Let the fun begin

                         

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from our home to you. May your holiday be filled with joy!

For us, Thanksgiving kicks off our Christmas holidays.  This is the night we turn on all our holiday lights and the trees (we have 3).  We still have the roof to do out in front and, when Chris gets a few spare moments, that will be done too.  E is no longer allowed on ladders let alone the roof of the house so our son in law graciously does this for us.  The lanai is done, the path and the arbor gate to the lower lawn finished, the village is up and the ever growing collection of snow people.  Even Vera, my laptop has her own tree.

             

 We follow the German custom of each person in a household having their own tree plus a family tree.  The one above is mine in my workroom.  This is a second generation neon green funky three footer...a bit retro, a bit vintage and all mine.  As is my custom, the tree has a name.  This is Lucille II.

And our Christmas Island (yes! after the Jimmy Buffett song) village.  None of the houses are more than a couple of inches tall and we can no longer find any little ones so this is the end of any expansion.  The kids started this collection eons ago with 3 little Dickens houses and look where we are now! lol  Visitors to our home are encouraged to pick out a residence where they would like to live.  Sorry but the lighthouses are taken as are the two pubs in the village. 

 We've had some problems with the lights on our 7foot family tree this year.  We love this tree because the lights are shaped like little pine cones.  Not sure if we'll be able to fix the loose connection or not and we may have to wind some other lights through the tree to fill in the gaps.  Of course, the connection did not go out until we had the tree completely decorated, which takes us about 2 hours.

 Outside on the lanai we've done our usual but have changed out the lights surrounding the lanai cage.  I love the blue and the lights are so pretty reflected in the pool.

I'll be heading south in a bit to pick up Rob in St. Pete.  One of the kids will run him home after our Thanksgiving meal as he has to work early tomorrow morning.  Thank goodness his store closes on Turkey Day unlike others.  Kristen and the Grands will head over when they get up from their nap and the Grands will decorate their tree while we wait for their daddy to get off work. 

Off to take care of some household chores.  The turkey is done and Kristen is doing the pies.  E and I will work on the rest this afternoon.  Meanwhile, there is the parade and our high school marching band from Tarpon Springs is performing in the Macy's TG parade. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!