
That was more than a month ago and I am still thinking about it. I still love, love, love it, but am having second thoughts. I can’t quite picture this beautiful, crisp, bright tree in my bungalow, with its earthy tones. So I started looking around. Did you know that artificial trees come in nearly any color you can dream up? And I could have fun with almost any of them, but I really can’t picture decorating an orange tree for Christmas. But, hey, you never know, maybe if you have the right space…
Meanwhile, I’m kind of liking the idea of the champagne gold tree. I don’t know, though, maybe that’s too plain, it might get lost in the living room, with the butter yellow walls. I think I want something dramatic that will stand out. But then I always pictured the living room tree having a slightly rustic, woodland theme. You know, with pine cones and silvery ornaments. I even have a string of wooden cranberries. And this little guy I found on flickr. I saw him at Target this Christmas season, too.
The trouble is that I like too many styles. It is a good thing I’m lazy or I could be one of those people with a tree in every room!

All the gifts seemed to coordinate nicely this year, too. Not planned, but nice. They also lend to the mod feel, I think.
And finally, what’s a Christmas without a golden retriever in a sea of shredded wrapping paper?
It’s all fun and games until someone gets a bow stuck to the roof of their mouth!
These are the beautiful 

We just got this little guy over the weekend, the 
The same can be said of this little guy. It is another old-fashioned, evaporative-style model. I ordered it several years ago from
I bought one, figuring that if it worked out well I could give it to my dad, who is a tinsmith, to make more. Unfortunately, I’m not so in love with it that I want more. It only fits in one of the eight radiators in the house, and I inadvertently over filled it one time. As it turns out, you cannot fill it anywhere near the top of the reservoir. See that lime scale line? That’s the absolute maximum.
Snow shoveling is great fun. Puppy gets to bark and “dig” the snow from the shovel.
All that hard work wears a doggie out. Poor guy can hardly keep his eyes open.