Christmas Decorations are Up

Once my birthday comes and goes, it is time to put up the Christmas decorations. For the last 10-12 years we have put the tree up around the 10th and we select the tree on Thanksgiving weekend. Now that we are in Delaware we might change that a bit. Most folks around here do not, or so it seems, put their trees up until at least the 15th which is what we used to do. In northern Idaho and eastern Washington people tended to rush the season a bit and of course we followed suit.

This year we selected a Frazier fir for our tree and after some discussion decided to put in the small living room where it is the focal point of the room and the house. After getting the tree set in its stand and centered, I put on the lights as I always do. Bill then put on most of the decorations as he always does. I unwrap them and make sure they are all together and then he puts them on the tree. This is always one of his favorite things to do. He will look at an ornament and say something like "Oh, I remember this one." And, he always says at least four or five times during the day "I just love doing this." He works on this for hours.

This is a picture of Bill putting the ornaments on this year's tree. Once he finishes this, we put the skirt around the base and I put some ribbon in appropriate spaces.

Here we have the stockings on the mantel. This too has a story. The fireplace here does not have a mantel and I could not have that. So, off we went to find some hang up shelving (block style). We found two desired shelves at Pier One and they fit perfectly. Of course, this is not a permanent fix but it works for the moment and looks pretty good if I say so myself.

The stockings are ones I made 31 years ago now. The one on the left is Bill's. It was the first that he ever remembered having. The middle one is mine. The one on the far right is for George Ann, the cat. Erica and Geoff are spending Christmas in New York so their's are not hanging here this year.

This is our snowman collection. We have picked up these little creatures here and there for several years now. There have been no entries to the collection this year but there is still time.

The guy with red earmuffs was the first entry and he came in 1978. We did not really get any others until about 1996 and have added faithfully since then. Some are gifts and some are from different places we have been.

It is fun to look at these characters and to see how many are still standing each morning when we get up. For it seems that no matter whether it is a dog or a cat, they love to walk through the setting.