Thread: Feeling in the Christmas spirit. . .

I love your decorations! I'm really starting to get the itch to really decorate, which I haven't done much of over the past couple of years. (Gotta love depression)

I was one of the crazies out there at 4:30 this morning. It's one of those traditions a friend and I got into when our kids were little. We'd leave them with a sitter early in the morning, then go shopping. Back then, about 15 years ago, it was easy to shop for friends and family in one day. The kids were all so little and easy to buy for. Anyway, we'd finish our shopping, then go for breakfast. We'd go back to her house, transfer my booty to my car, get my son, then go home. 15 years later, we're still at it, though my son is in college and her daughter is in a boarding school for troubled teens. I got over half of my shopping done.
Now I just have to finish decorating the house. I had to move furniture around, which meant the carpet was two toned. I cleaned 1/2 of it this evening. Tomorrow I'll move the furniture, clean the other 1/2 of the carpet, then completely rearrange, just to get the tree up. I, too, have a prelit tree. I bought it last year and it is wonderful. We did buy a couple of sets of larger novelty lights to put on it. We are changing the colors of our decorations to blue, silver and white, though we will keep our favorite ornaments and decorations out as accent colors. We'll put the tree up when my son gets home from work. I'll crank up the Christmas music, order pizza, and do marathon decorating. It ought to be fun!

Does America have 24hour shopping malls or just isolated shops?

The only thing open 24hours here (apart from service stations) is the occasional supermarket (but here they only sell food) In the lead up to Christmas sops stay open until about 10pm going up to midnight in the week before Christmas.

Looks great Ima (and wonderfully cozy)!

I won't be in the mood until I get the house back to myself, so maybe next week sometime . . .

Does America have 24hour shopping malls or just isolated shops?

Wal-mart is 24 hours. We have "convenience stores"- basically gas stations with a small amount of highly priced food and miscellaneous stuff. There were even a couple of grocery chains that had 24 hour stores but since I'm not out late anymore I couldn't tell you if they still existed or not. We don't have any 24-hour malls around here, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was such a thing elsewhere.

Everything looks so pretty Ima. It's really making me :cry: because my living room isn't even near ready for me to decorate. The crown moulding, pot lights and ceiling paint still need to be done.

Lovely decorations, Ima.

We helped Mom get their decorations up. I'm not sure I'll put up much more than a lighted wreath outside -- after all, they're going to be putting on new siding and a new roof before long. It dawned on me just last night, when Mom and I got out a Santa that we had matching, that mine -- along with a bunch of other Christmas stuff -- was in the shed that blew away in the tornado. So I figure I really wasn't meant to decorate this year ;-)

Well, I made my wreath today over at my church. A bunch of us always get together and make them. Two of the ladies and one hubby went and cut some trees limbs. . . with permission of course. They love to see us coming each year! lol Been doing it for 19 years now.

They kinda have a workshop if you are new and never made one before. They also teach you how to make a decorative bow. I used mine from last year with the blue and silver snowflakes on it. I added some silver and blue bulbs when I got home since I forgot to take them.

Anyway, it was fun and looks good on my house -- last year I removed it in March.



Paulie

I've been getting in the Christmas spirit, too. Mom is in town for Thanksgiving, so we've just finished hanging lights around the patio doors, getting out other decorations, and listening to Christmas music. And drinking hot chocolate. I don't think I'm putting the tree up this year, but at least my apartment is looking a LITTLE festive now!

I got my tree up today. I bought a prelit tree last year. We did add some more decorative bulbs to it, just a couple of short strands. We put on all of our new ornaments and some of our favorite old ones. We will put the others on the tree downstairs. My family room is yellow, blue, and white, so I wanted the tree to go with the decor. I bought new garland, beads, and ornaments in silver, white, and blue. The tree looks great! I need to clean up all the tissue and newspaper that in which many of the old ornaments were wrapped. I also need to set out all my snowman decorations. I keep them up all winter.
Kathy