Search Results for: blog its beginning to smell a lot like christmas

Confession: I Love Christmas Creep

I love Christmas Creep. You know what it is. It’s the Christmas carols playing on the radio since before Thanksgiving. It’s the lights that have been up since Halloween. It’s the house that I walked by the other day in the dark. I fell in love with the owners right away. You see, they had their Halloween spiderwebs up with Christmas lights underneath. Pure joy. I also love the baking. I mean, come on, who doesn’t like baking? I have type 1 diabetes and eat a gluten free diet that incorporate large quantities of veggies and fruits, and I still … Continue reading →

Decorating Your Home For Kwanzaa

In my previous blog I discussed the holiday of Kwanzaa. We are now just a week away from the start of the seven-day festival, which focuses on heritage, family and community. Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday, not a religious one and is meant to serve as an inspiration to African-American families and the community. And while the celebration begins on December 26th and ends January 1st, neither the observance nor the decorations should be combined with Christmas, Hanukkah or the New Year. People celebrating Kwanzaa deck their homes in black, red and green. That color scheme is carried throughout the … Continue reading →

Decorating Your Home For The Holidays—How Do You Stack Up?

An 18-foot Douglas fir decked out with glass ornaments, red satin bows, and cotton snow; 10-foot tall Nutcrackers standing guard at the entrance to a living area; hundreds of yards of garland, dozens of wreaths, and half a dozen gingerbread house centerpieces… no, I’m not describing what the inside of my house looks like this time of year; rather I’m describing all the Christmas pageantry inside the White House. Did I mention the first family’s home even has ivy topiaries shaped like their pets– Scottish terriers Barney and Miss Beazley, and the first cat, Willie? It may put our house … Continue reading →

My Daughter’s Letter To Santa

Let me start by saying that this blog doesn’t include a heart warming anecdote about my wonderful child penning a letter to Santa asking him to forgo her presents in lieu of establishing world peace and providing adequate food and shelter to the millions of needy children in the world. While those are wonderful wishes, and ones I hope will some day make it on my child’s Santa wish list, my kid is 2-years-old and frankly she doesn’t even like Santa. In fact, she is deathly afraid of the guy, and when asked what she wants Santa to bring her … Continue reading →

Real Life Christmas Grinches

It seems as though every time I turn on the television I see yet another news report about some wacko dismantling, destroying, or stealing homeowners’ outdoor Christmas decorations. Just this week alone, seven homeowner’s in our city reported incidents of vandalism and theft involving outdoor nativity sets and inflatable holiday lawn decorations. It got me wondering whether this was an isolated event (as in just in the Midwest) or whether real-life Grinches are stealing Christmas decorations across the country? I discovered that while it is not a national epidemic, there have been numerous reports of holiday vandals wreaking havoc on … Continue reading →

Decorating Tips For Your Holiday Table

When it comes to holiday decorating I always tell my friends that I have good news and bad news. The good news: I purchase all of my holiday decorations on the day after Christmas. I save a bundle and I don’t have to fight crowds this time of year because all of my shopping is done a year in advance. The bad news: when I do go into stores this time of the year I have to use every ounce of willpower I have so as not to give in to the temptation of stocking up on all of the … Continue reading →

Holiday Decorating Tips: Your Home and Yard

At one of the TV stations I used to work at we featured a segment during the month of December called: “Holiday Lights—Show Us Your Stuff.” We’d send a crew to document various homes in the viewing area that captured the holiday spirit. I used to marvel at how creative, and frankly, how incredibly elaborate some homeowners got with their outdoor decorations. Personally, I don’t have the time or money to turn my yard into a mega-watt Winter Wonderland. However, if you have the money but not the time (or motivation) to string hundreds of feet of lights or garland … Continue reading →

Holiday Decorating—Keep It Simple

When it comes to decorating my home for the holidays there is one acronym that always pops in my mind K.I.S.S.—Keep It Simple Stupid. I’m sure you have heard it used in other contexts, but it is appropriately applied to home decorating, especially during the holiday season. Remember: The simpler you keep it, the stronger the message. It may seem like a cop out… a way to get out of stringing dozens of feet worth of lights around your property, hanging garland from the rafters, or framing your living room with hundreds of mini votive candles, but decorating experts agree, … Continue reading →

Tips For Maintaining Your Christmas Tree

So you’ve got your Christmas tree up and decorated–congratulations–you’re ahead of the game in my book. In a previous blog I provided tips on how to choose the perfect Christmas tree, but that job is just the first step. After you cut your own tree at a farm or pick one from a lot you should have it wrapped with some type of netting to bring it home. This makes it easier to transport; protects the tree when you bring it in the house; and makes it easier when you put it in the stand. Which is a great tip: … Continue reading →

Tips For Choosing The Perfect Christmas Tree

The first Saturday in December is traditionally the day our family picks out and puts up our Christmas tree. We’ve hunted down the perfect tree on tree farms (where we not only pick out just the right tree, but also cut it down ourselves), tree lots, and believe it or not, one year I even helped my sister-in-law pick out a Christmas tree from the back of a semi-truck parked on the side of a rural highway. No matter where you choose to purchase your tree there are some hard and fast rules you want to keep in mind before … Continue reading →