~ Happy New Year

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Wishing You
Good Health & Happiness
in the New Year

~ Merry Christmas, The Decorated House

~ Wishing You A Very, Merry Christmas ~

~ Christmas .. Rescue Dogs & Help For Bernie's Dogs

Last year about this time, I was warming up to the idea of Sweet Daughter getting a dog. For the last few years she had looked and was just waiting for the right moment. She didn't need my permission since she was grown and had her own house. Or so we thought. When we met the most wonderful rescue dog lady Diane, she actually made Sweet Daughter sign a "contract" that the puppy would not be left alone during the day. Someone had to be with each of her pups after they were adopted. That left me.

The dogs I was interested in that we found on-line at different rescue organizations were mostly Goldens. But Sweet Daughter also loved Labs. When we saw this one, sitting in front of a Petco with his kind rescue people, chewing on an empty water bottle, she parked the car and ran to get "her puppy" as if he had been waiting for her. And of course you know he had been doing just that. After Ms. Diane Puppy Rescue Lady came for her house visit on Dec 31, 2008, Cody was home. And he knew it.

They warn people to NOT get puppies for Christmas. There is a huge influx of puppies being given over to pounds about 2 months later. This of course was not an option for us. Besides look at that face! You know he couldn't be any trouble.

Although his name is Cody Bear, his middle name should be Trouble. He is a kinetic wonder! Seldom does he stop. And nothing that is not locked behind a closed door seems to be beyond his ability to find and chew. Fortunately unlike other dogs we have known, he has never chewed furniture. Just one tiny, accidental nibble on Sweet Daughter's leather sofa. He just slightly missed his chewy toy.

He is so rambucious there is a chance that he might not have lasted with just any family. But then Sweet Daughter isn't just any puppy mommy. She has a big heart and loves him to pieces in spite of his antics.

If you look closely you will see what is left of a large and strong cardboard tube from wrapping paper. That's how he sat still for a second to get the picture. The next picture after this one, he had his funny Harry Ford grin, then he was streaking across the page. He looks like a grown up dog, but he is entirely the same little bundle of mischief that he was from the beginning. Puppy school was a great success. He trained us to give him treat for certain behavior. Obedience? Not so much from his point of view, yet.

Updated a bit later. Much as the good friends of doggies told us, Cody Bear is now the most perfect dog. It didn't take 6 years for him to become a bit calmer as some had laughing told us, but it did take about 2 1/2 before he wasn't so wild and crazy all day long. It is a much love dog and a great blessing to each of us, in his own way.

~ Christmas Tree Star

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December used to have 4 weeks in it, didn't it? Some how this year, it flew by as if Christmas was the week after Thanksgiving. There was always a star at the top of the family tree when I was very young. The one in the picture I made last year and I love seeing it at night, especially before heading off to bed.

~ Tis the Season to Give

From Charity Navigator

10 Highly-Rated Charities with Low Paid CEOs

10 Slam-Dunk Charities

Nobel Peace Prize Winners,
Doctors Without Borders

Many charities have different ratings for each city they operate in. Take a look at "Make A Wish" for instance, and you find some with 4 star ratings while others have only 1 star. This site makes it easier not to toss your money in a bottomless pit when you are trying to do some good.

As we all try to make sure our donations do the most good this time of year, Charity Navigator has done a lot of the work for you by rating different charities. Take a look and maybe donate a $1 to them to help with their costs as well.

Tis the Season
to Give Thanks
and A Little Bit More

~ Christmas Ornaments - Radko & Friends

Most of the Christmas decorating, including the tree, would be more white if it were not for our Radko ornaments. The first time I saw them, I was in love. So nostalgic, but a bit pricey. I was never interested in the large pieces, but the smaller ones suit us just fine. So at first I bought one per year. But after a while you could find them on sale or discounted, and the collection grew. I didn't notice any on sale this year, which might have been a good thing since I really do not need any more ornaments.

The Christmas tree is almost all glass ornaments, a few old ones, along with simple, newer, inexpensive ones to fill in. Even the newer silver ones fit in perfectly with the silver on the Radko ornaments and keep the tree from looking too busy.

This is one of set of 3 Bunnies, all playing different musical instruments.


And I love the Cupcake Ornaments.

About 3 years ago I found my first and favorite MacKenzie-Childs star. It fits in beautifully with the Radko's and it has the the black and white/silver I was looking for. Again a little too pricey, so I purchased one, then the next year a couple more.

My favorite MacKenzie-Childs ornament.

The double ornaments are very pretty as well.

