Aside from a kitten-wrangling, and a small bit of stitching, the only thing I completed this weekend was getting my Christmas decorations up.

Normally, I like to get them up right at the start of the month, but I was a little behind this year because of the visit to Mom’s.

There are a couple new additions this year.

I have a couple sets of bows for the front porch, and I change them up each year. I didn’t need any new ones, but these ones caught my eye at the dollar store so they came home with me and have been added to the rotation.

The dollar store also yielded up some beautiful oversized plastic ornaments that were just so pretty.

From the ReStore came this jolly fellow.

He was stupidly cheap, and I bought him to join my Dad’s blow mold collection. Dad already had one just like him, so I decided to keep him. He doesn’t 100% go with my theme (silver/blue) but I decided to give him a trial this year. I can always sell him for a decent profit next year if I decide against him.

And of course, there’s some seasonal greenery

But of course, the real question is …. how does it look all lit up?

Pretty darn good, if I do say so myself! I love the look of all white lights. Sadly, my icicle lights weren’t working this year. Dave was tasked with trying to fix them (he’s handy with electronics and lights) but it was not to be. He suspected it was a transformer issue, but the transformer box was glue shut, and Dave would have to break the box to get to it. So into the bin they went. I didn’t love them – they had a tendency to hang at odd angles – so next year I’ll look for something to replace them.

Santa doesn’t look completely out of place, but he’s still not 100% on theme.

And keen eyes* may notice something else new.

We got some pretty little birch trees to compliment our fancy deer. I do wish I could get all the white lights to match. The trees said they were “warm white” which is what my main lights are, but as you can see the trees have a little bit of a pink tint to them. And of course the deer are VERY bright white.

Still – I’m very happy with how it looks. The snow we had was starting to melt when I was decorating, and Monday brought a day of rain, so there is zero snow now. But I’m sure more is on the way. We might even get a white Christmas (which is never a sure thing here).

* Really keen eyes will also notice something missing. My new gnome isn’t out yet. We still have to give him a clear coat, and just haven’t had a chance to yet!