And blessings to you all for the new year! Julie

Sandi...oh your candycane table is sooooooo pretty. I love the candycane candle holders, you are so creative. It looks great...all the little touches that you coordinated are really neat. For all the comments on my table - Thank you so much. I'm working on several more for December and I will share another one next week. dd-yes the christmas duck sits on a cake pedestal I found at Traget. It is supposed to mimic a tree stump but I thought the rings that usually signify the age of a tree could pass for pond ripples too...lol twomonths - please don't hesitate to post. It's all about sharing and learning from each other. I think soon I'll do a post about my decorations just a couple of years ago. I've learned sooooo much from everyone here. bourbon-you are too kind...to be honest it doesn't come easy too me and it takes me MANY shots to come up with something I like. I'm still learning to play with all of the different settings on my camera.

Thank you glad you all liked them! I buy all the cheap lites I can find at yard sales as I can always find something to use them for, the cinnamon buns are made from salt dough, the head on the light bulb is a styrofoam ball used e600 to attach it to the bulb, its hollowed out just enough for the ball to set good, and the scraf wraps around and covers everyting, the base is just a block of wood with a little circle drilled out enough to glue the bulb on so it sets up, dont know who took that out of focus photo LOL! its hard to see in the photo but the flowers have fine red glitter on the frist coat of paint, shows up when the window is setting away from the light, I will change the ribbon and try some of the ideas you all gave me, always helps to ask,and I knew you all would help! The globe is regular size, kinda hard to store, but I just had to try it, would be cute in a office, luvs you will have to paint one and show us, will be beautiful I am sure! maybe grandma bonnie would ask the crafters if I can share there photos here, bouth are so cute, you could see why I had to barrow there ideas. Thanks agine oddie

Kathline... "The more things my ex buys my son, the less I have to buy him. I hate Christmas, vehemently. I think it's become a symbol of all that is wrong with Western civilization. The greed, the one upmanship, the avariciousness, all turn my stomach and have for years." I'm right there with you. I don't buy my dd anything most years. I do the stocking stuffers. She gets everything and more from everyone else. I hate the whole commercialism, greedy greedy greedy, gimme gimme that has taken over the November-December months. Hate it. Often she will get too many toys, and I will just scoop them up before they are put under the tree (I get a lot of stuff from family off the internet, and then I am the one to wrap it) and put it in the closet for the next time. This will be harder as she gets older, but for now it works. She just gets too much stuff. Love the tree. Love the lights. Love the music and being warm inside the house with a fire or baking. I just really don't want to do the holidays. They make me sick to my stomach. Someone mentioned going to a womens shelter with the pre-holiday clean-out stuff. I think we'll do that this year. KKNY, your posts on this are really bugging me. I don't make $100/hour. I worked very hard for my degree and don't have the luxury to go back to school. It is really hard for me to stomach you saying it's hard for you when your ex lives high off the hog when to me, and I'm sure to others on the board, making $100/hour is several times higher than my income. To me, that is high off the hog. It's all a matter of perspective, is it not? And yes, to those who do not have the kids 24/7 like some of us, it is easier to buy bigger gifts and look like a champion. Isn't that often the issue with NCP? I understand that often the more one makes, the more one spends. The quality of life bar is set higher. "...I agree that there is never any need to tell children what you earn. I just dont think it is a good idea to tell them you make minimum wage when you dont." "...I just think if you are going to say how long Dad and I would have to work, then you should be using your current hourly after tax rate..." Ok, I don't get it. Don't tell them what you make, but don't tell them it's minimum wage. If you're explaining the truth, shouldn't you talk about taxes too? If I were to use Sweeby's suggestion, I would probably use $5/hour because it's nice and round and easy to grasp. Going into the issue of savings, bread and electricity is just way too much information. I agree, education usually increases earning potential. Telling kids that college is good for the brain and the wallet is good. But this is not about talking to children about higher education. This is explaining the cause/effect relationship of work vs gifts and the relationship of kids who get a few nice things and kids who live in shelters. It's a basic lesson, not one that they will be recalling the amounts for when you are filling out college applications (but mom, I thought you only made $8/hour!) Gimme a break.