Tinkerblue

Yes, My Christmas Decorations are still up.

And they will stay up until this weekend.  Christmas is my favourite time of year, and I like to make it last as long as possible.   Saturday night, January 5th is the  12th night, and Sunday, January 6th is Epiphany or 3 Kings Day.  The day the 3 wise men arrived bringing gifts for the Baby Jesus.

So some time this weekend, I'll give in and take the decorations down, and box them up for another year.  This year because we went away for Christmas, I did limit the number of decorations I dug out of the crawl space.  Hubby didn't want to put any decorations up at all. Bah Humbug!

Our little 2 foot tree:

One of the 1500 Christmas trees at Disney World:

My collection of Nativities.

I added a new one this year, from Equador, courtesy of Risa.  It's the tiniest one I have.  Don't worry Mary is not missing, she is having a wee nap, she had a splitting headache.  She is recoverying nicely with the help of some glue, and should be back soon.

The Nativity at Disney World:

Our Christmas lights, LED of course

Lights on the castle at Disney World.  Hubby told me not to get any ideas.

When do you take your decorations down?

Getting Ready for Christmas

No New Years Resolutions for me.

However I will now catch up on all the posts I meant to do in the lead up to Christmas.

For the first time in a few years I had the week between Christmas and New Years off.  Hubby and I talked about a quick 3-4 day trip to San Diego.  I'm not sure how, but over Thanksgiving (back in early October) that 4 day trip down the coast to California, morphed into an 8 day trip to Disney World.  All the way across the other side of the continent. 

Yep, we spent Christmas at Disney World.  In Florida. By we, I mean hubby and I, his parents, his sister and her 3 year old daughter.  Christmas at Disney World was fun.  And warm.  And insanely busy.  Christmas in the sun.  It was almost like my childhood Christmases.  Almost. 

It was also bittersweet.  Hubby's family was all there.  But.  My family was all home in Australia.  Not here.  Can you tell, Christmas is one time of year when I get a wee bit homesick? 

So what do you need to pack for a 9 day trip to Disney World over Christmas?  The essentials, right?  Clothes, toothbrush, pjs, camera, etc, right? 

Wrong.

You need:

LED lights and tinsel garland to hang

A christmas tree complete with lights and decorations (one for each room, we had two rooms)

Ornaments to sparkle when they catch the light.  Yeah for disco ball like ornaments from the dollar store.

hooks, tape, scissors, sharpie, glue, ribbon, gift tags, extension cord, power bar, etc .  Things have to be hung up, repaired, plugged in and who knows what else.

Don't forget the stocking stuffers and surpises for the hubby, the mother in law, the father in law, and the sister in law. (I had 5 ziplock bags, one for each person, so I could find all the tiny items easily at midnight on Christmas Eve!)

And then you need somewhere to put the stocking stuffers, right?  Here's a sneak peek...

Doesn't leave much rooms for clothes.  So no complaining if I'm wearing the same shirt and pants in every photo you see of our Christmas trip.

I hope you all had a Very Mickey Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Last of the treats

Here are the last 2 trick or treat bags I made.  Again with the scraps.  You'd think I didn't have any 'real' fabric around.  I do.  I'm just trying to use up some of the pile of little bits.  Then I can use my stash, then I can justify new fabric!  And sewing with scraps takes way too long.  Piecing together enough small pieces to make a large piece is a nightmare.  Especially when you notice after you're all done sewing that one piece is upside down.  I try to leave it.  But it annoys me.  And I have to go back and unpick it, and resew it.  No wonder what's listed as a 1 hour project takes me 5.

And a sneak at the contents.

What do you think I'm making with this pile of stuff?

I know my hubby and my mother in law are curious.  I sent them into Home Depot to get more of the Mickey Head paint chips, but wouldn't tell them what I needed them for.

Yes, I 've been sucked in by the marketing.  Yes, I've been brainwashed.  My favourite mascot is Miga, the seabear.  Love the pink nose and the blush.

Guess what?  Hubby and I actually went on a date on the weekend.  We don't get to do that very often, He's either working or at Search and Rescue.   Or I'm at one of my two jobs.  We had to take advantage of rare night when we both had no plans.  So Friday night we had dinner and a movie. Picking a movie we both want to see is not easy.  We both like Steve Carrell.  He's hilarious in The Office, and in the 40 Year Old Virgin and Little Miss Sunshine.  We finally agreed on Dan in Real Life.  I liked it, hubby said it was almost a chick flick.  He gets to choose next time.  Then we can't whine.  Or I'll choose and he'll have a reason to whine.  I'm sure he'd love to see Enchanted.  Not!

Is it a gift tag? Is it a decoration?

Fourth on that list...

Hangars for watch case decorations.  Part of my Christmas in Progress challenge.  Done!  Only two things to go. On this list.  Then I can start on the next one.

I've had these watchmaker cases from Lee Valley sitting in my toolbox for awhile.  Just wasn't sure what I was going to do with them.

I also had some Disney metal rimmed tags, alphabet stickers, clear epoxy stickers and

 

Mickey & Friends, Winnie the Pooh and Tinker Bell bottle tops in my scrapbooking stash.

Throw in some green tissue paper, combine them all together and what do you get? 

These:

What exactly are these?

My first intention was to use them as gift tags hanging on Christmas gifts.  But gift tags usually get thrown away or put in the recycling bin.  So I added hooks to the ribbon, and after the gift is opened, they can be used as a personalised Christmas tree decoration.