Our House at Christmas

Hubby and middle kidlet got busy over Thanksgiving to get the outside of the house ready for Christmas. Just their little tradition.

The garland/lighting around the arch is new this year as is the snowflake over the arch. You can't really tell what it is in this photo but it is a snowflake. Just looks like a white blob in the photo. I don't know how many tips it has on it but it came in a small box and every last one of them had to be pulled out and shaped! It will get hung somewhere for storage - not folding it up to store!

From across the street. These were taken before we wrapped the poles with red ribbon - it was temporarily misplaced.

Kidlet had to head home on Friday but will come back in a week or so to help take it all down.

That's it for Christmas decor here this year. Not sure how long I will leave it up (inside) - I guess until the mood strikes me to take it down. Outside will come down when the kidlet returns. 

More Christmas Photos

I only  have two new ornaments on the tree this year

One is from our trip to New York - it was a little hard to photograph but it's from The Empire State Building.

This is the only stitched ornament I have for this year.

It was close - I was the first one up on Christmas morning and I sewed the bells on while I was having coffee, so it was actually hanging on the tree on Christmas Day. The pattern is from Little House Needleworks but mine has some 'modifications'. For some reason I had a hard time counting on this piece so I did a lot of frogging. I think the snow people and the heart are the only things that are as charted, the rest, I just winged it. Since this is our 40th Christmas I added our names and dates. The fabric is what I backed it with. (and yes, I'm aware my loop and bells are a little off center - I can live with it)

Our Christmas was a little different this year. 

I saw this on Facebook and had to make one.

Just a little nod to those who are no longer with us.

Your have seen this white cabinet many times since it's my favorite place to decorate for holidays.

It's basically the same as it was last year. 

Christmas Eve I ended up having to make a drug store run and Marshall's is two doors down so I popped in to see what I could find. I thought this sign would fit on the front side of my tray but it was too big so I stuck it on the back side.

Also found this little ornament.

My Rae Dunn collection is relatively small, but this is the piece I have been looking for. 

When we were coming back from Charleston in May, we took breaks every time we were close to a Home Goods so I could look for a coffee canister. Daddy really doesn't get it but he indulged. 

This was my Christmas gift from Daddy! I was shocked to say the least! 

Thanks Daddy.

Love you!

Merry Christmas!

This little guy showed up at our house Friday evening. He made his rounds, then left with Brian and Brittany on Sunday.

We bought a new tree this year. The one we had was just too big for this room. This one is still a nine-footer but it is not as big around.

It fits in here much better.

Brian and Brittany took the bigger one - they have a good place for it.

We are having our second round of Christmas tomorrow. Kind of a small group this time. Just me, hubby, Timothy, daddy and my brother (he will stop by for lunch - he is actually working tomorrow). We are going to have lots of leftovers!

Merry Christmas!!!

A few more trees around the house

This tree does have lights on it - bad lighting I guess. I know they were on when I took the pic (they are plugged in to the same outlet as the garland to the right) I don't remember where I picked up the little Santa but I know I had it when we moved to Houston (2009) so he's been around for awhile.

 I put the boys ornaments on this tree this year and stuck my Bon Jovi hat on top. 

This tree has had the fireman ornaments on it for the last several years. I did buy a new basket to put it in this year.

This is the same little 'feather' tree I always put in the guest room. I love those little glass ornaments.

The white feather tree is again in my sewing room. (it stays in there year round)

And the metal tree is again in the master bedroom.

The only tree left to show is the main tree in the living room - stay tuned!

A little Christmas in the kitchen

I'm slow getting my holiday decor posted this year.

My holiday decorating is quite scaled back this year but here is a little bit of what I did in the kitchen.

I put my little sweets tree up. I'm really thinking I need a new tree for next year. 

A friend gave me this little doxie for my birthday. 

Of course she had to be dressed for Christmas!

My little galvanized tray is a repeat from last year.

I usually fill this space with all my gingerbread decor. 

In the past, I have put a tree on the right side of this counter but that didn't happen this year. 

This Santa hat is the only decor in my little office area (between the garage door and the kitchen)

I will work on getting the rest of the house posted. I haven't been able to get good photos this year and, as I said, I scaled back this year. If you paid close attention, you will notice I took the kitchen pictures while I was cooking dinner.

Have you finished your Christmas shopping? At least I can say that is done, wrapped and under the tree. Just need to make a grocery list and take care of that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Do you have big plans for Thanksgiving? 

