Sunday, December 21, 2008

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.

21 comments:

Candy said...

Your pictures are beautiful - you were quite productive this weekend. Much more so than I. I hope your dog's ok - mine is on his way to the "Bridge" and we're just hoping he makes it until the kids get home for Christmas. It's so hard to say goodbye to an old friend. We've had him 14 years :(

Helen said...

Katdish, thank you! The "old school" light up Nativity is exactly like the one I did my post on a couple of days ago! Awesome!
You decorate beautifully! So far, I have my tree up, and some of mom's Hallmark stuff. It will be done by Christmas. What doesn't get decorated, doesn't get decorated.
I'm sorry Buddy had a seizure. I'm glad he is okay now.

Helen said...

Oh, and you are right, the last one was very sweet.
You, know, you mentioned that you wished you could tell us to pray for you when Buddy's seizure happened. I prayed for all you gals today. Just listed you all in my regular prayers (although I added an extra thank you to God for hearing my prayers for you during the hurricanes a few months ago, and added that He continue to protect you from disasters. I don't know why I was thinking about that this morning. Just was.) God bless you.

JML said...

I love retro-ish plastic light up anything for Christmas decorations! my great grandparents had a lot of that stuff, and it reminds me of them and the great times I had at their house on Christmas Eve in the past, bless God it was fun! Hope pooch is doing better!!!!

Mary Ann said...

Katdish, your house looks beautiful! Makes me want to sit down with a cup of coffe filled with a Christmas flavor creamer and a snuggie in front of the fireplace...is the fireplace a real one or one of those fake log ones? They're both nice...

I am sooo sorry to hear about your pup. Nothing gets me all mushy inside like a story of a suffering pet. I hope there are no more seizures! Poor little guy..

Anonymous said...

Your tree is beautiful! Mine is currently suffering kittenidice.

Love the pics.

If you have more problems with Buddy let me know. Our Pooh suffers with them, and we've learned some ways to help.

Anonymous said...

Love the pics! Your home is beautiful!
I took pics last night (with my new camera) and wrote the same kind of post for today, then couldn't get them downloaded correctly. Called in #2 son to help, he said my tower won't accept the program? Oh well, today I'll check in to that and maybe tomorrow my pics will be up.

Our colors are much the same in our homes. Similar styles too.

This year we have no decor outside except the wreaths on my doors.

I do hope you're dog is OK. I'm sure that was scary!

Glad to hear it went away.

Beth said...

Poor Buddy! Let us know what the vet says!

Your tree and mantel are gorgeous! The girls did a good job. I dig Thumbs Up Joseph, too. I always have a picture in my head of what I would WANT my house to look like decorated on the outside, but it hasn't met with reality yet. I have a wreath that lights up but I can't find an extension cord for it. Frank likes to hide them from me. And my tree is slightly possessed. The lights keep doing different things each time I plug them in. Sometimes they blink. Sometimes they don't. I think they're mocking me. Oh well. It's us!

I used to have a plastic light up Santa that my roommate and I displayed proudly each year...but I don't know what happened to him! How could I lose that?

Annie K said...

Katdish...you are mocking me... "Nothing puts you in the Christmas spirit like stringing lights wearing shorts and flip flops while swatting mosquitoes!" Ok, I hate mosiquotes because I went camping a few years ago and got like a gazillion bites and I'm sure I had West Nile virus or 'maria'. I had to take antibiotics...it was that bad. So I'm not jealous about that, but the shorts and flip flops... it is -2 outside right now and 9" of snow(NO FAIR!). Oh well, makes it easier for Santa's sleigh to land on my roof.

(House looks fab-o by the way. And I'm glad Buddy is fine.)

Stacey said...

Everything looks great! I love the tree and love your red walls. I have some red in my house too.

katdish said...

Candace,

It's funny. Buddy is the first dog I've ever had since leaving home. We had a great dog, Cindy. She was a 3 legged German Shepherd and we just loved her so much. I don't think I've ever seen my mom cry so much as when that dog die. She was 14 -- which is fairly old for such a big breed. I try to teach my kids about unconditional love and acceptance through words and through actions, but there's no better teacher than a loyal family dog. I pray that this Christmas will be a special one for all of you, and that you're able to get a few more family photos before he goes to his final resting place. Buddy is only 10 months old and we've only had him since June. I never knew how attached to him I was until I was faced with the realization that we might lose him.

