Christmas approaches! Here are a few things we hope you find of interest. Enjoy!

TREE OF THE WEEK                                                                                                                                         This blogs tree of the week (shown above) is very special. We inherited the tree from Kevin’s mom, Irene, who we passed in April. When we were helping to clean out her condo, prepping it for sale, we had put the tree in the pile of items to be discarded. She had owned it for a long time and she and others had found it to be quite difficult to assemble. We were taking it to the dumpster when we did an about face and brought it back to our car. We had decided to keep it. That was in June, and as the months went by, we thought about how we should decorate the tree – if we could manage to put it together. We decided an angel tree would be a fitting tribute to Irene, who had a special devotion to angels. When the time came to put up the tree, we happily found it relatively easy to assemble. We decorated it with angel ornaments collected through the years, some by Irene and others by us. A few hand-made angels we made years ago also made the cut. Irene’s manger is on the table to the left of the tree. Various angel decor, including a decoupaged plate we made for Irene, are displayed at the base of the tree. Keepsake angel Christmas cards attached to the curtain frame the tree. This tree brings back great memories and we are pleased to share it with you.

ADD SOME EXTRA STYLE TO YOUR GIFT BAG!

Make a gift bag more special by replacing the original handle. Here’s how:

• Choose a bag you like that is the right size for your gift.
• Pick a bag that has handles that are tied on from the inside of the bag.
• Remove the original cord by untying the knots.
• Replace the cord with something more fancy or interesting, such as ribbon, rickrack or garland cut to the same size as the original cord.
• Embellish with bows, gift tags, or whatever you like.

In our example (above right), we used a mesh gold ribbon. We added a matching bow for extra flair. An easy and inexpensive fix!

SHOW & TELL: OUR BULLETIN BOARD AND DESK SHELF

We don’t have a large tree this year (although we do have 9 smaller trees!!!), so we decided to decorate the bulletin board over our computer desk with some our of special ornaments. This works as long as the decorations have flat backs. We adorned the shelf with some of our character ornaments, along with a few other miscellaneous festive items. Books are staggered, suggesting a Christmas tree. Hectic, but fun!

JOKE OF THE WEEK                                                                                                                                         Why was Santa’s little helper depressed?                                                                                             Because he had low elf esteem!                                                                                                               source: boyslife.com

HOLIDAYFACT                                                                                                                                             Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was actually conceived by Montgomery Ward department store as a sales gimmick to get kids to buy coloring books. The advertising folks almost didn’t give Rudolph a red nose because they were worried he would be perceived as a drunkard.                                      No drinking and flying Rudy!  source: ETonline

Thanks everyone – hope your holidays are Scrooge-free!

Roy and Kevin