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