What Inspires You at Christmas?

Okay, as you ready your home

for Christmas, what inspires you?

Me, I am inspired every year

when these come up from the cellar: 

15 boxes of holiday stuff.

Howard and I did that this morning before he went to work.

(Sporting a bit of basement schmutz on his suit,

which hopefully rubbed off on other subway commuters.)

I'm going to be moving the boxes into the Dining Room;

that's my central staging area for Christmas prep. 

(Last year's charming jumble o' stuff, above.)

Other boxes figure in at Christmas, delivered almost daily.

Below, something for Howard, and a matching one for Josh.

Sshhh . . . don't tell, don't peek!

This corner will hold the Dining Room tree.

A reminder:

Fashion these tiny cups into ornaments for the Dining Room tree.

As for other inspiration, I've been poking around Blog Land and

seeing gorgeous ideas for making homes just sing with joy

at Christmas.

New favorites?  The many homes featuring natural decor --

big pinecones and wide swathes of fir roping.  Stunning.

I will have good intentions of doing something like that,

but will end up with glue-and-glitter anyway.  I do like my holiday bling!

But my first chore is wading through these:

I love opening these packed boxes each year.

As I pull out each ornament or figurine or candleholder, and 

unwrap it, it feels almost like . . . Christmas!

:-)

Happy Christmas to all.

Here at That Old House, it's time for lunch, and then

I must drop a bit of Dylan Dog's latest lawn sculpture at the vet's.

Too much information?

All the best ... Cass