A New York Christmas

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! We had a nice, quiet weekend here at home with two of the boys. We have always had Christmas Day with my parents/sister/brother (when he was in town) and this is actually the first Christmas I didn't see my family. I missed them, but it was really nice to have some time with the boys. Of course baby boy and his bride couldn't be here but they sent this picture

Is that not a perfect 'first Christmas in New York' picture? I love it! We did try to Skype with them a couple of times Christmas Day but we have been having internet issues and we never managed to get more than a few minutes at a time.

I still have some Christmas pictures to show, but I'll leave it at this one for today.

I need to apologize to some people. I could go into a lengthy explanation but we will just leave it at I'm a computer idiot. Here is a short version - some time ago I set up a new email address for this blog so I could (eventually) get away from aol, but I didn't change where comments were going since I was waiting on Timothy to help me import address all into one spot. Anyway - my comments were (are, for now) still coming to my aol address but in the process of combining stuff over the weekend I found some emails and comments that somehow ended up in the other folder. Some of them were quite old. :( If you sent me an email or left a comment that I didn't respond to I am so sorry! I try to respond if I have an email to respond to. Sometime in the near future I hope to have a little time to clean up the blog a bit and I will change comments over to the other email but for now, it is at least set up to check that email address so hopefully I won't loose anything else! Again - sorry, I really don't mean to ignore anyone!

I have a lot of catching up to do so I'll post more on our holiday later.

Merry Christmas!

I thought we might get out and take a walk around the block last night and snap some lighting pics but when the time came I was busy in the kitchen. I'll get some soon and post them after Christmas.


We were out and about the other day so I ran in Micheal's to see what they had left in the Christmas decor. (on sale, of course) It was packed in there so I only picked up a couple of things - some pink and green ornaments and a pink 'topper'. I put them on the buffet in the dining room.

Two of the boys will be here for Christmas. Timothy will be here this afternoon and Brian will be here tomorrow. Baby boy and his bride aren't able to come in from New York but we will talk to them - not the same as having them here, but better than nothing.

I'll spend some time catching up on reading blogs but I doubt I'll make another post until after Christmas so I wanted to take a minute to say thank you for reading my blog and leaving comments.

I hope each of you have a very Merry Christmas!

Are you ready for Christmas?

I'm getting there! I've got a little more cleaning to finish up today (I'm taking a quick break!) then I need to make a quick trip to the grocery store for a couple of things so I can start cooking/baking.

In the mean time, have you seen these?

Found them last time we were in the grocery store.

Won't they be yummy with a cup of hot chocolate? Of course at the moment it is anything but hot chocolate weather here in Texas! We are supposed to hit 82 today!


Went outside last night and took this picture from the driveway. It is looking kinda festive on our street! Maybe tonight we will get out and walk around the block with the camera and see what else there is to see.

For now I guess I should get back to my cleaning!

2010 Holiday tour, part 5 (the end)

Here are the last pictures of the holiday tour.

We have made it to the main tree which is in the living room (den, family room, whatever you call it - we don't have a formal living room so. . .)
Anyway - here she is

It was quite a challenge this year. This was a pre-lit tree and I can't tell you how long I've had it but for the past couple of years there have been sections of lights that did not work. I would stick lights in the dark spots and move on, telling myself that I would re-do the lights next year. Well, that never happened so last year I took all the lights off before I put it away which meant I had to do the lights this year. It came with 800 lights. (I still have the box so I looked) I ended up with 950 lights by the time I was through! If you see any dark spots now it is because an ornament is blocking a light!


I finally got packages under the tree yesterday! I'm almost through with shopping (except groceries - haven't made that list yet!)


I had this Santa on top of my last tree and always loved him. When I got the tree we have now, it was taller and Santa would no longer fit (we had 8' ceilings in the old house) but I'm happy to say he is back on top of the tree this year. Problem is that the branches on this tree aren't very sturdy and with years of use they have gotten less so. Santa is perched up there with bobby pins holding him up!

Here are some of the new ornaments on the tree for this year.

The first two I showed you when I finished stitching them



But here they are on the tree.


A snowflake for us.

A dragon for Brian.


Taz for Timothy.


And a snowman for baby boy and his bride - who are glad to not be in the Minnesota snow this year!

And finally - a strange sight in our house.

