Today's the day...

 .... when it all comes down. 

The Christmas tree (again), the glass poinsettia candleholder, the snowman cookie jar, the lighted greenery on the mantle, the cards displayed on the credenza, the seasonal dish towels and candy dishes. Yes, my friends, I'm making my house a Christmas-free zone today!

Although it's early by a lot of people's standards, in my family (and in the place where I grew up) it was considered bad luck to still have the tree up on New Year's Day. Plus, to be honest, I'm always tired of it all by the end of December. I like going into the new year with a clean and uncluttered house. And I've already started the first of several loads of laundry today, because washing clothes and bedding on January 1st is considered very bad luck. My grandma always said that if you wash clothes on New Year's Day, you'd "wash away" a family member in the new year. Of course it's silly, but there's no need to risk it, is there? :)

The only thing I really hate about taking down the tree this year is that we're going to have a big empty space in our living room, in front of the fireplace. Before the holidays we moved the large sofa in that room over by the windows, and it looked so much better there that we decided it would stay like that. Now we need some new seating to go in that spot, either two comfortable chairs or a single "chair and a half". A loveseat would work, too. Unfortunately, we have champagne tastes on a beer budget; whenever we look online to try to find furniture we like, only the really high-end stuff (that we can't afford) ever seems to appeal to us! Not that we can afford even cheaper furniture at this point. We're still catching up from all the job turmoil and missed paychecks Gregg had recently. I think we'll just have to live with the hole for a while.

When do you remove seasonal decorations? Do you clean and tidy your house before the new year begins, to start on a good note? Do you have plans for New Year's Eve?

Holiday hounds

The Christmas decorations are up in my house....and we had a lot of help from these two!

Bringing in December

Our temperatures dropped quite a bit two nights ago, just in time to usher in December and the longest nights of the year. I'm glad for it. It doesn't seem right to have warm weather this time of year. Temps have been getting down to freezing or a little below, and that's set to continue for the next couple of nights. Waking up to frost-sparkled mornings, I've revived my recent tradition of sitting by the fireplace in the morning with the Christmas tree lit and a cup of coffee. It's such a nice, peaceful way to start the day and gets my morning off on the right note.

We're still walking George a lot more than we used to. Every morning we go out for two laps around the neighborhood, which equals one mile, and now that it's cold we've contrived a sweater of sorts for George out of an old vest of Gregg's. He seems to really like it. (He's a weird dog. He'll hold his paws up for me to put his legs through the arm holes!) Note the wagging tail-blur:

We've come to treasure our twice daily walks around the neighborhood. There are three deer that we regularly see hanging out together at night. We all stop and look at each other for a while whenever we meet up, and they don't seem afraid at all. Usually after a few minutes they'll just quietly disappear into the shadows. We also hear a pair of Barred Owls calling back and forth at night. And every morning, we hear and sometimes see a pair of Cooper's Hawks patrolling for breakfast. There's a big bare tree top jutting above the rest of the trees across the street from our house that makes a fantastic perch for them. The fact that they perch on that particular piece of wood so often is the main reason I got Gregg a new pair of binoculars for his birthday, so he could get a closer look at them. Another thing that happens in the morning: a huge flock of geese fly over (they return at dusk) and honk up a storm as they go. You can almost set your watch by them.

This place is wonderful for wildlife. Thanks to the proximity of a creek and a wooded nature trail, we see and hear all kinds of birds, deer, foxes, rabbits, turtles (in the summer), squirrels, possums, turtles, and I hear that there are plenty of snakes around although we've only ever seen one so far, and it was dead in the road. All in all, it makes for a perfect neighborhood for two nature loving people like us. Our almost nightly encounters with deer seem almost magical this time of year.

Speaking of magical, we have 13 (and counting) neighbors who have put up Christmas trees in their windows and/or lights out on their lawns. It's so beautiful at night! I expect there will be more as we get closer to Christmas. One neighbor in particular has a display that Gregg and I both thought was very good. It's a big bright star up high on the garage that shines a spotlight down onto a wooden manger filled with hay and a lifelike newborn doll nestled within. Although we're not Christians, the beautiful simplicity of it seems quite touching. We've never seen anything quite like it. I'll try to get a photo of it at some point to share with you all. In the meantime, here is George with our Christmas tree:

I hope you all are having a nice beginning to the holiday season!

It's time!

December is here!

For the first time in years, I'm actually excited about celebrating the holidays. There's only two more weeks of school before our winter break and then I have two weeks off!! Our last day is Friday, December 15th, which is a half day for the students. Once the kids leave, we're having our staff Christmas party, and after that I won't have to go back to work until January 2!! I'm really excited to be getting a long holiday break for the first time in my adult life, especially after 17 years of working in retail.

