The people that got us through

First... I finally got my invite to Blogger Beta. For some reason they did not deem us worthy of the new version until now. And lemme tell you it takes a little bit to get everything changed around when you have 4 blogger blogs. Now that the change has occurred I will let you know how I like it. The good news is my custom templates were compatible with the new version. At least with Mozilla. If they don't work right with IE too bad for you. Step into the here and now and get rid of IE. I force you because I care.

So in honor of the new version I will give you some photos from our annual tree hunt. I also thought I'd throw in a few photos of my Christmas decorating handy work. When we first bought our house one of our neighbors came over at Christmastime and saw the decorations. She said, "Someone's been watching a bit of Trading Spaces." This is so far from the truth it is laughable! I hate that show. My Christmas decorations looks nice because I care. My decorations have matched since I was in college. For a while everything was burgundy and navy. When we got married I switched to blue and silver. When we bought our house everything changed to Red and Gold. I will say I don't theme the tree though. Our ornaments are all ones we have purchase or made or were given to us as gifts over the years. I didn't put any glass balls on this year. I wanted it to be simple. There are only 400 or 500 lights on. The most was 900 one year. Yeah... you had to wear sunglasses in our house. And no... we don't have a tree topper. We had a glass finial, but it broke a few years ago. There is a Patricia Breen one I want, but CS won't let me pay the price for it.

I love Christmas. I love the decorations. I love making my home look festive. I love the reason for the season!

So to answer questions that may come up... Yes. We kill an innocent tree every year. Yes. I painted that huge mural in my family room. 3 years later it is still not finished. It measures 5' wide by 8' tall and is of Frank Lloyd Wright's Tree of Life. And yes. That is a bottle of Jameson on the counter behind my son. Wanna make something of it?