Come on in!

So I enjoyed participating in Boomama's Bloggy Tour of Homes so much, I was thrilled when she announced that she was going to host again for Christmas. So please, settle in, and welcome to our Florida Christmas home!


My mom made this cheery Santa for us. He welcomes you as you enter the front hall.


















The Big Man and I begame engaged Christmas 1988. Whew! We bought our first Christmas bear that Christmas and have collected one each Christmas since. It seemed like such a good idea at the time, but we are running out of space. This year they have been separated because they no longer fit in one location. So here are some bears in the kitchen.














Here are some more in the kitchen.














More in the kitchen.
















And here are some bears in the office. That should add up to 19! We have been faithful to get these bears each year, but around 1991 we considered giving up, but reconsidered and bought a plain bear in 1992 and painted 1991 on it...and one year we thought we'd be creative and got a Snowden snowman. But since then we have returned to the bear.














When our daughter was born, we started a collection of village pieces for her. Our intent is to continue collecting them until she leaves the nest and then they will be hers. We did not display them this year, though, because we have a very curious 2 1/2 year old running around. When he is older, I'll bring them back and if Boomama continues to host, I'll post them. Here is where I need your help: we are collecting villages for MK but have yet to begin a collection for T. Willy. Any ideas? We are looking for something not too expensive and something that my future daughter in law will not hate me for.

The next post is one that I posted last week or so, but it's our tree and our fireplace mantle. After that I posted pictures of the family at our town Christmas parade. Thanks for reading and please leave a comment to let me know that you were here!!

Annette

Deck the Halls

We put up our tree and did a little decorating around the house. There are a few other things but T. Willy's busy hands prevented us from displaying everything. We also did the outside but I don't have pictures of that yet. So here are a couple of pictures of our brand new artificial tree sans presents and our fireplace, which we have finally been able to use this season.

It's that time of year

So last night was our little city's Christmas parade. It seems that EVERYONE shows up to either participate or watch and catch candy. MK walked with her Girl Scout troop. Our intention was for us to park, I would walk her to her starting place, then I would walk back to join the Big Man and T. Willy at our designated place in the crowd. Ha! I forgot that last year I left very early and the Big Man drove separately and through the magic of text messaging we were able to find each other. This year we all rode together and encountered the rest of our town heading to the parade. We finally found a parking space, got T. Willy settled in the stroller and parked The Big Man and T. Willy. Then MK and I took off for her starting point. We were so relieved and saw many groups of walkers, but no troop. Yikes. A kind soul asked if we were from Cluster 3, which we did not know because we only know the troop number, and she said if we were they had already started walking. So MK and I ran to catch them and sure enough, they were already in the parade. We finally caught them, there was no way I was going to make it back to the Big Man, so I just joined the parade. What fun! Here are a few pictures of the biggest night of the year in small-town Florida!!!


I was able to snap a picture of my guys while we walked by. Too bad T. Willy's face has the orange safety wire straight through it. Can you just see how secure it is, holding the raging crowd back? The lady on your right was so helpful. She gave T. the lollipop he has and was very vocal when people got in front of him.

















You cannot predict how a 2 year old is going to act, but T. was great. He just stood and watched. Even when MK and I walked by, he just waved and kept watching. That is usually a signal to him to run after us. I think he was just enjoying time with his dad and the lady who was supplying him with sugar.

















This is the only picture I was able to get of MK in which her face was not obscured. I normally would not include such a fuzzy picture but I didn't want her to be left out!!!