A Bit Late, But Still Sincerely Felt!

 

From Our House To Yours.
Hope your Christmas was Merry, and that your New Year will be happy and prosperous! 

Christmas Quote #9 – Eric Sevareid

“Christmas is a necessity.  There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we’re here for something else besides ourselves.”
~Eric Sevareid~

Christmas Poetry by Emily Matthews

“From home to home, and heart to heart,

From one place to another,

The warmth and joy of Christmas,

Brings us closer to each other.”

     – Emily Matthews

Christmas Quote #1 – Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.”

     –Laura Ingalls Wilder

Christmas At Granny’s House Part 3

A few more pictures from my living room and dining room.  I do them in shades of blue, silver and white, in contrast to the rest of the house, which is more traditional multi-color, and heavy on reds and greens.  My living room tree, which is being backlit by the big window in this picture, and thus not nearly as pretty as it is after dark. But you can get an idea.  

A close up of some of the blue and silver oraments.  Also not the greatest picture, sorry.

A tabletop vignette with some cool little forest trees and a beautiful Father Christmas given to me by my sweet DIL.

Another little vignette with white papier mache church and Santas.

Dining room wall.  Mark put up the bead board and plate shelf, and I used it to display in vintage FiestaWare until my MIL gave me her stunning set of Blue Danube china.  Now that resides there all year long, and at Christmas, gets the addition of greenery, mercury glass votives, and other silver bits.

Close up for the Blue Danube, and a mercury glass container.

A little corner hutch I inherited from my grandmother, and which I love.  Some of the pretties pieces of the china fit in there perfectly, and it lends itself well to Christmasy touches, too.

In particular, I love the graceful curves of the gravy boat.  It looks like it should house a djinn, or something!

Okay, that’s enough for today.  I’m afraid I’ll send you all into Toxic Santa Shock or something.  But since I have virtually nothing up yet this year, it made me feel good to go through these photos from last year.  Lots of memories, here.  Hope you enjoyed seeing some of them!

Christmas At Granny’s House Part 2

Here are a few more pictures from last year’s Christmas, just for the heck of it.  Hope you enjoy them.

 This first one is part of my entryway village.  Tabitha decided to give it a name.  I guess The Village wasn’t quite creative enough for her, so I found this sign posted a day after she came to stay with us for our regular holiday visit. I packed it away so I can use it from now on.

This is the pass through from my library to the kitchen, and my Holly Jolly Santa Shelf. Every bookshelf gets some Santas, too.

These next two are closer views of the pass through decorations, from the kitchen side. The white wooden tree holds a collection of small Santas, many very old. The mugs are mostly vintage ones from the 50’s, as well.

One of my library bookshelves.  Even Bob The Skull, a character in The Dresden Files books, gets into the act. His girlfriend, Boberta, is going to get a hat this year, too, when I get to it. 

Santas and more Santas.  Country style Black Santas, Chinese Santas, African Santas, Patriotic Santas and more, on every shelf in my library and family room. And thanks to Mark, I have a LOT of bookshelves.

Christmas At Granny’s House

One of my Handpainted Santa Ornaments

Our Big Oak Tree Catastrophe has put us way behind on our Christmas decorations this year.  As I see the lights up and down my street, I feel sad that we have none outside yet, and might not get things cleaned up in time to do much in our yard.  And because I’ve been working outside on that Hot Mess, I haven’t done anything inside yet, either.  For me, this is a first in my entire adult life.  Normally, our outside lights go up the Friday after Thanksgiving, and all the boxes (53) are brought down from the attic and left in the appropriate room, so I can work on the inside stuff for the next ten days to two weeks.  This year, nothing…yet. But I’m not giving up.  I’m giving myself a week to do it, and whatever isn’t up by next Tuesday will go back into the attic until next year.  It’s all I can do.

I have been in love with Christmas all my life…the lights, the magic, the whole spirit and feeling of it all.  I love the church pageants and the open houses and the family visits.  But most of all, I love Santa Claus.  In my heart, I still believe, you know.

I’ve been collecting Santas for over 40 years, and I have a lot of them. A. Lot. Over 300 at last count, from one inch tall to life sized, and in every type of costume and guise. I thought it might be fun to share a few photos with you, since my garden is in Down Mode, so here goes:

Our family room mantel is where I like to put my collection of Old World Santas.  Some of these were handpainted by me, others were collected over the years ,or gifts from friends and family who indulge my obsession.  (You know you are in serious trouble when your two favorite men in the world are Santa Claus and The Wizard of Oz!) Don’t forget to click on the images to see them full sized, and in detail.

Mantel and more of family room from a distance.  See my life-sized boy?  That was a Christmas present from my daughter a couple of years ago.  She sweet talked the Publix manager into giving her the Coca Cola display.  Don’t tell anyone.  I don’t think it’s allowed. But isn’t he beautiful?  He’s pointing at my library tree, which has mostly Santas on it, too.  (Ignore the white floor fan.  Not a decoration…just a sometimes necessity during a Florida Christmas!)

A closer look at the Big Boy.  He makes me smile all over!

Close up of some of the Santa ornaments on the library tree.  The one in the center with the blue cap is one of my hand-painted ones.  I used to do so much of that, but haven’t been painting a lot lately.  I need to get back to it.  Just as soon as I finish writing my book. 

My granddaughter, Tabitha, showing off the Wizard of Oz tree, which she decorated mostly by herself last year. She’s a hambone! *grin*

Tabitha again, being all Vanna White by my blue & silver living room tree. It’s her favorite.

I’ll put up a few more pictures later in another post.  I have to get back to THIS year’s decorating.  Hope this was fun for you, and maybe got you to feeling all Christmasy!