Putting Up the Tree

We started putting up our Christmas decorations on Saturday; at first our tree looked like this:




Billy & Chris got into the attic to retrieve the rest of the tree, and the decorations. Before I post our 'post decorating' picture, here is a 'vintage' photo of a Christmas not too long ago in my family:



This was my grandparents house sometime during the 70s; the house is all decorated and there is snow!! Isn't it funny how it seems it snowed almost every Christmas when you were a kid, but it doesn't seem to snow much when you are grown up?? Yes, their house was pink; they did put siding on the house in the 80s, which made it more of a rust red color. I sure do miss that house. Here is one of their tree decorated ( I think this must have been during one of their 'open houses' because their dining room table chairs are set up):



I'm still looking for other pictures, and will try to get them posted. I'm actually trying to find some bells that my grandma used to hang up on her patio door; there were 3 of them and they blinked. I always liked those bells.

On another note, this past week has been quite eventful for us; we told Ashley & Danny we would help them get their car fixed (the driver's side window would not stay up and they couldn't turn their heater on), so we gave them my car to drive until it was fixed. We went and rented a car for a couple of days. Last Sunday afternoon on the way to work Danny slid off the road and into a ditch. Thankfully he wasn't hurt and the damage isn't as bad as we initially thought, but that left us with just one car for the 3 of us. Their car was done on Wednesday, but looks like mine won't be done until next week some time. If ever there was a week to get a stress headache, this was it and boy did I get one!!

Here are some pics of our now finished tree:





We have a Christmas "village", but don't always put it out every year. This year Billy decided to try a new place for it:



I inherited some of my Grandmother's holiday 'mugs', so we decided to display those as well:


I've started somewhat of a 'Angel' collection, so decided to put those on my piano; the small ones on the right side are from my Mother; she used to put them on the same piano when it was still at her place, so I decided to continue the tradition:


We let Sydney help this year too; and like with my Mom's tree, she tended to put a lot of ornaments in the same area:





I'm always glad to get some decorations up, but taking them down is another story!! Billy is taking a group of students to the Ukraine over Christmas break, which means my tree may have to remain up until at he gets back which will be the middle of January!

My job remains busy and sometimes stressful; they have been hiring new people and I have one starting in my section on Monday. When did I find this out?? Why last Friday, of course!!! Sometimes communication is not the best between upper and lower management! At least the poor girl will have a desk. At times it's been hard to keep a good Christian-like attitude, but God has been showing me that it IS possible!