In Spite of Myself...

I've been feeling way too stressed, and entirely NOT in the mood. Everytime I said, "Not gonna do it..." I was chastised by first one then another family member or friend...So...tonight, after the last of the bag orders was complete (still have one more needle case to make, but the bags were the most pressing) I pulled out the fixings and created this for my front door:

And because I simply am unsure if I'll still be in this apartment thru the holiday, I refused to put up the 4-foot prelit tree from last year (see my December 2005 entries for a photo) and instead did this:

I've had this little tyke since my sojourn in Washington DC in 1999-2000 when the high cost of rent had me in the tiniest apartment I've ever lived in. My then 7-foot Christmas tree was given to my daughter, as I felt I'd never again use a large tree...and this was what I bought. Only 1.5 feet high, this little tabletop tree is graced with crystal (yes, Swarovsky!) snowflakes, my mother's favorite crystal bird ornament, and little white flecked balls and white lights. A crystal Moravian star graces the top. Sitting to the right is a little Santa's sleigh my father made before I was born, and Rodney Reindeer, a Burger King toy from the early 1980s which my daughter gave me for Christmas - she was just a baby herself! Now she has 3 babies of her own...How time flies?!?

I've always loved the concept of a White Christmas. I guess you can't tell that, huh? But I am truly ready for a very compact Christmas!