Another Birthday and Thanksgiving.....

The time from birthday to birthday seems to pass faster.

It seemed to me when I was young it took an eternity to get from one birthday to the next and now it passes like a New York minute.

The sounds of firecrackers going off is barely a faint memory as I find myself searching for a pumpkin to looking forward to the smells of a turkey in the oven to pulling out the cookie recipes stained with vanilla from holiday seasons past.

This is my favorite time of the year and yes I know I can be a little over the top when it comes to my love of Christmas.

It's not that I don't love the start of spring as the flowers bloom or the summer when I get a chance to sit and enjoy the ocean or seeing the fall colors during drives up to Lexington/Columbia or looking out at the bare trees while the fireplace is going......each of the seasons has it's own charm.

But the time between Halloween and the New Year is special to me.

Back to my birthday......

I received my first birthday gift a few weeks ago from my pal and office mate, Mary.  You will see a picture of it when I finish my outside decorating this week.

Next, my friend, Jenn, gave me a pillow with a lovely sentiment on it, a ornament for my tree that is a sailboat a references a journey and two bars of soap with great names and comments on them.

On Saturday, one of my oldest friends, Kathy, gave me an amazing shawl.  She knows I am a shawl freak. I have several of her creations is a variety of colors to match anything I wear and my many moods. My favorite sweater was also created by her. I will model in a picture soon.

I was on vacation this week....my first full week off in 2017 !! No long commutes to the office! Time to get the decorating done (at least inside).

I was lucky enough to spend part of the week (from Wednesday to Saturday) with my sister too !  We baked cookies, talked for hours and had birthday dinner with friends!  Not a bad way to spend a few days!

Jenn and I also continue the garage purge........I have no idea how we were able to fit all this "stuff" in our Columbia house?

There was abbreviated Black Friday shopping at midnight Friday morning.....we did more shopping online but felt a need to hit at least one store.  Jenn and I have continued to scour the ads looking for the best deals and we have found some great sales.

My house may be a little over the top with Christmas trees.....one in the entrance way.....one in the living room......a ceramic one that lights up in each  bedroom........one on the dining room table and two......yes, two on the porch.....grand total is 7 trees!! Oh wait, I forgot of about my kitchen.....I need to put one somewhere in there.......hhhhhmmmmm......well maybe I will just leave the kitchen as is with the Christmas table cloth, napkins and napkin rings and a Yankee Candle.......

Here are some of the photos.........

I will try to include outside and my village photos next week.

See you next week........

Changes continue as the year winds down......

During this past week, I went through the boxes of Christmas decorations (yes, Christmas decorations).  I am planning to decorate the week of Thanksgiving.

I used to have boxes and tubs of outside decorations.  Now one single tub contains all I have for the outside of the house.  I still have a large Santa and two wooden soldiers that will not make the cut to be displayed outside but I do not have the heart to pitch them either.  I will stand them up in the garage and that will be as close as they will get to the outside. The outside will be pretty simple....a wreath on the door, garland around the doorway, possibly  some garland around the one post outside and two wood reindeer with a flood light on them.

I have 8-9 tubs of inside decorations and that is after purging some. I also donated my old artificial tree to Goodwill. It was too tall and wide for my new living room.  I have purchased a smaller tree that will fit the corner of my living room better. The tree ONLY has 250 lights so I will be adding more.  It will be nice to have a tree where the lights are inside the stand and I wont have to hunt for the plugs to use the prelit option.

Today, I am sorting through 3 tubs (yes, part of the 8-9 tubs) to decide which ornaments will make it onto the tree.  There is no way this smaller tree can accommodate all the ornaments I have collected over the years. I wouldn't dare throw away the ornaments not used.....each has some kind of memory attached to it.

Instead of the gas fireplace we have had the last 18 years, I now have a wood burning fireplace.  Due to the time change we have had a fire a few evenings this week has been a treat.

In the last few weeks, we have blown past Halloween, adjusted to the time change, celebrated Jenn's birthday and now are just a week away from Thanksgiving. As I said a few months ago, once we hit Memorial Day the year is over.  Here we are just a little over a month from Christmas and 2018.

The morning trip to Columbia/Lexington has been somewhat easier since it is not being made in total darkness but the return trip is now the more challenging one.

Jenn's birthday was as much fun for me as it was for her.  There was a Jennifer Eve dinner and birthday breakfast, pedicures, hair cut and color, eye brows waxed, shopping.......actually more than a 24 hour celebration.

There is much to be thankful for as we celebrate next week. It is  also enough to make my head spin when I think of all that has happened in 2017.

Holiday events at work, home, with friends and hopefully seeing some family will make the final weeks of the year go by in a flash.

While Thanksgiving will be relatively simple (and successful as long as Jenn gets real mashed potato's), I still enjoy watching Macy's parade, having a fire in the fireplace and maybe vegging on some holiday movies.  Although not the full family gathering of the past, I will talk to all of my family members and be somewhat grateful that I will not have to attempt getting a variety of vegetable to the table hot  (a feat my mother accomplished so many years and I still don't know how she did it).

I will Black Friday shop on Black Friday NOT Thanksgiving (I think people should not have to work on Thanksgiving in order for the stores to make $$$$)....midnight works and it makes it more of an event.  In recent years, I have done more online shopping since the sales run all week vs just one day.

The decorating will be finished by the end of the month.

I have already planned which weekend to bake cookies in order for them to make it to their destinations in plenty of time (family members get your orders in).

I also have purchased tickets to see "It's A Wonderful Life" on the big screen the weekend before Christmas.

And before I know it ......it will be December 24th.......THE BEST DAY OF THE YEAR.......(sorry the 25th is always a bit of a let down)...... and then 2018.

I had no idea as I watch the ball drop in Times Square ending 2016 what 2017 had in store for me so I will not even venture a guess what 2018 will bring!!

Time to get ready for the work week, time to divide up the ornaments and time to wind down the weekend......

See you next week ..........