After Christmas

Well, we've had a nice, peaceful day today (and yesterday, too).  These quiet days are always a welcome respite after the hustle and bustle of the Christmas holiday.  I realize there was a lot less hustle and bustle this year for most of us, but even so, it can still be tiring.            

 My husband's parents came over on Christmas Eve for homemade soup and munchies.  We really enjoyed just visiting and chatting with them.  Our son came over, as well, and spent the night here Christmas Eve.  On Christmas day, we went to my sister's home, where we had more homemade soup and munchies.  😋  My mom made a good cake for our dessert.  Again, we enjoyed the visit and the company.  We came home Christmas night and opened our gifts to each other with our son, and he went back home afterwards.             

So another year, and another Christmas, have come and gone.  I think we could all agree it's been one of the strangest years ever.  My husband has seen jokes on Facebook to the effect that people are planning to stay up all night on December 31st to make sure that 2020 really does take itself on out of here.  😏   

   I'm sharing some pics of our living room decorated for Christmas this year.  If you're a regular reader here, you know I don't change things up a lot from one Christmas to the next.  I prefer to use our collected "treasures" that mean so much to us, rather than doing different "themes" every year.  I like to do different table settings in the dining room and change the mantel up, but a lot of the other things stay the same.  Our tree, for instance, is definitely a memory tree, rather than a theme tree.   

We do have a new-to-us piece of furniture in our living room this year.  We are the third owners; it belonged first to Hal's paternal grandmother, she gifted it to her daughter-in-law (Hal's mom) and then Hal's mom gifted it to me.  We were a little bit afraid that it would make this room too crowded, but it does not, and we're very happy to have this secretary desk.  The corner cupboard which was here has been moved to the opposite corner, where surprisingly, it fits very nicely.   

The cabinet being moved to this corner necessitated our putting the Christmas tree further into the room, but the tree didn't crowd the room, and it was much easier to decorate.   

Do you see the table in front of the window to the right of the tree?  I had to get a lamp for it back in the fall.  We had a floor lamp in the corner where the cupboard is now, and we had to move it to another spot.  With the floor lamp gone, that part of the room was dark, dark.  You can see how this all turned into a game of musical chairs furniture.     

Here's the new lamp, which I love.  I will share with you that we first ordered this online from Lamps Plus, whom we have dealt with before.  I waited a full month to receive it, because of slowdowns due to Covid 19.  I was so excited when the box finally came, and when I took the lamp out, it was the wrong one.  😠  I was so tempted to just keep it, but the colors were all wrong for this room, so I had to return it.  Lamps Plus was very nice about it; they apologized for the mistake and waived the cost of us mailing it back to them, which was the right thing to do.  However, I didn't want to wait for possibly another month to get the right lamp, so I checked and was able to get it from my favorite local lamp store.  I learned a valuable lesson there.  It's best to shop local whenever you possibly can; these small businesses have a hard enough time competing with online retail.   

     

   

These are my beloved carolers that my mom made in ceramics class when I was growing up; she gifted them to me after we moved to this house.  They've always reminded me of Dickens' "Christmas Carol."      

         

   

   

 

   

The other side of the tree as you come through the foyer...

      

"...and to all a good night."   

   

Thank you for your visit.  Have a good week.