It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We put up our Christmas decorations today. I always love the way the house looks when we have all the decorations out. Sitting in the living room with just the lights from the tree and my snowman lamp is so comforting to me.
Of course our tree is our biggest decoration. I do not do a theme tree. To me a Christmas tree should reflect the family it represents. So, I have an ornament made every year with all our names on it and the year. I try to include Abby on all of them, too.
It started out that they were wooden each year because I would go to the craft fair that was at our OLD local mall every year. But, since Bass Pro Shop took over that area of town, there is no open space there and the craft fair has moved to the convention center. They now charge an admittance fee to get into the craft fair. I am not paying a fee just to go to one booth and buy three ornaments.
The kids get a dated ornament each year, too. Then, there are ornaments from when Michael and I were growing up. There are ornaments that reflect his handyman abilities and my teaching abilities. He also has ornaments that denote his interest in hunting. And, I have my collection of doll ornaments my grandmother gave me when I was a teenager and collecting dolls. I just love our tree because MOST of our ornaments have stories behind them and mean something to at least one of us.
I collect Santas from The International Santa Claus Collection. The company actually went belly up, but you can still find them on eBay. I have enough to fill up two shelves on our entertainment center. I usually wait until January to buy one or two for the next Christmas. I've got my eye on Papa Noel ~ New Orleans for this January. I like his purple suit. I do have one Scottish Santa that I actually bought at Kohl's a couple years ago after Christmas. It's not from the same collection. He's almost 2 ft. tall and is holding a Scottish Terrier.
We do have our Holy Family on a small shelf in the living room. It's from a collectors series that has very expensive pieces to it. This is why we only have the Holy Family and nothing else in the nativity scene, yet. Something else I probably should watch for on eBay after the holidays.
I LOVE snowmen so I have one table that is just for my snowmen. This collection is not quite as big as my International Santa collection, but it's growing just the same. I want to get a small table top tree to put my snowman ornaments on. I may have to put my biggest snowman on the floor if I do, but that's ok. I think a little tree on that table would look really cute.
Michael and I also really like nutcrackers. We have two. Not a big collection, but we just started getting those last year. I am thinking of going to Garden Ridge to get another since they are like 50% off right now. The kids seem to think they are really cool, too. I'd like a tall one, but I don't think we have room for one.
We have a 6 ft inflatable snowman, too. We did not put it up last year because of how I had the furniture. It didn't leave room for it. But, I put things in different places this year and now we have room for it, but I cannot find the lights or the scarf that go with it. I'll see if I can't find it sometime this week.
I am bidding on a chenille snowman that has a Scottish Terrier on a leash. I hope I get it. It's so cute and would look great in our house. I do have Christmas pillows on the couches, too. They have Scottish Terriers on them. Gee, I seem to have a lot of things I like to collect. Maybe that's dangerous. But, it makes it easy to buy for me.
I do want to put up ribbon garland on the blinds like I did last year, too. But, I ran out of steam tonight. I'll get to that sometime this week or next weekend. Michael will probably have to finish the outdoor lights next weekend, too. We bought new ones for the roof. We also bought lit candy canes to put in front of the house. I kind of wanted those plastic light up presents, too, but I'm terrified of things getting stolen because we used to have one of those projector things and it was taken when Caleb was a baby. Also, those presents are not very heavy and it would take some doing to keep them from blowing away as I'd want them in my flower bed that is full of rocks.
The kids actually did most of the putting on of the ornaments this year. Since we have a new tree and it goes together differently than the old one, they didn't get to help much with that. So, I let them do most of the ornaments. It was kind of cool to watch them enjoy that. I did rearrange some when they went to bed because there were empty spots and places with too many, but that's ok.
They also took all my Santas out of their boxes for me. This is a big job. I have quite a few and all of them still have their original packaging inside the box. I only buy the ones that still have boxes and they each go right back into their own box when it's time to put them away. One has a piece broken off his hat, but other than that the rest are mint and the boxes are mint, too.
It's the last day of November. It's very hard to believe that there are only 31 days left of this year. It's such an exciting time of the year, though. The ending and the beginning. I love Christmas and everything that comes with it. 
