What a Christmas!

Being serial procrastinators, we are working hard to finish up all the Christmas preparations without getting into a panic. Then there's the impeachment. It's sort of like trying to drive past a car accident without gawking! You know it's not a good idea to slow down and look but you just can't help it.

The kitties don't like to think about politics, they would rather sit under the tree with the presents.

Although, they do occasionally leave a special gift there, maybe as a political statement? 

Last weekend we were able to pry ourselves away from the news long enough to pick out a tree. Since they don't sell hats at our tree lot, HM decided to wear a wreath instead. A little silliness always makes the season bright, his nose even matched the bow . . . and it wasn't even that cold. 

The wreath looks good on the door, too. Just wish I could find the battery operated lights that go on it. Obviously, we have a few issues to work out with that totally out of control garland around the pillars. As for now, it still makes me laugh so it will probably stay that way until we get embarrassed enough to fix it or Mother Nature sends some freezing rain our direction.

Trees are always an ordeal. Two things that always amaze me when we get the tree home; first of all, that it's still on top of the car; and secondly, it's always way bigger than I thought it was in the lot. Every year, it never fails. You'd think I'd learn.  

After wrestling it into the living room, (through the front door, with the neighbors watching) Burt and Ivy got to work on the lights.





Don't try this at home. Seriously, they're plastic, they can't accidentally electrocute themselves.

The kitties worked on getting into the decorations. Stewart always gets distracted but since he's the smart one, the lid stayed on the bin until he got bored with trying to catch Spenser's tail.

Hanging ornaments on the tree was going really well until I noticed the news about the Hallmark Channel caving in to a right wing hate group and removing a commercial featuring a same-sex marriage! I have friends and family in the LGBTQ community so there was no way the over abundance of Hallmark ornaments I'd just put on our tree would be staying there. I'm not a fan of their movies, which is just a personal preference, but I do look forward to checking them out to see the holiday decorations and how they're incorporated into the set designs. Last Sunday night I went to their Facebook page to leave a comment in opposition to their actions and discovered their retraction and apology. It's great that they have reversed their decision and promised to be more inclusive but it's disappointing that they made such a mistake in the first place. It might be awhile before I get that special Christmas feeling from my ornament collection again.

The downstairs trees are almost done. Still no luck finding the star topper but hopefully it will turn up before Christmas. The crew is onto garland and houses next, along with baking, wrapping, cleaning and thank-you notes. Just six days to go, yikes!

Thanks for stopping by, are you all ready for the holidays?  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Burt is  pretty happy that he found his turkey hat from last year. It's just not a party without silly hats! He and Ivy have been helping with dinner prep by making sure there's enough chocolate chip cookies to go along with the turtle brownies and pumpkin pie. Every meal needs some chocolate, it's an important part of the basic holiday dessert group.

Speaking of silly hats, His Madness took up bread baking awhile ago. After a lengthy period of trial and error he seems to have it all figured out. 

As the cooking goes on . . .

. . .  the Thanksgiving decorations go up!

Back in the 90's my mom and I started collecting Department 56 houses. It was one of the few things we ever had in common and they soon became a staple of gift giving - and receiving - among the whole family. Eventually we had to call a halt to further acquisitions but not before we had amassed enough to stock several stores. So, in order to get as much use as possible out of too much of a good thing, some have been relegated to other holidays. A couple of days before Thanksgiving, the "Halloween Village" gets replaced by a mixture of "Christmas in the City" and "Dickens Village" pieces and populated with my grandma's politically incorrect Pilgrim candles from Woolworths. 

Usually, the inhabitants of these tiny villages spend their time outdoors but down at the end of the piano is a Victorian home and there are people having quite a party inside!

(I just realized Alexa is lurking in the background, still wearing her witch hat. Oops.)

Of course, it's always driven me crazy that I couldn't get a decent look at what was going on inside that room! Not without breaking it, anyway. Then yesterday it finally dawned on me to use my phone, duh!

It appears that a young couple and their grandparents are in the midst of a Christmas feast in a very fancy dining room. Some sort of bird has been roasted and maybe granny has had a little too much port? I have to say the attention to detail is impressive but I still want to get a better look!

