Christmas Pretties

Those ancient folks sure had the right idea to start up the festival atmosphere and solstice fun-times when the world is starting to look its crappiest. All the pretty stuff in the natural world goes away, but now Christmas lets us make things look a little better, right? I'll admit - I had my outside lights up on Thanksgiving Day, but only because it was so warm out! I swear!

Here's a few of my favorite decorations this year.

This ingenious, simple and elegant decoration is so easy, I wanted to make a million. In fact, I did at work, to decorate our meeting room. But at home, I had to rein it in a little. I friend posted these directions from Design Sponge as a simple, inexpensive homemade decoration. And they are exactly that. With a little thread and ribbon, they are now strung over my living room windows. I used some scrap booking paper for these, but the simple red and white ones at work look lovely and simple, too.

And here are my absolute favorite decorations on the tree. I think I got these at a Joann's, years ago. Now I wish I'd gotten more, to cover the whole tree. Ooooh, sparklies.

I got this tree topper at Ikea, years ago, too. I love how it's fancy but very rustic at the same time. I do wish that some day, though, I'll be able to convince myself to part with the money needed for a for real tree. Oh well, it's still pretty and sparkly, and silver and gold, just like Burl Ives the snowman says.

Now, I need to figure out if I can take a picture of the outside lights while they're on at night, cause that is my very favorite part of the season - big, fat, colorful lights up, brightening up the night.