This is the FIRST CHRISTMAS we have spent in our NEW HOUSE and it's very fun to be arranging everything and making our home look festive.
I decided I wanted warm white lights on the outside of the house this year and I wanted the shape of the lights to be like the old-fashioned ones - and these are perfect! PLUS, they're faceted!
I put our nativity star on top of the weather center right by the front door.
Because the Christmas tree is in the window in the library, this little white table has moved to the entryway, and it looks cute there! I'm still working on figuring out what I want to put on top of it.
A little light-up ceramic tree and a little house.
The Christmas tree!
A cute new ornament from my Mom's best friend (thank you, Rosemary!)
And Stephen likes playing UNDER the table!
Allistair is pretty sure the stockings don't belong there.
Thanksgiving wasn't really exciting around here because my family got sick. Mark (my brother), his wife, Jillian, and one of their sweet daughters (Esme) got a virus and are STILL unwell. I'm now under the weather again (after recovering from COVID just a few weeks ago!) with something that is affecting my voice, as well as causing the stuffy nose and headache common to colds. But on Thanksgiving, I was feeling well. We ate special food and enjoyed the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special.
The next day, we decided to go out for a hike, as we always did in Arizona (where we had no family around for Thanksgiving)!
Clarabelle is always happy to be out in nature!
This wasn't exactly the wilderness, and we didn't exactly HIKE, but we enjoyed exploring, poking around the trails in our new neighborhood!
We found a frozen lake.
I did, too, but not very far in.
The textures from the freeze, thaw, refreeze cycle were interesting!
We followed the trail.
After a while, we came to a "bridge closed" sign - oh no!
It looked okay . . .
We saw a couple of bikers zoom over it and decided it would be fine for us, too.
The views were very pretty off the bridge!
The sun was setting.
But we didn't want to get stuck in the woods in the dark, so we headed back.
Greg took a week and a half off for Thanksgiving. (And soon, he'll have his week and a half off for Christmas!) He did a lot of things around the house that he'd had on his list. One of those things was hanging my amazing contraption in my office!
He put the special hanger in the wall, then let me actually hang the machine.
Look! My office looks wonderful!
I envisioned a theme of "playful vintage," with old things and toys as decor. I wanted LOTS of storage, and I got it with these fantastic storage units that fill the entire far wall. They aren't even full, and I'm planning to continue to pass many of my toys on to other families, since I'm not doing in-home therapy anymore, and I'm not currently running a classroom/program.
This is the view you might get during a virtual meeting - though I'm still planning on styling the console differently.
Stephen was helping me work the other day, looking adorable!
Greg also reassembled our ladder bookshelf (taken off the street when our lovely neighbors decided to get rid of it!) in the basement. I've decided to relocate all my children's books downstairs. Perhaps if we ever entertain and there are kids here (I dearly hope that happens some day!), downstairs can be a haven with games, toys, and books appropriate for their ages and interests.
Last week we got another big snow. It was probably about six inches.
We went out to shovel together, since Greg was on vacation.
It was sticking to the siding and the tree bark.
Everything looks beautiful covered by snow!
The Christmas lights were buried in snow!
With all the snow and cold, it's a good idea to have CUTE and warm accessories!
I found these mittens in my mitten box and they match my new pink puffer perfectly!
I found these cute snow/deer socks at TJ Maxx and they're very cozy s well as cute.
Allistair inside, staying warm . . .
Our evening fun (me, 3 cats, a book, and Wanda, Allistair's whale toy!):
Sleepy Stephen:
Slightly grumpy Claude (she doesn't like having her picture taken!):
Chilly Allistair:
We made a fun purchase for our backyard - a fire pit!
We had a fire the very night it arrived, even though it was only 31 degrees (F) that evening!
Greg put the fire pit on a pallet to protect the patio wood.
And then we lit it up! It was quite surprising how the flames swirled and jumped high into the sky just from a few pieces of wood!
We stayed out until there were only some small dim embers left.
I've done a few thrifting trips lately, mostly to find gifts (for neighbors, church friends, and hostess gifts for Christmas parties).
I found this cute glass tree container that's delicate and appears unused.
These nordic-looking candle arches don't work at the moment, but Greg's working on them! These I would like to put in our windows to make things even more festive and cheerful.
I needed another tea pitcher; this one is pretty AND functional!
I'm going to use this tile to put hot pots on. I love the blue water and the cute geese!
These sell for $50+ online, and I think they're neat. They might go in the basement eventually. For now, they're sitting in my office making me smile.
I found this marble and wood cutting board that is very pretty. It may end up as a gift or as a serving platter when we have people over.
I like the beautiful soft colors of this vase!
I like to use secondhand baskets for storage rather than plastic or shoeboxes because I think they're prettier (though they take awhile to gather!)
This one is for outgoing mail:
This one is currently holding our received Christmas cards!
The flat ones are great for office things and in drawers.
I think I will store my flour or sugar in this beautiful bumpy container!
This is in my new desk for pens, pencils, scissors, etc.
I also found the baby sisters to the footed cups my Mom passed on to me. I often make pudding, and after a large meal, the large version holds too much dessert! The baby will be a great option for those cases. And I love the ball feet! I have been sorting through all my things as I unpack and as I see what I'm using and not using; I have donated some things. But I have a lot of things from my Mom and they are meaningful to me, so they don't need to get used a lot in order to earn their keep.
I was disappointed about not being able to spend Thanksgiving with family, so I took care of myself and purposefully enjoyed my home that day. I did a slow delightful yoga, I snuggled the cats, I ate delicious plants, and I moved all the clothes I think I'll wear most over the winter into one part of the closet. This will help me figure out what best suits me in this winter weather and different climate (and different phase of life!), and I can do a better job of buying the right things and putting things together.
This is what I've got for now . . . lots of black and white, stripes, small patterns such as hearts and dots, and some mustard, red, and blue. I don't normally gravitate to red, but I do really like plaid. I think I would like these red plaid shirts even better if they were blue/green plaid rather than red, but they'll do! It's nice to pull things from this collection and feel good in all of them.
May you have a cuddly warm evening!
BONUS:
A sweet deer came to our front windy on a snowy blowy night!
Claude saw her first.
Too bad the cutie couldn't come in!
