Over-the-top Decorations

We had the decorating all done by Wednesday! The photos will look pretty much like the previous years, since just about everything has its place. Only the tree ornaments get changed around, just a little bit. 

There is a story to almost everything.  It would be too long of a post to tell them, so I'll just mention a few that I might not have told before. 

The Santa collection is up in the family room.

 The mantel Santas were all hand made by a teacher friend. 

Santas from a farm town in New York, Germany, and Whidbey Island. 

 My great grandmother's kitchen clock has an appropriately themed Santa. 
 A Santa sits on the top of the tree, which is laden with about 45 years of collecting. 

 Krampus is a more recent addition. 

 There are birds and Santas and pigs and horses, and felt ornaments I made long ago when Jill was a toddler. 

 Fruits and vegetables are a more recent collection too.

 One of the cone wreaths Tom made a while back.

 The Travel Tree, which we inaugurated last year. 

 There are tiny flags for every state and country we have traveled in. 

The kitchen beams are decked with felt gingerbread men and fabric ornaments I made when we first moved into this house, 40 years ago.

This pair of glass ornaments, a gazebo and a greenhouse, were gifts from one of our teacher friends. 

The dining room is very Scandinavian. 

 The garland on the beam displays vintage ornaments. 

There's a lot of stuff, but for one month out of the year, we love it!

Since the decorating job was done faster than I expected, Thursday I started on my baking. I made fruit cake, and not only did the house look festive, it also smelled like Christmas. 

These cakes are by now wrapped in brandy soaked cheese cloth,  in plastic bags, and stored away for a few weeks. I started the first batch of cookies too. They have to freeze before slicing and baking. 

Life is good at the Reeder homestead.