Wishing everyone better health, more peace and more happiness in 2011.

     Dora and I wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas!

It seems to have taken me longer to get ready for the holidays this year than normal. I've been doing the shopping for my mother as well as myself, plus getting groceries, prescriptions & library books. I did all the decorating too, though a bit less of it than previous years. I could not think of what to put in the big living room window, the tinsel garland was too hard to drape across the curtain rod, I was afraid I'd fall off the chair. I wanted some big snowflake or stars to hang in a group, but couldn't find what I wanted in the stores. I'm going to have to start looking earlier next year.
I did get the Nativity set & Christmas tree up last weekend. The photo is from a few years ago, but each year I add a few new ornaments. This year I got a brontosaurus, plus my sister & mom gave me a couple other things. My sister also gave me a large nutcracker riding a hobby horse, which I've set beneath the tree. There are 900 colored lights on the tree, with about 100 ornaments, plus a gold star & tinsel roping. Decorations & music is what I like most about this time of year, so I'm really pleased when I have my own tree up. I usually begin listening to Christmas carols at the end of November, as soon as Thanksgiving is over. Less people than usual sent out paper cards, but I got enough to tape to the door in a happy collection.
My sister, who is a nurse, will be working on Christmas day, so we will have a delayed supper & gift opening. Dora will be getting a new tunnel from Santa, which will be fun to watch her with. I'm hoping my mom isn't too crabby & that it can be a halfway decent day. I'm going to try my best.

* My last craft show of the year was this past Saturday and there seemed to be a flurry of activity the last 2 weeks to prepare, so everything else fell by the wayside. I will post a report & photos as soon as I download them.It's been much too long since I downloaded my photos, I believe I have some dating back to October.
* In the meantime, here are my 2 latest book reviews on Vulpes Libris. Last weeks was an art book on Mary Cassatt . Today's is a novel about a high school reunion by Elizabeth Berg called The Last Time I Saw You. Next Monday will be a collection of mini reviews on Christmas books.
* The TV series "Boardwalk Empire" on the HBO channel had its season finale last night. It's about Atlantic City NJ during the era of Prohibition(1920's) & is very good. At first, I was worried about it being too violent, but it's not constantly violent & the viewer usually gets a warning when they show a guy pulling out his gun, I knew to look away. But there was much less violence than expected, some weeks none at all, so I was able to watch it without it causing nightmares. I got really involved in what happened to the characters each week and will really miss the show until it returns next summer.