Time to start decorating.....

Usually I start to decorate the day after Thanksgiving if I am home in Utah.

This year has just been so hectic I have not had a chance to really even start yet.

These nut crackers have been out for about three months on top of my china cupboard in my front room. My children are collecting these. It is a thrift store thing; they have found all of them for less than two dollars each. As you can tell, one has had a rough life and needs a new beard. The girls like him, anyway, and one day I will fix him. They just think it makes him more like the broken nutcracker in the play. If you haven't guessed, this is why my daughter wanted to make Russian needle punch Nut Cracker . The little Santa tin is also a thrift store find; he was $0.75. He is actually two tins; his head comes off to reveal an opening in his body, and his hat comes off to show an opening in his head. That just sounded painful!

If you noticed the wood blocks in the picture, my Vavo makes those each Christmas (and a lot of other holidays) and special events are depicted in these. I have one for each of my graduations, my wedding, children's baptisms, Easter, thanksgiving, 4th of July; you name she has made them. They are one of my favorite things she has made for me. This is an angel that used to hang over my Vavo's mantel in California. She was kind and gave me one a few years back. I love it so much that it stays up year round in my front hall. The angel is always heralding love and good will, in my opinion.
The above ornament stays out year round, too. There are a few new ones that I have received from the cake and pie ornament swap. The silhouette tree is one of those as is the knitted sweater and the pynsanky egg. The big temari ball, top right, is actually from Japan, as is the little one in the back right. The black temari with the red and orange embroidery is the only temari ball my husband ever made. It is only half done, and I think it will be that way forever, but it means so much because he made it. The temari ball on the bottom left is my very first temari; very ugly, but it is my first so I keep it. If you notice the one on the stand, front right bottom, I have improved a lot. I do have to admit that my husband divided the ball and I embroidered it. The wood ornament is from a wood tuner who used to live in West Jordan, Utah. He mainly made bobbins for bobbin lace, but one year he made these, and I got it from him. I actually have a few others from him, just smaller. The paper angel in the back left is from my church tree. It is a giving tree; we help a family out who is less fortunate than our selves.