Christmas outside. Christmas inside.

Hello dear friends. I hope that you are doing well and enjoying the Christmas season. We are taking it easy this year as it was a busy and hectic year with Mr. Perch's leg. As usual, we decorated the inside of the house very minimally, but this year, right after Thanksgiving, we also did the outside in a minimal fashion since I basically had to do it all myself. Below are a few photos that I took last week or so.

We didn't put the lit garlands on the porch railings

this year.

I decided to use garden lights instead,

telling myself KISS: Keep it Simple Stupid!

I'm sure that there are those in the neighborhood

who surely think that I lost it.

I couldn't agree more...

To further antagonize those who never

want to march to a different beat,

we used the excess lighting

around this old primitive tree that we had

up in the attic and just left it on the porch

swing.

Do you want to guess if more than one

person has asked me if I needed help

standing up the tree?

I politely reply: "No, thank you."...

We put our old metal snowman from

the fifties by the steps going up to the porch...

I am a person who would father eat live

goldfish than shop on Black Friday.

I have never bought into the argument

that the good sales are only on that day.

Point proven:

Last week I went to Michael's and lots of

stuff was 70% off, and with quite a lot

of stock to boot.

I bought these lovely wooden

"Joy to the World" tags...

...and this nice wire basket,

with the fabric Noel painted in grey...

...although the fabric Noel was originally red, as seen below.

No problem, I just painted the letters grey with cheap

Walmart chalk paint.

At 70% off $19.99, who can go wrong?...

In that drastically reduced stash I also bought this

beige knit stocking, topped with fur,

and coordinating throw pillows, not seen

here, but I use them on the black rockers.

Also the twiggy heart below.

The greenery was also on sale...

Of course, I couldn't resist taking a winter

 photo of the back yard.

Not for any decorating reasons, but because our lawn is

back to being pretty and green,

thanks to our yard crew who did an outstanding job

of reseeding it this fall after we lost practically the whole

thing this summer while the Mister was in the hospital and the

sprinkler system let go...

But the best view of all is Mr. Perch,

for the first time since early August,

standing on his "own two legs" in front of

the fireplace last Friday after we got home

with his new leg...

What a wonderful sight to see!!