I rarely do picture posts because I am still working on acquiring 1) skill and 2) a fabulous camera, but as Christmas is one of my favorite times of year and decorating for Christmas is one of my very favorite things to do, I thought I’d share a little glimpse of our house…

This year, we decided to go a little more modest than we have with trees in the past. Due to the current economic climate? A little of that…and the fact that we live in a house with a much smaller living room now! The tree is in our little sunroom off of the main room, with a view of the channel emptying into the lake behind it. By the way, this was perhaps the pokiest-needled tree I’ve decorated in the last decade. Ouch!

From left to right: the Mary & baby Jesus my mother gave Jon and I for our first Christmas together, our Advent calendar (we got it out of storage a week late so haven’t actually been able to open up that first week’s worth of doors!), and a very cool wooden puzzle-style creche my mother gave me, and which remains among my favorite Christmas decorations. I’d love to leave it out year-round, I enjoy it that much! But some things are more special when you only use them once in a while…

Also propped up against the Advent calendar are two little angels the boys made in school last year. I thought they were too cute not to put out.

Having no fireplace, the stockings were instead hung on the non-functional woodstove with care…

In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there. In his sleigh, or a car, or hanging from a rope, or whatever.

Now where are those Wise Men, Joseph and Mary? And where’s Jesus, for goodness’s sake? Even an oxen lowing would give this empty stable some life. I went through all the Christmas boxes, and all I could find was this paper Jesus that Will made in preschool, and from this angle it looks like a piece of toilet paper. Guess I gotta get to the gift store stat.

and…

just because it’s funny, look at the picture below–a little above the stable to see the part of the picture I cropped out.

That belly is always getting in the way these days and showing up where I least expect it!