Each year I've pulled a few of the ornaments that the kids really liked and given (locally to the daughter with a tree this year) or sent them (tucked in with gifts to the kid in the Pac NW) - so trees and ornaments are certainly topical this time of year and in this thread. I pull out some of the crystal pitchers and large vases (so much of this stuff - all from my great aunt's house) and carefully fill them with the various colors of glass tree ball ornaments. There are three up-lights on the mantle where they are placed and along with a string of lights wound through some faux-fir garland it looks quite festive in that small area. I go with themes - some years there are a few Santas set in amongst the greenery, other times various animal shapes. Or the nutcrackers. I gave away a couple of the big nutcrackers grabbed on sale at the grocery store and kept the ones my sister brought back from what used to be East Germany and a few others family members collected.

This morning I brought home a couple of more packing boxes from the cat sitting house (she sets them aside for me - they have packing materials that are good for shipping the eBay glasses). Also a robust plastic storage bin drawer thing that I'm pretty sure my daughter can use (with her voluminous collection of costume parts and materials). The last run is hopefully this afternoon for their lunch. And then I'll make a stop at a friend's downtown apartment with some leftovers from our Sunday dinner. I haven't had time to do that till now.

It's a bright clear fall day today, and I took time this morning to sweep out the track of my sliding glass back door and WD-40 it into working smoothly. The yard could use some attention also—here we are into December and the Bermuda grass still isn't dormant.