Getting Ready for Christmas

Here are a few of the decorations we've put up so far. We still have a lot to do, but I think we'll be able to finish this weekend. I prefer to wait to bring in the live greens until a week prior to the holiday to keep them fresh longer.

It's funny. Only Larry and I are at home these days, and we wondered, why bother? Then we got down the totes of decorations, and the memories began. As we put each thing out, we remembered when we got it, or who liked it most. We debated about outside lights but the truth is we both love them, so we're putting up some that don't require climbing on the roof and such.

Here is the tree, with the apple and orange garlands and the paper stars. When we decorated it, I put a lot of vintage ornaments on it, then stood back to look. We both agreed--it was too much. So many ornaments were taken off the tree, and we like it better like this. What stayed were the beaded ornaments my mother made, a few that Tommy made, one I made when I was about 13, a bell from my granddaughter's wedding, and just a few others.

It is by far the simplest tree I've ever had, but it suits what we want this year. The older ornaments went back into the boxes for another year. Next year I will undoubtedly want a different tree.

The last photo is of Larry's fireplace. I call it that because he built it with stones from our land. Every night during the winter we have a fire in it, and every night I am amazed all over again at my husband's ability to build something like this with what is at hand. He always said what this house needed was a fireplace.

He was right.