Well, the tree is down, boxed up along with all of the ornaments, etc. I also took the decs off of the trees in the urns that flank the front door:)) The small trees are lighted and look pretty even without the decorations. Outside garland and wreaths are going to remain until March. Also, the china cabinet and seasonal garlands in the house remain and will probably stay in place until March as well. I especially enjoyed the posts about the decoration or two you overlook. One year I had a Christmas moose that I didn't notice until July that year. It was tucked into a basket on the soffet in the kitchen. This year I am scanning the rooms carefully to be sure I've gotten it all. The house is clean and the attic looks fairly neat. A good feeling to start the work week with it all put away. The china closet packs up into a closet in the dining room, so that's really no big deal and besides, it looks nice with the winter garland on the dining room table. We'll see how long I can look at the holiday china and stemware before I cave in and put that away too! I would like to keep it in place until its time to decorate for Easter! It was fun reading all of posts. I was surprised at how many responses my post generated! Happy New Year to all!

Thanks, everyone, for looking at my things! Karen, We love living here in a smaller town than the metropolis of Southern California where we came from (seems like one big city). And we're lucky that we are both closer to family. But I wouldn't sell Phoenix shopping short...I've seen some PRETTY GOOD stuff in your pictures! Blizlady...Isn't it interesting? "Made in Japan" used to be considered junk. I could tell the stein was nice quality, loved the colors, and would like more (I'll keep my eye out). It is packed away for my move, but if I recall, "Japan" appears to have been "scratched" into the bottom before the pottery was dry. How lucky you are to have a collection! - Magpie

Thank you for the suggestion to try a florist shop! I hadn't thought of that. But I don't think I'll need to now. Using the bowdabra I made the same bow 3 times.. trying to get it just right. It did get easier with each try. When DD got here to help me cut the rest of the tulle she kept looking at it.. and looking at it, not saying a word. Finally she asked if I had made it. I told her yeah.. and she couldn't believe it. She said its a much better looking bow than the pew bows she had borrowed!! She then asked if it was hard or took a long time. I told her its not to terribly hard..and I can make them up during the day and fluff them while watching TV. She loves them and told me to just pack away the pew bows. :) I came up with something else to put on the isles that is a whole lot easier and more in scale with the chairs being used. She is just blown away with the bow, AND my idea for the isle chairs. :) She can't believe she was so excited about those pew bows she borrowed. So I guess its all going to turn out just fine. I had my doubts at 10am this morning. (could you tell??) :) thanks for the best wishes.. and once I get this stuff behind me, I really do want to learn how to make bows the real way.

Thanks for the additional ideas! The caterer tells me that we shouldn't use the "horse stalls" to house the buffet stations (will restrict the line flow too much), so those areas will be open for us to decorate as well. I'm definitely going to keep searching out horse items - harness collars and hames as mentioned above would very cool! Also love the idea to use grapevine in the mix. And those articulated horses ... Yes, I'm definitely going to be ordering several of those guys! Annie, I'm unable to open the link (blocked from work computer), but the place card holders sound quite pricey from your description, so maybe it's for the best. ;-D