Busy, Colorful Christmas through New Year

Frank and I were to have a quiet Christmas weekend in 2017 spending it with Alex. Dan's family had visited mid-December (post for 12/30/17) and Robin's family were not traveling from Oklahoma over the holidays this year. Each have begun to start their own family holiday traditions in their own homes. The stockings on our wall reflect the change. Frank's, mine, and Alex's were "hung by the chimney with care". The others had been distributed last Christmas 2016.

The SoCal stockings were hung with care from an upstairs railing since they have no chimney. I do know I need to knit one more for next year - as soon as I learn the name for Dan and Carrie's son, due in April.

Here are the Oklahoma stockings in use Christmas morning by Autumn and Isaiah. 

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On Saturday, December 23rd we picked up Alex and took him to see a local performance of the Olate Dogs. This act won first place at the 2012 America's Got Talent Competition, taking home a $1,000,000 prize. Personally I thought it was kind of slow moving and preferred The Stunt Dog Experience Alex and I had seen last November. But Alex seemed to enjoy it and stayed engaged throughout.

On Sunday, Christmas Eve, we toured the local lighting display of Deacon Dave. The lights were impressive, as always, and the weather was cool enough to hint at Christmas and mild enough to be enjoyable.

On Christmas Morning we opened our gifts to each other. I gave Frank a log-building set to help him recall of his Lincoln Log moments of yesteryear.

  

He also got a cat jigsaw puzzle we could do together. I picked the image because of all the book titles. It reminded me of a puzzle we had assembled in Chicago with our college friends. All the text and differing font types made that one easy. (See Day 6 of Chicago post dated 10/28/17). Not so for this cat one! Frank and I worked on it a couple nights ago and it was hard!

Alex got a puzzle, too. His was Cinderella and it was much easier. It was a 72 piece challenge which appeared to be just enough stretch for him to do totally independently. We did keep him company doing it Christmas Day, though.

Every man likes to mount his accomplishments on a wall. Alex now has a rabbit head to proudly display over his bed.

Alex also got a monkey tower building game. I mainly bought it for the cute tin.

But Alex liked the contents and making multi-level monkey towers.

We are ending 2016 with a burst of color. Saturday, December 30th we went with our neighbor Ayn to see a performance of Shen Yun, a display of historic Chinese dance at the San Jose Center for the Performing arts. The flowing costumes, rich colors, and impressive dancers were indeed a one-of-a kind performance. The orchestra had classic Chinese instruments intermixed, lending a unique blend to the sounds. Each dance number told a story which was explained by a male and female host and hostess in both English and Chinese immediately before it began. Each story was re-told in the extensive program. A projected backdrop was amazing; the dancers would flawlessly and seamlessly pop out of performing on the stage into dancing and flying within hillsides and skies depicted on huge, stage size projected scenes. We had great seats in the orchestra section and were glad we had gone. It was my Christmas present from Frank.

Today, Sunday, December 31st, Frank and I took Alex to see the Disney-Pixar movie Coco. Again the colors and joyous depiction of another culture, this time Day of the Dead Mexican, was lively and awesome. The music was peppy and exciting and, at times, also moving.The human traits, expressions, and mannerisms given to skeletons were truly creative and the lands they traversed were equally inventive. The emotions evoked felt so real and the story line had an unsuspected twist to it. Do not miss this one. It was delightful.

I sit here trying to complete this blog post before the stroke of midnight and the start of 2018. Our Christmas letter is written and accompanying photo collage prepared. Printing will need to wait until the stores re-open on January 2nd but Frank and I can prep envelopes in the meantime, so our annual Christmas letter should go out in the next few days. Don't the Twelve Days of Christmas last until January 6th anyway? I still would like to leave 2017 with these images of our home decor this year.

As you enter our front door, ahead and up to the right in our dining room is our wooden locomotive over the hutch featured with a lighted garland.

Circling around into the living room, the fireplace hosts a gathering of snowmen. The collection is flanked by two nearly human size Debbie Mumm snowman that Daniel brought home from San Luis Obispo when he was pursuing his architecture degree at Cal Poly. He had sweet-talked the store owners into selling part of their window display to him. I still remember him ringing the doorbell after he'd driven home for the Christmas holiday break. I opened the front door to see this cheerful couple greeting me. "Merry Christmas, Mom, from Robin and me," he grinned. This couple has faithfully journeyed down from the attic for the past fifteen Christmases to grace our living room. They have aged well.

Above our other hutch in the living room is one of Santa's reindeer. He has a black nose so he is not Rudolph. Some years he is outside but this year he is keeping a watchful eye from a higher perch. This elevated position is much better for launching into the sky to pull the sleigh when he is called to duty.

Our tree was decorated with all sewn and stuffed ornaments made over the years since the kids were small and they helped.

Back in the dining room, along the window sill is a collection of glitter houses Frank made to recall those of his childhood.

We were not planning on a large crowd for Christmas dinner so I used our long table to stretch out a village themed length of fabric yardage that I thought was too pretty to cut up. I hemmed the edges and then displayed my collection of house tins on top of it.

Here is a closeup. Frank accused me of lining them up too symmetrically, as an engineer would do. Old habits die hard, I guess.

On a small wood red side table, I set out some of the smaller houses and accessories, made of wood.

One year at a post-Xmas clearance sale, I purchased two 5½ feet long snowman banners hand painted on oilcloth. We have a high soaring vaulted ceiling in our living room and I said to Frank, "Wouldn't they look impressive hung side by side over the TV up on the apex of the wall?" We both agreed, yes they would, and then simultaneously shook our heads - no more ladders! They still look nice hung by wreath hangers on doors. The brown Home Sweet Home hangs in the living room near the entry. 

The blue Winter Welcome hangs in the family room, in concert with the blue scheme in there.

  

I'd put blue sphere ornaments in glass jars  inside lighted corner cabinets with more lit garland on top. There are a few more of those stuffed ornaments too, to add to the festivity.

There is a small Wysocki tree next to those cabinets and next to it, a large scale erector house Frank built, once again to conjure up childhood Christmas memories.

Further to the right is a display of cardboard village houses. Our friend Vickie had given us a Twelve Day of Christmas gift combination from The Harry and David gourmet food catalog. The boxes the various goodies came in were just too darn cute to discard. Of course I saved them so there you have it, another Christmas decoration.

I added some blue glittery candles inside the fireplace along with a few more  blue ornament balls. In front is a child's Nativity set that Vivian and Lillian played with during their visit earlier in the month. This year I taped our Christmas cards on the fireplace tile. as they arrived. The fireplace face has been filled since I took this photo. 

Lastly, coming full circle in we have hanging on the wall in the nook our teddy bear couple wreath Frank and I bought the year the last kid left home. It is our empty nest symbol indicating it is only the two of us now. 

There are only two living under our roof now, however there are many more in our memories and hearts. I wish all my readers – and I guess my non-readers, too but they will not know it – all the best for 2018. Wow! 2017 went by past!