Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

It's less than two hours to Christmas here and The Holiday is on the telly while I ready stockings. Besides Christmas morning itself, this is my favorite part of Christmas!

For the last few years, my husband has worked on Christmas Even from about 9 p.m. to midnight. He's a fire safety specialist at Duke University and the university's Duke Chapel always holds a midnight Christmas Eve service. It's an extremely beautiful--and exceedingly popular--service and so someone from his office has to be present to ensure the building capacity isn't exceeded.

Though you might think it would be a bummer to have him gone for a few hours on Christmas Eve, it actually works out quite well. Our son is young enough that he goes to bed before my husband heads out, and then I usually watch a movie, stuff stockings, etc. And then my husband gets an extra day off for just a few hours of work!

Since this week has been a whirlwind of last-minute shopping, candle-making, present-wrapping, cookie-baking, lunar eclipse-watching, and marmalade-cooking, I'm enjoying and relaxing in the final, blissfully quiet hours of Christmas Eve.

I also wanted to share a few more pictures of Christmas decorating that I did this week since we're down to the wire on holiday decorating posts!

After seeing so many folks at the Christmas home tours use fresh greenery, I finally got off my tush and headed to the woods for a few snips of cedar to further prettify the house.



My son and I--as part of our advent calendar activities--studded oranges with cloves this week, too. Besides pricking my thumb several times on the pointy ends of the cloves, this was a fun, old-fashioned Christmas activity to do with a preschooler. Highly recommend it!



And to top things off, my mom gave us this adorable glittery house this week.


It even has its own yard, complete with a picket fence, a snowman and a tree!  Luh-luh-love it!  This will be my first in a collection of glittery houses for next year. (Robin at Happy at Home made a gorgeous village of these lovelies and I've deemed them a "must-make" for next Christmas--how sick am I to already be deciding on crafts a year in advance?!?)

Anyway, I hope everyone reading has a wonderful Christmas with their loved ones. Thank you so much for visiting my humble blog, and for following along as I ramble, attempt to craft, and do whatever else strikes my fancy. Your comments are little gifts that buoy my spirit and I derive so much inspiration from the creativity, generosity and beauty each of you contributes to blog land. I wish you many blessings as we round out 2010 and head into the New Year!


From my home to yours!


1 comment:

  1. Wonderful pictures and words. Hope your Christmas and holidays are Merry! Love that little house!
    hugs,
    Leslie

    ReplyDelete

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