Got most of my Christmas shopping done yesterday, to the grocery store, the pharmacy and one or two other stops. I got Danny's home theater system and it weighs like 2500 lbs. or something in the box. It's not the soundbar type as nobody likes those so I got a regular one with the tiny speakers, larger central speaker & still larger subwoofer, etc., though still they are very small compared to our old speakers. My neighbor had to help me get it into the house - well, she did it all actually - and then wrapping that thing was a fight to the death - the absolute death! I got it on the big piece of paper for wrapping, got it partially taped and realized the two pieces met on the top of the package. Well it has been a long time since I've wrapped a gift. Had to untape it, cut fresh paper edged, struggle to get it off the paper without tearing the paper, roll it over onto its top and ease it back onto the big sheet of paper! That took 15 minutes in all. Finally got the box wrapped - just had to sit down in the floor to do it and then gently turned back up upright, found a big, red bow about 16" across and very tall to go on the top, then I had to get it into the den and beside the tree without tearing it or rupturing discs. I'll bet wrapping that present took an hour in all, from getting out the paper, scissors, tape and wrapped and eased into the den under the tree. I was just about done for when I sat down to look at the tree. That box is so big it almost blocks off the way to the living room door. But, it's done!!! I can officially wish myself Merry Christmas now that all of Danny's things are under the tree. Now for the rest of them yet to wrap. Maybe later today.

Is anybody else done wrapping?

In my case the question is actually... Is anything wrapped yet? :p

And the bad part is my memory SUCKS so I can't remember what all I got for people over the year and have hidden in the house... Well at work too because I was just looking for something in my desk and found two things hidden here lol and I just got the email that the present Guinness got daddy will not be here till the 27th :(

Ohhhh, I went through that for years. I would buy all year long and then started the wild, frantic hunt through the house right around 12-20- and it wasn't pretty! I missed a few things, too, LOL, and later the next year would run across them and rehide them for the next Christmas and rehunt that December and so on. Now I just shop late and try to do it all within a few days. That's not pretty either as my back is always "out" for Christmas lately from doing all that shopping and wrapping last minute.

You should have seen the HUGE pile of stuff I found after my grandmother that raised me passed lol I was 29 then and found toys even she had hidden them so good lol All kind of gold necklaces, ear rings, bracelets too.

Ohhh, that's sweet. She was still giving that long after.

Yea it helped that year finding everything because she passed away the end of that Nov.

I'm late I'm late it's 1/2 past 5pm LOL
 

Well the Food shopping is done, all the gifts are wrapped:D and now under the tree except for some I think have foodie type stuff in them. silverware cleaned, and serving dishes too:) Oh yes I have to finish flower arrangements. Will do that tonight.

Dressings are made. Dessert is done. Just wash and groom the pups tomorrow, brine the turkey, and then at last....... It is Christmas time! Whoops set the table for Xmas...and last minute clean ups. But hey I think I am prepared!

We have a loverly Xmas with Church and then to a good friends home for supper.

Now that the pups are older we can sleep in a bit. :D:D the boys will get their Xmas hair ties on, and very last thing I put their new toys on the tree - hubby went and squeaked one and it was pandemonium with the boys - they KNOW the sounds of a new toy! I re hid them in the top shelf of the closet. Of course Karma our cat obliged by opening the door, Razzle scented out just where they were, but despite how tall Magic can stretch - Failure they could not get the new toys down;)

I really do love this time of year. My very best to you all in this wondrous Season.http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/images/icons/rose.gif

You have been one busy girl!

That's the only downside of the holidays - the constant fatigue! And I almost use that word literally these days!!! These last few days are nonstop and there is way too much always to do. Tibbe just had his bath and laundry is done. Tomorrow I will get last minute food and I just found out my wonderful chef neighbor is bringing Christmas dinner to Danny and me!!!!! We were just going to lay in some deli meats, a pizza and some breads, etc., and have all the sweet goodies as our main course, plus the egg nog. I've got the dogs gifts to wrap for Tibbe and Danny's Tex. Now, just sitting here numb, tired and watching the favorite Christmas video "The Sights and Sounds of Christmas" from the '80's the put out on DVD a while back. Such glorious music and all the wonderful Christmasy scenes are wonderful go see. All those toys, nutcrackers, decorations, Christmas trees, cards, outdoor lights and family scenes around the Christmas tree!!!! Glorious Christmas footage from all over! It's the best Christmas music ever, too, - even Bing's "White Christmas", "Rudolph", Gene Autry's "Here Comes Santy Claus". It you all don't own this 90 minute video, you should.

Awh Jeanie I know what you mean about busyness over this time of year.

As I've grown older and continue to deal with a chronic condition - I am in the process of learning how to pace things better. I think I've chosen to do less with more love. My house isn't as "perfect" anymore. I don't sweat it if all the decorations don't get up in one year. I spend less time wrapping, and more time choosing those gifts. I select recipes that freeze well, so I can make food and treats ahead of time and store in the freezer.

And even now today Christmas Eve I have time to choose to spend a little of it here on YT.

All the laundry isn't done - but hey it will be there on the 26th our special Christmas linens are washed, ironed and ready to be put on our beds. It will get done, without fuss or stress.

