A look at our Decorations

It is the 5th of the month, so I am back with another challenge of the Crafty Gals! We are a group of bloggers who have monthly challenges, caring comments & fun chit chat on SCS—our favorite stamping site to visit.

However, this is a bit of a sad post, even though it is filled with holiday decorations from my house as it is the last Crafty Gals post.  Melina set up this wonderful group a few years ago, but has decided that it is time for it to come to an end. It has been great to share our creations along with stories and friendship with all of the wonderful ladies in this group.............  but all good things must come to an end.

The challenge that Melina posed to us this month was to share our decorations or our Christmas Card.  I love Christmas and decorate from the top to the bottom of the house--inside and out.  There is a tree in every single room of the house, including the bathrooms as well as a few in the family room and the living room.  Here are some of the trees and decorations:

This is the main tree in the living room--with over 700 ornaments.  Yes, I did count one year as I have been asked how many as well as how long to decorate.  It takes about a day to do just this tree--with a few breaks.

 

Here is a close up of a couple of my favorite ornaments from my parents.  They--my parents and the ornaments--came from Germany and I think the gold and pink ornaments are more than 100 years old.

 

 

I added a new tree this year where all of the ornaments are from trips and vacations.  The top ornament is a sugar maple leaf that we got in Montreal in May.  I plan to showcase the most recent addition to the top of the tree each year.

 

Here are two trees that honor my favorite sports teams--the Green Bay Packers and the Wisconsin Badgers:

 

The glass you might notice in the background is a window that was in my parent's house.  It was in a very old farm house that was torn down in 1963 and was then installed in the new house they built that same year.  When we sold the house and farm about 20 years ago, we took the door to a local hardware store and they removed the glass.  I had it framed and it hangs in my house now.  It is in remarkable shape for being probably close to 100 years old too.  It is a beautiful piece of etched glass that has deer in the middle.

 

These two trees highlight my years as a coach and a teacher.  The one on the left has teacher related ornaments and the one on the right on the fireplace hearth has all sports ornaments.

 

This is the tree that was new last year and has all ornaments related to wine:

 

 

The tree in the master bedroom has purple and silver ornaments:

 

 

Here are the trees that grace our bathrooms--the one on the tub is in the master bath and the other one is on the sink in the guest bathroom.

 

This is a window ledge that displays a collection of snowmen:

 

And finally.....  This is one of my favorite displays.  It is a small nativity that came from Haiti.  Rebecca has done fundraisers in the past for our friend Michel who goes on medical mission trips to Haiti.  Rebecca sings and plays guitar at a local restaurant with all donations along with a % of the food that evening given to Michel.  She gave this sweet nativity set to Rebecca and the crèche is a coconut:

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the trip around our house viewing our Christmas decorations.  I did not show you any of the trees from the family room in the lower level as they are not yet...............  off to do those now as we have a Christmas party with around 20 people coming on Saturday!  Tomorrow I will start the preparations for the party and I have a few ideas of treats to make. 

 

Please be sure to check out the blogs Crafty Gals! They are all listed on the blog role on the left.  I am sure you will be awed with the decorations and/or Christmas Cards that will be posted.  I will miss posting on the 5th of each month...........................