Falling

Try as I might to get rid of stuff, sometimes I come across something I just have to have.  With flowers winding down and leaves starting to fall, I thought this little bike with basket would be cute by the porch this Christmas.  I decided I'd put little wrapped Christmas packages in the basket to display with my old sled and might just fill the basket with red apples.  So many cute things to do with it.  Well, at least that's how I convinced myself I needed it.

Silver And Gold

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  I have one gift left to buy and then the baking and candy making.  But, if you are going to use nonpareils or dragees on your holiday baking, think about my tooth crown first.  These little goodies are like little rocks.

I called my dentist's son yesterday, to glue my crown back on, and he had had an emergency appendectomy the night before.  So, put in perspective, I'll take the crown mishap. 

By the way, the silver dragees now cost nearly $17.00 a bottle, say non-edible on the directions, but look oh so pretty atop the confections.  With only a few days left to get ready for Christmas, my friends are taking me out today to celebrate my birthday.  Love my friends.  We've been together for over thirty years now.  True gifts - the best kind.

For The Little Ones

It used to take a week or more to decorate at the farm when the kids were growing up.  The trees, the spiral staircase, outside - I even cut various sizes of lace paper doilies into snowflakes and glued them on the front and back windows.  That was the most beautiful part. I have two closets full of Christmas decorations, many antique, that my kids don't want as it is not their style or they don't have room for.  Wish I had had the forethought to go through them and sell them in my booth.  Here are the little dolly ice skates I bought recently.

But, I am become Scrooge.  I didn't decorate after they grew up as they didn't come to the farm and I didn't want to haul out all of the stuff and put it back up.  Too much trouble.  We had to go to the city so Santa would come and visit and I just did a minimal job at our other city house for the grandkids.

Last year I found these birch trees from Restoration Hardware.  Already lit and easy, with brown paper packages tied up with string.

I have house collections, trees too, and a Snowman collection I couldn't find room for, so maybe another year.  I did put out a few on this table and you'll notice the baby skis and child's skis along with the ice skates I recently found.

So, I had this old wood tree-shaped store display I brought up to the city to sell in my booth.  I thought I probably wouldn't find anything else like it and used it to display my Christmas village.  Didn't have to spread the village out and it went perfectly there.  All the little people and things were quickly removed by my baby granddaughter, Penny Lane.  She had a ball with it.

So maybe, I have not become such a Scrooge.  If not for the grand babies, I still wouldn't decorate, but just for them, I am.  Now, I've got to start baking and candy making and shopping for presents too.

An Anglophile At Heart

I am an Anglophile in my heart.  Don't know of any near kin from Great Britain, but I feel a bond.  I love so many things about it; too many to list here.

I buy different magazines from GB.  The latest edition of COUNTRY LIVING British Edition is about the holidays and how they are celebrated.  Very interesting article about past winters and holidays from the 1800's to the forties.  Hadn't known about the wartime traditions.  The people back then were made of stern stuff  (unlike the younger generations of today.)  

An article about mistletoe caught my eye.  Had no clue about the traditions with mistletoe.  Early druids used it in rituals and much Celtic lore surrounds it.  It was an interesting article.  Oklahoma's state flower is the mistletoe, selected in the late 1800's before statehood.  I am going out this beautiful day and harvest a large ball of it to hang in the alcove above my doorway at the city house.  Tied up with a ribbon, it will be the only outside decoration this Christmas.