Preparing for Christmas Part Two

It's a wonderful day and I'm so glad you came by! It's always a wonderful day when we decorate the tree, and this year it was super easy besides, because last year I sorted through and refined our collection of ornaments. The ones we didn't want were tossed if necessary, or sent to Goodwill if still usable. I wonder whose tree they're on this year?

This is what was left. It doesn't look like much here, but there were plenty of items to make our tree look very full!

See the tree shaped red boxes? They're large enough to hold a lot of small ornaments, and they all have lids. I have four of them, which I bought after Christmas one year for fifty cents each. After they're emptied I put them on top of the wall unit:

I suppose they could be used as gift boxes for cookies or candy, but so far I've just used them to store the ornaments.

When we sorted through everything last year, we made sure to keep all the special ornaments, such as this little angel Beth is holding for me:

I made her for Caroline one year. She's made of yarn and lace, stitched in some places, glue-gunned in others. Whatever would I do without my glue gun?

Remember the year everybody was buying those lacy and beribboned angels? Well, why buy one? I made this one, and several others that I sold at a nice profit. Aside from buying the doll heads, the rest is fabric scraps and left over ribbon.

When JoAnn Fabrics has a sale, I grab stuff for pennies. The year I made these angels, several JoAnn's and the Rag Shop were closing stores.

My find this year for ornaments was at Walgreens. They are made of something like pipe cleaners and covered in glitter. They're packed 10-18 per box and priced at 2 boxes for $5. I'm bad at math, but I think that's less than twenty cents each. Some are on the tree, and here's what I did with the rest:

So, here's our tree. It does not have a hole in it - something I put in that spot is very reflective:

And here's the beginnings of the wrapping, done by Caroline. I still have mine to do:

Yes, that huge red bowl (Tupperware, of course) is part of a present. Guess who's getting it? And guess what's going to be in it?

Hey, thanks for stopping by; it was great having you. Have a cookie or two before you go, OK?