Finally Feels Like Christmas!

Because we got the tree up today. Otter did most of the actual decorating, she seemed to be enjoying herself so I just got out of her way and she got busy. Bill got the stuff out of the attic for us, although I still had to make a trip up there myself to find a few minor, unneeded things. Like the lights! And the wreath, by the way. Never came across the Nativity Set, so I'm using a small one I picked up at a yard sale during the summer. I also could not find my wreath hanger, so the wreath is hanging on the front door from a bent up coat hanger - don't look too closely!

My ceramic tree has survived for another year, it's sitting on top of one of the side shelves of the entertainment center but it's not plugged in. It might eventually be plugged in, but I really don't know if I want to mess with moving the entertainment center out which would entail taking just about everything off of it first, so the ceramic tree will probably not be plugged in this year. Actually, there are three of them up there. The big one from Mom the first Christmas we were in Oklahoma, a small one I got at another yard sale last summer and an even smaller one that I painted myself. All three can be lighted, but none are plugged in! But they are still cute.

I know the Nativity set is up there in the attic somewhere, it's just a question of where exactly! It's in a pretty big box, there are a lot of pieces to it. It's the Avon white bisque set that Mom bought for me over how ever many years it took Avon since they introduced one piece each Christmas for several years. It's mostly intact, only one breakage - the angel that hangs over the top of the barn. And I'm one piece short, the last piece that Avon came out with is a cow and it's nearly impossible to find. I've seen it on eBay a few times, but it's not cheap! So I keep saying that I'll look in the spring or summer when it's the off-season. But I keep forgetting about it until Christmas! I probably should put a note on my calendar for about March.

We did find the stockings, Otter got them up by the fireplace immediately. Her Liberty Falls collection of small houses hasn't been seen since we put it up in the attic last year, so it's not out this year either. But she does have a set of Liberty Falls tree ornaments that her Grammy gave her one year, and she put them on top of the other side shelf to the entertainment center instead of hanging them on the tree.

We have more Texas-related ornaments than we realized. Of course, they are all on the tree. Except for one that is sitting on the mantle. There are a couple of other Texas ornaments that we are looking for, I saw one at Garden Ridge several weeks back and I keep forgetting to go see if they still have any of them. I saw it when we were waiting for the new checks & credit card to be sent to us after the theft and I didn't have cash on me that day. Which is a bad time to go shopping, but we were just on a looking trip to see what they had in the way of bedspreads. We're going Christmas shopping next Sunday, hopefully we'll remember to go to Garden Ridge then!

It's pretty cold today. We woke to a little bit of ice on the cars. The street looked ok, so we decided to chance it and go to church. But not Sunday School today. The ice on the car wasn't thick, and the roads were fine. A lot of churches cancelled their services today, but ours was open. There were still quite a few people, although there were a lot that apparently stayed home. Tonight's services at church are cancelled, the pastor said that he really did not want to have to go to the hospital to visit anybody! We were supposed to get more icy stuff today, but all we got was a few rain storms. It's so cold that it will probably be a mess in the morning, but probably not so bad that school is cancelled. Although I'll probably drive Otter to school myself, the bus driver is a menace on a good day!

After church, Otter and I went to Wallyworld because I discovered Friday that I didn't have nearly as much birdseed as I thought. In fact, I was nearly out. I just barely had enough to fill some of my feeders. So I bought two 25-pound bags today. Should last for a little while at least! I have 5 seed feeders & 2 suet feeders up right now, there is still another seed feeder and one or two more suet feeders and I might get them filled & up in the next few days. Since we were at Walmart, we had to stop at the new dollar store that just opened a couple of weeks ago. Found a lot of stuff there, too!

I've been washing blankets today. We have several that we use on a regular basis, usually when we are in the living room in front of the tv. Even though the dogs don't get to use them, I was amazed at the amount of dog hair that I pulled out of the lint filter. It's surprising how much they shed! I guess that is to be expected with a long-haired dog like Frasier.

So far, the hounds have left the Christmas tree alone for the most part. Maggie was interested in all the boxes while we were decorating, but she mostly just looked in the boxes and sniffed them. Then she left them alone. Frasier had zero interest while we were actually working on the tree, but later he went up to it and sniffed a couple of the ornaments. Then he went back to his blanket and his chew bone. I'm still not about to put anything actually under the tree. I know those two very well and I do not trust them any farther than I can see them!

Back to the old grind tomorrow, Otter will be back to school. She's pretty much recovered, although she still has a cough and some slight stuffiness.