Can This Be Christmas?

I've had cookie exchanges, Christmas brunches, and ornament parties. I've put up the tree and lit the lights. And today, I opened all the windows in the apartment after driving home from work with the windows rolled down. Is that right? It's absolutely beautiful weather right now... for May! I'm going to a Christmas party for Andrew's work tomorrow in a knee-length skirt and sleeveless shirt. It is halfway through December, and my family in Illinois is getting snow and lots of white stuff. Yesterday we set a record high in Atlanta at 76 degrees. Hmmm. Global warming?

At least I'll get to see snow in Illinois, hopefully.

Dazzling December

I love December because I finally get to put up Christmas decorations. Last Sunday I braved the "storage closet" to get the big box of Christmas decorations out from under everything else. I retrieved our little Charlie Brown tree, the boxes of ornaments, lights, and stockings, and began to spread Christmas cheer about our apartment.

First I put up some icicle lights around our balcony. Then, over those, I hung some evergreen garland that I salvaged from the church's decorations (they were going to throw them away!). I had a random red bow lying around so I decided to put that in the middle of the garland--not in the original plans, but I wanted to use whatever I had.



Then I set up the tree, wrapped the lights around it, undid the lights, tried again, finally got it to look not too obvious that our tree is as sparse as a coat hanger. I added some sparkly garland, and blue, silver, and iridescent ornaments. I had cashed in on last year's after-Christmas deals and got a matching blue and white tree skirt that could probably cover our whole tree if I wanted it to, but it adds pretty color. The colors of our tree this year remind me of snow... Also a little nod to our faith's Hebrew heritage.



Apparently the cats remember that they are former Christmas presents and really enjoy the holiday. Molly thinks the lights make her fur look glamorous.


Yay for Christmas! It is a beautiful season--a festival for the senses.