Decorating (check!) Next: finish shopping and wrap everything (sigh)

I had a fairly productive weekend. In my last Christmas update, I mentioned that I had approximately one (1) ornament on my tree. As luck would have it, the Hogan girls came over Friday night so that Jeff and Tam could celebrate their anniversary. So, as any good friend would do while watching another friend's children, I put them to work. Three girls can make fairly quick work out of decorating a Christmas tree, and Rachel was pretty pumped that I was letting her climb up on a ladder for the high spots. To Cameron's credit, he resisted the overwhelming temptation to spray them with a constant barrage of nerf bullets while they were working. While they were decorating the tree, I was outside wrestling with the assorted yard art and lights extravaganza. Nothing puts you in the Christmas spirit like stringing lights wearing shorts and flip flops while swatting mosquitoes! Saturday I decorated the mantle and set out my nativity set on the piano. I've got boxes and boxes of decorations that are still in the attic (including an awesome Christmas village), but at this point, I decided they could just stay up there until next year. So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the fruits of my labor:

That's pretty much it for the inside of the house. Now for the outside:

We usually put lights on the house. But my DH has been super busy with work, so we decided to skip it this year. Did you notice Joseph giving the "thumbs up" sign? I never could find his shepherd's cane. And since I had my camera out, I thought you might like to see a couple other houses in the neighborhood. This next picture is of my friends Jay and DeeAnn's house. Or, as it is commonly referred to at Christmas time, "Whoville". You can't even see everything in these pictures. They made everything you see, and I'm pretty sure the electric company sends them a fruitcake each year.

This next yard I like for a couple of reasons. First, I love me some old school plastic light up nativity sets, plus I think it's pretty cool that Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman were present at the birth of Sweet Baby Jesus.

This next one is for Helen. I thought it was incredibly sweet and I thought she would too.

Well, gotta go wrap some presents!

P. S. - I missed church this morning. Right before we got started, my dog Buddy had what we think was a seizure. He started to shake, his little legs went limp and his jaws were clenched. I grabbed him, got in my car and drove as fast as was reasonable possible to the nearest emergency animal clinic. Since my C3 family was already at my house when this happened, I knew that they would be praying for me. What really struck me as I was waiting for them to run tests on Buddy was how I wished that I could have left word for you, my dear friends, to be praying for me, too. Thanks for sharing your lives with me and allowing me to do the same. Buddy has not had any more episodes, and all his tests were normal. I will take him to his regular vet tomorrow to follow up. Hopefully this was just an isolated incident.