We will be hosting Thanksgiving here this year. It will be a small group - baby boy is in NYC and Brian and Brittany won't be here until Friday but Timothy will be here along with my dad, uncle and a couple of my nieces. Hubby and Timothy usually put up our outside lights while he is here but it will be a challenge this year since we are expecting rain.

Hubby and I  walked  a 5K a couple of weeks ago. (it was cold that day!) He hung back with me and came in at the back of the pack - not dead last but pretty close. I just don't walk that fast and I have a short stride. (even when I walk with people shorter than me!) I had been trying to put some short sprints into my walking routine but developed shin splints which slowed me down even more. We will do it again next year - maybe I won't be so slow!

Hope you all have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Gobble, gobble!

It's Fall Y'all

Fall finally arrived in Texas! 

This was our tree a week ago. It was so pretty.

Then a cold front blew in - and I mean blew! Knocked the leaves right off this tree!

Now it needs to blow enough to blow the leaves out of the yard or someone is going to have to rake them up.

I feel like I'm behind since I haven't even started any Christmas decorating. I never do it before Thanksgiving but it seems like everyone is already decorating. We bought a new tree for this year so I know it's going to take a bit of shaping before I decorate it. It's smaller than the last one so I hope I can get everything on it! (same height, but slimmer) I don't know about where you are but around here the Christmas stuff is already getting picked over so by the time I get around to doing mine who knows what will be left.  Haven't even thought about gift shopping yet - other than to think about the fact that I don't have any ideas as to what to get and that the traffic is already horrible.

I have been doing a little stitching but I'm stitching on black so it's going slow and I don't have any pictures to show. I will be lucky if I get one new ornament stitched for this year. I have some gifts stitched but I can't show those yet.

Hope you are having a nice fall wherever you are!

Catching up

Whew - it's been a crazy couple of months. I showed you photos of the wedding in the last post - here is a picture of the sampler I stitched for Brian and Brittany. Since her favorite holiday is Halloween, I went searching for a Halloween chart I could make into a wedding sampler and this is what I came up with. Love One Another by Plum Street Samplers. I added their names and the date to the bottom. It was really a fun stitch and I may stitch it again (minus the names/date) for myself - some day.

I've been out of town the past 3 weekends in a row. The first one, I took my dad to Arkansas to his high school reunion. This is where we took our morning walk. Three miles through the field. This is the farm where my dad grew up. His oldest brother owns it now.

The next weekend, we went to Austin to pick up baby boy and his girlfriend, Rachael. They flew to Austin for a wedding then spent the week with us so they would be here for Brian's wedding this past weekend. 

We went to dinner at a place on the lake. The weather was great so we ate outside.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset!

We took Rachael on a mini tour to show her where Jason grew up. This is in front of the football stadium that just underwent a huge renovation. 

We dropped the off at the airport in Houston before we headed back home on Sunday. (they made it back to NY before we made it home!)

It's always quiet after any of the kids have been to visit. Miss them being around!

Finally finished stitching a couple of Christmas gifts (not fully finished yet) and started an ornament last night. (I'm stitching Be Merry first but hope to get all three stitched) I thought I would stitch in hand but I'm going to have to try putting it in a hoop and see if the holes are easier to see. I didn't leave a lot of margin since I knew I was going to be making it into an ornament - hope I have enough space to get the hoop on!

That's it. Just trying to catch up on stuff around here. Being gone three weekends in a row puts me a bit behind! 

Hope you are having a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Wedding Weekend

What a fun weekend!

Brian and Brittany planned their wedding the way they wanted it and it was very much them. So much fun!

I only have the photos I took with my phone (around the photographer) and some I might have lifted from Facebook posts of other guests. The preview pics from the photographer should be ready soon but here are a few from before the wedding and from the reception. (Brittany requested no phones out during the ceremony so we have to wait for the photographers pics)

Brittany wanted the pictures taken outside so they were taken in their back yard. This was before they went out to take photos - before Brian saw her dress for the first time.

 

My boys. All grown up.

Well, mostly! LOL

Brittany made her bouquet as well as all the flowers.

 

 

 

I wish I could have loaded the video of Brian dancing - so out of the norm for him!

As you can see, this was not a 'traditional' wedding. They walked down the aisle and back to music from Star Wars - and it was perfect!

I've never seen Brian look so happy and that makes my heart happy. 

Welcome to the family Brittany!