We are almost ready for Christmas.

We hung up white lights along the roof line and we have 2 small white deer and a small white Christmas tree out on the front yard. The tree is up with brand new ornaments. I had to throw away most of my ornaments last year because they were covered in mold. I let Erin pick out new ornaments this year. She selected the colors of gold and purple as her theme. I was a little apprehensive at first but once we had all the ornaments up it really came out quite lovely. We purchased a 7 foot blue spruce that was nice and straight and not too full. Most of the trees this year looked off, they were thin on top or patchy looking but then the lower branched would be long and too full. Fred set the tree up in the stand and brought in the house. The girls and I spent at least 30 minutes putting the lights on the tree only to have a short in one of the strands. No matter how many little lights I jiggled and replaced I could not find the short. We had to call Fred in to help. He found the short in no time and we went back to decorating. I made the girls do most of the work. I was very proud when they were done. It was very pretty. We went heavy on the gold with highlights of purple among white lights. I tried to find an angel to match but had no luck so we purchased a gold star. It needs a light but it will do for right now.

We had only one casualty. Erin took pulled out some of what is left of our old ornaments. One of them was an egg I made when I was 12 if not younger. My mother blew the yolks out of each egg and carefully cut oval shaped holes into each egg. Each egg was decorated with little Christmas scenes. We used glitter, ribbon, cotton and dried flowers. I have never seen anything like them since and have managed to keep them all these years. I had 6 at the last count. Cujo found the one Erin laid out and quickly made a mess on the floor. I have five left. Cujo is our 4 month old Rotty/Great Dane mix he also found old Christmas candy and chewed up a few pieces before I could throw it away. He also pulled up the tree skirt and ran off with it. We are going to have fun this year trying to keep Cujo out of the livingroom.

I forgot the most important thing. I picked up my Christmas present today. My husband purchased me a Konica Minolta Dimage 8 mp digital camera. Thank you Fred I love it.