Monday, December 15, 2008

Christmas at my Home

BooMamaChristmasTourI thought it would be fun to participate in this online open house at www.boomama.net, while sharing photos from my real life open house this past Saturday. See how that all works together? Nifty, huh?

Saturday night was really fun. There were a little more than 60 people here over the course of the evening. About half of them were folks who had never been to my house at Christmas. It was great to see people, although I didn't get to chat with everyone as much as I would have liked to. In fact, I never said more than "hello" to quite a few folks. I don't know how to address that because, even though I love to talk, I can only talk so much so quickly. Yes, even me. Besides, I think people come to see the main tree as much as anything.



In the sunporch I have three lighted trees this year. The full size one is the Santa tree. When I sit in that chair I can see the main tree in the living room.



It was inspired by this ornament...





To the left of the santa tree in the sunporch is the red and white tree...





This Santa is on the writing desk beside the red tree.



On the other side of the sunporch, in front of the piano, is the pink and green tree.







Under the living room tree, the main tree is where I have all the presents.



There's a theme every year. This year's blue, purple, silver and white was inspired by a ribbon.



The tree looks different exposed for the lights.

Also in the living room I have the copper and gold tree.



In the dining room this year I have a white tree with blue, silver and crystal ornaments.




Beside this tree, on a chest, I have some of my Santas.

I also have this tree in the dining room...

And near it two of my favorite Santas...

This is right behind the table, where I spread out the goodies when I had my open house Saturday night. I love to bake, so I cooked up a number of sweets.




Greg took some photos of folks Saturday night. Some included Ace Jackalope.







I didn't include photos of all the trees or collections, because this post would be even longer. You can see some of the things on the shelves here.

I was so touched Saturday night that Mark and his mom, and Carl and Kris came down from Kansas City for the party. Mia came from Joplin. And, some folks brought me hostess gifts Saturday night that I was so touched by.

Today I relaxed and didn't do a whole lot. We all went to Newton for lunch before they headed to their respective homes, and Greg and I came back to Hutchinson. We had hoped to be able to stop by Teresa's on the way back and see her Christmas tree. That woman can decorate a tree, let me tell you. But, it just didn't work out to do that.

So, I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up a bit and trying to stay warm. This is our first really cold day/night here. It is 9 degrees here now, with a windchill of -23. How can anything be 23 below zero?

Fortunately, I'm not in the wind, although my office, which is on the north side of the house, feels a bit colder than one would expect when storm windows are in place and plastic in addition. I bought some more plastic today to do a couple more windows. This is a price one pays to live in an old house but I just adore my old house so I'll get out the hair dryer and shrink wrap my windows in plastic. In fact, I think the last time I used the hair dryer was for that very thing.

A quick thank you to everyone who came Saturday night and shared the holiday season with me. And to everyone who's sharing the Christmas season with me online. I just adore Christmas and love to share it. Come on over, lets have a cup of tea and watch the lights!

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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more. My southern fiction novel is complete and I'm looking for a literary agent. Friend me on Facebook.com, Follow me at Twitter.com.