The holiday fun has already started at the school. There's a giant 12-foot Christmas tree in the lobby, a smaller (but still big) tree in the library, and, as you can see, huge sparkling wreaths on the front doors. We're adopting four families of children through DSS and buying gifts for them, which is a really nice thing to do and something I'm happy to participate in. Several offices are decorated with tiny trees, garlands, and strings of lights. I'm planning to add some decorations to my desk next week, and I'll post a few pictures of it when I do.

At home, we've decided to finally buy a pre lit Christmas tree this year. That's what I'm planning to do this morning--go pick out and buy a tree. Tomorrow while I have the house all to myself I'm going to spend the day putting up the tree and decorating the rest of the house for the holidays. Now that we're into the month of December, it feels like it's time!

What about you? When (and how much) do you decorate for the holidays?

Holiday Cheer

Today I dove into the closet where our holiday decorations are stored, and set out to give our house some Christmas cheer. I had a fun afternoon going through stuff and picking a few items to put out on display.

First up, I moved the lighted wreath from the table to the front door. I added a few ornaments and a big silver bow, but kept it relatively simply, as you can see.

It's much prettier after dark. Here's a shot I got from inside the house just as the sun was setting.

Once I moved the wreath, our table looked very bare. I'd forgotten about the small tabletop tree  stashed away in the closet, and with the addition of some multi-colored copper wire string lights and tiny little colored balls it looks kind of cute up there. I still need a topper for it and maybe some other small decorations, but this is it so far.

And as the sun was setting....

For the den I dressed up the mantle above the fireplace with a lighted pine garland, some strands of shiny red beads, and holiday candles. We've gotten three Christmas cards so far and they're up there, too.

Now I'm sitting back with a glass of ice-cold eggnog (liberally spiked with rum) and getting ready to watch a movie. A beef pot roast has been simmering in the crockpot all afternoon and our house smells wonderful. Tonight is forecast to be the coldest night of the year so far. I like for it to be cold at Christmastime. Maybe later I'll light the fireplace for the first time this year.

I'm beginning to feel a tiny bit festive! How about you?

Three weeks!!

It's only three weeks until Christmas, a fact that  occurred to me this morning with a tiny twinge of horror. I somehow had failed to notice it was getting quite so....close.  How have I missed this? The following is a list of the holiday preparations I have made thus far, as of December 5th:

1. Gifts bought/made: 0 (unless the Of Monsters and Men CD I bought myself yesterday counts, haha)
2. Holiday cards mailed: 0
3. Plans made for Christmas Eve goodies and Christmas dinner: 0
4. House decorations up: .50

All I have really accomplished so far is buying a super cheap small fake tree. We put it together the other night, then realised we only have two strands of lights that work. We'll have to go buy some before we can finish decorating the tree. Right now it's sitting in our living room looking bare and kind of forlorn. As for holiday cards, I have bought some and even filled out a few. I still have to finish writing them, though, then find all the addresses for the envelopes, and then mail them. Gifts will have to be small, simple, and mostly homemade this year (and for only a few select people) as we are still trying to recover from GB being out of work for so long. Small, simple, and inexpensive gifts take more thought and time than regular gifts, though. I have a few half formed plans, but I definitely need to get started soon. On everything.

I can't believe the holidays are only three weeks away! How are your holiday preparations coming? Am I the only one that's so far behind?

Over the top (and possibly blinking)

I'm not sure what's gotten into my neighbors this year, but the holiday lights and yard decorations are so over the top that I am almost speechless!

I took a walk with GB and Ginger after dark tonight to try and take it all in. There is a giant inflated Mickey Mouse Santa in one yard, fully illuminated and waving in the breeze. One house has lights on the eaves, the doorways and windows, the bushes, the fence line, the garage, the storage shed, even the dog house...and none of them match!!! Some of them blink, too.

Then there is a house with racing blinking lights (red and green) winding up and around a basketball goal in the driveway. Oddly enough, though, the front door is covered with blue lights, and there are candy cane stakes in the yard that at first glance look like glowing green mushrooms! (This house may be my favorite so far.)

There must be at least a dozen yards with spotlights carefully aimed at whatever is considered the focal point of the masterpiece. There are manger scenes (complete with shepherds, animals, and angels), Santa and Rudolph mailbox flags, gift wrapped front doors, and all manner of Christmas lights in trees and bushes. My neighbors seem to be filled with some crazy Christmas spirit this year!

I will be taking pictures of all this holiday craziness and posting them here for everyone to enjoy. You can't help but smile at all the merriment!