'Twas the night before Christmas...

... and all through the house...

...not a creature was stirring...

... except Baby, the cat who loves Christmas!

We finally decorated our tree last night.

We've never waited this long to decorate before...

But it was worth the wait. We've been sitting and admiring it all day long.

It's always so much fun to get out our favorite ornaments, and reminisce.

Baby, pondering which ornament(s) she will attack first.

"Not me, Mommy. I'm going to be a good girl this year!"
(I'll believe that when I see it!)

Sure enough, Baby has been a good (albeit mischievous) girl and she knows that means she'll be getting something from Santa, so she's been waiting patiently for him to come down the chimney!

Oh! What's this? It looks as though Baby has finally heard "the prancing and pawing of each little hoof" up on the roof, so I'd better put out the cookies and milk and hop into bed myself!

From our family to yours, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Joining My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday this week.

Donna

Baby, it's cold outside!

This is the view outside my window mere minutes ago.

According to the noontime news, we're in for yet another snowstorm.

"Say, what????"

"Sorry, Sammy!" I guess he hadn't heard that news until I just announced it.

Lucky for him, the feeder is filled with an assortment of bird seed.

Chow down now, Sammy. It's going to be COLD tonight.

Of course after eating, it's always good to wash food down with a nice drink.

Unfortunately our heated birdbath got unplugged by accident yesterday. We plugged it back in this afternoon and topped it off with warm water until the frozen part thaws, so thankfully Sammy was able to drink to his heart's content.

It looks like someone else dropped in for a drink...

He's coming closer, Sammy! I think you'd better finish up and give Mr. Blue Jay his turn!

And speaking of Blue Jays, they are most definitely enjoying the feeder as well.

As are the Juncos (you see one in the background),
who love all the seed that gets tossed to the ground.

Looks like a little squabble might be brewing over who's hogging the seed.

(Not that I claim to be an expert on blue jay body language. Just saying).

Here's a little "simulated snow" as this iswhat it will look like in about an hour.

I took this photo of Mrs. Cardinal several days ago, just before our weekend storm arrived. 

(As you can see, we didn't get all of our leaves raked up before the snows came.)

I have to say, the birds and Sammy squirrels really enjoy the heated bird bath on these COLD winter days. My old heated bird bath stopped working toward the end of last winter, so I made sure to buy a new one before the freezing temperatures arrived this winter.

And here's the view inside right now
(as reflected in the antique wavy-glass mirror), 

where we're very blessed to be while the snows fall outside our front door.

Stay safe and warm wherever you are!

This week I'm joining Brenda at Cozy Little House for Tweak It Tuesday
and Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday

Donna

Baby's New Toy (a.k.a. the new flocked Christmas tree)

Baby is a very happy camper these days.

These photos were taken just a few days ago as Baby investigated the yet-to-be-decorated Craigslist flocked tree we picked up last Sunday.

But the pictures are almost identical to those in my post from last year 

with Baby investigating/batting at the fully decorated tree. It was ironically titled, 

"Possibly our last tree for many years to come."

Clearly I'm a slow learner ... or a quick 'forgetter.'

At this time of year there are three places you'll find Baby...

1) Curled up in the toasty warm bathroom sink (the heating vent is right below it);

2) At the DR window screen feeder, watching all the birds and Sammy squirrels; and...

3) Investigating every inch of the Christmas tree.

Yes, our little Norwegian Forest cat feels right at home among the towering pine in the living room...

... even if the tree is artificial and the snow is just flocking.

As I mentioned in my last post, the people we bought this tree from left all of the beautiful prisms on the tree for us to enjoy. Unfortunately, someone else is also enjoying them. You'll see that this video ends abruptly when I noticeed that Baby removed one of the prisms and I was afraid she'd choke on it.

Needless to say, Baby is fine and I was worrying for nothing (which I apparently do quite often, according to my family!)

In closing, congratulations to Happy@Home, who won this copy of The Night Before Christmas!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

We're having our first snowstorm of the season!

Stay warm safe, everyone!

Donna

Of flocked deer, flocked trees, and The Night Before Christmas (a giveaway!)....

Don't you love this darling flocked deer family?

I have just two things out for Christmas this year.  

The vintage deer family on the table next to the wing chair...

...and the flocked 'Craigslist' Christmas tree that we picked up this afternoon.

There's a section of the tree that won't light. We're not sure if the lights are defective (it was supposed to be in excellent condition) or if we haven't found the plug for the last section of lights (it took us forever to find the others among all the flocked branches). In any case, I've been pricing my dream (flocked) trees and 7.5' tall prelit flocked trees are so far out of our price range, it's not funny. So for the very reasonable Craigslist price of $50, I'm definitely not going to fret about a small section of lights not working!

Last year we purchased a slim tree because our living room is so small... 

... but I couldn't even fit half of our ornaments on it. So when I came across this full-sized flocked tree, I couldn't resist.

The previous owner left all these beautiful prisms on the tree.
Snow and ice.
Beautiful on the tree.

Not so beautiful on the vehicles.

And tomorrow they're predicting freezing ice/sleet on the roadways during the morning commute. Yes indeed, winter has arrived. 

But on the plus side, along with winter comes Christmas!

Just look at this beautiful version of The Night Before Christmas that I picked up while out thrifting! And I want one of you to have it!

As some of you know, I have an extensive collection of Night Before Christmas books. Our family has been reading this story every Christmas Eve since our girls were born (back in the 80's!). And the tradition still carries on, with each of us picking a book from the stack and doing a 'round robin' reading around the table on Christmas Eve.

I already own this edition with stunning illustrations by Christian Birmingham... 

...so when I spotted this one, I knew that one of you would love it!

It's an over-sized copyright 1995 edition, full of eye candy artwork!!

To be entered into the drawing, just leave a comment before midnight, Friday December 13th. And if you don't have a blog, be sure to leave an email address so I can contact you if your name is chosen!

Until then, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!"

This week I'm joining Brenda at Cozy Little House for Tweak It Tuesday
Debra at Common Ground for Be Inspired,
and Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday.

Donna

Celebrations and a giveaway winner...

 I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Ours was lovely as we combined Thanksgiving with celebrating our Amanda's birthday 

since she was home from the city for a few days.

Amanda always enjoys coming home, and one of the highlights is that she gets to spend time with her sweet Tiger, who is now over 20 years old!

This is a photo of them sleeping together back in September of 1993. 

Aren't they adorable?

And to this day, Tiger sleeps on Amanda's bed.

We've built her something of a "Tiger cave" that she can snuggle into to stay warm....

... or lay in front of if she wants a bit of fresh air. She's such a sweet little girl.

And speaking keeping warm, I snapped this photo last week of our first 'mini snow' - Brrrrrr! I feel cold just looking at this photo. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get through the next four months, but c'est la vie! That's New England!

And now it's time to announce the winner of the giveaway for any 16" x 20" or smaller 

art print from my Etsy shop....

Hubby did the picking and he pulled Carla from Here in Texas!

I'll be in touch with you, Carla, to work out the details for your print choice & address.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and be sure to stop back because I'm going to be having another giveaway for a fabulous 1995 edition of The Night Before Christmas with amazing illustrations by Christian Birmingham. As many of you know, I have an extensive collection of "Night Before Christmas" books. When I spotted this book while out thrifting, I knew one of you would enjoy it as I already have it in my collection and it is gorgeous!

Till then, stay safe & warm!

This week I'm joining Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday.

Donna