Choice Morsels

  Today, I thought I'd share pictures of our Christmas tree that we decorated last night and my birthday flowers. It's a fresh Frasier Fir, which I love because the needles are nice and soft. Years ago as a kid, the type of trees found on Indiana tree farms Scotch Pines, which were prickly to the touch, but popular because of their climate hardiness and good needle retention.  Frazier firs are popular for their natural "Christmas tree" shape, good needle retention as well and excellent shipping characteristic. You'll notice "dye-cut" Christmas card decorations on my tree. Three are official Hallmark dye-cut cards---the rest are Bev-cut. Sometimes, if a card we receive has a really nice large central design on front, I'll glue the card sides together, then cut that design out, hole-punch a hole in the top, add a loop of yarn and---voila, my own "dye-cut" ornament cards perfect for filling gaps and hiding tree imperfections! The bottom b...

Hubby told me a couple weeks ago he'd ordered a surprise, something in the way of a Christmas outdoor decoration. Last weekend it arrived: He knew I admired for years a display in front of a local business  something like this that was just the word "Joy" with a manger scene in the "O." So, he got this for me.  The letters and manger pieces are made of metal and the manger pieces & star just clip on. The red letters are glittery red and are propped up in back. Simple, attractive, yet is flat and stores easily in the box in came in. I don't want any outdoor decor that's a storage problem. What goes up has to come down, so we keep it simple. No decorating the whole house.  We probably need one of those lazy-man laser things the make your house "appear" decorated with lights. This week was also my birthday and I like to celebrate the occasion personally by buying some flowers and arranging them in a vase. One bundle of s...