That festive feeling

Thanks for all of the kind comments/emails/phone calls. We are all doing better... life goes on.

So... moving on with some happier content. I'd promised some shots of the super-fantastic exterior decor that I am so happy with, and December 1 seems like a good day to do it.

I actually shot these pictures twice. The first time was a couple of days earlier and then it happened... we woke up last Sunday morning with snow. I had to get outside to take some new pictures because the snow made it all the better.

This was the year I got over my fear of listening to 9 wreaths flap in the wind non-stop, and just bought them and put them up already. I have been wanting to do this since we moved here and always thought they would blow away in no time. NOT SO! It turns out that suction cup hooks are magic. I have 3 on each wreath, in the 4, 8, and 12 o'clock positions. The wreaths have been up there for 3 weeks or so and none have come loose yet. Win!

I bought a wreath to go on the top centre window, and I'll be honest - neither Chad nor I relished the task of climbing up on the porch roof to somehow hang it. The other second-storey wreaths were hung from inside the house, but that centre window is inoperable (and also sits in the middle of a double-height foyer). So, the window is bare. I've seen photos of houses done both with every window covered, and without, in cases like ours. It doesn't bother me enough to risk life and limb climbing up there. Maybe a straight, rather than curved, porch roof would have made a difference. Oh well - too late for that now.

These wreaths were all cheapies - now that I know it works, maybe we'll upgrade to some nicer ones in the future.

 The porch area itself was treated to an upgrade of fresh greens - the urns, the wreath on the door, and the garland around the door. I've re-used the old tree-form grapevine topiaries in the urns but I think next time I will probably ditch those and just use more green stuff. The green is a little on the skimpy side simply because I couldn't fit any more in.

We topped it all off with coloured lights, which we had on hand. The kids love it but I think we may switch back to clear lights in the future. Clear just goes so nicely with real green stuff. Maybe we'll repurpose the coloured lights and deck the back yard out as well as the front sometime.

Glad to have gotten this stuff all out there before the snow started to fly... but even if we hadn't, we'd still have had our chance. I hear it's supposed to be in the 60s on Sunday. That seems way too warm for the first weekend in December.