Santa Wall is Up!

 I enjoyed every day of last week spending most of my time at home.

It is my favorite place to be - followed by the Ranch with Dean and Sherry.

The Santa wall is up and this is its earliest appearance ever!

Normally I put it up a week or two before Thanksgiving but all my 'normals' are changing and more with every year. It was easier last year - I simply switched out the canvases. This time I took everything down and started from scratch.

It was amazing to me that most of my Santas are all displayed in the den this time.

I grouped all the larger ones on the gallery wall.....

and I like it this way.

Every canvas has a story.....

the Santa wearing the wreath on his head feeding the birds in front of the tree was painted from a puzzle I did long long ago. And I painted this one back in the early 2000's at Mineral Wells State Park where Louis Dean and I had gone camping in one of their shelters.

We had fun painting this one not that long ago in art class.

I played Christmas music and we sipped hot chocolate.

Once upon a time when I was 11 years old, I had a red velvet coat similar to this one.

The painting reminds me of that.....I loved my coat. That was the Christmas Mother gave me a bottle of Arpege perfume. I felt so elegant......

Square canvases are expensive to frame as they must be custom made so I painted the edges of them and hung them together.

Instead of mixing all the smaller paintings in with the gallery wall, I hung them in a group on the den closet door. It's a big closet and at first glance, it blends in with the cedar wall.

By the time I went to bed Saturday, the wall was done and all the frames and canvases I needed to store away were all neatly stacked in one of the many deck boxes we have. This one held my fall wreathes so now I must find another place to store those.

It was a busy week of doing one project after another with the Santa wall being just one of many.

Wednesday morning I opened the French door in the sewing room and the left one - which is supposed to be stationary - opened too. That right there kept Louis Dean busy the entire day! But he fixed it and I am so grateful he knows how to do things that are not an eassy Kosher fix!

Then in the wee hours of Friday morning, I could not sleep and was searching in my closet for a robe (the weather has finally turned cooler here in Texas!) when the mirrored slding glass closet door came off the track! I caught it and propped it up until later in the day when Louis Dean had to address that repair! It took awhile but it was a relatively eay fix!

I do not know how we stay so busy but it seems there is always something to do, some place to go or some people to see......and that's a very good way to live LIFE, don't you think?

While I went to church by myself last Sunday, Louis Dean went with me yesterday.

The day before he was telling me that he did NOT enjoy eating out at restaurants anymore.......

but then, as soon as church was out and we were walking to our car, he suggested we go out to eat!

Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen was his first choice but that's where we have gone the last three times we ate out - at HIS suggestion, mind you. The eating out. So I suggested a Chinese Buffet place he loves - King Buffet - and we arrived to find it is no longer there. So we ended up back in Irving at Uno China.

He took a picture of me and kept snapping away.......

until I finally took the phone away from him!

One time he had his finger on the button and took over a hundred pictures!!

We got home and I cleaned up the guest room changing sheets and removing all the cobwebs Halloween decorations. The kids were playing their first regular hockey game of the season and now they play on full ice. We did not want to miss that and yet I did not take one single picture.

But wait!

 There was another hockey game right after that one at another rink across town - 

and this time Mike was playing!

Once again, we did NOT want to miss this! 

Kailey has much longer arms than I and she loves to take selfies.

Can you spy our beautiful Amber in the background?

Mike is #12 of the War Hawks!

Easier to cheer for than the Swamp Donkeys!

But I will cheer for whatever team he chooses.

Most of his games are late at night so this one being at 7:15 was perfect for us and it was an easy route for us to get home because by the time it was over - it was dark!

It was fun to have the whole family out to support him.

Can you guess which grandchild this is?

My Logan.....I would know her anywhere from just the way she stands....the way she plants her feet, the tilt of her head.....isn't it amazing how each child is so different and yet you can catch glimpses of their parents and even grandparents in them?

That was in Pastor Ed's sermon that morning. Harrison has Mike's walk. Trystan has so many of her Grandmommy's traits and expressions.....Kailey is so very much a mini Amber.

Amber is a genius in the way she provides for all manner of activities.

The kids had just played their game (they are all four on the same team this year)  and were starving.

I had taken a batch of pumpkin muffins and they disappeared in a hurry!

They all wanted to go to their daddy's game so Amber got them Chipotle and made it possible for them to eat, support their daddy and still stay somewhat on schedule for a school night!

So this morning I took Miss Samantha and Miss Tabitha to stay with their Aunt Amber for a couple of weeks while we go to the country.

I think they thought they were in for a long drive to the ranch but it's a rather short trip to the Bell's.

Amber and I loved this movie so much that we saw it again today.

Excellent and we understood a bit more about the plot than we did the first time around.

A good movie makes the audience feel like they've journeyed with the characters. 

Rich Moore

And now it's time to start my Santa Express Giveaway.....

for the first time - it is a canvas printed from the original painting.

I will have to llok back to see how many years I have been doing this Christmas Painting Giveaway....

but it's been awhile.

 

To enter the drawing, comments left on posts from now to Halloween will be counted.

I will announce the winner on November first.

It's been fun to share my art with all of you.......

and this is my Christmas card for 2021.

If I do not have your address and you would like to receive a card, please send me an email.... address is on the blog side bar.