Hiatus, interrupted

Yes, it's been a while, hasn't it? Hope those toes aren't worn out on your shoes, FM ... but seriously, my apologies to any who have been coming by and gotten tired of the Halloween pictures! Frankly, I'm really tired of them too! So with the change of holiday seasons full bore upon us all, I've decided to share a bit of our current holiday decorations day by day till Billy Bob leaves me a nice fat fifth of bourbon (Woodford Reserve would be nice) under the tree. And if you haven't already started your cycle of holiday themed movies, here's a delightfully nasty one to get you started.

So, here's the saga of the IVG household HOLIDAY TREE ... we bought a really nice, fat, full Scotch Pine a couple of weekends ago and brought it home. We left it on the porch for a few days in a bucket of water to keep it fresh ... that is until it froze and we brought it in last Thursday night to thaw out. Friday was the way too long ordeal of getting this huge 7 foot by probably 5 foot tree ensconced in the stand until it no longer wanted to fall over! Saturday found us installing some 750 lights ... 300 "Shimmer" lights (which are a very cool discovery I made at an after holiday sale at Sears last year), some 300 multicolor rainbow chasers and I think about 150 faceted multicolor lights ... in short, a lot of lights. Sunday was spent hauling up the multitude of ornaments we have collected over the years, some of which are very nostalgic for us (examples you'll see in the ensuing days), as well as a host of newer ones we have gotten in recent years. And since Monday, we've been adding to the tree every night, and think we're just about done at this point. Time to start wrapping gifts and getting them under the tree.

Yes, it's that other manic time of the year around here... the holiday decorating, baking and celebrating frenzy. I'm girding myself mightily to face the avalanche of tasks ahead in the next week or so ... marathon baking and candy making (if anyone's interested in recipes, I can supply them, just ask Olivia) ... you know, the stuff we all gladly obsess about before the big day arrives. But this is definitely the other high holiday for us, the one in which we get to express our appreciation for those in our immediate life surroundings and hope that carries us through this wretched year and well into the next one.

So, without getting too much more philosophical on the subject tonight (I have a report to finish writing on Friday... Ack), I'll just start out with a few posts on some of our favorite ornaments you'll find on the tree in our house right now. I hope you enjoy them and let me know if you want to see more. Well you probably will, whether you want or not, so consider yourself forewarned.

The two shots here are of what we've nicknamed "Sinister Santa," a detail from near the top of the tree ... the other is (despite its delicious blurryness) called "Twinkle Wonderland." We had fun taking these, and there are many more in store, so stop back in for further views. I even promise we'll get some decent shots of the whole tree at some point ...