Some more Christmas decorations (151)

We've never had our Christmas decorations up so early! Christopher went out and bought a tree on Sunday, and Ah, the smell as be walked through the door. One of the great treats of the Christmas period for me is to be the first up in the morning, open the door and smell that wonderful pine aroma, a real scent of Christmas. This year I've been busy making decorations, which was just as well as we don't seem to have that many left from previous years. I think we gave most of the tinselly, glittery things to the boys to decorate their flats.

Be patient with me, this is a rather photograph-heavy post!

This is a coloured version of the bird rope that I made for an ornament swap.

Our front door wreath was looking a little tired so I made a new one, I bound strips of scrap wadding around a wreath frame and then twisted lengths of fabric and ribbon around it, added a few felt holly leaves and yo-yo berries and a wool bow - which appears to have gone a bit floppy in the cold weather.

Don't you love our stained glass window? It's about 100 years old now, the original door from the house when it was built around 1905.

I adapted a pattern for denim Christmas trees (One Crafty Mamma) and used green gingham, red buttons, felt circles and little stocking pegs for another garland.This is a simple banner made out of Christmas fabrics.

For me, Christmas is very much a time of remembering. Apart from Christopher and the boys, and my in-laws, I have no family of my own left now and I always love to remember them and Christmases past as I put up our decorations. This is a Christmas banner that my mother stitched many years ago. I'm always amazed at her stitching, she used linen and her stitches are so tiny.

Our tree too holds many memories, there are decorations going back throughout my life, including two that my mother made when she was a child, which have gone on every tree since I was born; there are decorations that the boys made when they were young, decorations that I have made, others that Christopher has bought over the years.

And last, but certainly not least, happy birthday yesterday to Alexander, Number Two Son, who reached a quarter of a century. Sadly we weren't able to see him on his birthday as he was working (as a DJ) until 4.00 am the previous night, and was also working again last night. So it was a rather short birthday day for him, spent with friends. We spoke several times on the telephone though. We won't be seeing either of our sons now until Christmas Eve, as they are both working hard till then.