   

Since there isn't much of any specific decor theme to Thanksgiving - besides the turkey -  it seems like the perfect opportunity to get some use out of the old autumn garlands. These are left over from the days before I found some black ones that are way more suited for Halloween. 

It's hard to face the fact that Halloween is over but time move on. At least Mother Nature has been doing her part to keep things spooky!

This was the sky at NOON last Sunday! Gloomy doesn't seem to accurately describe it.

Last weekend we were on another road trip to get together with old friends for an early Thanksgiving. It seemed like such a luxury to celebrate a holiday without getting into arguments over politics - and for that, I was really thankful!

Now, it's time to watch the parade while everything is in the oven! 

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate!

Autumn from the Road

Mother Nature, being the fickle goddess that she is, has decided to end autumn here in Wisconsin and go straight into winter. When it snows this early in the year, it's hard to resist the urge to get out the Christmas decorations! So, since I spent so much time driving across the state during October, it seemed like a good idea to look back through my photos as a reminder that it still is fall. 

Unfortunately, these photos were taken with my phone, while traveling 75+ mph. Honestly, they turned out way better than I expected - except for the blurry foregrounds, ha! At least they show a lot of colorful fall foliage and a variety of scenery.

Typically it was cloudy most of the time, which really helps the colors from looking washed out. 

Basically, the geography of my state includes farm fields at the foot of hills covered by trees,

lakes surrounded by trees,

lots of hills covered by trees,

and streams lined by trees. All in all, the trees put on a great show!

Back at home, things were looking super colorful too. That is until Mother Nature threw a white, wet blanket over all the fun! That's okay, it was inevitable. 

However, it is beginning to look a lot more like Christmas.

Kristin, my daughter-in-law, sent this photo she took in Vermont recently. At first, it looks like a nice picture of an autumn day but at second glance, it appears the locals are definitely sending a message about what's on their minds! But maybe, IT'S A SIGN! Trump will be legally impeached, not simply railroaded out of office and with any luck, he'll get sent up the river! Sorry, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to take advantage of all those puns or the pretty leaves with the blue sky, either!

Hope everyone is enjoying autumn and thanks for stopping by!

Moving On

I just realized this isn't correct. It's actually 358 days away. Thanks google! I should have asked Siri. Anyway, it's time to start planning for Halloween 2020! 

It's hard to believe it's over.

It went by so fast!

For awhile, it looked like the weather on Halloween evening was going to be really nice. I even considered getting more candy but to be honest, I always consider getting more candy. 

Then it snowed! A lot. Totally ruining the Halloween vibe. 

Maybe I jinxed it by choosing so many white pumpkins? A couple of them were from our garden.

By dumb luck, I brought in the wreath to add a bow the night before. It would've been a limp mess if all the black feathers had gotten wet, ugh! Maybe it would be a good idea to replace them next year.

On Sunday, Ivy set all the clocks back. At the beginning of October I cleared off the mantle and replaced the photos above with a print of Venetian plague doctors. It looked pretty spooky but we missed not having our crazy clock (that keeps pretty good time but only strikes correctly about once a week.) So everything went back. Maybe next year I'll come up with some new decor ideas.

Now it's time to put away all the creepy stuff and leave the pumpkins out for Thanksgiving.

A good cleaning never hurts either.

Oh, no! it is snowing, again!

That's all for autumn and winter has begun.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween and it's snowing again!!!

Thanks to our crazy weather we didn't get to make another trip to the pumpkin patch, so these two will have to do. It's tempting to carve them as Burt and Ernie.

At least they're large!

Burt and Ivy like to treat pumpkin carving as a spectator sport.

Now, what looks best?  Old school candles . . .

. . . or multi-colored, flashing lights?

The candles won for now, at least until the snow turns into rain, ha!

Looks like there's more shoveling to do before the Trick or Treating gets started.

Ivy decided to dress up as a seasonally appropriate witch and Burt followed suit as a pirate. It's 34°F now but it did stop snowing! We are going to have lots of leftover candy bars. 

Their short trip around the neighborhood did yielded quite a haul of treats.

Peaches, huh? Imagine that!

Stay safe and have a Happy Halloween!