It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas!

Christmas Lights went up right after Thanksgiving in the Forest at StoneRidge and all around the compound (as we lovingly call StoneRidge). This year we are spending our first Christmas in our new home so the decorations were coming out!

I didn't get things up as quickly as I have in past years. I usually had everything completely decorated and the tree up the day after Thanksgiving. We sold our 16 year old artificial tree before we moved to Idaho and last year was the first in my adult life that I did not have a tree at all!

I'm waiting to get a new artificial tree 'til the sales after Christmas. The day after all of the holiday festivities began here, StoneRidge Pals Tammy & Russ, along with their grandson Adrian, invited us to join them in their annual tree hunt at their Newport property. They have 15 acres and plenty of trees that we could legally cut down without a permit.

Granted the trees are not what you would find at a Christmas tree farm, but we had fun looking for and cutting down our tree which I had never done before.

I haven't had to string lights on a tree for almost 20 years, so trying to string the lights on this "Charlie Brown tree" was going to be a challenge. With a minimal amount of branches to work with, I had to pick and choose from the close to 100 ornaments for the ones that would adorn our tree this year.

The stockings are hung, my advent calendar is up and I actually got out my North Pole Village. It hasn't been out of the box for nearly 10 years.

This advent calendar, a Christmas Present made by my sister Angela in 1991, 

has been out every year except last year. It is my favorite decoration. 

 

Getting snow the last couple of days has completed our holiday picture. It will be very different for both of us since we won't be together with our family on Christmas day. Fortunately, we will be able to see them 2 days later in Montana.

We may not be with you in person, but we will be there in spirit!