Christmas bells are ringing..

Little B had her first float experience this year when my big girl rode on the pre school float at the Christmas parade.  She was so excited to be doing something that big sis wasn't and all by herself.  I guess you can probably tell that by the big grins!  She did a great job and I even caught her singing a few Christmas carols.

 The next weekend was the Christmas program at church and both the girls did a great job.  AB sang with two other girls "Falala" and B sang with two other girls "Up on the rooftop"  B even decided to take the microphone all by herself and put on quite the show!  She could be heard (luckily this is all on video) above all the other kids with her lovely voice...unfortunately she sounded about like her mother!!  At least she still has time to learn!

 Nicki and Pop came and

 so did nana and pop (yes, my dad actually was having a better time than the pic implies.  I think the camera came at him a little unexpected :)

 The next few pictures were taken from the house this Christmas.  I was asked to do a tour of homes for a fundraiser for the arts council.  We had around 25 women attend and it was a lot of fun to see how well several in the community decorated their homes this year.  I always hate taking pictures of my trees though because I can't ever find which setting works the best so I don't feel like the pictures do my trees any justice but at least the kiddos have these to remember the house at Christmas time which is the whole point of me doing this blog!

Unbeknownst to me...my eldest daughter had made a list before she left for the people attending the party to sign.  She had taped it right there on the front door for all to see.  It wasn't until a guest commented on needing a pen to sign my note that I understood exactly what she was talking about.  AB wanted to make sure my party was a success!  Sweet as ever she left a guest list on the door.  And as cool as this is every guest made sure to sign it so when she returned home that night she was sooo proud!!  Precious angel she is..

 so appropriate for me this time of year.

 The note on the door for all to see except mom..

These village pieces I have collected for years...although I stopped several years ago because my village outgrew my home.  I still don't have room for them all but I can't resist putting a few on display.  One day I will  have a huge table where they can be displayed properly but until then you get this...

The arts council gave each attendee a gift and the gift from my home was a glass ball with the event and date.

 

My refurbished chandelier that I am kind of proud of...this was given to me for FREE!  That is the most exciting part and I hung it (it was brass) primed it, and sprayed it down in high gloss paint and there you have it!  It really helped bring the look of the room together because our home is older and really needed a makeover!

 It is so hard to see some of the details on the trees but one thing that I really like about this sentimental tree we have is that we put up ornaments from all our trips over the years.  I also have ornaments filled with flowers from each of my grandparents and Mitch's grandparents caskets in glass balls all over the tree.  Each ball that represents each person is distinguished by that person's favorite color ribbon.  You can see, pink and gold ribbon in this picture.  The pink is for Mitch's grandmother, the gold is for one of mine. 

 My daughters both have ornaments on both of there trees that signify things that were important to them that year.  Each year they pick one ornament for that year and we sign the year to it..example this year B had a school girl for her first year of school and AB picked a girl on a bike because she learned to ride a bike this year.  It will be fun to look back each year at all these ornaments.  They also did get to help decorate their own tree with their own theme.

 B's tree

more refurbished furniture that my grandmother gave me several years ago.  I have redone a whole bedroom suite now that both the girls use..and the most special thing about it is that it was my mother's when she was a child!  One paint of coat can make a world of difference!