DECORATING AT WORK, BAKING AND COLLECTIONS!!

Well, this is most likely my last post before Christmas so.....

I want to wish all of you a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

And may you spend it with those you love!!


I have a new Ops Manager at work and she wanted to decorate our department so that we could make a decent showing in the annual Christmas Decorating Contest that the Health Care System I work for holds.

Now other years, since they moved my department to a different location other than the main large hospital, we have had very few decorations.
Someone mentioned my name and long story short, I was sort of put in charge of Christmas decorations. Imagine that????

So here is a tour of where I spend most of my time....

Welcome to the Rehab Department in which I work.......

This is what you see when you get off the elevator in Rehab. This hallway leads down to our Break Room on the right and the Day Room for patients at the end of the hallway on the left.

I thought 2 wreaths on each side of the walls would be a nice Welcome.


I made the wreaths....

This is our Nurse's Station.....

I had this spare potted tree in our Storage Shed ( you know me with trees).

I decorated it with some Shatterproof Balls....

We don't really have the space for a large tree in the station....

This is a live poinsettia. When I was tying the bow around the pot, I thought it was silk because of the glitter on the leaves and then I saw the dirt in the pot!!!

I had this candle holder ( also down my storage shed ) so I decorated it a bit and since we can not have candles, I just put some glittered balls where the candles would go....

You can see 2 of my co workers in the background....

One of my co workers from night shift brought in the garland and gold bows....

I also had a spare Alpine trees so I put this in an out of the way spot in our busy Nurse's station and added some red and gold ornaments bought by our Nurse Practitioner.

I placed it on top of a box which I wrapped with a blanket and used a little tree skirt that I brought in from home.

Our Unit Secretary covered most of the art work on the walls with red and gold foil wrapping paper making them look like presents!


Down the hallway , is the Day Room. It is a large room with tables and the patients some times eat lunch in there. In the evening when they are done with Physical Therapy, some of them spend time in there with their families. There is a 60 inch big screen TV and sometimes, a volunteer with come in and play Bingo and other games with the patients.

So that is where we decided to place the big tree.
'Here are the windows , looking into the Day Room from the hallway. I sprayed Snow on them....

I love how you see the lights of the tree looking in the windows....

And here is the tree.....

I decorated it with just plain ball ornaments and we had a bunch of snow flake ornaments from the Dollar Store from previous years.

We had wrapped boxes as presents last year and I brought in a lighted house that I was not using for under the tree....

I know this is blurry but I thought it still looked pretty.....


Simple but I think it looks pretty. The Day Room will surely be used on Christmas Day by whatever patients that we are not able to send home and have to stay in the hospital. They can enjoy it with their families.....

Well, that was my Tour of where I spend probably most of my life!!!! And this is where I will be Christmas Day Night.....

I did find time to bake cookies....

Chocolate chip cookies , fresh out of the oven....

And Potato Chip Cookies....

I also made fudge, Ricotta Cheese cookies with Butterscotch drops and Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip cookies.

I will be sending some home with the boys on Christmas Day.....

In a previous post, I showed you books that I had saved. These were the Christmas books that I used to read to both of my sons.

Some I bought new and some are vintage Golden Books from Estate Sales....

Frosty, Santa's Toy Shop and Santa's Surprise Book are ones that I remember from my childhood.....

And these were newer ones....


And I loved this book that I bought at a Catholic Guild Store..


I have collected Praying Santa's since then....

And Joey, my oldest son, always loved " A Christmas Carol" because there was a ghost in the story!!

LOL!!

And I want to share with you my Christmas Mug collection!!!

These are the first things I unpack when getting out the Christmas decorations!!

I have had these 3 for many years.....

I love the handles....

I collected these Coke Santa Mugs from Long John Silver's also many years ago....

Each one has the description of the picture on the front....

And I love my vintage cup that I bought at a yard sale.....

It is a Lefton....

and these are 2 new mugs that I bought for 25 cents each at a church Flea Market....

I just LOVE the pictures on these 2....

Love the horse and buggy inside this mug....

And the bottom of it.....


Well, that pretty much is the end of all the pics I took with my now broken camera.

It will take weeks to have it repaired so I am thinking of buying another one and having 2 , using one as a spare.

Any suggestions on what type of camera I should now get??? Something in the $150 $175 price range????

I am off Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights so I will be home Christmas Eve. We will be having our traditional Polish Holy Supper with pierogies, scallops, whole potatoes with butter, shrimp and chicken fingers for Joey since he does not like fish.
Joe and I will be going to Christmas Day Mass and I will be serving Christmas Day Dinner with turkey, stuffing, ham and kielbasi.
Jim, Danielle and Joey will be here both days .

That will be my Christmas present....spending it with the people I love the most.

I am working Christmas Day Night but that is okay. Hospitals don't shut down for the Holidays and someone has to do it.
I do look forward to the time when some day I can stay home for an entire Holiday and not have to go to work. In the last 34 years, I only ever had 2 entire Christmas holidays off and that was with the birth of each one of my sons.

I hope I live long enough to actually get a Christmas Eve and a Christmas Day off!!

SOOOOOOO.......

I will close by wishing all of you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

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Thanks so much for visiting me!!

Hugs,
Debbie