Thursday, December 28, 2017

christmas aftermath

Hello! Did you have a nice Christmas? I did, though like I say every year at this time, I'm glad it's over. It was three days in a row of get-togethers, too much food, wine, presents, and late nights. Lovely and memorable times, but a bit overwhelming for this introvert.

A couple of fun photos from Christmas Eve:

My son wearing beard ornaments.


My cousin's wife, my cousin, and my sister ~ "proper" ladies. 


Christmas Day was just the three of us (six, if you include the three cats) at home. I made my famous breakfast casserole and French Press coffee and we settled in to open presents. 

My main gift to my Brian was this personalized keychain from The Vintage Pearl. I know it's hard to tell from this photo, but the strap is leather engraved with an "R" (the first letter of our last name) and the hammered silver circle has all our names on it (Brian, Melanie, Philip, Timothy). 


My main gift from Brian were these beautiful earrings from Sundance.


Tim loves to get me cat-themed things...this year it was a variety of socks, plus this wine glass. 😻 Of course, the cats were in the thick of the present opening and they got presents, too ~ a new scratching post and some catnip-filled mice. I wanted to post a photo of the cats on Christmas morning, but either my phone or laptop isn't cooperating with transferring photos. I use OneDrive on both devices and since OneDrive is a cloud storage, the photos I take with my phone usually go straight to my laptop. But, not lately. Sometimes they don't go at all. Other times - like at Christmas - only some of my photos appeared on my laptop. I've even tried manually sharing photos from my phone to different apps - OneDrive and Dropbox - and they still don't show up on my laptop. Frustrating!



 The day after Christmas, we headed to Barnes and Noble for our annual pick-up of calendars, planners, and Christmas cards ~ all at 50% off.


I've already taken down the Christmas decorations and last night, Brian helped me pack them away. We take all the decor down to the basement family room, lay the items out on the bar, drag the Tote bins out from storage, and get busy. We're always supervised by a cat.


I've always been like this, where on the 26th I declare, "Christmas is over! I'm done enjoying it to the point where I'm kind of sick of all the clutter. I know some of you can relate and others can't fathom taking down Christmas decorations until at least after January 1st. It's a personal choice and it's all good, no matter what you decide to do. 


15 comments:

  1. I already live in a clutter zone so the extra Christmas decor is what keeps me from putting too much out anymore. I'm definitely ready to hide it all away again. The keychain is a lovely gift.

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  2. Everyone received such lovely, thoughtful gifts, and I especially love your wine glass, Melanie - very funny!

    Wishing you and your family a very Happy New Year! May 2018 be filled with good health and happy times!

    xoxo
    Poppy

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  3. I can relate to being sick of Christmas and wanting to take it down. If it wasn't for my brother being in town, I would have been right with you. So next week we will be doing that too. I am so ready for clean, simple, light and lower fat foods.

    We need to get together sometime in January and pick another obscure restaurant. I love that. Happy New Year!

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  4. Love your new earrings! I visit the Sundance store whenever we're in Mpls.- so much fun to browse there. Yesterday cabin fever hit and I took down all but our tree, which I'll leave until New Year's Day. Your cats make good supervisors. Love the beard tree!

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  5. I love the keychain, personal gifts like that are so sweet. Pretty earrings but I LOVE that wine glass. I often say I don't like to drink alone but Annie is here so there is that!! I've been so busy with family this week, but Ashleigh has gone back to Cali and so I'm ready to take down Christmas decor. It's only me and so each year I get so I like less and less stuff. Stay Warm and Happy New Year!

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  6. I love the ornaments in your son's beard, that's too funny!!!

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  7. Love the wine glass - ha! Happy New Year (almost)!

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  8. Your time together sounds wonderful. I am packing it all away starting tomorrow. It is always finished off with a big clean to get up all the dust that has been accumulating over the past month. Wishing you a happy New Year.

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  9. I should get my son some beard ornaments! And I smiled at the proper ladies too--was that pose planned or coincidence? Pretty earrings, Melanie!

    And you're so right, it's all good, whatever tradition we follow to packing away the Christmas finery. Or it should be because our homes are our castles, right?

    A blessed New Year to you,
    Dewena

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  10. I agree, Christmas is supposed to be a pleasure, so whatever works for you, do it! Oh my gosh, I love the beard ornaments!! Christmas Day was a quiet one for us this year, too. My daughter and husband and children were here in the morning for a few hours, but Dan and I spent the rest of the day by ourselves. Being an introvert, too, I enjoyed it for a change. Happy New Year to you, Melanie!

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  11. Tomorrow I'll "disrobe" our perfect( I think anyway) live 5' table tree,only the second small tree we've had in our 53 years... First off, the antique and vintage ornaments, Which I've had forever, my mom's now included, since 20 years ago, and then the 500 string of colored lights. Sounds like a lot for a small tree, but really fills the tree, nicely. Lot of the ornaments, that have been used on our tree, have now been stored in tote boxes, for the last 6 years,because we downsized and moved into a mobile home,but still having a real tree, even tho smaller,I must get out the best of the old collection.I love turning the lights on the tree, early in the morning, before (the two of us) have breakfast, and I do miss that when the tree is gone, but...like you, our tiny space looks good too, without having any extra decor. Anyway, hope we are here,to do it all again, next year, when I'll be 79 before Christmas... So far, it looks good, lets hope and pray, the world stays sane..Happy New Year to you and your family, Bonnie in White WI, wind chill right now -16 Time for a cup of hot coffee...

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  12. Those beard ornaments are very festive!! I am somewhere in the middle when it comes to removing the decor. I really enjoy the lights and the tree, but the Santas and the the other things start to feel a little stale. As the week goes on, I usually start to gather items and bring them down to the basement. I leave the tree up until after the first. I like it...and I'm lazy. Happy New Year!

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  13. That key chain is such a sweet gift. I love how personalized your gifts to one another are. We leave our decorations up until the day after New Year's Day. It's always a good feeling to get everything put away and give the living-room a good cleaning.
    Happy New Year!
    Connie :)

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  14. Happy New Year Melanie! I love seeing your photos and oh those ornaments in your son's beard:)
    xo
    Jemma

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  15. I usually like to leave the tree up through the first week of January, but this year I took the ornaments off Christmas night so it was just lights. The lights and tree came down over the weekend and everything is taken down now. I was feeling restless and decided to just get it done.

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