The Nutcracker Is In the House...

Back I went to Kroger this morning, after calling them first to make sure they had the five-foot Nutcracker still in the store. There had been three of them before Christmas, and only one was left this morning, but they put my name on it and held it for me.

I was about to leave the house in my car, but my husband suggested I take his.... and that was a good idea, because this lifesized Nutcracker wouldn't have fit into my car unless I could've bent his legs and sat him in the front seat.

As it was, I had to lay him sideways across the back seat of my husband's car, and I drove straight home with him. He looks right at home standing at the side of our fireplace. Into the holiday closet he'll go after New Year's Day, but for right now, he's standing guard in the living room.

Speaking of New Year's..... if we weren't having a dinner party for New Year's Eve, we'd be taking all the ornaments and lights off the big tree today and getting it out to the curb. It's finally starting to droop, and the needles are drying out. I think AngelBoy is drinking more from the water-pan than the tree is. Out it will go on New Year's Day.

I've begun taking down some of the Christmas decorations... just the little things from our bedroom, the porch, and the TV room. I want to make the dining room look festive for New Year's Eve, so I took some of the Christmas-y things out of there as well.

After I brought the Nutcracker home from Kroger this morning, I went back out to the local high-priced gift shop in town. They have beautiful things there, but they also come with beautiful price tags. Better to go the day after Christmas, as one of our neighbors suggested. I came home with some Radko ornaments, and also a gold feather-tree that's set into a drum... you wind up the little music box inside the drum and it plays music from "The Nutcracker," which seems to be the theme for this year's Christmas. I was so tempted to decorate that pretty gold tree, but it seemed pointless to do that when I'd just be undecorating it next week again. So into the closet it went, and it will be new for next year. Everything was half-price in that gift shop today... so of course I'm wondering if the mark-downs will be more as the week goes along.