It HAS Been a While

 If you guessed we were busy decorating, baking, shopping, wrapping presents, hosting and attending parties, and doing cards... You'd be wrong.

We haven't even started on the cards yet.

We all also caught a bad cold which made the Emperor very sick indeed, but he's on the mend, and we've enjoyed having him home with us this week.

We did get a nice warm spell, earlier in the month, with which to do the outside decorations.   That's always helpful!

I usually double task and prune the clematis, roses, and other shrubs when we are putting up the Christmas stuff (because otherwise there's no place to put the Christmas stuff!).  This year, one of the Zoomlians looked at the big pile of long straight water sprouts I had taken off the contorted filbert and had the marvelous idea of weaving a stable for our outdoor Nativity!


This was followed by the coldest December cold snap I can remember.

It gave us a very pretty ice storm and time to work on the inside decorations.

We have been putting up one decoration a day, but we also have one day in Advent where we put up general decorations like greenery, bows, and beads.

You can almost see his belly button!

And, of course, there's the tree!

We buy the tree from our local volunteer fire fighters early in December, but then keep it in water outside until we are ready for it.

Some time around Gaudete Sunday, we bring it in and decorate it.  The extra few weeks of cold and water keep the tree green through the Baptism of the Lord!