Family and decorations

Christmas wouldn't be as much fun without our grandchildren. This is Nate and his cousin Alyssa, unwrapping presents with the help of Schultz our grand dog. Taken a couple of years ago at Nate's house.

Ribbon and torn paper, open boxes, laughter, whoops of happiness, warm hugs and kisses, lots of thank you's, that makes Christmas special.

Schultz is gone now, died just three months ago, we miss him. You can see a video of him by a pond where they walked him. It's on Utube "Birthday Schultz", when I think of him I view the video and remember the fun times. We have lost a lot of animals over the years, our Jenny, a sheltie/Beagle mix and our daughter's Jenny, named after our dog, a Beagle, just a week after we lost our Betsy, last November. They are so much a part of our lives. It hurts just as much losing your grand dogs as it does your own. We did a lot of dog and cat sitting over the years too.

Our granddaughter, Emma, a few years ago. She is relaxing in our glider rocker. Happy and content with her jammies and stuffed animal.

She set up a bed for our dog in front of the fireplace.

I laugh when I look at the fireplace. It used to be that awful red brick with insets of charcoal and black bricks here and there. And the fireplace doors were brass and burn stained on the bottom. I changed all of that when my husband went to San Diego to visit our son and his family. I had my turn earlier and stayed home to care for our elderly animals.

I primed and painted the fireplace and the screen. It was in the 90's, whew! was I ever hot. Check out the results in one of my posts, "What not to do on a hot August day", to see how great it looks now. What a makeover!

Our grandson, Aidan, with his school Christmas craft. The wings on his angel are copies of his hands. He was so proud of his creation and we were too.

this was a couple of years ago at their home.

Aidan is all boy, loves his skateboard and is very good, has great coordination and balance. Most of the boys on the cul de sac where he lives are a few years older. i think it's rubbed off on him.

He also loves computer games and his Gameboy. Kids now are growing up with technology we never dreamed of.

I'm an 'old grandma' but I am always challenged to learn new things and absolutely love my Mac!

I'll still be creating when I'm 90, Lord willing. There's still a lot to learn.

The bathroom gets a garland of evergreen, cones and wired ribbon, special candles and Christmas figurines here and there.

I wonder if there isn't a Christmas print toilet tissue available, lol!

Every room in the house has some kind of decoration. I have a brother, Pat, who is mentally handicapped, he is 58. Pat spends all of the holidays with us and i always decorate the room he sleeps in, to the hilt. Lights, village houses and figures, nutcrackers, Christmas runners etc. He loves it and always leaves the twinkling lights on all night. He is a gentle soul and so much fun to have around. Our parents are gone and he is my 7th child.

Every year I put our picnic bench below the kitchen window, outside on the walk to our front door. I run a string of colored, twinkling lights over the top, cover them with evergreen boughs, cedar, pine, holly and even Sword fern leaves, spray with snow and sprinkle on some Diamond dust (a clear multi-colored, like oil on wet pavement, glitter)

I put a nativity set in the center, a french horn, bulbs and other decorations on top.

At night it glows and twinkles and the lights from the eaves reflect on it also, It creates a very warm and welcome sight for visitors. And it isn't hard nor costly.

A wreath hung on the outside of the house always adds a warm welcome. This one also has lights on it and is very pretty at night.

Big Lots is a great place to buy decorations, pretty and inexpensive.

I use a lot of evergreen boughs, we live in an area where, usually, there is a wind storm the end of November or early in December. It provides me with a lot of supply for decorating. I also have Juniper Tams, a small Pine and a long needle pine in the back yard that I planted. All of the different textures are beautiful when combined in arrangements. Especially when sprayed and sprinkled with Diamond Dust.

You can use any container to do an arrangement for your porch or step, the overhanging boughs hide the container. Or you can always spray paint a large cottage cheese container with gold or some other color.

Put rocks in the container, about a third full, add some water, this will also act as a weight. Collect fallen branches, you can use Juniper Tam branches also. Place them in the container, spray with canned snow, sprinkle with glitter.

You can then add any decorations you desire, cones, Christmas bulbs or ornaments, ribbon etc.

Of course, I always have our iron cat sitting by the arrangement to greet visitors.