12 Days of Blogmas: Holiday Pictures

Just for Fun

A picture is worth a thousand words, and so are one of my posts (on average), so looks like the status quo will be upheld!

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This past Saturday we did make it out to the Flowers Christmas in Lights display that I mentioned in our events post. It was really spectacular and I’m glad we went!

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Then we drove downtown so I could get some pictures of the lights downtown without so much of a crowd around.

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Then we took a little time to appreciate the lit-up Dollhouse, including our little monkey in the yard and the electric candles in the windows. I think I need more of them, though, to really get the full effect.

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Inside, our “fun” tree is set up on a little table in the living room. It holds all our miscellaneous Disney, Dr. Seuss, and miscellaneous collected ornaments from over the years. And, yes, all of my handmade gifts are done and wrapped under this tree, ready to go to Mom’s tomorrow night.

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In the library, I stepped up the mantle decorations this year with some wine bottles (the how-to is over on the Helmar blog) and more electric candles. I just love these things. I turn them on once when I want them to start and they go 8 hours on, 16  hours off, and I don’t have to think about them until it’s time to put them away. And the ones in the upstairs widows? It’s like falling asleep to candlelight every night. I might just keep those going throughout the year!

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The white tree got the addition of candle lights this year. I bought them last year, before I found such a great deal on the white tree itself, so the green wires just didn’t work for me. This year I taped off the candles and spray painted the wires so I could actually use the lights! I still have the other box to do… maybe by next year.

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And, just like for Halloween, I redecorated the downstairs bathroom with seasonally appropriate textiles for Christmas. Todd and I are still on track with gutting this room next month (!!!) and giving it a permanent makeover, but for this month this’ll do.

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Finally, this is my solution for displaying the pretty Christmas cards our friends have sent us. I love using the staircase to display things, and since so many people are going with the postcard-style cards, hanging them from garland seemed like the best idea. For next year I’ll have decorated clothespins and fluffier garland, but for this year it works.

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Hope you enjoyed this peek at our Christmas views!

The 12 Days of Blogmas is a link-up hosted by The Coastie Couple and The Petite Mrs. Check out either of their blogs to see what everyone else has to say on today’s topic!

The 12 Days of Blogmas is a link-up hosted by The Coastie Couple and The Petite Mrs. Check out either of their blogs to see what everyone else has to say on today’s topic!

 

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Fondue

Everyday Adventures

We have a habit of staying in on New Year’s Eve and our “tradition,” loose use of the word as it is, is to watch a movie, flip over to see the ball drop, clink Champagne glasses, kiss, and go back to the movie. Dinner is up to whomever is cooking, but it’s usually something that lends itself to being eaten on the sofa while watching said movie. This year we decided on a variety of nibbles and the ooey-gooey goodness of cheese fondue.

Fondue is not complicated. It’s shredded cheese (often one or more of the Swiss varieties), a little wine or beer (or broth if you so choose), and a touch of mustard or garlic. And if kept adequately hot it remains nice and smooth and dip-able. Some fondue pots are electric but ours is of the sterno/candle variety–seriously, never underestimate the power of a tea light!–and we were missing one crucial piece of the puzzle.

A match.

Or lighter or any other fire-starter you can think of. We searched high, we searched low. We searched junk drawers, offices, the butler’s pantry, the bar. And despite knowing for a fact that we owned at least 2 boxes of matches and one long-arm lighter, none could be found. The only thing we could locate was a box of strike-on-box fat lighter sticks, but that seemed like overkill, so Todd did the logical thing and went to the store 4 hours til midnight.

Dinner is served... and saved!

Dinner is served… and saved!

Our movie was From Time to Time, with Maggie Smith, and old drafty manor house, and a family secret that needed to be solved pronto, all set in the last days of WWII. That’s pretty much our movie preference tied up in a bow, though it’s in stark contrast to the numerous episodes of Criminal Minds we mainlined on Christmas day.

I’ve put in a request to add more 2-player board games to our stash so we can switch up our routines a bit.

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This weekend was super-productive and I’m starting of this week with a very Seize the Day attitude. It was a mix of fun, work, and future work and I’ll walk into work for the second time in as many weeks with a clear desk.

Today I’ve got a post up over on Love My Fabrics about my favorite sewing technique: French seams. We (the creative team) are still anxiously awaiting our fabric to arrive, but it’s not stopping us from posting. (I also wrote a post last month on organizing my fabric stash.) Speaking of my posts elsewhere, I created a couple different types of ornaments for my December Gauche and Helmar projects. The Gauche site is currently in transition, but you can find out about my Victorian Lady ornaments on the Helmar blog.

My Gauche-inspired Vintage Christmas ornament.

My Gauche-inspired Vintage Christmas ornament.

I had big plans for decorating the Dollhouse for Christmas. We got, um, maybe 50% there? The exterior got garland, lights, and wreaths, but the inside only managed to decorate 2 of 4 planned trees and the hallway entry. Oh, well, it gives us something to shoot for next year!

The library hosted our "fussy" Victorian-style tree with lots of handmade glittery paper ornaments and bits of bling.

The library hosted our “fussy” Victorian-style tree with lots of handmade glittery paper ornaments and bits of bling.

And we avoided rearranging the living room by sticking to our small table-top tree with the fun, colorful, mismatched ornaments on it.

And we avoided rearranging the living room by sticking to our small table-top tree with the fun, colorful, mismatched ornaments on it.

The big tree was on the upstairs landing but it never got more than lights on it. Which was good since that’s what shone through the upstairs center window.

What you can't see are the wreaths in the upstairs windows with the room lights off. We did finally procure electric candles but never got around to setting them up. Next year!

What you can’t see are the wreaths in the upstairs windows with the room lights off. We did finally procure electric candles but never got around to setting them up. Next year!

It’s not a full-on blogger house tour, but I wanted to at least get these pictures up before the decorations all come down on the 6th–just made it!