On Christmas Eve, with family and friends, met for the annual fish dinner of octopus, squid, cod etc..etc...being that I am not a fish eater, I enjoyed the dessert table instead. All in all, it was a very nice evening laughing and talking with everyone! Okay, now I am done...time to start walking again and stop eating the cookies! My usual resolution for the New Year...Wishing everyone a prosperous and better year! Next posting will be in 2011!
Just had to share this, I decorated my back stoop thanks to mother nature! As I would walk the neighbor's dog, I would check out the foilage and greenery in my neighborhood! I thought why not use them to save me some money and not have to worry about taking the decorations in, in case of bad weather (living near the snow belt, in the past, some of my outdoor decorations have been buried in the snow). I do not have to worry about plugs, electric bills and taking the decorations down after the holiday season has passed. I can keep these things out here until Spring if I wanted. First I found these red berries then the brown cone flowers, that had dried, and the greenery came from a pine cone tree, that shedded a few branches a couple of days ago when we had some high winds, I stuck them on a ladder I had, which is pretty rustic and sturdy for the outdoor elements, and put the berries and dried flowers in a watering can, but you could use a bucket (really anything that can tolerate the weather, not ceramic or pottery, will crack in the cold). So take a look around your neighborhood and see what you can come up with (but if something is on someone's property, please ask a neighbor if you can pick or clip it for your display). Have fun and share!
This year I have scaled way back on my decorating! Of course, I have sold a lot of my Christmas ornaments and trees so this year, I am using things that I already had! I love the large red ceramic ball in my red bowl, I did not know what to do with them when I purchased them last year for half price, but this year, they look great with some red beads and those huge pine cones that I found for free in North Carolina when I was visiting my kids around Thanksgiving time, I just sprayed them with white fake snow and they look great in my red bowl (which I did not really know what to do with when I brought it back from Calif. in Sept.). I think anything red goes anywhere during Christmas time! My glass cloches, I love to use to display my Christmas trees, Santas or candles...the small one is great, I just put a candle Christmas wreath around it and instantly gave it color! 
The bottles on my window sill, I bought several years ago but kept thinking I would fill them with goodies and give them away as gifts, didn't seem to happen. I love them by the window because they sparkle when the light hits them! I don't know if you can really see them but they have shapes of houses on them! I just can't seem to part with them! I really went very simple this year...more pics to come!
On Saturday, December 18th, I hosted our neighborhood Christmas party. We had losts of good food and played a really fun game with the story, A Night Before Christmas, using lottery tickets. It was comical watching all these grown up people hang so tight to the lottery ticket they were holding and not wanting to pass it on to the person next to them! In the end everyone ended up with a ticket but only a few winners! Greed was setting in...I narrated the story and almost could not get through it, laughing so much! Everyone had a good time and left with goodie bags and some great memories!
