More Christmas-ing!!

 

Welcome to the Bells' foyer!

In the daylight.....

And the evening!

Classic and elegant.

I love her staircase and the foyer tree.

Amber is a classy lady through and through!

And I finally finished the sewing room!

My pictures are a little out of order....

And the evening! This is the space off the sewing room where we keep the litter box and food and water for the cats. That's just below the Christmas bags I stapled to the shelves.

A tiny tree hung with special ornaments.

This room took a lot longer than it should have but I've been going through all my debris and will be packing it away in a more organized fashion - but not for several weeks from now.

This tree features handpainted ornaments I have done over the years. I threw some away that were damaged and didn't really think I would hang these this year - but I did!

Warm and cozy clutter!

 That's my style!

And aren't we glad we get to express our very own versions of decorating.

For some - less is more!

For others - more is always better!

My style and Amber's are good examples of that and we love and appreciate our homes.

One thing we hae in common is - we are in no hurry to take Christmas down.

On Facebook, they were asking when do YOU pack your Christmas decorations up? When I was reading the answers aloud to Louis Dean, he quipped, "Every three years!!"

In five hours or so we will have another Christmas gathering and I hope to host some dinners and lunches over the next several weeks.

I still have some Christmas baking to do!

Let the entertaining begin!

The Bells Christmas Home!

 Welcome to the Bells' home and it's all decked out for Christmas!

Amber designs her Christmas garlands and they are beautiful!

She creates both fall and Christmas ones and keeps them fresh each year by adding or changing things up depending on her theme.

She gifted special Christmas garlands to her sweet sisters-in-law this year-

but I didn't get pics of them.

Her beautiful living room tree.

And her dining room table that can seat a dozen people.

Across the room......

I did the boot painting for her several years ago.

Part of her Santa collection - and she included the okra pod Santa I did a few years ago.

The family room tree.....

And the stockings were hung....

My Santas are displayed in her hall.....

Always one of my favorites!

Amber used a Norman Rockwell filter for this photo of their living room on Christmas Eve.

They hosted all of the Bell family the next morning which was today!

Everyone was well and they had a wonderful time!

I love how creative Amber is with her photos.

Puts me in mind of our friend, the Mad Snapper!

My beautiful Amber!!

(She tried the AI Christmas photo trend....but I can't see any difference!)

We continue to Christmas more tomorrow!!

We Are Still Christmas-ing Here!!

 I can't believe it's been a week since I last did a journal entry!

This Christmas has been a bit different but it's still been a joy.

It's been awhile since I've written and I tend to get overwhelmed but I will start with where I left off....

It was last Saturday so a full week ago....

Thank goodness I keep a handwritten journal or I would not remember what I did yesterday!

Louis Dean had a Monday afternoon appointment with Dr. Dharma, his eye specialist.

We waited a good 30 minutes before they called him back and I stayed in the waiting room - picking out a secluded corner where I could put my feet up and dose for a few minutes.

I was so tired that when Louis Dean said, "I really don't want to go to the doctor", I said, "And I don't want to take you - but we what we have to do!"

After an hour I went back to check on him and he was still waiting to see the doctor.

I asked him if he'd done the testing but he said he didn't know.

I stayed with him for the next hour and the doctor came in and his eyes were dialated and the results were his pressure is elevated from 15-16 last visit to 20-21 that day.

Our appointment was at 2:30 and it was going on 5:00 when we left.

We still needed to go to Kroger so it was dark by the time we got home.

We had news that our sweet Logan was sick and Amber didn't waste any time in getting her to the doctor. The diagnosis was Flu A and that altered our plans for Christmas Eve.

I made the sugarplum dough on Tuesday - and assured Logan we would celebrate together on the 29th after she was well! Then we heard from Benjamin that he was sick as well so it will be two Christmas celebrations this year instead of one. Win! WIN!!

Christmas Eve was a beautiful evening and I loved every single minute.

I may have gone a little overboard on Faith's gifts but I enjoyed shopping for her all through the year.

And, YES, nearly all my gifts were from my thrifting adventures for everyone.

When Faith was younger she loved all things 'Mud Pie' and I bought every one I came across during the year.

We drew names this year but I'd already shopped so I gave gifts to all anyway.

However, Louis Dean drew Faith's name and he searched her wish list on the app and bought her a tube of Dior lipstick!

I will never forget the beautiful smile when she opened it!

Early on in the season I had asked Sam and Levi what they wanted.

He and Levi are big in basketball and love the Dallas Mavericks.

Levi loved his jersey as well!

Somehow I didn't get a pic of him opening it but I loved seeing his face when he did!

My dear Pam is a cyclist so I scored on things she could use!

She's also into Pickleball and I got her a cap for that plus some cooling towels which is needed when you cycle around in Texas in the summer!

I drew Jesse's name plus I'd already found some good gifts for him.

The 'It's Time for Coffee' was on his wish list so I included that!

It's nice when you get something on your wish list!

This year we did gifts first and then we had dinner.