In addition to the glass ornaments, there are crocheted snowflakes which are great treasures to me. And white porcelain snowflakes that are about 25 years old, about the same age as the crocheted ones. The porcelain ones are very fragile so I only have 3 or 4 that have survived all these years.

I lost track of how quickly Christmas is coming,
and I am certainly not ready! See Y'all Soon~

~ White Christmas Decorating, a Bird Nest & a Winged Santos - Cage Doll

This little bird nest is very special to me. Several years ago while Sweet Hubby was cutting the bottom off the Christmas tree and getting ready to bring in the house, he found this little treasure. Of course I know that birds make nests in trees and this isn't all that unusual. But in all the years of Christmas trees past, it is the only one we've ever found. He was so excited to show it to me. I did a search that year and saw that some people say it is a little good luck sign.

The first few years it was tucked in the tree as an ornament. As it began to become more fragile, I have decorated with it in some other way, and so it has been a part of our decorations every Christmas for about the last 7 or 8 years.

This year it is in a cloche, bell jar on in the living room bay window.

Along with my lovely winged Santos Angel

For this year, she also has a new crown.


Sometimes you can find these Santos, cage dolls with wings.
More often they are articulated, but do not have wings.
This one was purchased at Jeannie Taylor Gallery
in Sanford, FL.

See Y'all Soon~

~ Christmas Decorating 2009 .. White ... and Simple

This year it's very simple.
And White.
And a dash of the colors of the Season.

Christmas Mantel
with Fairy
Holding a Snowflake

~ Christmas Countdown . Gingerbread Houses Continued

Decorating this year seems to be very, very slow. As a matter of fact, there hasn't been much at all. I was thinking that I got it all done last year even with chasing Crazy Cody Puppy who was chewing everything in sight. But..... he didn't arrive until after Christmas last year.
Maybe after his mom takes him home one night I'll at least have time to go around and see some Christmas decorating in BlogLand.
The puppy stuff can't last forever, right?

Christmas Countdown continued...
The giant gingerbread cookie waiting to greet you!

Some houses are very big ...

Some houses are small enough
for ducks on ice to play ...

All look good enough to eat!

Especially this one!
Because we have tasted goodies from this bakery,
& it really was made to eat!

All had great front facades ...

and this one had a surprise on the back, inside.

See Y'all Soon!

~ 12 Days of Christmas GiveAway Event from Design Style Guide

12 Days of Christmas Big Holiday Event GiveAway!
from
Design Style Guide

This is a really fabulous GiveAway for the Holidays by the Design Style Guide Team from Etsy.
It just happens to be one of the BEST teams full of talented artists.

Don't miss your chance to win! Just stop by and leave a comment! GiveAway!!

~ Christmas Decorating ~ Countdown 16 Days

Toy Soliders

Guarding the Trees & Candy

Santas from a private collection.

~ Christmas Decorating

Every year about this time you hear people saying they just can't believe the year has gone by so quickly, and it is almost Christmas! I'm one of those people. The Holiday season always seems to arrive quickly like a snowball rolling down hill and I'm trying to catch it.

For the next few days or so I'll be posting pictures all about Christmas Decorating, from the Festival of Trees and a little bit around my home as well. If I wait until I have a long post with tons of pictures, then I won't get any of them up on the blog. So for now a few a time. Enjoy!

Festival of the Trees

Folk Art Santas

Although the picture above was the greatest, the Santa in the Shoe is so creative and worth showing anyway.

See Y'all Soon!

~ Gingerbread?

Although I don't actually like gingerbread cookies, I love the way they look. Something about a little gingerbread man makes me happy. I think it is because we started going to Charlies' Bakery when Sweet Daughter was so very young. And she always picked out a gingerbread man or a Chinese almond cookie. To this day, they are still her favorites at the bakery. We went shopping the other day and she saw a cute gingerbread man cookie cutter and although I knew I had one somewhere, I bought it ..... just because. Today it's raining quite a bit and of course that means cookie baking. Not gingerbread yet, it's another batch of chocolate chip cookies. The 100th batch in a quest for the most perfect one. Yes, I've tried most of them on the internet. The problem is that I baked what we were looking for one day, and didn't write down the exact ratio of ingredients. So I have to bake more and more. But it's been a fun adventure. Gingerbread will be soon, I promised that to Sweet Daughter ..... and the Cody Puppy, too.

Here's a little peek at the gingerbread houses at a recent event. I'll post the pictures as soon as I get them sized and ready. You can click on it to see more details. This one was so fantastic.

See Y'all Soon!