I Will Honour Christmas In My Heart

I will honour Christmas in my heart,
and try to keep it all the year.
I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.
I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!

~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Thursday, January 5, 2012

GOOD BYE TO CHRISTMAS 2011 and PLANNING FOR CHRISTMAS 2012!!!!


Have you taken down your Christmas decorations yet????

I did start to take mine down yesterday and this is as far as I got.

I managed to get the Village from underneath the Living Room Tree put away.

I have been working all week but I will get more done when I am off Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. With the shear volume of decorations that I have, it will take me about 2 weeks or so.

Now, I do not take everything down.

I do believe in Winter decorations.

SO some things stay up and just have Christmas items removed. Like my outside decorations in the front of my house. Right now we are in a cold snap and temps have not gotten out of the 20's for the past 2 days. It will be back in the 40's in a day or two. That is when I will remove Christmas, bring out snow men and Happy Winter things and keep the front of the house lit each night , creating a sense of warmth through these long nights of Winter to come.

Last Year's Outside Winter Decorations 2011



This cute little snow man tea pot is something Joe got for me with his comp points from the casino. It will fit in nicely with one of my Winter vignettes......

Last year, I did a post titled " Wait, Don't take down your Christmas Tree".
Please click HERE if you would like to read it.

I do leave up several trees and decorate them as Valentine's Day trees. Some may say this is more work, but for me, it is easier than taking down and packing away 17 trees!!!

Last Year's Valentine's Day Living Room Tree 2011

Valentine's Day Dining Room Tree 2011

New Victorian style ornaments that I will be using for Valentine's Day......

So stay tuned as I redecorate the house for Winter and Valentine's Day.

I do have some new ideas up my sleeve.

I will most likely post links to these posts here as I will now go back to posting mainly on my regular blog, Debbie-Dabble.

So.........Are you planning already for Christmas 2012??

I am!!

As I stopped and reflected on this Christmas, I realized that Christmas sort of got away from me this year. I realized that as I fell behind in my decorating, I ignored and did not take the TIME to do things that I really wanted to do this Christmas.

Here is a few:

Go and visit Country Folks, one of my favorite stores to visit at Christmas

Last Year's Country Folks 2010




Attend a Christmas Tea at Sugar's Tea Room as I have other years

Sugar's 2010


Attend a Christmas concert at our church

Our Church decorated for Christmas 2011


Attend a Christmas Tea at the Stegmaier Mansion

A Tea at the Stegmaier in 2011

Just take a drive to look at Christmas lights in different neighborhoods

House in the Area decorated 2011

I put off doing these things this year because I needed TIME to finish decorating the house.

I then came to the conclusion that I pretty much spent the entire season in my home.

Now don't get me wrong, I love my home , especially decorated for Christmas but the loss of all these other things this Christmas left me feeling quite sad.

As if Christmas passed me by this year.....

So I am already planning for next Christmas ..........

I am working on a Christmas Master Plan that I will keep in a Christmas Binder that I have been working on. Maybe you think that this may be too regimented an approach but I work full time so I need to be organized and apparently, I need to be more organized than I was this year. SO I have started to plan for next Christmas.

I have already looked at this year's calendar and are you aware that in the United States, our Thanksgiving in 2012 will be an early one?

On November 22!!!!

This will give us almost an extra week added to the Christmas season!!!! Yippee!! More TIME to prepare......

December 1st is a Saturday, giving us 5 weekends in December next year....

Christmas Eve will be a Monday and Christmas Day will be a Tuesday because of Leap Year in 2012......

December 2012

I will be posting my progress and thoughts on this plan through out the year here on A Debbie-Dabble Christmas so please check in from time to time to see what I am up to.

And of course, I plan on posting all things Christmas here through out the year.

This weekend, we will be visiting our good friends, Tony and Anne Marie. Anne Marie's home is always beautifully decorated but especially so at Christmas. She has left her decorations up and I will be taking a lot of pictures so please come back for the Tour of her home this coming Monday.

Anne Marie and Tony's House 2010


You will not be disappointed!

I also want to show you this darling stocking I won in Shannon's Giveaway over at Cozy Home Scenes.
Shannon is starting a new Blog Party which will be held on Tuesdays. It will be called Cozy Home Party and you can link up posts featuring pretty much everything and anything. I know I will be linking up and joining in on the fun!

