All packed up and put away 'till next December.

It sure takes a lot longer to pack up all the Christmas decorations than it does to unpack them. I do get a bit tired of some of the decorations...hard to dust around...but trees could stay up much longer. Suppose we could have a Valentine tree, a Shamrock tree, a different tree for each month.......on second thought there is absolutely no room in this house for more boxes of ornaments.

ex-cel-si-or, n. slender, curved wood shavings used especially for packing
I can't remember seeing anything packed in excelsior for years. Today it is mostly formed foam or pellets of some kind. Excelsior was used for many crafts years ago such as these birds nests. I can't remember if I used thinned out Elmer's glue or thin wallpaper paste. Form a birds nest, let it dry, spray gold paint and wa-la a nest for the tree. It was always a special treat if a real nest was found in a tree that was brought home. Good luck, I guess. That bird has lost most of it's tail feathers I see.
In the 60's I made these Chrismons (Christ Monograms). We were living in Pittsburgh then and a group at church made large beautiful ones for the church tree. I made smaller Chrismons at home to go on our tree. They are still hangin' around. Each year there needs to be some repair work done!

Sorry this photo got on it's side. The acorns are from my home when I was a child and the other glass ornaments are from Jerry's home.....probably in the 30's. The things at the bottom are candle clips to clip the candles onto a tree branch. Jerry vaguely remembers them being lit. That candle wax that is still on the clip is mighty old!!

We always have many Swedish straw ornaments on trees. One year I made quite a few.

When we lived in PA we used to go for some day trips on weekends and found a shop in Meadsvile (I think) that had many Scandinavian decorations and foods. We purchased our first straw ornaments there. After over 45 years there are still some oat kernels attached.

Today is my birthday!!! Yesterday Gregg and his family were all here and we had such a great time. They all did some "jobs" here and then they took us to a Thai restaurant for lunch. Marcos was happy to get his lemonade. That is not a new kind of straw. I had a few of those chili pepper ornaments that fit over a light bulb on the tree. He thought it was neat because it fit over his finger and then it fit over the straw...more fun...but sad to say no drinking was possible.

I had L51 on the menu...couldn't pronounce the words but it was very good. Beef with wonderfully flavored rice. The soup was delicious, as were the spring rolls and egg rolls.

Late afternoon Stephen came over and got most of the ice scraped off the driveway. Check out that icicle he pulled off the house. Instead of knocking it off he took it off gently so he could stick it in the snow!!

Sun yesterday and today........we're feelin' good!