Ahhhh...Christmas.

In Virginia, Jerry and I made large candy canes out of wood, painted the stripes and added hinges so we could store them. We put those up for years and held a children’s Christmas party every year. The kids always liked the canes. I started with a cookie swap, then the children’s party a week later, and that tradition ran from preschool to fifth grade. We hoped it would run thru graduation, but kids get weird in middle school. Jerry used the jigsaw to cut the wood and installed nails for a Williamsburg Christmas badge, and I covered it every year with fresh magnolias, apples and the pineapple on top. We had one particularly warm Christmas and I had to keep running outside, getting on the latter, and re-gluing the pineapple and fruit b/c it was melting. Other years, everything became encased in ice and it couldn’t come down until it all melted, including lights on trees.

The year we had Kyra (English labrador), we installed a large bolt in the corner of the family room and tethered the tree to it. You can figure out why. We soon learned to put no decorations below her wagging tail height. You can figure out why on that, too.

The house at 4007 Pinebrook Road was a lovely place to enjoy holidays where mother nature put on a show. The back room was three sides of nearly floor to ceiling windows. Falling trees, lightning, and especially snow falls were magical in that room. Add a roaring fire and a nice glass of brandy and it was perfection.

More pictures coming.