Guitarless

 I am officially without a guitar.  

When Cody was here for Thanksgiving, he asked if he could take my old guitar with him.  He's wanting to branch out into playing country music, and needed an acoustic for that.  Don't worry, he says he's going to play the more traditional style, not this country rock crap that's been coming out lately. 

Anyway, he asked if he could have mine, and to be honest, I struggled a bit with that decision.  I still have the desire to learn to play the guitar, but I just don't have the passion for it that I thought I did.  The piano is where my heart is, so in the end, I said the old guitar needed to be making music instead of sitting in the corner gathering dust.  And Cody can actually play.  Funny, though, now that it's gone, I'm going through just a bit of mourning.  It's more the dream than the instrument, but I have to be realistic.  I've tried three times to learn to play the thing, and it just wasn't happening.  

Maybe someday, I'll pick that old violin of his up and start fiddling around with it again.  No pun intended...

It has rained all day long today, which we desperately needed.  I haven't checked my rain gauge, so I don't know exactly how much has fallen, but it started shortly after I got up, and hasn't stopped since.    It was a good day to stay inside and watch Christmas shows.  And knit.  Only I haven't taken a picture of my sock, so I can't show you.  I can tell you I've turned the heel and am doing the gusset decreases -- my least favorite part of sock knitting.  

I also finished putting out my Christmas decorations, so I'm fixing to bombard you with photos again.  Bear with me.  It's the only way I'll know how to do it next year.  Ready?  OK, here we go...

The...thing...above my fireplace.  For the life of me, I can't figure out why they would put this...whatever it is...here.  I put that little nativity and the lanterns there.  Those lanterns are new, by the way.  The old ones I had had rusted through, so I replaced them.  I may do away with the holders next year, and just set the lanterns down in the space. 

The door between my kitchen and living room.  I've been wanting to replace this with lighted garland.  I just haven't done it yet. 

And the other side, going to from the living room to the kitchen.  Kindly ignore the mess on my cabinets.  It's been cleaned up since.  

I'm really pleased with the way this turned out. Beverly gave me all of this garland when they moved, but this is the first year I've put it out.  It's the first year I've had a mantle.  I want to get a string of white lights to run along there, too.  I think that'll brighten it up right nicely.    

The bells over this nativity are new.  I needed something to hang in that big empty spot.  I bought the silver ones, because that corner is kind of dark, and I thought they'd brighten it up a bit, but now I'm kind of wishing I'd gotten the gold bells.  Oh well...

I made those stockings when I was a kid.  They were those pre-printed fabric things, and when I saw them in the craft section of the local KMart,  I wanted them so badly I worried my mother until she bought them for me.  Then, when I'd sewn them up, I gave them to my Mammaw as a Christmas gift.  I got them back after she died, and have hung them up ever since. 

I found an extra bow, so I stuck it onto the corned of my It Is Well sign.  It's just what it needed.

And I just stuck a few Christmassy knick-knacks on the tops of these bookshelves. 

This stand thing belonged to my Mammaw.  I guess nobody else wanted it.  It's a good place for all these little bits and bobs. 

The bottom of my entertainment center:

And a star I hung behind the tree.  

And this snowman star I think was a gift from my sister in law.  I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but it's been so long...

My front door wreath.

And my car port doors.

A Christmas candle with a little mouse that I made at least 20 years ago.

Santa and a couple of elves, which I also made at least 20 years ago. 

And finally, the tree, in all her glory.

That's about it for this year.  I keep saying one day my house will look like a Hallmark movie set, but this is not that year.  When I'd finished putting everything out that I'm going to put out, I had a bunch of stuff left over that I knew I'd probably never use.  I advertised it in the local freebies group, and a couple came and picked it up this afternoon.

They messaged me that they were coming, and I replied that I'd put the decorations in a box in the carport for them.  When they got here, the dude walked right past this huge honking box of stuff and rang the doorbell.  

Sigh...What's wrong with people?