It has been over 70 degrees here today and yesterday.  After my younger son got home from school yesterday, I had him make the trek up and down the attic ladder to bring down the tree and decorations, and I figured on getting the tree up and lights on, at most.  Well, I got a few of the ornaments on as well.  I didn’t sleep well, and was awake at four a.m., and around 8:30 or 9 a.m. I picked up where I left off.  I am happy to say, that the Christmas decorating (indoors anyway) is done!  And the mess is even cleaned up!  And I’m sitting here enjoying the breeze and comfy temperatures with the door open, while I look at my tree.

By Sunday we are expecting ice and snow.  Crazy weather!

When I let Sammy out this morning at 4 a.m. he ran around the yard, sniffing the air like crazy and barking.  He is part Bassett so I had to wonder if he was smelling the cold-front moving in.  The temps just started dropping about an hour ago, here, around 1:30.  Sammy is a long little doggy.  After his frolicking and barking at the sky, he was ready to go back to sleep.  I don’t know what this is, some form of “Doggy Twister”?

Guess 4 am. was too early for Sammy!

There is no such thing as “too many ornaments”.  But now you see why the tree-decorating had to be broken up.

Having a dog does a bit of a number on your décor.  My “style” is pretty loose and eclectic, but this is a bridge too far!  He started out with a little piece of the couch to call his own.  Now he’s spreading out his territory inch by inch.

What do you think of my goovy coffee table?  Note that the Kleenex box is color-coordinated!  The two larger (colorful) paintings in the background are Leonid Afremov.  LOVE HIS STUFF!  The smaller one on the left bottom side is an imitator, who did a pretty darn good job, if you ask me!  They are hanging a little off-kilter.  I don’t like symmetry, have you noticed?  The one of Jesus writing in the sand is by Pennsylvania artist Scott Renfro.  He had painted this scene for my friend Tammi Morgan (author of Emerging Butterfly: Finding Life Beyond Anxiety Disorders  If you like my personal stories, you’ll enjoy her book!  The same open honesty and sharing of her struggles and trials.)  When I admired the picture at her house, Tammi said she’d ask him to do one for me.  I was just tickled to death when about a month later the painting arrived, without my even knowing it had been completed!  You can click on Scott’s name above to see his other work.   I love the Biblical accounts of Jesus’ compassion toward women in the Bible.  I can so relate!

All of the musical instruments you see on the wall were made by my husband Garrett.   Well, actually, the banjolele was a restoration project.  It has a beautiful sound.  Right now he is working on a Cigar-box blues guitar.  It has a really nice sound too.  He is with his stringed instruments like I am with my painting.  It’s an ability the Lord just built right in there.  Garrett’s just joined Facebook and plans to set up a page for his “Grey Bear Guitars and Stringed Oddities”.  I’ll put a link up when he gets it together.

This is the view from my little corner of the world from which I bring you Serve Him in the Waiting via my laptop!  The view was quite a bit less cluttered pre-Sammy.  Note the bed on the floor, and the kennel in the corner.  See what a sunny morning I had for getting my tree up?  The decorations hanging up over the doorway are the things my boys made at Christmas during the elementary school years.  My tree was over 7 feet, and very broad, so I used to put those on the tree.  A couple of years back, I gave that humongous tree to a neighbor with little kids, and bought a shorter, pre-lit.  But it was wider than I liked, and seemed too sparse to me.  I “inherited” the present tree from my neighbor and friend Barbara, who recently downsized to go live with her son and his wife.  I sure miss her being my back-door neighbor!

Our house is old, and has a lot of really nice old woodwork in it, which for the longest time I was very reluctant to paint over.  But as I have aged, and have had limitations in my physical stamina, etc, I finally came to understand why my Mom liked to paint everything white.  It’s so clean-looking and bright.  I don’t like dark rooms or dark paneling.  I like lots and lots of light.  So my walls are various shades of off-whites, with all the trim, now, done in white.  Neutral walls and neutral furniture allow for a makeover on the cheap by just getting new rugs, pillow-covers, and things to hang on the wall.

The decorations on the tree are a hodgepodge of Dollar Tree deals, home-made stuff, picture-frame ornaments with each year of the kids lives captured in snaps or school photos, artificial popcorn and cranberries on a string, and old-fashioned “icecicles”-the kind that you can never get your tree completely rid of, once you put them on there, but I love how they shimmer when a breeze stirs them.  I think I have about 2000 lights on.  That includes the “pre-lit” ones (white) that I didn’t have to put on, but were a real challenge to figure out how to get them all plugged together correctly.  Thankfully, I have teenagers.  Isaac figured it out.  Besides, he has helped Barbara decorate and un-decorate this tree twice now.

I think it’s safe to say Sammy likes the tree!

Since I finished cleaning up and let him in, he has rotated between curling up directly under my feet, to his spot under the table, to the front porch to bark at things, and back to the couch, catching little naps at each pit-stop.  It’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it, right Sam?

I hope that you are having a nice Friday wherever you are and whatever you are up to.  I think I’m going to take a cue from ole Sam-dog and take a little cat nap myself!