It's snowing! It's snowing!

It's snowing before Christmas - a very rare event here. Nevermind that I'm having to shift all kinds of things around to get work meetings and many personal things in for myself and family in the dwindling days before Christmas holidays shut the world down. I can always spare a day to look out the window at the giant snowflakes and have an excuse to bake brownies. Besides, when it snows in NC, our world shuts down anyway.

It is also the perfect day to take photos of the decorations for this year. I was really disappointed this month with Traditional Home magazine. Usually they showcase beautiful rooms filled with decorations from sparkly glass balls to simple greenery. It was one of their spreads that inspired my fireplace garland a couple of years ago. This year the decorations in their pages were sparse to say the least. Perhaps they thought it was inappropriate to display showy decorations in this economy. Well, I don't agree. It seems to me the perfect time to pull out the goodies and make the house more festive.

I love my holiday decorations and even though we have all been affected by the sour economy, I still put them out. I just didn't buy anything new. There are still quite a few things in the attic unused this season. I didn't even make my usual trips to K-mart to see what goodies Martha had or to our local ACE hardware which has the most beautiful Christmas shop in the area. I didn't want to be tempted. It wasn't just about spending money; it was about need.

On the occasional busy year, I've skipped decorating and always missed it. Christmas is about hope and beauty and what better way remind yourself than to see your favorite ornaments hanging on the tree. So here are a a couple of photos from the tree and garlands....