Whew! I think I'm finally just about done with the indoor Christmas decorating!

Christmas decorating so soon, you say? Well, yeah. A) It's what I do, and B) It was either get it done now or risk not getting it done at all. Our schedule is packed this year. My in-laws will be arriving today and leaving Monday. My best friend from Florida will be here Sunday and is leaving Friday. I'm also leaving Friday (a week from today) to visit my dad in OKC for a couple of days. The weekend after that, my daughter-in-law and brand new granddaughter will be flying in from Okinawa for a 2 day layover before they fly to Florida to visit her family and friends for a couple of weeks. Then, the weekend after that, my son will arrive for a three week visit and the weekend after he arrives, my daughter-in-law and brand new granddaughter will be flying back here for 2 weeks with us. About 5 days after they arrive, my oldest granddaughter will be flying in for a 9 day visit over Christmas. Oh, and did I mention my best friend will be back here sometime around December 8th - FOR GOOD!! Yep, she's moving here!! Can you believe it? My partner-in-crime and I will be together again - at long last. ha! We've been living in different states for about 4 years now so we've got lots of crime to catch up on. lol So, as you can see, we're a little pressed for time this year so the decorations had to go up now. Here's what we've done:
This is a view from the living room into the kitchen. Looks chaotic, doesn't it? See that little Santa head on the wall? That belonged to my Grandma McBride. I love that thing. It's looking so old and ratty, but it's one of my favorite things. Here's a view of the fireplace.

This picture combines quite a few of my newer ornaments that I love so much. There's the spider box (you can barely see the spider on the far left) that my junior high school/high school friend Penny made for me last year. There's the Irish woodland elf we got up in South Dakota this summer. There's the Sydney the Wonder Dog ornament that my daughter-in-law got us a couple of years ago and there's one of the glass multi-colored Avon ornaments Aunt Sandi gave us last year.

Did you guys have these sort of elf ornaments when you were kids? We had 2 of them...my sister and I both loved them. Years ago, we found some like this one and bought a couple each. They bring back great childhood memories.

Here's some of our nutcrackers - including the one from Sophie (it's the one smack-dab in the middle).

Here's the bookshelves with the "village" on top. That village is a pain in the you-know-what to set up. I don't have a big enough surface anywhere else to put the darn thing so it has to go on top of the bookshelves. That means a lot of up and down on the ladder just to get it done. But Randey loves it, so it's worth it.

This is our little "believe" corner. The lamp is one my sister had gotten me years ago and the "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" under the cloche is a Jim Shore that we got up in South Dakota.

So see? I have been busy, even if I haven't been on the 'net talking about it! And speaking of busy, I guess I'd better go get dressed, fix my hair, make the bed, empty the dishwasher, balance the checkbook and get ready for the in-laws arrival. Hopefully, they won't arrive until after I go pick up my daughter at the car dealership where she's taking her car for repairs. And after I make a pit-stop at Wal-Mart for those 400 last minute items I have on the list. And after I get the dog gates set up. And after....well, you get the picture. Gotta go! Lots of stuff to do and not much time to do them in.

P.S. I know some of you are breathing a sigh of relief that the political posts are over, but....well...not so fast. I've still got plenty more to say. Stay tuned, eh? lol