Not just sleeping dogs, but dogs sleeping together when they don't have to. They share a bed at night but during the day they usually nap apart. I think this is a first. They must know Santa is on his way. :)

The next few days will be pretty busy. The oldest two are coming for Christmas (Timothy is staying a whole week! Yeah!) I may or may not get another post in before Christmas so I wanted to say thanks for all the comments on my holiday home tour (or any post for that matter!) - if you have an email address attached to your comment I tried to respond to them all but some don't. :( I do appreciate all comments and read each one. I'm trying to get around and visit those of you that have blogs - sometimes I have trouble commenting from my netbook which is how I usually read blogs in the mornings and evenings. I try to remember to go back and comment when I get back on the desktop but well, the memory ain't what it used to be!

I hope each of you have a Merry Christmas!

Holiday hugs from Texas.

2010 Holiday tour, part 4

I've still got more!


I have this little white cabinet in my kitchen - that is my grandmother's apron in the white frame hanging above the cabinet.


Just a collection of things from years past. The little Santa planter thing is something that used to belong to my grandmother.


Hanging above the bar - I just used fishing line to hang some snowflakes and glass ornaments.


Found this little ice cream cone last weekend - I've got it hanging on a plate rack in the kitchen but I think next year I might try to do a 'sweet tree' on the bar. We will see if I can come up with enough ornaments to decorate one.


The bakers rack in the breakfast room


Lighted sign was a gift a few years ago.

And the stockings were hung. . .

on the stairs because we have no fireplace! One of these years I am going to make some new stockings. Don't ask how long I have been saying that.


I put this cute little wooden tree in the laundry room.


along with this fella.

That's it for today. I still have more for next time (not much, but a little) if you aren't totally sick of seeing my house by now. :)

2010 Holiday tour, part 3

I've been having internet issues - it kind of comes and goes so I'm trying to get a post in while it is working! If I owe you an email, I'll get to it - just not sure when.

Okay - on with the tour.

Right inside the front door you are greeted by Mr. Snowman.


Isn't he cute?

Then, just to the right is the dining room.


I have two trees in here. In our other house the living room was on the front of the house and I always put the Christmas tree in front of the window. Here, the living room is at the back of the house and these two windows are on the front of the house. (we will talk about tree lights in another post!)


These trees were in bedrooms at the last house. I wanted trees in here but I didn't want to buy new ones so I decided I could use these. They work pretty well in here.


The only new tree I've bought since moving here is the 'feather' tree in the r/w/b guest room. The rest of the trees moved here with us.


I put some garland and ornaments on the chandelier.


On the other side of the room I just put a few things on the buffet (that I still haven't painted!) The cake stands stay there all the time - unless they have a cake in them. :)


Love those glass ornaments on the left - found them at Wally World the other day.


The view from the other side.

And now for the reality shot

dog kennel in the corner!

I actually have a couple of packages to wrap so I'm off to get those done.

2010 Holiday tour, part 2

More upstairs decor. You will just have to ignore all the builder beige walls - we haven't started painting upstairs yet - hopefully this spring!


At the top of the stairs there is an angled wall between the hallway and the 'game room' (sounds like it should have a pool table or something, but it is just a room with bookcases and a tv - there are games on the bookcases so. . .) Anyway - I have a little table against that wall and that is where I put our little fireman Santa collection this year. I made the table runner without really knowing where I was going to use it but it seems to work well here. (it is made with Christmas fabrics)


Around the 'corner' from that table, in the game room, is where I put the fireman tree this year. I used to put all the fireman ornaments on the big tree but we have finally collected enough that last year I decided to give them their own tree. I usually add at least one new ornament every year - more if I come across them.


I usually pick up fireman ornaments when I find them but this was the first time I came across an ambulance so I had to get it for the tree.


Fireman snowmen are hard to come by too. I found this one this year. (including this one, there are only two on the tree)


This is the last of the new fireman ornaments for this year. (unless I come across one we don't have between now and Christmas)

Wanna see the rest of the game room?


I'm not quite through decorating so there is still a mess in there. More reality - what can I say?


Upstairs bathroom. What? You don't decorate your bathrooms? Just a couple of hand towels and my wonky wooden tree.

Next week we will go back downstairs to see more trees.

Have a great weekend!