My hubby helped yesterday, well it was the first time, I asked for help in getting the shopping for food done. It went so well. He was there to do the heavy lifting for me. Such a gift. My butcher had put aside the meats I usually order and somehow forgot to do, so when we went there to hopefully get what I needed, he said of course Gail we have your usual order ready! How lovely what a gift!

I feel very blessed with all the love in my life. My family and friends, both here on YT and here in Toronto. This is our first Christmas without our gal Zoey, and I've been thinking about her a whole lot. I can so see her tail wagging, and the happy jumps she did. I do so hope she somehow knows I am thinking of her, especially at this time of year!

Sounds like you have learned how to do it right! Hoping you had the best of Christmases and enjoyed it all and are not too tired. Pacing yourself and cutting out some of the "extra's" are key in dealing with Christmas and physical hardships of any kind.

I had most of my decorations cleaned, packed away, a shower and was sitting on the couch in lounging pajamas by 12:40 p.m. yesterday. Still only have the Christmas Tree, with lifesize Santa Claus and 35" Shirley Temple standing beside it. I meant to leave my Ideal Baby Jesus but he got swept up, too, packed away. All the rest has been put away for another 11 months. I love to get my over the top decorating cleared up and put away very quickly after Christmas and have everything back to normal except for my favorite pieces - the tree, Santa Claus and Shirley Temple(the Ideal Shirley was just added last year - before that it was a 33" Danbury Mint Shirley). And now Baby Jesus by Ideal. He's coming back out of storage today and staying under the tree to keep Sana and Shirley company until January 2nd - that's usually when it all goes back to storage. I don't know, this year, Santa may go into storage soon. He is a little too Christmasy to me now. Unless I can turn him into Father Time for New Year's Eve with a long, straight wig/beard and Father Time robes, SC may be going back in the next day or so. If not, I might stick a champagne glass in one of his hands and put a NYE party hat on his head, cover him in streamers.

I shop all year. We have birthdays and Christmas to close to each other. I have 2 bins that I put all the gifts in, so no losing anything. I also have damage to my spine, neck and shoulder so I have to pase myself. I can not believe you have everything packed up already. Wow.

It's good to have the most of it gone now and things back to a neater look. Still enjoying that tree, though. Each year I hate to take the tree and lights down. It's so darn pretty. I wish we had lighted trees for other celebrations during the year!

Sorry to hear about your physical problems. Those are such a pain in every sense. I've had the awful back for years and then added the hip! Ugh. Thankfully, after surgery, my hip slowly getting better. But having physical problems sure makes life tough, huh?

Umm you mean I am suppose to already have stuff taken down? :p heck I still have a stack of presents under my tree even lol
Oh and I actually do have lighted tree branches in my house year round sooo I see no problem with a whole tree haha

Jeanie my dd has a small tree that she decorates for Valentines day, Easter and halloween..

Betty, I like that tradition of your dd's. I would love a tradition of something that is lit and decorated for Valentine's and Easter and FOJ. An appropriately colored tree that looked different from the Christmas type tree but was still something to decorate with lights. Maybe a flower tree for Easter that was pink or yellow or orchid colored? And a red heart tree for Valentine's. I just love the lighted Christmas tree so much I might get a decorative ficus for white lights or something. Still, that seems so plain.

Ficus are moody plants and it might throw a tantrum and shed all its leaves it you put stuff on and take it off monthly.
Trying to think of a puppy safe plant... Hmm maybe even a topiary??
You could do Valentines, St Patty's, Easter, then you have Labor Day, armed forces day and memorial in May flag day in June Independence Day in July so you can stick with red, white, blue and stars for that period then by Sept you jump into autumn colors then halloween, thanksgiving and christmas..... You could just stick with white lights to keep it simple and do bows and like eggs for Easter, rainbows, gold coins and shamrocks for st Patty's and flags for the American pride times.

Oh, good idea! I love topiaries!

For some reason I missed that first sentence about the hopeless ficus. At least hopeless living long in my home. I put up with those leaves and mess for way too long when I bought 3 at once. I wanted to take an ax to them after only a few months but kept them around for a year or almost a year and finally just sat them out front for any unwitting fool to take or for the environmental crew to pick up, whichever came first!

I should have said a fake ficus, one of those well-done faux ficus trees you can get nowadays and not those crummy ones that had about 10 - 12 years ago. That is what I maybe want to get to decorate with lights. But the topiary is higher on my want list probably right now.

I'm really going to miss this Christmas tree festive atmosphere once it finally has to go to storage. It is truly beautiful to see little tiny lights winking in the evening, reflecting off the flooring or things that pass and glitter. You can turn down the lights in the room and the glow is so pretty. So I think I'll get some white lights, pink ones and a couple strings of RW&B ones for FOJ once I find the right topiary or ficus and get it here.

Well, all my Christmas decorations are now put away except the tree. Santa Claus and I had a steelcage match-to-the-death wrestling match a while ago and he's dusted, beard/wig shaken out, head packed to protect the face, sacked up in plastic over his base up to his waist and one meeting and overlapping it over his shoulders and down to below the knees, taped closed and wheeled on the little dolly back to the hobby room. His sack and fake presents that go in it are packaged away.

