Done!

Okay, for those of you who weren't at Joy Club on Wednesday I will give you a backdrop to my story. One of the things we chatted about was 'decorating' for Christmas. I'm kind of grrrrrumbly and grrrrrrumpy when it comes to decorating every year so I decided to have a new attitude this year. I always like Christmas but for some reason I always drag my heels when it comes to preparing for it. I enjoy decorating and it's part of my lifestyle so it always seems a nuisance to tear apart my living space to put red things into my summery pink dwelling.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that within less than 36 hours of our Joy Club, Linda has decorated her home for Christmas. Somehow I am gloating over it. I had to look up the word and yup, that's the word I wanted to use. Maybe my gloat is over and against my Scrooge self and also for my over-the-top-Christmas-y friends in the fact that I beat some of them to it this  year. Whatever the reason, I'm worn out but satisfied with my accomplishments. To tell you the truth, I left Joy Club and picked up a couple of ornaments before I headed home. Nothing like shopping for something new to bring inspiration...

I'm starting with the pinker side of my decor because even my blogspot has PINK. You can see my dilemma with adding RED. I'm not a fan.  And as a side story, one year I did away with red. I went pink and Victorian. I was working at Fidalgos and had access to all kinds of goodies. It was the same time that we went with an artificial tree. Well, needless to say this did not go over very big with the girls - some more than the others. In fact, Gina won a speech contest in Jr. High that year with an essay she wrote about the horrors of artificial trees with pink decor. It was funny because she ended up working at Fidalgos in the land of artificial trees and flowers and had to sell the darn things to people!
So somewhere along the line I bought these three little trees and that's when we made Chris and Bob join us in making  little ginger-bready style ornaments that I still use today. I think Gina may have been off traveling by that time so she wasn't home to impress.  And now she has a home of her own and will be out cutting down a real pine smelling, needle dropping super duper Christmas tree as she has done every year. In fact, I got to go out with them one year in Calgary to get theirs. You have to understand that the girls grew up in north Idaho and every year Daddy would take them out in a sleigh and they would chop down a tree from our own property. You can't blame them for not liking the city slicker Christmas decor.
Anyway, there are more pictures but they turned out too dark. You just have to be here to really appreciate it.

Which leads me to another dilemma. Maybe that's why I don't like this Christmas thing all that much, for you see, I feel like I'm all dressed up with no where to go, so to speak. I have lived away from my family for 32 years and now even my girls have moved from me. It makes me sad every year that I can't share my home with my loved ones that are blood relations. It's a sentimental time.

But enough of that.

Okay, I wonder if I'll actually do any baking? I seem to be on a Christmas roll...and the other REALLY BRIGHT side is that we will be spending Christmas with Sara and Dave and Chris, Laura and Sophia. It's a good season indeed...

These two photos are for the girls to laugh with me about. Every year I have a good laugh when I add them to the tree. They were made by Chris and Bob that year when I actually got them to hand stitch ornaments with us. They were such good sports. Anyway, it's definitely an inside giggle...