o little christmas tree and a little something new

It's hard to believe that Christmas is just 11 days away. I went to a Christmas party last weekend and have two more parties this week. Have had gatherings with friends at a wine bar, tea-and-talk, and dinners, so it's already been a busy month. 

Our weather still continues to be all over the place; some days with sun, others with rain or just simply gray and dreary, and temps anywhere from the teens to the 40's. No snow though! Looks like we probably won't be having a white Christmas here in IL. 

Even though it's cold, Brian and I like to bundle up and go for brisk walks down to the lake when he's home from work. 

 There are hundreds of Canada geese on the lake...this was just a small bunch in the photo. 

 In my last post, I mentioned that we put up a small tabletop tree instead of a big one. I didn't show the tree in my last post because it wasn't decorated yet. Here it finally is, but you might notice that the lights don't go all the way to the top. There's a story behind that. I had decided that this year I wanted simple white lights, not colored ones like we put up every year in the past. I got a box of little white lights from Wal-Mart and they were way too bright. I wanted soft light. So back they went. Then I found soft white lights at Target and we tried those. The bulbs were too big for the little tree. It looked terrible. So those went back, too. I was done looking for "the perfect lights". I told Brian we'll just use what we have. So we got out the strand of colored lights, Brian wound them around the tree (he does the lights; I do the ornaments) and...they came up short. He said we needed another strand of lights and would re-do the whole tree and my reaction was, "No - I am DONE with lights!" Then he said he would take off the strand of lights and re-string those to try and make them go to the top. I just laughed and said forget it. Martha Stewart isn't coming over and I'm not a Big Blogger whose decor has to be absolutely perfect for photos and social media. It's one of those things where "good enough" is just that.

I'm putting my Christmas cards in this white box this year. We've only received a handful, but the quantity usually picks up as Christmas draws near. Do you still send Christmas cards? I sent out about 15 this year. I only send them to friends and family that live far away, or that are going through a particularly hard time.

All these items under the console table were vintage finds over the years, except for the tall wooden Santa. He was found at Goodwill many years ago. That little cardboard tube Santa by the sleigh holds matches. And the collection of four Santas on the yellow suitcase are actually wooden bells. One of my favorite vintage Christmas finds from last year.

 And now for a little something new...we had points from our Visa card that we had to use by the end of the year or else we'd lose them. We looked on the web site and couldn't find anything that we wanted or needed for the small amount of points we had. Then we came across this red Le Creuset tea kettle. Brian drinks tea in the morning (I like my coffee first thing in the morning), but we both like herbal tea in the late afternoon or evening during the cold weather. And I'm a big Le Creuset fan ~ plus red for my kitchen ~ yes! 

Have you have a fun and blessed weekend!