Wednesday, December 6, 2017

It's Starting to Look a Lot Like Christmas

The tree is up and decorated.. it's a process.  But it's done.  Now we can enjoy the sparkly colors for 19 days until the big day.  The angel on top in the red velvet dress is a family heirloom.  :-)  The family was shopping before Christmas when the children were young, I spied this porcelain angel but they were sold out except the one on display.  Imagine my surprise on Christmas when I opened a package and Dayle had snuck back and insisted he be able to buy the display model.  :-)


The mantel is set up with my lighted wreath and two little trees and my Jim Shore Santa and 3 reindeer.  The 2 brass ship's lanterns stay there all year.  :-)  There is a stocking for all 7 of us in the family who live here.  


I did agree to cut back on decorations, but still was able to get my Dept. 56 North Pole village on the piano.  With some help from my tall and agile son to get everything plugged in.  I actually got a new skating pond as the original one stopped working.  The skaters whirl and twirl on the ice.


A new addition to the scene is this lighted gazebo with Santa and Mrs. Claus inside.  This is a gift from my daughter from last year.


This is Santa's Workshop.  



I'll share just a few of my ornaments.. this one is a gift from Dayle from a few years ago, he thought it looked like us.  :-)



I have a collection of these cherub angels made in Italy, this one is playing a tambourine.


A wire basket full of yarn balls and a pair of knitting needles.


Dayle has gifted me with several of these amazing handblown glass ornaments.. this is a favorite of mine.


Each year I hang these little wreathes on the china cabinet.  :-)  I crocheted the lace edgings for each shelf in the right length to fit.  


My old sleeping Santa looks right at home next to my new vintage ceramic tree.  We've had this Santa since the children were babies in Louisiana.  I'd lent an Aztec calendar of ours to a woman who made casts and then made plaster casts to sell.. and she'd actually destroyed our original piece, so she offered to give me one of her hand cast and painted Santas which I happily accepted.  He's been a treasure of mine ever since.  :-)


These are the pieces on our TV cabinet.. the new lights with the sparkly vintage style Santa and reindeer.


Dayle and Caleb bought one of those laser light things to light up the front of our house and they installed it last night.. it's actually been rather a failed experiment.  With the slanted roof the lights don't work.. and the lights came into the upstairs bedrooms and kept Hayden awake.. we may try to move it somewhere that it will work better.


The above photo is the light set on little dots, the one below it's set on stars.  Have you tried one of these?  I'd think it would be best on a 2 story flat fronted house.  


So.. how is everything coming along in your world?  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

15 comments:

  1. Your decorations are, as always, lovely to see, Teresa. I did have to smile at the hand-blown glass decoration hanging next to the Ninja Turtle one as I think that's the way a family tree should be. We're putting our tree up this weekend and we have all kinds of ornaments, including one which is a photo of DD2 dressed up as a mouse for her school's Christmas production, cut into a circle, glitter stuck around the edge and then laminated! We might have to go out and buy a new tree-topper though as I think the paper angel DD2 made at school a few years ago might not have survived -- but you never know! A couple of the houses where we live use those projector decoration things on the front of their houses and you're right; they seem to work best on a flat-fronted, two- or three-storey house

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  2. Wow just WOW your decorations are amazing......here we have very little but do have a laser light thingy at our city place with little tree and train set lol

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  3. So pretty. I remember some of those ornaments from a couple years ago when I was there. I'm putting out the fiber optic tree tonite. Hopefully the big one on Sunday. We've got too much light for the light machine to work. Led street light right by our place. Maybe Phil will get the net lights up if he feels up to it. He's got a cold.

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  4. Hi Teresa, I enjoyed seeing your decorations again. Your house always looks so festive at Christmas. I think the more ornaments on a tree the better. We have some pretty ones with paper ornaments hung right next to them. Th paper ones from the kids are more precious to me than the expensive ones. Funny how that works isn’t it? A house on our block has the laser thing with the same issue of a slanted roof. It doesn’t seem to work very well either. Enjoy your beautiful home my friend.
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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  5. It's all looking absolutely beautiful Teresa, you have some really lovely things. I love all the stories behind them as well, especially Dayle going back to the shop and getting the angel he knew you liked. I noticed yesterday that one of our neighbours has one of those laser lights on the side of their house, it looked quite effective. I imagine it will look amazing on a foggy night. CJ xx

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  6. Hi Teresa! What a joyful post. I enjoyed each photo and each story.
    Sleeping Santa is just darling! The quilted Stocking hung by the fire is my favorite.
    Skaters who literally skate on your pond are so adorable. I had a music box that was similar growing up and it makes me think of that! Such joy in simple toys! Finally, I love your shelf edging lace work. Thanks Teresa! That was a small peaceful fun pleasure to my morning!

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  7. Those laser light things are fascinating. There's a house around the corner, a smallish, squarish Cape-Cod style house that looks amazing with them. It covers the whole front of the house and a good bit of the lawn.
    How fun to see all your decorations! The gazebo is really cute, and that basket of yarn ornament is adorable. I love the handblown glass too. And of course the crocheted shelf edging caught my eye!
    Hope you have a great end-of-week and weekend!

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  8. Hi.thank you for your comment on my blog,it means a lot.I LOVE all of your wonderful decorations and that tree is just Awesome.We don't do Christmas like that in the UK,at least I don't think so.your house has that warm and loving family feel to it and the love that goes into decorating your house,I can feel it.I love the lil skaters.We do not have any family but I do still decorate the house,even though nobody sees it but us hee hee.Hugs xx

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  9. Everything is so pretty! My house is also decorated and other than baking, I'm doing okay!

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  10. It must be Christmas Teresa is sharing her tree and beautiful decorations - always enjoy seeing them all. Hugs Anne x

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  11. The Christmas tree, decorations and your lovely home are all amazing. My daughter did our tree and decorations this afternoon. I might have to do a blog post showing them soon. Some of the decorations are a bit of a challenge for my 'just' 3 year old grandson. He is very excited about everything.

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  12. Your house looks so festive Teresa. I love all of your beautiful decorations. Our tree is going up tomorrow.

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  13. It is lovely to see your decorations, Teresa...so cheery! Thanks for sharing them. xxxxxxx

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  14. I've seen those laser lights on pubs around the area. One where my knit group meet projected green dots onto the garden outside, so my grey car looked very festive!

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