It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......

It has been the busiest fall I've experienced in, well, a long time. We have a second year Classical Conversations group in our area and I've been teaching there all day on Tuesdays. Juggling that with homeschooling, learning the content for the classes I'm teaching, prepping materials for class, homemaking, making time for exercise, etc., etc. I love it though. It's been challenging.

I've been getting Christmas things out in stages, beginning with an Advent table. We have been doing Advent activities with the kids for several years now, with each year's Advent candle display being different. This year I decided to dig into the plethora of shells I have in the o-so-famous garage. My mom's side of the family is from the Puget Sound area and I have a lifelong love of shell gathering. My favorite part of this Advent display is that shells aren't flammable. :-)

I inherited these sweet little candles holders from my dad's parents.

When our kids were little, I decided to do Christmas displays that included Nativity scenes. We had a few Santa-ish things, but there were several Nativity related things, books, etc. This year I have three Nativity displays and the pop up Medieval Nativity book out. The kids each have their own little Nativity set to set up in their rooms.

My birthday is the day after Christmas. Between that and Christmas, my parents have outfitted us with the pieces of the Willow Tree Nativity.

I had a bare corner, so I 'shopped the yard'. I love twigs and dried things. This is dried prunings from the Russian Sage plant, and some twigs I've had around for years.

Last Christmas break, El Professor and I tore apart the ugly, gastly, horrible, cedar paneled 'study', whited out the walls to create a lighter space, got rid of the ghastly cedar beam that served as a mantle, and hung old windows on the wall. This room is on the north side of the house and the dark, depressing space has been transformed into my favorite room. I've always gone easy on fireplace/mantle photos so as to spare myself and the world from the ugly scene, so decorating the mantle was a treat this First Mantle Christmas. The 'mystery squash' that sprang up in my garden has evolved into 'the Christmas squash'. I love it. This is the second year it sprang up. After Christmas I'll have to seed save from one to make sure they are back next year.

I found this tin tile board in a treasure shop my sister's mother-in-law operates on Shaw Island in the San Jaun Islands. I collect vintage postcards.

My Hilarious Twin has a curly willow tree in her backyard. Twigs a-plenty!

These wooden Nativity pieces were the first I collected. They were great around little fingers. This year they are on the piano in front of the poppy painting. Joseph fell behind the piano when I was setting up--gotta love those long handled tongs!

Yesterday I canned 78 jars of jams/jellies from juices/berries/purees I prepared all summer/fall and froze. Guess what is ALL over my dining table? :-)

Today we are going to set up our tree. A few years ago we bought a potted Nordmann Fir living tree. 'He' is fondly known as 'Nordmann', and he lives on our back patio. Living trees weigh a TON, I need to do a thorough 'spider check', and you have to 'step' them in so they don't go into shock transferring from the Brrrrrrr to the warm house. Frankly, I think it's all kind of a pain. Last year Nordmann stayed outside and we cut a wild tree from up in the mountains.