". . . ♫♪ it's the holiday season ♪♫ . . ."

". . . ♪♫ so whoop~dee~doo,

& dickory~dock,

& don't forget to

hang up your sock ♫♪ . . ."

{times twelve for our family!}

. . . today's tour begins in the kitchen

where you'll find this

entire village of snowpeople . . .. . . honestly, you could

feed the national guard

with the amount of

treats you could store

in these cookie jars . . .

. . . moving on to the kitchen table . . .

{we don't have a dining room any more

because we don't "dine" ~ we just "eat"}

. . . this is the beginning of

what you will see is a theme

{or an obsession, as my family likes to think of it}

colorwise & candywise . . .

. . . now for the family room

in a counter~clockwise rotation . . .

. . . this is, i believe,

the oldest christmas decoration

i own . . .

. . . handmade when i had

one fifteen-month-old little girl,

making it exactly

twenty-six years old

this season . . .

. . . see all those tiny pieces of felt

and blanket stitching

around each two~inch ornament? . . .

. . . i almost hate to say it out loud,

but, over the years,

we have managed not to lose

any of the twenty-five decorations,

YET . . .

{i put them all on the tree at one time for your viewing pleasure.

now they're all back in the bottom pocket,

waiting for the beginning of december,

to be placed, one per day,

on the tree ~~ you know the drill . . .}

. . . the sofa table

{away from the sofa, temporarily}

in it's seasonal finery . . .

{remember the theme?}

. . . bookshelves in everyday life . . .

. . . bookshelves christmas-ish . . .

. . . "the stockings were hung

by the 'chimney'

with care" . . .

. . . except, we don't have

a chimney any more,

we have a built~in

entertainment center

where our fireplace used to be ~

and that's where

we put these pretty red things

at this time of the year . . .

. . . for 11/12ths of the year,

this is what our

green hutch looks like

{except sometimes it's dustier} . . .

. . . but right now,

this is how it looks . . .

{these are some of my favorite christmas things ~

many of them are

cherished gifts from friends i love

[you know who you are!]}

. . . and in my opinion,

appreciative admirers

make all the time spent

"decking the halls"

well worth it . . .

. . . coming soon . . .

the tree and remember the quilt? . . .

{they're done . . .

i'm just too tired to continue this post . . .

and you're probably too bored!}