Anyone in the mood for Christmas pictures?  I truly meant to post these BEFORE Christmas, but I was playing with the layout of the blog and, in so doing, completely messed things up so that I could not even get onto the main page to make new entries.  It took me until today to contact my brother for help.  (Thank goodness for tech-savvy younger siblings!)

This year I decided to buy some new decorations.  I have really never had much in the way of seasonal decorations; mostly just small things given to me over the years.  This year I found a picture I liked in a catalog, went to the store and bought everything I thought I could reasonably use.  What fun!

I was limited by the wall color behind our fireplace. It is a burnt orange.  When we looked at the house I thought "that wall has to go!" but as I lived with it, it grew on me and now I really like it.  It is limiting, however.

I went with a jeweled woodland "theme" and I was very pleased with the results.

I experimented with photographing ornaments.  Here, two of my favorites:

This is an ornament I purchased many years ago at a local craft fair, so it is hand painted.  The house reminds me of an aunt and uncle's farmhouse while the boy dragging the tree reminded me of one of my nephews.  I am not entirely sure why, but this is one of my all time favorite ornaments.

This is just a run-of-the-mill ornament from a box of several identical ornaments.  I like the twinkling lights in the background.

Now I shall attempt not to mess anything up on this blog, and to post more updates in rapid succession. Well, one at least.