My Everything Corner

Tomorrow is the official start of the Christmas break here, and so begins family time. I always look forward to these two short weeks. If I had my way completely, I would keep everyone under my roof for the entire time. But alas, I have teenagers who have a lot of friends, and so there will be some running around. For the most part though, we will be together. Merry Christmas to you and may you have plenty of time with those whom you love.  I'll leave you with a photo of my living room. You can see the lit tree we have in the yard in the background.

If I had to pick a theme for how my Christmas tree has developed over the years, it would be Woodland. The following photos are of a few cute things, but there are all sorts of things in that tree. I think it's a six foot tree, and it is jam packed, but I still manage to find more decorations for it each year. It took me well over 3 hours to get all the ornaments in place this year, not including the lights. That may sound like a ridiculous amount of work, but for me, it is a special tradition. I put on the Christmas tunes - I especially love listening to Josh Groban's "Noel," and I go round and round the tree until it looks amazing. There are some very special ornaments that I spend time with, ornaments that hold memories of people and pets that are no longer able to celebrate the holidays with me. These memories  are the main reason I do not just pull a bag over the tree, leaving it ready to toss up next Christmas. Not everyone agrees with me on the 'amazing...

November was fairly mild, a bit of snow, but not enough to have me strap on the snowshoes. It wasn't the right type of weather for some of our neighbors to be able to finish taking off their crops, and that's really too bad. But I don't think anyone was devastated, just frustrated. I spent my November shopping for Christmas, zentangling, reading, writing Christamas cards and getting my photos ready to order so that I can start scrapbooking in the New Year.  It was looking rather drab outside until December 1st, when it snowed and then on the 2nd, we were gifted with a lovely hoar frost. That sort of winter beauty really puts me in the spirit of the holidays. We celebrate my daughter's 17th birthday this weekend, and after that, up goes the tree.  All the lights are up outside now and I'll try get some photos up of them soon. I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season thus far.

I don't know if I would have tried zentangling again if it were for my daughter doing a major cleaning of her room, and getting rid of all the things she no longer wanted.  I kept a few things she had packed up for Good Will, including a Zentangle workbook. I've done it before, but never with step-by-step instruction. I have to say, I'm glad I gave it another go from a different angle this time. Here are some of the ones I quite satisfied with.  

We had snow this past week, on Monday, September 30. It is never a fun thing to see snow when so many crops are still in the field.  We, as grain farmers, are only half done, so it is a little depressing as we still haven't got back in the fields, and more rain and snow is in the forecast. The past snow has melted, and it just looks like a regular fall day out there, although it is quite cold. Hopefully, the forecast is wrong and we are able to get the harvest in. The other sad thing is that all my pumpkins and gourds are in the garage. The forecast, being so dismal this year, made me decide to try and sell them, and I've been quite successful. They've gone to good homes, where they won't meet an early end due to frost.

Anyone who knows me, even a little, knows how much I love Fall. And it's finally time to truly dive into the season, harvest what the garden has produced and then sit back and enjoy. Okay, so these aren't from the garden, they're crochet and I'm working on adding more. We've been watching "Blown Away" on Netflix and never have I had a better appreciation for my blown glass pumpkins! I grew and dried these last year. I've been asked why I don't rake the leaves off my lawn. Because they're beautiful, that's why.

I like to go on long drives and get lost and see if I can figure out how to get back home. On this particular drive, I required Google Maps. Actually, my son was with me and being a bit of genius with directions, he figured it out and had us home in no time. We had a lovely adventure and got a few great pics.  The moon photo was taken from deck though.  Mama Moose Baby Moose Same Baby Moose