In case you're counting....

.... there are just 55 more days till Christmas.

With that happy thought in mind this morning, I started decorating for Christmas.   The Halloween decorations have been put away, so before I have the chance to get used to an un-embellished house, out came the Christmas boxes.  I have small trees for every room of the house, so it will take over a week or so to get everything out of the closet and around the house.

First thing out of the closet was the nearly life-sized Nutcracker..... he's standing guard by the fireplace this year and I think he likes the view.  I try not to put things in the same places each year, especially the little trees.  And this will be the first Christmas for the third-floor library, and I've got to make a tree for that room.  I've been looking around for an old-fashioned feather tree for up there.... shouldn't be too hard to find in a town filled with antique and resale shops, wouldn't you think?                                                                                                

I've got miniature books that I made from very small book-shaped gift boxes that my cousin F sent to me from NY.  (She found them in a Dollar Store in Port Jefferson soon after the library was finished.)  The 'books' were fun to make.... in the thrift store, I found vintage paperbacks of the classics and I sacrificed the paperbacks to make ornaments out of those little boxes.  I cut the covers to fit the front, back, and spine of each book-shaped box... and now all those little boxes look just like palm-sized books.  Now I just have to find the perfect tree to put those books on.  And I'm hoping the Book Police don't come after me for cutting up those old paperbacks. (Bad book karma, I know.)

Christmas is always such a happy time, and it really doesn't last all that long. Especially if things are left for the last minute and then you find yourself rushing through the season.  Christmas is meant to be enjoyed.... just 'getting it over and done with' is not exactly what the Christmas season is all about.  (Come to think of it, that's not even what life is all about.)                                                              

After the decorating is all done, I will go through my collection of Christmas books and start reading those.... I try to read nearly all of them every year between the mid-November and New Year's Eve. 

As I'm typing this, my husband is working at his computer in his office across the hall.... he's listening to Christmas music in there.  I guess he really did notice the decorations that I've already taken out of the storage closet. The song that's playing right now in his office is "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer."  Oh well.... I wonder if that's bad Christmas karma.