Buddy is back to his old, obnoxious self again - chasing the cat and doing what dogs do (because they can). I have a follow up with the vet tomorrow morning. Thanks for your prayers.

Sherri - Here's my house in a nutshell: Deep reds, sage greens, tans, natural leather, cherry furniture and cabinets, and few antiques. Throw in a few roosters and family pictures and there you have it. Oh, and also it looks like Southern Living Catalog threw up all over the place.

Annie - minus 2? Do you even go outside? Not to worry, it's in the 30's today. That that great thing about Houston. If you don't like the weather, wait a couple of hours. It's likely to change.

Beth said...

Hey we were at 5 degrees today. Pretty cold for us, but not unheard of.

Ok, I'm starting to sound like a little old lady again...the weather man said we'd warm up a bit by Christmas, but I don't trust that guy. He looks like he's still in high school....where's my snuggie?? I gotta finish my crossword puzzle before Price Is Right comes on...

Mary Ann said...

I think we might have hit the high 60's today. And on my motorbike ride home it was surely feeling like low 60s because of that breeze. Brrrrr!!!

Anonymous said...

Purty decorations! You were really busy, huh?

My dear alter-ego, how are we alike? Let me count the ways...
Deep red: our powder room, almost exact-same shade
Sage green: our living room
Tan: Hallways, girls' room (to go with their leopard-print comforters and hot pink curtains)
Natural leather: want some; that counts, right?
Antiques: um, no. Unless you count the worn 60s bedroom set and end tables from when I was little.
Roosters: Really? I don't know anyone who has rooster decor. Except ME.

WV: asetuid: "In the Good Samaritan story, the priest had a really bad asetuid. On the other hand, the Samaritan got off his donkey and helped the guy."

Anonymous said...

Looks like Sherri already caught it, but I noticed right away you both have similar homes. Weird. But great too - because I just told her I really liked her color choices.

katdish said...

HEY PEEPS!

I am on hour 3 of a 6 hour online defensive driving course. Yes, it's due "on or before" December 25, and yes, I've had 4 months to complete it, and yes, if I don't take the test by 3 pm the cops are gonna come after me.

Sheesh! Enough with the nagging already! I'm going back to the test!

katdish said...

Okay. One more thing and then, seriously, I gotta go finish my course.

Buddy is doing well. No more problems since Sunday. Hopefully, the seizure was just an isolated incident. He was, however, suffering from a pretty serious case of SADS, or "Stinky Ass Dog Syndrome". Not to worry, I have diagnosed and cured that problem.

Note: I reserve the right to drop the occasional "A" bomb on this blog. Using an asterik instead of an "A" would have diminished just how bad this creature smelled. Or, as my mother would say, in her misuse of the English language, "that was THE stunks!"

Beth said...

Um...so....do you have to take this course because of a certain number of tickets??? ;)

katdish said...

Beth,

Hey there! I feel totally out of the loop! I took the defensive driving course in order to have a ticket dismissed (just one). Being a hard core procrastinator, when I first got the paperwork from the courthouse to take the class, I thought, "December 25? Yeah, like I'm gonna take that long to finish the course!" And then I just forgot about it until I sat upright in bed this morning at 3:30 am, cussed under my breath, got up and logged into my computer. Do you have any idea what torture it is to be on the computer for 8 hours and not check anyone's blog? It was driving me crazy! The course is 6 hours long, but you have to take breaks. I knew if I even peeked at my blogroll, I would be in big trouble, so I just resisted the urge. At about hour #4, I was starting to get really tired and goofy. Everytime you take a break, you're supposed to log out, then log back in when your break is over. To log back in, you input your DL # and a password. After that's done, you click on a button that says "Enter Course".

So guess what I hear in my head everytime I did this? Beavis and Butthead saying, "Heh, heh. They said entercourse!" Yeah, I'm 12.

I'm super duper tired. If I have time tomorrow, I may try to write a post, but if we don't touch base before then, have a wonderful, blessed, fantastic Christmas! (And that goes out to EVERYBODY!) Love you guys!

Helen said...

Congratulations on passing your course. We missed you yesterday. Merry Christmas.

Beth said...

I was just being annoying about the ticket thing...

Merry Christmas! Hope the Christmas Eve service was awesome!