Another Christmas Is Over

- Let me first say that for a winter that started off so miserably warm, the past few weeks have actually been cold... and that has been such a wonderful change.

To celebrate, we light the fireplace almost every day! (Usually if we light the fireplace at all during the winter, it's just once or twice). I really do love it, although I do worry about the critters out here. (I need to double check, but I don't think the donkeys next door - the girls - have any hay. I think it's all gone now. If the neighbor doesn't have a bale of hay sent to them before the coldest weather hits, I'm going to be majorly upset. The livestock are really supposed to start eating up a day or two before the cold hits and I hear that some MAJOR cold is supposed to visit us around New Years Eve).

- We engaged in a little happy damage over at the Junk Gypsy Headquarters a couple days before Christmas. (Not our fault. Everything Christmas was 50% off, so they pretty much had us cornered. We're innocent I tell ya!)

For what feels like f-o-r-e-v-e-r we've been searching for an old timey looking pick up truck to use as a Christmas decoration. We've been wanting to fill the bed of it with Christmas trees, and right when you enter the Junk Gypsy store... there it was in all it's glory.

It was a table filled with several red tin trucks just like we've always wanted! They were the larger trucks, too, which was really great.

Mom also got a couple of things to decorate the barn. She got a cute sign and an arrow. (I think we're going to go back to get something else, too. It was a large wooden circle sign of a moon with a face painted on it. It was made to look vintage, too).

- Every Christmas I try to watch only THE BEST episode of MST3K ever produced; "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians." Along with that, there's also the "Santa Claus" episode.

Here's one funny clip from it:



I think that's my favorite carol this year.

That Christmas episode aired back in 1991. Talk about being ahead of their time!

- Is it just me, or did Christmas arrive at warp speed this year?

















I love how Junk Gypsy will give you a really nice shopping bag the more money you spend. This is one of my favorites. I think it's the same design they use on one of their shirts.



















We decided to add trees - bought at JG for half off - and then of course snow to the back of the pick-up. I hot glued the wreath to the front of the truck, and the cute puppies also in the bed of the pick-up we already had. (We bought TONS of those sweet pups at Thads in Old Town Spring way back when. God, how I miss that store!)









- Look at the size of that hawk! (The pics of it were taken on Dec 14th). It hung out on that branch for the longest time, looking for a meal most likely.

- The Blue Heron was nice to see. Every once in a while they show up at the neighbor's pond.

- When the family came over on Christmas Eve Day, my BIL put up our bunny weather vane to the barn! (We had to cancel the original order, because UPS is useless around here, and then made a new order to have sent to my sister's house for her to bring to us on Christmas Eve). Mom and I were so glad to see that sweet little bunny up there.

We decided to name him after Beatrix Potter's "Benjamin Bouncer." The name seemed appropriate.















I looove the pictures my sister got me for Christmas. The "Nana" picture next to it was a birthday gift my niece and nephew picked out for me when they were little, so it was fate that the Peter Pan pictures be next to it.

It reminds me of that magical time when the kids were still little and we were so close.







When putting up the Christmas Tree last year, I was so upset because I couldn't find one of our really old ornaments; a little duck that I think was from the 70's. Thankfully, while putting up the tree this year... there it was on one of the branches.

It's a miracle it didn't break because it's porcelain.





















It looks like Izzy thought her little friend needed a companion for nap time.

I just realized it's a Fox and a Hound. How Disney-ish. lol!















I love the little truck Mom added to the display.