Holiday Habits

I got the house lights lit.  Not a big deal, they have been there for 2 years.  But I had to get up on a step ladder to set the timer.   Well, I don't love ladders these days. 

Some of my neighbors do serious yard decorating.  Some have inflatable stuff on the lawn.  Some have fancy  moving lights.  I stay simple.  A line of blue lights along the  lower part of the house.  I'll decorate a fake tree in a day or two,  Just wrap a light string around it near a window so my neighbors can see it.

As they say, it is the thought that counts.

Some years, I do more effort than other years.  LOL!

Best tree a few years ago...:  

Holiday Tree

 I always debate (to myself) each December shall it be the big tree fully-decorated or the little one.  Usually the little one.  It's just easier and (placed properly) looks like the top of a big one (from outside).

But it HAS been a few years.  I might to the full decoration of  the big fake tree.  I have some decorations I haven't seen for many years.  

Little one from a couple years ago...

Big one from years past...

Some details of the ornaments...

I had forgotten how festive a house can look at times...

But the big one takes a lot of effort, and no one sees it but me.  Still, sometimes you just want to go full-out.  And I think it seems right this year...

I think I might go full-out this year and do both.  The big one for myself and the small one for the cats.  I went to Petsmart yesterday and found a pack of 10 small mice.  I can attach hooks into them.  I can't really sew worth a damn, but I do have the basic stuff.  I can push a heavy-duty carpet needle through each mouse and attach carpet thread and attach a hook.    

Wouldn't that be a lovely decoration for the little 2' cat tree?  Tiny LEDS lights and mosies hanging from the treem.  Under which to put Secret Paw gifts...

Sometimes, you just feel like decorating.  Just for even yourself.

Holiday Decorations

Well, I put some Holiday house lights up.  I don't always.  The front of the house hangs over the basement 2 feet, so I can reach the soffit with a stepladder.  I screwed in some cupholder hooks every 3 feet years ago, so it really isn't that hard.  Depends on the weather.  I'll add strings of lights in the front windows.  Maybe.  

Being more science-oriented than religious, I know that all the early Winter holidays are based on the Winter Solstice.   Traditionally/originally, they all celebrated the New Year.  Calendars have changed a few times through history, the dates stay the same.  

I like Solstice.  It's the shortest day and what better time to think a new year has started?  The das srart getting longer again.  The hope of renewal returns.

So I put up some lights most years.  Mine are all blue.  Nice calming color.  Sedate, unflashy, different.  And I don't overdo it.  

Some of my neighbors do a LOT more.  It's their right, but s crowded with decorations a cat couldn't walk through their yard.  But I've seen "more".  One street I drove by on my work commute years ago could probably be seen by from the Space Station.

I may set up a fake tree this year.  I have some strings of bubble lights and I miss seeing those.  When I was a child, my Dad's Parents had these big 8 inch ones and I would sit on the floor (we visited each Christmas) and just stare at them.  I always wondered where the bubbles went.  The ones I found are only 4" but I still wonder when the bubbles go.  Well, I like Lava Lamps too (though I understand THAT)!

The window lights are easy.  I bought some tension rods that fit inside the tops of the windows and I just used to feed the the strings of lights around them and let them drape.  Now I have hooks and that makes it a lot easier.   

I bought a great fake 6' tree years ago.  I seldom use it.  Unfolding the branches is hard; repacking it  takes an hour.  And that is with a trick I worked out pushing the 3 sections into trash bags in a trash can to compress the limbs.  

I like the 3 foot prelit tree these days.  On a TV tray at the front window, it looks like a full tree from outside.  LOL!  But the little tree doesn't hold fancy ornaments, and I have a LOT of them.  Maybe this is a good year to set up the big one.  It it supposed to rain hard and possibly snow later today, the new computer isn't going to arrive for a week, and I went grocery shopping today.  

So maybe I have nothing to do.  Yeah, right.  I haven't had "nothing to do" since I was 12.  But it would be a good opportunity for a serious "all-out" tree decorating event.  If I do, I'll post pictures.  If I don't, I didn't.

Strange thing:  I went out to look at my house lights at 9pm last night.   Stood out on the street until my motion detector lights went off.  Looked nice.  Then I looked down the street and realized that not a single house on my street had lights on.  

Pictures from past years and it will be much the same this year.

The prelit fake tree, unadorned.  From outside, it looks like a big one...

Cheap fake wreath.  The bells help...

Note the sock on the right.  It has my name on it.  Its from childhood   Each Christmas back then, we kids got fancy stuff in them.  A box of chocolate-covered cherries, a navel orange, a red delicious apple, a candy cane of THREE colors, and a couple of tiny games.  Doesn't seem like much NOW, does it?  But in the 50s that was "big stuff".

Looks a lot from the outside, LOL!

See?

Special decorations...  I love the robins' nests with the wood eggs. I love the clear glass ornaments.

Love the glass apples. 

The glass icicles don't show up well here, but I bet I have several hundred.  Mom knew I liked them and sent me a dozen each year.  Precious memories.  Moms know what you like.

Funny story:  Dad used to love adding "tinsel" to the tree.  They were originally actually tin, so he saved them each year.  Later, they were soft pastic, but old habits die hard.  He saved those too in spite of them being nearly free in the stores.  He used to get so aggravated when we kids just tossed them on the tree.  When he thought no one was looking, he would arrange them "properly".

The tree skirt/mat Mom sent me one year...

A tree deserves a cat...

I had forgotten how festive the house can look at times...

And there used to be "real" cards.  And of course, a cat was the puurfect add-on.

The full-size tree (partially-decorated)...

Xmas Holiday 2018

Most of these pictures are also on Mark's Mews, so these are more to mention the decoration details...

I put tension rods at the top and bottom inside of the front windows and just use clips to hold regular light strings.  And they are each on a timer.

I've collected many very nice ornaments over the years.

The bird nests may be my favorite.  The nests are real (collected, cleaned, and preserved after use).  The eggs are wood.  The apples are glass.  I've had both those kinds for decades.

The tree is brand new.  I liked that that it is pre-lighted and table-sized.  The better 7' one is just too much to handle sometimes.  And not pre-lighted.    

Mom sent me this wall-hanging 20-something years ago.  It makes a perfect under-tree mat.  Mom often sent me arty decorations.  She WAS "artsy-crafty".  But, sometimes her stories of their origins (made vs bought) varied from year to year, LOL!  Dear Mom...

And the wide view of the decorated room.  And, yes, that stocking is really my childhood one.  I note that the other side has a niece's name written on it though, so it got re-purposed for a while...  When I was a child, Santa would fill it with rare treats (for the 1950s).  A navel orange, a red delicious apple, a box of chocolate-covered cherries, a small jar of maraschino cherries,  and usually a couple of little toys (a top or a set of specialized cards for Go Fish or Crazy 8s, etc).  Ahhh, memories...

Some years, I don't decorate.  This year I did, and found an enjoyment in it.  Next year, I may drag out the Big Tree and really decorate it.  There are so many decorations that won't fit on a small tree.  I must have 100 glass icicles, for example.  My cardinals are too big for a small tree, and some are just too heavy for a small tree.

Here's a picture of the big tree from 2014, and even then I didn't decorate it fully...

One of the cardinals...

And a special decoration from Mom.  It was a house-warming present 32 years ago.  In case it isn't obvious, it's a mailbox (representing my first, and only, own house).

HAPPY WINTER HOLIDAYS TO ALL MY FRIENDS