Ready for Christmas

We decorated inside and out a lot more this year.  At the Winston condo, I put cranberry garlands on the two chandeliers.  I love the way those look.  A simple wreath went onto the front and the nutcracker cross-stitch in the foyer..

I put a blue nutcracker on the table underneath the framed cross-stitch flanked by red candles.  I usually put white netting lights on the backyard shrubs but didn't this year -- just didn't feel like it.   The tree is a fake ficus with the angels on it.  I think it turned out really sweet.  It has the clear ornaments with just a few pink ones. And I got out the Christmas pillows of course.

And one day, my sister's grandchildren decorated a gingerbread house.  I think they did a great job. A great holiday already at the condo this year.

Then at the Yadkin house, in addition to the yard barn decorations in an earlier post (I do love those!), we strung garlands and bows on the front porch railing --

Farmer Lynn spotted a Facebook posting of a tire used as a wreath (I'm sorry, I couldn't re-find that picture or who to give the credit) but it inspired him to make his own tire wreath to add to the front: He added so much holly and berries that you can't see the tire foundation unless you sneak up on it sideways.

The living room tree was a small one on a table this year, shown here with the backdrop of a family quilt. The animal ornaments went on that tree..

The nutcracker table runner displayed upright this year on one of the dining room doors, as did a Rudolph reindeer hanger in the kitchen (he has a red ornament for his nose).

Two of the Christmas cacti that bloom at Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and hardly ever at Christmas decided to bloom "on time" this year.  So I got them together and put them on the corner heater.

 

Then the screen porch did not look very festive at all, having just the lone poinsettia wreath on the door.  

 

So Mr & Mrs Rudolph came out and are relaxing in the swing --  

   

I certainly hope they enjoy their time on the screen porch swing.

The best decoration of all, though, was a collaboration between Farmer Lynn and Mother Nature.  He had wound several light strings around one of the evergreens in the front, but couldn't come up with a topping that he liked.  As he went out to look at it all again, the moon came into perfect position over the top of the tree and Farmer Lynn snapped this picture.  I think it's just beautiful and makes me so happy we spent this year setting up and feeling at home at the Yadkin Yard.  

Yadkin Yard Workday

Today was a busy day in the Yadkin Yard.  The yard barn is now decorated -- 

The two silver stars are safe and sound!  They're just hanging out in the barn until the end of these holidays, then they'll go back up, and the red ones will take the back seat.

The concrete walkway/sidewalk within the "dog lot" had seen better days.  In several places, the concrete was just crumbling away from the rest of the walkway.

Today was a beautiful day, clear skies and temperature in the 70's!  So Farmer Lynn's son came and repaired the concrete walkway.  It looks great now.  That's a beautiful area anyway because it has several birdfeeders in there and some pretty rose bushes.  Farmer Lynn planted golden mums and shasta daisies from the south border garden at my mother's house.  They're doing really well.  This year was an adjustment year for them.  They did bloom, but not like they normally do.  I am confident they will put on a display next year, however.  

Beautiful job, eh?

Then then they cleaned the gutters.  Up on the roof they went!  While they were up there, they measured the opening and length of the chimney flue liner that we'll need.

and took the truck and got a load of mulch for around the trees in the south yard.  Now that the neighbor's yard fowl don't venture over here anymore (hallelujah!), we can go back to working on that yard.  They also fixed the lawn mower cart/trailer, replaced the rubber seals at the bottom of some of the sunroom windows and one living room window where the seals had come loose so that the windows weren't sealing shut.  All in all, a very productive Yadkin Yard Workday!