me.

The "Welcome Friends" sign stays up year round.

Our Santas overflow the piano top. Only certain Santas come to live with us. They can be new, or old, plastic with an arm missing, or handmade... they just have to "belong" up there.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but there are over 100 Santas, and a few Mrs. Claus... atop the piano!

Of course we have to leave room for the Christmas piano music, which I piled on a chaise across from the piano for the photo :)

Our household LOVES Christmas music, and we play it here, and also on the too many Christmas CDs we have.

One of the jobs I have set for myself is to recover that (awful) red velvet piano stool. I want to knit and felt something that goes with the rest of the living room.


My brother got this nativity scene for us when he spent a semester in Jerusalem. I've added other little wooden animals to the scene through the years. The extra camels and donkeys seem appropriate, but the kangaroo definitely has a perplexed look on his face.



And last but not least (and not all - I don't want to be blogging all day!) is this year's Christmas tree. Our tree looks pretty much the same year to year, since we use an artificial tree and use the same ornaments, too. Very traditional. This year we have fewer ornaments since we distributed some to our daughters, but I have found some knitted ones I want to make and the empty spaces will refill.

We've used an artificial tree for many years now. I was a staunch "real" tree person until I heard on NPR (don't you love NPR?) that real trees can trigger allergies - and if they were sprayed, the toxins can be released into your house. ACK - no more real trees for us.

And no... we aren't blocking a real door - that's the door to under the stairs, which houses the downstairs AC. Yeah - in FL you even might need it at Christmas time. Perhaps a knitted tree skirt would look better under the tree than the gold fabric to which we always default?

Happy Decorating!