O Christmas Tree(s)

Peeking in the living room window from the yard, you can see that the outside has come inside and a tree is in residence.

The tree has been set up and smell of real pine is escaping from the living room. We traditionally go out the first Friday of December to get the tree, then set it up and decorate it the next day.  We try to make a party of it, but this year it was just Gloria and me doing the decorating.  Gloria sits on the couch unwrapping the ornaments (most of them still in their original boxes) and everyone else (me) puts them on the tree.

Before any ornaments, I weave in the lights.  I put on a lot of lights, and weave them in and out from the trunk to the outer branches. This give a great depth to the tree and the lights. It's a trick I learned from my brother when we were still decorating our Mother's tree. The angel on top is another family tradition we've had for more years than I can remember, but the lights still work and she still graces the top of our tree every year.

We always start with two special ornaments, they were bought in the hospital when Jacob was born and they are always the first two to go on the tree; even now - 29 years later. After those two, it's full steam ahead.  We do have a few predominate themes; Santas, dogs, and trains. There are plenty of other ornaments as well, but those are the three most common.

We have been building our collection of ornament since our honeymoon.  While we were on our honeymoon we found a Christmas shop and bought a particularly pretty ornament. Since then we try to each get a special ornament every year.

We also got two ornaments each year for Jacob.  A couple years ago, when he had moved out of the house, we gave him 1/2 of his special ornaments (except for the ones from the hospital) so that he would have a starter collections for his tree.

We have also gotten ornaments to remember the international students and families we have hosted over the years. When we hang their ornaments on the tree we can remember the blessings of friends who are not with us this year.

We ended up with a smaller tree then usual this year so we had to pick and choose what to use, but every one has a memory associated with it.

And just for fun, we have started putting up a small tree in the family room. This is the second year, but it carries the decorations into the room where we actually spend most of our time.

On the wall behind it are pictures of all our fur-babies; adopted and fostered.

Santa's village

Santa and Mrs. Clause have been busy getting ready for a special season of blessings and joy.  Instead of trying to post too many pictures, or writing a post that goes on forever, I'm visiting around the house in several posts.  Today We'll take a stroll through the Christmas Village.

The village has been a work in progress for many years. It is one of Gloria's annual efforts. She has been picking out new pieces for literally decades as we find special buildings or characters or elements that she likes.  It has found a home on 2 tables 4'x2' and the bar for the highlands (there should be a joke in there somewhere, but it won't show up until after I have hit 'publish.')

The village shows a lot of our own interests, two churches, a coffee shoppe, a pet salon, toy shop, 2 dog walkers, several inns, but only two houses, and as you can see - a train right up in front of the whole scene.

The highlands (on the bar) also hosts a lighthouse, but I'm not sure why.  There really isn't a nautical theme anywhere else. I guess it's from living in Maryland right next to the Chesapeake Bay and going over to the Eastern Shore regularly to see Gloria's family.  The highlands also are home to the school and the residential neighborhood.

Down in the commercial district is the heart of the village.

There are a couple of frozen ponds in the park in the foreground and in the center of the village is the church. There are plenty of people (and dogs) out enjoying the fresh snowfall and getting ready for Christmas eve.

And we can't forget the kids.

Santa's Workbench Toy Shoppe is right next door to the Posh Pets Salon (with one of the dog walkers right outside the pet salon.) So we're ready for the two legged and the four legged kids.

There's a lot more going on from the tree lot to the inns, but this is just one stroll through the village.

New Years Snow

On the second day of the year, we had our first snow of the year. From what I could tell from shovelling the driveway and clearing off the cars, I think we got about 3 inches.  It wasn't enough to really need the snow blower, just a snow shovel was able to handle the job this morning.  But there was enough to make a great cover where all you saw was snow - not snow with blades of grass sticking out.  So last night I went out to get some more pictures. We still have our Christmas lights up and they were still turned on.

This is my favorite shot from last night.  This is a weeping cherry tree at the front corner of the yard. I like the light reflected off the snow under the tree. The slightly blurry section just right of center in the tree was caused by my camera lens fogging up in the cold.  It's not big enough to ruin the picture and adds a little "magic" to the picture.

Needless to say there are more pictures...

These two are from the backyard and the snow that was still falling helped create a glow around the denser lights. In the upper picture  I like the reflection of the glow from the snow under the bush on the right side and under the trees in the center.  The lower picture has the glow created by all the snow covered branches of the red maple that anchors that side of the yard.

And I had to get some pictures of the holly grove outside the fence in back.

This one was taken with a flash, so a lot more of the snow is visible, in flight and on the trees.  The lights are not as obvious, but snow on holly is so emblematic of winter that I had to get some pictures.

And a couple other pictures...

The first one is the top of the cherry tree in the backyard - above where I was able to reach to hangs lights. The second picture is a bush in  the front yard showing off in holiday lights and the new year's snow.

We have a fire going in the fireplace and are just relaxing today, enjoying the last day of my vaccation.

The Garden Glows

The phenomenon started on Veterans Day weekend (prompted by fine weather for November.  It spread on Black Friday and has taken over the yard and garden.

Before the infestation, there were simple natural decorations in place:

Then the lights started making an appearance. They'taken over the backyard. It's sent tendrils out all over the yard and has taken root at the outside outlets. The whole house is surrounded from rooftop on down.

We've added more lights to the backyard than we've done before.  All the work on the garden this year makes me want to add to what we've done before.  We usually use a lot of white lights around the side and front and save the color lights for the backyard. So we've kept with that color scheme and I've made several trips out for more colored lights.

Here is the front and side. In the forefront is a weeping cherry tree.  Until we bought the house I had never heard of a weeping cherry tree. It is so stately that I reserve simple white lights for it; even though our general plan is anything close to the house is done in white while trees and shrubs farther out in the yard get colored lights.

I have to say that I had fun last week on one of my trips to Lowes for more lights when another shopper asked me if I knew much about putting up lights and if I could give her some help picking out what she needed. She said it was their first year getting serious about lights...

I guess I've been serious about lights for a few years (decades?)

While I was busy outside, Gloria was busy inside, more pictures to follow. But here's one of my collection that only comes out for the holidays.