This is the last quiet minute...

...before the holiday guests begin arriving. Lovely G and Precious C arrive tomorrow from Florida and thus begins the fun and chaos of having the children and the grandchildren in the house.

We will have a series of guests from 12/24 through 1/6. I am sure when they are all gone, it will be nice to have the house back to just the kitties, The Mister and myself. Right now, though, we can hardly wait to see everyone.

There are still several details to finish up before the morning, so I will leave you with a few of my favorite ornaments...

Dearest Sister made me a set of tiny patchwork ornaments about 25 years ago. They were designed to hang on a Swedish Dowel tree, but I have always hung them on the regular tree. It is good to have unbreakable ornaments to hang on the low branches, when toddlers are about.

This cutie-pie ceramic mouse was made and given to me by DS's, Grandbebe's Mama when she was a young teen. It seems like it was only a few years ago, but it must have been 10 or 12. It always reminds me of the great big gatherings that we used to have when we all lived within a half day's drive.

Of course, this ornament was created by Ms A. It was probably a Girl Scout project, or perhaps made in school. The media is plastic ball with glitter and markers. Now, Ms A makes her living from her fine arts training, and her media of preference has evolved....

This is an ornament that she made several Christmas's ago. It is prismacolor on copper and it hangs on the kitchen curtain rod most of the year. I just can't pack it away!

Her work is more sophisticated now, but I still love the plastic ball!

I hope everyone has a joyous holiday,surrounded by those they love!

Merry Christmas,

Jan