Click HERE to read about it.

I LOVE the stocking, Shannon!! Thanks so much!!

And one last thing....

Joe went to Wegman's Food Store the other day.

These cards were originally $16.00 a box......

He bought these 4 boxes for 50 cents a box!! He figured out that it was 96% off!!!

Have I trained him well or what??????

I am linking up to these parties:

Masterpiece Monday

Blue Monday

Mod Mix Monday

Amaze Me Monday

Metamorphosis Monday

Tabletop Tuesday

Cozy Home Party Tuesday

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Wow Us Wednesday

Rednesday

Vintage Thingie Thursday

Open House Party Thursday

Home Sweet Home Friday

Show and Tell Friday

Potpourri Friday

Vintage Inspiration Friday

Thrifty Things Friday

Pink Saturday

Seasonal Sunday

Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and every day that you take the time to visit with me!

Hugs,
Debbie

13 comments:

  1. Well, Debbie, I have thoroughly enjoyed your Christmas blog with all the posts on your holiday decorating. I tried to leave a comment on most, but sometimes I was pressed for time.
    I usually do not even think of taking down my Christmas decorations until after January 6. Then I try to do it systematically, always taking photos to remind me next year.
    Sadly, this season I did not get to post hardly any of my decorations. I just did not have the energy to photograph and write up about each project until Christmas was already over, and everyone in blogland seemed to be moving on to other topics.
    No, you are not being too organized. I have long had checklists of all sorts to keep me on track. I look forward to your next posts.
    Happy New Year dear Christmas enthusiast! May God grant you joy and prosperity in 2012!
    Sincerely,
    Carrie

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  3. Debbie, maybe you spent Christmas in your own home, but you sure brightened my season so much by sharing all the beauty of your decorations with all of us here in blogland.

    You are such an inspiration to me, I have only one tree and it takes me forever to decorate it. I can only imagine how much time you put into your gorgeous home.

    I wish I could have left my tree up awhile longer, but all the needles fell off. It was really sad. Maybe next year I'll get a fresher tree.

    Thank you again for letting us enjoy the fruits of your efforts.

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  4. Ooooh, lots of pretty Christmas ideas here! And Yup, I already have started my 2012 Christmas idea notebook! I have to say, way to go hubby! I love the Christmas cards! They are so bright and cheerful (my favorite kind!). Thank you for joining TTF and have a wonderful weekend!

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  5. For next year already? ha love all your pretty trees....i bet it's all a fairytale in person. i really enjoyed all your holiday posts sharing your beautiful decor! Hope you are having a fabulous start to the new year! xoox, tracie

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  6. Debbie you shared so much inspiration the Christmas season. I enjoyed your lovely home tour, your decorations and trees were so beautiful. I'm still amazed how you do it all. I'm sure glad you do, I get lots of ideas from you. Look forward to ideas in the New Year. May it be wonderful for you and yours.
    Love your music……..

    Happy New Year
    Blessings,
    Emily ~ The French Hutch

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  7. I love your Blog! You sure go all out! :) We haven't started taking it down yet but will this weekend. :(
    Not looking forward to that.
    ~Liz

    P.S. I'm following you now... hope you will come by and say hi.

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  8. Goodness Debbie ! what wonderful photos ... love to see all your decorations and trees.
    (())

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  9. OH my I can't wait for VAlentine's day too!
    Hugs
    Olivia

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  10. I love your blog. newest follower from blog hop... would love a follow back too! I'll be back through all of the seasons! laura

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  11. Wowzers!
    I've never quite seen such a gorgeous Christmas blog like yours!
    You must have enormous amounts of energy! Would you kindly like to share some with me? I put up one tiny tree and I'm exhausted. Tee hee...I will bookmark your lovely blog to return...
    Happy Pink Day!

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  12. I'm planning for next Christmas too! Hopefully, organization will make me more efficient!

    I'm working on day 2 of clean up - one full tree done :-) and several partially done. I took lots of pictures this year and am going to put them on a digital picture thing so I can still experience Christmas throughout the year!

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  13. Oh the joy of visiting blogs on weekend, everything you see is gorgeous and sweet. I love it!

    Come see my PINK, when you get a chance. Have a great weekend!

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