Merry, Merry Christmas!

How can it be Christmas Eve already?  Today I tackled the crowds at the grocery store and picked up the last of the gifts.  It will be a different Christmas here.  Thanksgiving never happened and now Christmas is delayed.  The Bean got sick with a terrible respiratory some or rather the week before Thanksgiving.  He just stopped coughing two days ago.  A little two weeks ago, I woke up to a chest full of congestion.  Later in the day at our usual phone call, I discovered that The Breadman had the same thing.  We've both been fighting it for two weeks.  Yesterday it was 74 degrees and right now it is 34 degrees, rainy and turning into snow.  Being out in that today made my chest a mess again.  My voice is non-existent.  But, I am soldering on and ready to have Christmas.  We are delaying it with my Mom because night before last, her blood sugar dipped to 26 and my stepdad called am ambulance about midnight.  They gave her glucose, an IV and made her a peanut butter sandwich.  She said she woke up and this strange man was shoving a sandwich in her mouth and she didn't understand what was happening.  Her sugar level came up, but now she is constantly checking it (she always did before too) and eating protein to keep it higher.  When she called me the next day (!!!) and told me, I totally lost it.  There wasn't a thing I could have done to help, but MAN, not knowing that happened until the NEXT DAY was brutal.  Thank GOD my stepfather was paying attention to her and realized what was happening.  Thank GOD he was there - she was alone for over a month when he had heart surgery. So, there's that to be grateful for right now.  That all sounds really whiny - right?  We are fine and will get better someday.  It just hangs on forever.  My Mom goes to the doctot on Wednesday, so hopefully he will have some insight.  Although, she has been feeling flu-ish and not eating much if at all, so lesson learned there too.  Hopefully, that is all it was.  FINGERS CROSSED! 

So, having said all that - I didn't think I would ever get all my decorations up this year.  It took me a long time, but I had messes in the house from the shows and things here and there that had to be put somewhere, then I had to box up everything in the living room that is normally out there, haul it to the garage, bring in the totes and then start the merriment.  Except, that a bare living room makes for easy cleaning, so I dusted, vacuumed and shampooed, washed the curtains and all that stuff.  And then I started decorating.  FINALLY.  

I should stop here to say that, OF COURSE, there are bigger problems in this world and heck, even in my own life, than me getting my decorations up.  But, it makes me happy.  It makes me feel like I am doing something that I am good at - making vignettes and displays.  I do so enjoy that.  I get to use the things that I have worked so hard to find over the years.  It makes me love my house, which I don't always love.  It makes me want to try harder to make it a house I love the other eleven months.  And on and on.  You get it, I know.  

Since I always put the same collections in the same places, that is easy - but I always set each collection up differently.  My kneehuggers always have a project or a theme.  I never by new stuff anymore - I just love the old stuff too much.  But, I went to Target and spotted a retro camper.  Ohmygoodness.  I knew right then and there that I was buying that caper and my kneehuggers were going camping!

And, so they did.  (It's such a bad photo - I have asked for gift cards so I can get a new digital camera, so we'll see if that pans out)  It's such a silly thing - all those kneehuggers sitting around a truck and camper.  But, it makes me grin whenever I look at them up there. 

Another new display this year was this Coke Crate. I love all of these cute little figures, but I have never actually used them.  I decided this year that if I didn't use it - it had to go.  So, you can see that I found a place for them.  I did cull out a lot of things to add to The Junk Ranch pile for next Fall.  

My village of Churches is another favorite.  All the pink and the glowing of the lights.  It's dreamy.  

Here's a video of the whole little town I've created with all the best things in the world.  

This photo of my Santa mugs had almost 800 likes on Instagram, which is a lot for my posts.  I guess people still love Santa mugs.  I know I do!

The Santa's in their usual spot.

All my tiny things in the tiny hutch.  

I am obsessed with finding these old Rosbro candy containers - but I haven't found one all year long!  I had those candles in my stash - but I didn't realize they were Rosbro candy containers until I saw then in a magazine.  Whoop!  So,  I added to the collection without even trying.  Luckily, they all fit perfectly in that small shelf, but I am willing to relocate them WHEN I find more.  Cheap.  :)

I hit a thrift in a town I rarely go to and scored all these bottle brush trees.  They aren't vintage, but they look the same as the vintage trees, the price was right and there were about 150 of them, so HELLO, I had to buy them.  Plus, they were ridiculously cheap - I think about $12.0 for all of them.  Great for crafting, snowglobe making, tying to trucks and cars and on and on.  

I do so enjoy the month of December that I get a little sad on the actual day of Christmas.  I leave my things up through New Years and we take the next week to just chill and enjoy the season.  

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.  Thank you for your friendship, the comments, the emails and the Christmas Cards.  It means the world to me.  Merry Christmas!!!!  Shara