Christmas Decorations - Part 1

For the second weekend in a row, there were no sales. The few that were out there were not promising. We hope there are plenty next weekend. We are starting to develop a nervous tic! It was a good day to go get a big breakfast at a diner and run some errands. Monica has been shopping for new eyeglasses and this seemed like the perfect day to finalize the purchase.

We have been to many diners that are old and "unspoiled". Today's choice was not based on that at all. This diner has a reputation for overdecorating for Christmas and we wanted to see it for ourselves.

There was a large blow-up Santa to greet us when we arrived!

We loved the paper placemat. In fact, we took them home...both of them.

The decorations were not what we would use but it was as advertised...very overdecorated for Christmas and that was nice. You can see some of the decorations behind us. The food was great, the company even better and it was a great time! 

Now, as for decorating, it has been two weeks since we finished decorating and we have been able to enjoy our work. Since our house is a rental, we cannot go too crazy outside. A few red bows on the mailbox, garage doors and water spigot...some lights attached with plastic clips to the rain gutters that run across the whole front of the house...

...and a Christmas flamingo!

The inside of the house is another story and we can decorate to our heart's delight. 

All of our holiday decorations are stored in the attic in bins and boxes labeled for easy distinction from the other holidays. However, the exact contents of each box or bin remains unknown until we open them up. We love seeing our friends again after a year in storage.

Our aluminum tree stands just inside our doorway, guarded by our mannequin, Sharon, and a plastic toy soldier.

Our bar/wall unit usually houses barware and Tiki mugs but, at this time of year, all of its usual inhabitants are packed away and it is decorated for Christmas.

There is a section for Santa head mugs...

...and space set aside for knee hugger elves. There is even a knee hugger Santa there!

A shelf is reserved for Mica houses.

Okay, maybe two shelves set aside for Mica houses.

Little Rudolph was looking for room on it for him but...

...all of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names. They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.

That's okay because there were plenty of Rudolphs mixed in amongst the reindeer...

...and Little Rudolph found a place on the bottom shelf of the downstairs shadow box.

We try to decorate the cats and the lamps for Christmas too

There are lots of plastic sleighs to put out...

...we try to find space for all of them.

The Christmas 7-inch records get their own separate place.

There is a section for the creepy Santas that cannot find space to hang out upstairs

We try to use all the space available to us

Some Christmas glasses

We display some of our Christmas albums in the tension pole record holders. We switch the ones on display pretty often.

Blow molds line the staircase...

...all the way to the top...

...and the plastic Santa head cookie jars line the wall entering the upstairs

We will post pictures of the upstairs level of the house during our next post. We will keep the decorations up until mid-January, at which time we have to say goodbye to them for another year. In the meantime, we still have a few more weeks to enjoy them!