A pictoral essay....getting ready for Christmas...

The tree is up!! In it's little nook, surrounded by accumulated stockings draped on the railings.
It will sit like this for a few days "to let the branches fall into place"......or so they say. Who is "they" you ask??? Well....that would be the people who sold us the tree.
I miss the tree farms....:-(









Time to take a break and enjoy the snow falling in the back yard. The top picture is of an apricot tree stump that used to have a bird feeder on it that I haven't set up for this winter yet.....tsk tsk....I really must get to that. Poor birdies!!








This is looking out directly from our patio doors to the terraces in the back yard. The rocks are where the wee meeces hide out in the winter in the hopes of grabbing a few tiny seeds that the birds spill about! I took both of these pictures with a flash at night and the falling snow came up wonderfully....although I'm not sure you can see it in these pics.









Well....the lights are on the tree now, but not so visible in the daylight......mini-lights also went up around the front windows so we could view the North Thompson valley through a halo of slowly changing colours.












Whew....that was exhausting....time for a nap with the cat!!!
...note the bins of decorations...they will remain there for a few days.....keeping the lights on the tree company!!







Saturday was tree trimming day....a day of memories with each of the ornaments collected for J & T over the years. I believe there are at least two that T (Stella) cross-stitched for Grandma, which I inherited ......also little stockings with coins in them that were knitted and crocheted by Grandma for J & T...with their initials worked into the stockings.....a silver bell with J's name engraved on it.......and somewhere (not on the tree) there is an ancient Christmas card given to my Mom and Dad many years ago, with a little lad in his jammies and plaid dressing gown....singing...."Oh come ON all ye faithful". That card always sat on the piano when I was growing up....and always made me giggle!!





The finished product, taken at night without a flash. I do think that this is the nicest way to view a decorated lighted Christmas tree......don't you?? It glows!!





Slainte!!