Wishes Fulfilled

And so it was Christmas.....

And I'm happy to report it was a good one! My Christmas Eve gathering of family was a success, and everyone LOVED my renovations. My mom had a great Christmas Eve and Day, and I'm glad she had a good time, I worked hard to ensure that, Just in case it is her last Christmas. I surely hope not!

Christmas Breakfast was fantastic, with delicious Mimosas, great company and a excellent breakfast casserole and fruit platter cooked by Chef Aunt Juli! Christmas Dinner was spent at Aunt Sandy's, complete with great game of Texas Hold'Em. Best part - me not cooking!

Plus I got lots of great gifts, including everything I listed on my previous post! Chocolate Brown Uggs, The Dream A Little Necklace, Wii Mario All Stars and Scrapbooking tools.

My amazing thoughtful mom got me a very special gift from Tiffany & Co. It is the beautiful porcelain ornament in the picture above. It is the traditional Tiffany Blue Box, and she said this way I would always have box from Tiffany's on Christmas from her, no matter what happens.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Now that I have finished my living room, I decided it was time to get decorating for the holidays! I wanted all the decorating and work to be done early so I can spend more time enjoying the holiday ambience.

2 weeks ago I put up the tree, decked out in red, green, gold and silver ornaments only. I love going through the ornaments each year, especially the ones I made as a child, or ones purchased to commemorate a significant life event. This year I decided it was time to add 6 more ornaments to the tree - one for each of my past and present pets! Bronner's Christmas Wonderland is a great place to get personalized ornaments, they hand-paint names, exc for no charge on select ornaments! Living in Michigan, this store is a staple, and pretty much everyone you know has a few ornaments from Bronner's.

On a recent venture to Bronner's I saw they had these beautiful dog bone shaped glass ornaments and you could have your pet's name painted on. I got one for my current dog, Snickers. Then I realized that I should get one for all the dogs i've had in my lifetime and ordered 3 more online. This was wonderful, but I couldn't leave out my kitties, so I got 2 cat ornaments as well.

Also, as we got a new electric fireplace as part of living room re-model, I realized that we needed new Stockings! They are not in this photo, but I have placed an order and soon I'll have Christmas Stockings on a fireplace for the first time in my life! Normally, the stockings were hung on door knobs as we never had a fireplace.

This past weekend, I also managed to put up my outdoor lights and write out my Christmas Cards! The cards are set to mail December 1, and the lights won't be turned on until after Thanksgiving. Scrooges, don't hate!