All that is left standing in the den is the Christmas tree with its white "snow" skirt and the 35" Shirley Temple in the pink party dress standing beside it.

Whew, now, later today or tomorrow, out come the top hats, black walking sticks, white globes and white evening scarves, champagne bottles and glasses, old-fashioned brass, twin-bell ticking clock counting down to midnight, streamers, noisemakers, NYE party hats and more streamers. I usually use my large 25" and 27" Kewpies for my NY decorations and one of them is always dressed in the New Year's big white baby diaper with huge pin in the front, a tophat, and Happy 2013 banner across it's chest. Sometimes I just use a lifesize baby doll or a huge Teddy Bear for the New Year's Baby, though. Right now, it's all I can do to drink my Diet Coke, let alone think about decorating more right now.

I may just drape a champagne bottle in a streamer and be done with New Year's Eve decorating the way I feel right now!!! Santa nearly did me in!

I was wondering how long everyone leave their decorations up. I usually leave them up until New Years. The last day I have my lights illuminated is New Years Day- night. Do you all take them down on a certain day each year? Its just so depressing to take everything down. My day to day decor just seems so boring after having all the Christmas stuff up.

Welllllllll my christmas tree is still up lol and my new dripping icicle lights, I just can not bring myself to take them down yet but I figure Sunday I will break down and do it. Heck I still have presents under my tree even. :p

I typically take mine down around Jan 10-12ish. I always have a white elephant party the Sunday after New Years so it's an excuse to keep everything up until then :D

I asked Hubby if he could bring up the big bins that all the Christmas decorations go in today, that way when I get home I can put it all away. It actually does not take me too long. I used to try to decorate all the house, but now I just decorate the kitchen/living room area. Makes decorating and undecorating a bit easier! I so will miss the tree, maybe I'll keep that up until the weekend. Everything else will go away tonight though.

All I've still got out is the Christmas Tree with its white "snow" skirt and I can't let it go!!! Maybe this weekend. Besides, des, I have to get a plastic container to store it in. It will NEVER go back in that box it came in unless I mash the devil out of it and I just can't mash it all down again. Took me too long to go over it 360 degrees from top to bottom every limb and bend each separate branch out the way I wanted it. Besides, I'm still feeling holiday-ish. Most of the neighbors don't take their lights down the first week after Christmas I guess in case we have snow or ice later in January, they all turn them on at night. But usually you don't see Christmas lights or trees in the windows here after 1-1. But my tree is in the den so I can light it nights and no one but me knows!

One Christmas my back was out and the tree was still up on Valentine's Day! I had moved it into the front spare bedroom and kept the door to the room closed as I was so embarrassed for anyone to see it, even if I was moaning and groaning.

My next door neighbor had her beautiful blue ?spruce? or ?fir? out on the curbside 12-26-12! It looked perfectly healthy, wasn't dry and it hurt to see that big, tall, gorgeous tree still so full lying there as Tibbe and I walked by. And on the underside of the upsweep, the blue was so definite and so pretty. She almost always has her tree on her parkway and all decorations down the day after Christmas but this year, her huge wreaths are still on the front door and the garage door.

I LOVE blue spruce! Oh my gosh. Many years ago (another lifetime ago it feels now) my ex fiance and I bought an old house that was completely redone, it was GORGEOUS! It had 9 foot ceilings and for our first Christmas we got an 8ft blue spruce real tree. It was STUNNING! I really wish I took pics more, I have just my memory, which is getting foggy now since this was I believe 10 years ago now. Anyways, it smelled so wonderful and the whole house smelled like it. It was tall and just beautiful! I would LOVE to have a house with high ceilings again someday so I can get another gorgeous blue spruce tree!

Well, I thought this tree was false at first, it was that perfect and pretty in shape. But it was real - poor thing. It was so fat and its needles still almost rubbery! I feel stupid feeling bad for a used dead Christmas tree but usually they look so old and dry and tired that you are sort of glad they are going to be recycled! But this pretty big thing looked brand new, as if it had just been very recently cut and bought a day or two before and was so pretty and huge. I would have still had it up if it had been mine - just enjoying the beauty of it. But my neighbor is like that, she always takes her tree down the day after Christmas.

I'll bet you are going to have another of those blue spruce's again if you have memories that vivid still of that one you did have. If this one was a blue spruce, they sure are pretty!

See if mine was dead looking I would have no problem saying goodbye and I have even stoped feeding it... but yet mine still lives on all pretty hmm wonder if somebody is feeding it yellow water hmmmm

If it's still healthy-looking, maybe so!!!!! ;)

Bumping this thread for Julianne/Jellybaby from Ireland to see the 35" Ideal Shirley Temple doll produced in this country years ago.

Julianne, I'll try to find the Shirley Temple doll's post # on here and tell you which page she is on. Hugs! Jeanie

(Sorry all who are not ready at all to see ANYTHING even mentioning Christmas :eek: in the dead of summer! Please just pretend you didn't see it!) :)

Oh thank goodness! I was going to grumble about people being just way too organized!