Holiday at V's.....

We went to our around-the-corner neighbor's house tonight...... V invited some of the neighbors over for hot cider and wine and canapes. V is even more Christmas-crazy than we are. She has so many holiday decorations around her house that you feel as if you're in a department store. I swear, you don't know where to look first.

Her best collection are the Black Santas...... she has them all over the mantel, from one end to the other, all over the living room, breakfast room, kitchen, sitting room, dining room..... wherever you look is a Black Santa, and they all have wonderfully kind and jolly faces. If the face isn't "right" then the Santa doesn't go home with V. I found her a large blown-glass Black Santa ornament last year, after Christmas, and I put it away and gave it to V for this year's Christmas present. He had a gentle face....... I knew V would approve, and she just loved him.

The most interesting thing in V's house is a vintage post office mail-sorting unit. It's very vintage, made of wood that's so old that it's smooth to the touch. It stands about seven feet high, approximately six feet wide, and it's filled with cubby-hole squares, where mail used to be sorted by postal workers years ago. V has it in her hallway near the spiral staircase going up to her loft..... and each little cubby-hole is filled with something Christmas. It's amazing, and it takes a while to see everything...... your eye will rest on one item, then gets pulled towards something else. V just loves that cubby-hole thing....... she keeps things in it all year long, but come December, everything comes out of it, and it gets filled up with Christmas treasures.

I think V's home is the only place we go to that makes our own home look like we're not even trying to decorate for the holidays. We have a lot of Christmas things, but V just takes the cake for Christmas. You just don't know where to look first. And V is all set to run up to the local gift shops on the day after Christmas, looking for bargains on things that she will put away for next year. And I'll be right there with her. Jingle bells.