It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas (at my house)

Since arriving home from caring for my mom Thanksgiving weekend, I hit the ground running in order to get Christmas going at my house. I love everything about Christmas! (You may have guessed.) Even the cold, soggy weather! The worse it is outside, the cozier it is inside, and the more hot beverages you can enjoy.

I get a lot of joy from the decorations and lights, so that was my first priority after the dust settled from my annual Etsy sale. Last year my big tree died (irreparable lights), so this tree is a new one (new and improved with LED lights). We got it out of the box, plugged it in and my immediate reaction was um why are the lights blinking? Because someone named Larissa didn’t read very carefully when she was ordering it, I missed that the twinkling is a feature, not a bug. But I’ve decided I like it! Twinkling is festive. But all the lights are never on at the same time, so photos are a challenge.

Getting out the Christmas storage boxes means seeing old friends again, and also getting to hang some new ones for the first time! Some of my favorite ornaments:

Inherited from the Holland family. Love the pencil above his ear.
Handmade from 2014. I’m itching to make more of these pinecone penguins. My favorite part is the fish on the pole.
Purchased last year at the Christkindlmarkt in Atlanta
Purchased this year! I looooove Inge Glas mushrooms
A brand new By The Chimney on display, with a handmade 2018 snowman and the little pink All Through The House in the background there

I got brave and dragged out my nemesis, the hot glue gun, to adorn these two new flocked wreaths with cheap plastic ornaments in Larissa colors for the French doors. Piiink! I think they need a few more smaller baubles glued on, but I like them! I’ll take a second pass at them next year. I’m not very good at hot gluing, so I have low confidence the balls will still be on when they emerge from storage.

The whole tree, with a fabulous mishmash of childhood heirlooms, kid crafts, Larissa made, and store bought ornaments. Plus of course my LodeStar tree topper! Looking at it makes me happy.

And of course I have this skinny tree that I jam full of my handmade ornament samples and topper each year, but I’m mad at it. A light string right in the middle went out and refuses to be repaired despite the best efforts of my determined Schmoopie, so this tree will be retired after Christmas. But it’s just in time, because this time I found that I can’t fit my growing library of ornaments on it. It will be replaced with a slightly fatter tree with more branches.

And a few more little groupings making me happy:

And if you are 1) near Atlanta and 2) you dig Christmas lights, check out Zoo Atlanta’s Illuminights. I had never been until the other day and it was just lovely! Very carefully crafted displays of gorgeous flowers and creatures are displayed throughout the whole zoo, all done up in fabrics that are stretched over wire frames and lit from within. Some displays are kinetic too, with festive music and hot chocolate/s’mores stations to boot. I enjoyed every minute!

I’m a butterfly!

On the drive home from the zoo we kept seeing this weird pink/purple glow in the traffic ahead and we discovered it was this car, completely covered in strings of lights. Now, that’s deep commitment to Christmas cheer! Thanks for the laugh, whoever you are! We loved it!

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