Christmas tree?

[ShiroKuro]

I’m sure that will be very pretty! I do love the smell of pine. My mother always used to get fresh garlands and put them throughout the house. Smelled wonderful!

[AndyD]

As the kids etc are arriving Christmas Eve, MrsA & I got busy yesterday:
Stairs

Front door thing made instead of wreath

And the trees

She's really into the season, keeps adding baubles to the stairs, apparently we need new red baubles for the first tree, and a couple more sets of muti coloured lights around the house.

[ShiroKuro]

That’s lovely @AndyD !

@AndyD said in Christmas tree?:

She's really into the season, keeps adding baubles to the stairs, apparently we need new red baubles for the first tree, and a couple more sets of muti coloured lights around the house.

That’s the way to do it! Get everything up, spot the holes, go buy more ornaments, fill the holes!

[Steve Miller]

Very nice, Andy!

[wtg]

@AndyD said in Christmas tree?:

Front door thing made instead of wreath

I think it's called a door swag.

Your decorations are beautiful, @AndyD and MrsA!

[Mary Anna]

Our new hometown's volunteer fire department sells live trees that they will deliver to your house. The Boy Scouts sell fresh-cut wreaths and other small evergreen ornaments that they, too, will deliver to your house. (Does this sound like a Lifetime Christmas movie? Well, they film those things in our town. Also, there's a singalong Messiah event across the street. And a singalong Sound of Music right down the road. And a pipe organ concert, also right across the street. After a life spent in mid- to late-twentieth century red state suburbs, living in this Northeastern Victorian town feels like living on a movie set.)

I am currently in Oklahoma for work, but will go home tomorrow. Quirt and I will get the volunteer firefighters to deliver the tree and set it up, and then I think it will finally be time to post some photos of the newly renovated house.

We have ornaments we've acquired together (actually a lot of them) and a few that we brought to the marriage, but the hoard of special ornaments bought for or made by my children got lost during the move from Florida to New Jersey. (It still hurts my heart to think about it, so I generally don't.) I'll be dragging all that out and also acquiring some battery powered lights for our front porch, because it doesn't have an electrical outlet.

I'm very excited to spend our first Christmas in our new house. Muffin, their partner, and their partner's family will be there on Christmas Day. Also, since Muffin and I can now zip easily to each other's houses via public transit, they will be coming next weekend to celebrate my birthday with me. It's going to be a lovely Christmas season.

[Mik]

Only doing the smaller tree again tree this year as we will be heading to Nevada again. The end of a 30 year era.

[wtg]

@Mik Does the tree incite any cat shenanigans? We had one who would try to eat tinsel (a very bad thing to do) and another who tried to climb into it. Also occasional swatting of ornaments with a paw.

Oh, and nice tree!

[Bernard]

I love everyone's trees. All so pretty!

I have always had a real tree in the living room since moving here. Due to the price (mostly), I decided that this year I'd get an artificial.

There are very nice artificial trees now, but I did not want to spend a fortune. I got a slender tree so I could position it between two wingback chairs. Pre-lit, and I really like that. Also, it's got 8 light settings, all white, all colored, or six different flashing programs. I like being able to switch between white and colored lights at the press of a button.

Nowadays I also have trees in the dining room and kitchen. Dining room is for a more Victorian feel and the kitchen tree is silver. My grandmother used to have a silver pompom tree which she decorated with shiny solid color baubles. It was beautiful.

The dining room (never mind the mess, I've been sewing a lot):

The kitchen:

The living room (these blue lights really ham it up in photographs!):

When I took the Christmas decorations out of the closet, I put the two boxes containing a village in the pile for donation to the thrift store. But part of me was wishy washy about getting rid of it. The problem with setting up a village is that it uses surface space, valuable surface space. But a few days later I had an idea that I could empty one of my book shelves and put the village there. Yay. The books from that shelf are temporarily in the cabinet below and the village is tucked away, like a shadow box. I like it. I love the theatrical aspect of it; that and setting up a utopian village.

I also put out my Santa collection:

Finally, my new album arrived the other day. I got it off eBay.

[ShiroKuro]

Everyone’s trees look great!!!

[AndyD]

Bernard, especially love your dining room tree and decorations.
Also the snowy village which is an idea for my sister who collects Lilliput Lane houses.

Meanwhile in England, a bakery has made a nativity scene out of bread buns:

Hallelujah He is Risen

[ShiroKuro]

@AndyD Love the bread buns!

@Bernard somehow I missed the Liberace album! Do you have a turntable? How is it?

[Bernard]

@AndyD Thanks.

[Bernard]

@ShiroKuro I bought a cheap turntable earlier this year so I could play some LPs I had. Now that I know I like it, I will be looking for a good one. I love listening to LPs. No matter what anyone says about it. I don't doubt that fidelity is better in CDs and streaming, but maybe that's the crux of the matter and maybe why it sounds 'colder' to my ears. My living room isn't a concert hall and it's not natural for it to sound like a concert hall. I don't know. Beat's me, but I like the sound of records.

[ShiroKuro]

@Bernard I was mostly asking re the music Liberace played, but I agree with you about the sounds...

I think CDs are too clean, and that sterile sound feels cool. It's why I never liked to play my digital piano as much as an acoustic, even when I had a very good digital and a totally clapped out, tubby Baldwin upright, I still preferred the upright.

It's been a long, long time since I've listened to vinyl.... I have fond memories of listening to my Dad's 45s, and also my own full sized LPs ... I think I started getting CDs in HS?? And of course now everything is digital, through bluetooth earbuds or a bluetooth speaker. It's fine, obviously, but I totally get the appeal that vinyl retains!

[Mik]

@wtg said in Christmas tree?:

@Mik Does the tree incite any cat shenanigans? We had one who would try to eat tinsel (a very bad thing to do) and another who tried to climb into it. Also occasional swatting of ornaments with a paw.

Oh, and nice tree!

Thanks! No, the cats are uninterested in this tree. Luna likes to climb up in the middle of the usual larger one, but neither one is much interested in the ornaments. That's lucky because they're mostly thin glass shiny ones. Every one is a memory of something we've done or somewhere we've been or a phase of our lives.

[Bernard]

@ShiroKuro Oh! I bought the Liberace album primarily because he recited 'The Night Before Christmas' on it. But he's quite a pianist! and it's an enjoyable alum.

[wtg]

Wow, you guys are getting this Scrooge into the Christmas spirit! @Bernard 's decorations especially.

Guess I should dig out my stuff and start decorating the house! But no way will it be as elaborate as what some folks have posted in their pics...

[CHAS]

The trees are all very impressive.
Bob has not put a tree up since he started bringing the cat to Tucson. The cat is
a Gung Ho Ninja guy that likes to watch things crash.
I may get the train set out and set up or we might go to the train museum instead.

[Steve Miller]

Is that the train museum in Phoenix (Scottsdale?) or is there one in Tucson?