The Tree and all its trimmings are up : 12 '22

Our Christms tree is  finally up and spreading cheer and goodwill  throughout the house.

Everything seems to be moving in slow motion this year. We had all the indoor trimmings out and waiting to put up on our Xmas tree by December 1st.   It was just that we were halfway through the month of December, (and almost into the first night of Chanukkah), before we finally found where we had stored our Christmas Tree.  

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas: 12'22

 We usually have the front of our home decorated for Christmas by December 1,

This year rain (and other matters beyond our control) conspired to delay the process.

It took us a while to locate all the ornaments we brought from Pawleys Island,

and a while longer to decide how to best display them in our much larger front yard,  

But now we have found places for them all in our new home.

I must say we are very pleased with the way 

the display turned out.

Moving on to Celebrating Christmas

 With Hanukkah firmly over,  our attention is now turning to celebrate the Christmas 

The first thing I did this morning was was store away all of the Jewish holiday decor,  e.g. Menorahs, Stars of David, etc.

Then I reset the dining table with a red and white color scheme,

 and hung Santa Clause stockings from the chairs.

The blue bottle Menorah in the kitchen window sill has been replaced 

with a set of snowmen cocoa pots and cups.

I retained blue ornaments on the main Christmas tree, 

but added a lot of red and gold ones as well.

A natural green swag was hung on the staircase railing 

and a multi-colored  led-light tree

brightens up our Carolina room.

 A wreath of red,   green, and gold jingle bells hangs on the front door.

Santa Claus is playing golf in our front yard, 

 and 

a 'Countdown to Christmas' snowman welcomes visitors to our home.

Happy Chanukkah: 12 '19

Having a mixed faith marriage has its challenges, especially when it comes to celebrating the holidays.  We are committed to respecting  each other's faith, and do our best to honor the traditions we each grew up with.  Usually there is no conflict, but this year  the Chanukkah  and Christmas  holidays completely overlapped one another, forcing us to get really creative.  

We decorated one the coffee table in the  living room in white and blue with the Menorah in the center ,  and made sure that everything  else in the room  reflected a Jewish theme appropriate for celebrating the mitzvah of kindling the Chanukkah lights. 

We set the Christmas tree up in the dining room 

next to the table  which was decorated with set with the red and green Christmas  dishes.   

As soon as Christmas day was over. (December 26th)  I  removed all of the red and green ornaments from the tree and replaced them with blue white and silver.

  then did the same with the dining room table.

All the Christmas dishes were packed away that same day, and the table reset with Judeica themed dishes. These will remain in place until Chanukkah ends on Dec 30th when we will

redecorate everything with a snowman theme.

For some celebrating both  holidays may seem a bit strange, but the way we see it, Jesus was a practicing Jew his whole life.  He undoubtedly celebrated Chanukkah himself, so I doubt seriously he would have a problem with our celebrating Chanukkah and his birthday at the same time.

Christmas Day at Market Common" 12 '19

Bruce and I decided to go see the newly released Star wars film "The Rise of Skywalker".  The plot was a bit murky, but the characters and action scenes did not disappoint us.

Then we took a walk about the  Market Common Complex

And found a couple of good spots for some holiday selfies.

Chirstmas Eve PI Beach Walk: 12 '19

We've been pinned down in the house for most of the past week by a series of rain storms, so when we woke to sunshine today, we decided to take advantage of it and go for a walk on the beach.

On the down side it was a bit tough  go getting there.  

The storms had  eroded away the dunes

and deposited the sand from the dunes in new places which buried a lot of the  entrances .

And there were new tidepools blocking  access the north end of the beach

Plus, a cold wind was whipping us with  lot of sand.

But, on the plus side, we had the beach to ourselves, and it was breathtakingly beautiful.  We were glad we made the effort.

Lee's Christmas Cats: 12 '19

Lee's Lilli, Bubba, and Lola/Diabla

One of our neighbor's has been especially kind to us this year. As a way of saying thank-you,

Bruce wood-worked an artsy-craftsy  table-top  representation of her three kitties; then, I painted the cats' coat designs and colors  onto the wood.  Lee was thrilled.

White Christmas Kitties : 12 '19

Bruce Surprised me today with three white Christmas kittens

 that he'd made to decorate one of our tabletops.

I love it!

Bruce's Snowman: 12 ' 19

Bruce's latest wood-working creation is an advent calendar. He set it up on the front porch so we can  easily change the days to Christmas count-down carrot.

Christmas Tree's Up: 12 '19

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas around here.