Ornament Hooks

Well, this is a year of firsts for us.  The short version is Black Friday I bought an artificial Christmas tree.  The rest of that story is that I came home, put it up, decorated it, and to top it all off, I put the rest of the decorations out around the house.  Now, I've always been one  who decorates about mid December with a live tree (we haven't had even one of those for the past 5 years).  And the decorations get placed around a few at a time.  You can blow me away with the fact that I, Ms. Sweetz, have my tree up and decorated before the calendar even flips to December.  Wow. 

As artificial trees go, this one is right pretty.  7.5 ft tall and pre-lit with 700 little white lights.  Hard to argue with that gracing the front windows.  In preparation for downsizing, two years ago we gave our son some of our Christmas decorations so as a result, the storage containers were slimmer.  But I found plenty to put up/out and the house looks festive. We even had Christmas CDs playing in the background.  The only thing missing was the hot mulled cider and cookies but I struggled through with a glass of tea.  Now I should have plenty of time to get some Christmas projects completed.  

Last weekend I went shopping locally for gifts and got about half of them purchased.  Yippee.  I exclusively bought from local small businesses and craftsmen.  I like knowing my money is staying here in America and not flown overseas.  Ah hem...of course, the tree...well, yep, it was made in China.  Surely, it would have been better to buy a live tree from one of the tree stands around town, but it's here now and decorated.  I will enjoy it and maybe next year I will keep it in the box and buy another live tree.  Well, a cut, dead, "live" tree  - which after Christmas is placed in our backyard and hung with treats for wildlife and birds.  Sounds like it's time to put more thought into my purchases and buy locally.

Mom came for an early supper tonight.  We had rehashed Thanksgiving dinner but it was just as good, if not better, than it was on Thursday.  Turkey, dressing, gravy, sweet potatoes, a couple of casseroles, rolls, etc.  Then for dessert I served pumpkin cheesecake made by a new local baker/catering business. Yummmmmm, it was delicious! Many memories plus many calories consumed.  I sure need to do something about eating these large meals.  They must come to a screeching halt or I will soon be buying clothes in the Big Mamma section. 

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with lots of food, family, friends, and fellowship.  I have much to give God thanks for this year.