It's Christmastime! Hope You'll Drop By To Visit!

Well, we're in the final stretch for that most blessed day of the year! This has been a wonderful month and once I closed up shop for the year I was able to devote full concentration on the holidays. And it's been wonderful! It's amazing how different life in general is when you don't have orders to sew and get out. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my online business. I love the creating and the satisfaction of the finished product. And I especially love the interaction I get from my customers. I DO miss that part, but I haven't missed the stress that can also come with trying to get orders out in a timely manner.

Anyway, the last couple of weeks has been so much fun getting all my decorations up, my Christmas shopping done, and my fruit cakes all baked. I still have some cookie baking to do, as well as some candy making. The house is all clean and I have the tarts burning with the scents of Christmas in the air. There's such a cozy feeling with all the decorations and the lights from the tree and my Christmas village.

But the main reason I'm so happy and filled with the Christmas spirit is having my daughter come home for Christmas. She's been in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the past four months working at the newspaper there. She wasn't able to come home for Thanksgiving and it felt so strange not having her here. It was the first Thanksgiving she's ever missed being at home. Fortunately, she was able to drive to Chicago for a couple of days and visit with cousins and uncles there. My brothers and their families have been so good to her! Anyway, she flies home on Wednesday and will be home for a week.

I wanted to show you some of my Christmas decorations. I've really changed them out from previous years, moving toward the old, rustic and primitive look. I've boxed away many of the "cutesy" decorations from years past and picked up lots of new pieces. I love the new look!

My hubby recently put up this wonderful shelf for me that I bought at a local primitive shop. These are mostly new pieces except for the garland hanging from the peg. That was from a giveaway I won a couple of years ago. The cute little basket sitting on the shelf to the right is filled with tarts...the basket and tarts were a gift from one of my wonderful customers. The little handmade snowman sitting on top of the basket was actually a thrift store find for 50 cents!
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This pretty little tree in my foyer holds many of my wonderful hand painted ornaments from some of my favorite online artists. I can't get enough of these!

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This is another little tree that holds my rustic wood ornaments from another wonderful online artist. I just love these little ornaments!
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And this is my German twig tree upstairs. It holds all my primitive ornies I've received from various swaps, giveaways, gifts and purchases from many of my online friends. My son's room is to the right and he insists I put the colored garland along the top of the half wall each year. I must say, it makes it look so festive at night. That door to the left is my craft room.
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Another view from the top of the stairs. I usually have an old quilt draped over the end. I found this cute Christmas quilted hanging and thought it would be perfect for this little wall for the holidays.

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I still have my Christmas cookie jars displayed throughout my kitchen. I especially love this gathering. I added the wonderful new Gooseberry Patch book...it goes so well with this little grouping. It's a gift from another one of my wonderful customers. I have some of the sweetest and most generous customers. I treasure them all! The quilted runner will eventually be covered with all my baked goods and homemade candies.

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This is the large book shelf/cabinet in my living room. I would decorate it pretty much the same way year after year! Well this year I've changed it all up.

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And this is also new this year. I changed out our traditional stockings for these adorable huge hand knitted mittens. The stockings we had never would hold very much and everyone wanted something new. These will hold much more, as well as larger items. I bought them at a craft show this year from the sweetest little old lady. The wonderful garland hanging with the mittens was another great find at a craft show this year. I just love the rustic painted pieces and how it looks with the mittens.

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This is my little corner of the family room, and I so enjoy sitting here during the Christmas season! Harley loves to lay on the old quilt in front of the fireplace. That is, when he's not in my lap! And at night once everyone has gone to bed, I enjoy sitting here with only the light of the village and Christmas music playing. Such a peaceful feeling.

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I still have a lot of things decorated similar to years past. I don't think I will ever change this little table. It was always a family tradition growing up to have the Bible out, opened to the birth of Christ. And the plastic church is one I found at a thrift store. It's just like one my mom had when I was little. This one plays Silent Night. I don't think the one we had played music, but it had the light in the back just like this one. I don't know whatever happened to the one we had, so when I found this one, I was first flooded with memories. And then off course I HAD to have it! The little cross stitch is one of my first pieces I made about 30 years ago. I also made the little ball ornament tree many years ago.

My piano with a few of my treasured pieces. Justin still loves getting the candy out of the advent calender pockets every day.

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And this little gathering at the stoop of our stairs. That sign is a piece I won in a giveaway last year.
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 Of course, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without our checking out all the decorations.  Each year I pack a "picnic dinner" of Honey Baked ham sandwiches, chips and pickles, we pile into the car and check out all the wonderful decorations.  We always park at the beautifully decorated Coulon Beach here in Renton to eat our dinner.  Ivars Seafood Restaurant, known for their delicious clam chowder sponsors "Clam Lights".  The beautiful park overlooks Lake Washington and is decorated to the nines!

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And before I forget, Harley would like to wish you all Happy Holidays! He's a good cat and doesn't get into my tree. But he loves to sleep under it. His sleeping area is getting smaller and smaller as I add more presents under there! :)
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There's still so much to do this week. Tuesday night we will all climb into the car and go look at the Christmas lights. I always pack a picnic dinner and we park out at the lake near our home while we eat and enjoy all the beautiful lights they have there. Then we visit various homes known for their beautiful decorations. Wednesday night, once Katie is home, we will have our movie night. One of our favorites is A Christmas Story and always a must see every year. We bring out the blankets, turn on the fireplace and get out the munchies to a marathon of Christmas movies. I'm usually the last one awake and the one to turn everything off, leaving everyone sleeping here and there.

When Katie was in college, I always saved the making of "Reindeer Droppings" until after she got home for the holidays. I will save it once again this year until she gets home so she can help us all roll the peanut butter balls and dip them in the chocolate. Somehow or another, when the kids were little they renamed the peanut butter balls to Reindeer Droppings. It was certainly fitting, and the name has stuck throughout the years.

And then there's the wrapping...so much to wrap and something my daughter has always helped with. I've wrapped all her gifts and will try to get most of the other gifts wrapped so she won't have to do that when she's home. I'll work on that tonight.

There's still cookies to bake and fudge to make. My youngest is 14 years old and has long since quit believing in Santa. However, he STILL has to put out cookies and milk by the fireplace every Christmas Eve. I guess there are some things hard to give up. I just love that tender side of him and hope he never loses it, even long after he's grown and has his own family.

Well, that's Christmas at our home. I'm so glad you stopped by today and I hope you have enjoyed your visit! I want to wish you all a most glorious holiday season! I hope your holiday is filled with family and friends, love and laughter, and memories to last a lifetime! Merry Christmas everyone! ~~Annie