Louis Dean came out to the den at the end and received his gifts which were from Jesse!

They centered around LD's love of guitar and included a coffee cup and socks with a guitar theme!

Dinner was great! 

I baked a good roast that Louis Dean sliced up beautifully along with company mashed potatoes, garlic green beans, garden salad and some delecious yeast rolls from Rachel and Jesse along with an apple pie.

I made a pecan pie from our own pecan harvest.

I had gifted Sam, Faith, Levi and Jesse with games since Jesse and Rachel have a real party friendly home and property featuring basket ball area and huge decks and a great driveway and party friendly garage!

I gave Faith a game called 'Who Am I' and they started playing it right after dinner. It was so much fun and Rachel won with a dozen answers!

All too soon we were saying goodnight on this Christmas Eve 2025.

The day after Christmas was a slow and steady one.

Louis Dean loves a good project and he cleaned out two ponds and did a great job!

He shed his black shirt and got down to business.

It's a really good thing for Louis Dean to do a project and it makes him feel so good.

The birds are such a special joy to us.

We sit out on the kitchen deck most mornings with our coffee and quiet time.

Seeing them at the feeders and ponds is like a gift from God.

I am still Christmas-ing as Amber coined the phrase.

And so is she! 

She was putting up a Christmas tree at 2:00 this morning!

And I'm still decorating the sewing room.

Tabitha is loving all the debris to sniff around.

And I found Samantha in the guest room snuggled in one of the soft bags I had put Christmas gifts in.

Everyone took their bags home with them and Jesse and Rachel's cat loved her bag too!!

So I am mostly caught up....

Pam took us to Fellowship Church on Tuesday night for the Christmas service and I will get pics from Billy and Brenda tomorrow to share.

Summer is in Puerto Rico and sad to say she and Rayne and Sabrina are all three sick.

As in they were all in the ER yesterday.

Summer and Rayne both have Flu A and Sabrina has severe sinus and allergy problem.

Prayers are appreciated.....

Tomorrow I will be featuring Amber's beautiful Christmas home!

She absolutely outdid herself this year!

Monday we will host another family Christmas gathering with the Bells and Benjamin and the Cumbys and Pam and Ilene.

We really are still Christmas-ing here!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and now we are looking forward to a brand spanking new year!

December Catch Up......

 I am so far behind in all things December but I am still plugging along.

God is always good and supplies our every need at the most perfect time and He has sent me a handyman named Hector. He's the one who installed our new den windows and painted our house and then more recently made our fence gate and then cleaned out Louis Dean's storage building. Last week he helped me store away all my fall tubs and carried off trash. Yesterday he came to clean out all our gutters and gather up eight black bags of leaves from the back yard. He also blew out the Christmas house and gazebo before putting dozens of empty tubs and lids inside the Christmas store house.

ALL of these things needed to be done and there's no way I could have done it by myself. I needed help and God sent Hector.

Louis Dean is wobbly on his feet these days and can't do the things he used to do.

He also can't keep a thought for longer than 30-45 seconds so he can't help me like before.

He has sundowners now and is up all night and then sleeps a good bit during the day.

When he can't sleep he piddles in his room - and that's a good thing unless he's fooling with electricity which makes me nervous!

All in all, we are making the most of what we have and the least of what we've not.

Brenda and I shopped Tuesday's Treasures for our first and only time this month.

All these fake nails and bath products and cosmetics are brand new.

I wish I could have pretty fingernails but I don't.

I get claustrophobic with the acrylic ones and my real nails hang, break and look awful.

So when I want to look like a real lady, I use the press on or the glue on nails.

A brand new bottle of COACH parfum for under $25.

Brand new felt slippers.

A brand new super nice insullated bag for ice cream!

Brenda found this pajama top and robe for me and they match the pajama pants I already have.

She also spied this gorgeous silky green robe!

In other news, our possum family continues to entertain us!

I enjoy feeding them!

Thursday was our Christmas Tea - Brenda, Shirley and I had a wonderful time together at The Chocolate Angel Cafe and Bakery on High Street in Plano.

We all three ordered the Chocolate Angel Salad Plate...

Broccoli salad, pasta salad and spinach strawberry salad plus a delicious scone.

It was so much fun to have this special time together.

Shirley is the one who made this happen!

She made the arrangements and this was Brenda and my first visit here.

This photo is of our time together at Shirley's house.

I'm going to start the season earlier next Christmas and hope to host a Christme Tea here at home.

I'm still decorating and tweaking things....

While I didn't put up a large tree this year, I did decorate several smaller ones.

The dining room has two!

It's late on Saturday afternoon and I have been working in the sewing room.

Most likely I will not get to the gazebo and guest room until the week after Christmas but I'll make it happen. I'm going to enjoy all the decorations for a good while!

Hope you are all enjoying the season and taking the time to stop and think about all that God has done for us.

I wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and hope you all received my Christmas Santa card.

I still have 18 left after my reorder so let me know if you did not get one.