Yes Luvs, you remembered right on the metal tree we found last Jan. Somehow it was one of the things that got overlooked this year when I pulled out my decorations. I've discovered I overlooked quite a bit in fact. Arrgghh. I remember getting you the bunny building the snowman...you HAD to have that loving bunnies AND snowmen. Plus its my favorite one too. LOL. I already had these two bunny figurines, gifts from a good friend years ago. And I just bought the Love Bunny for my Val decorating. Its real hard for me to resist collecting the Charming Tails seriously, as its so full of delightful little critters. Mice are the main stars of Charming Tails, but their friends are often Binky the Bunny, as well as a racoon and skunk. I love looking at pictures of the series and find them enchanting. Hopping Down the Bunny Trail Honey Bunnies Love Bunny I saw photos of a whole VILLAGE set up for Christmas of the Charming Tails holiday series. I've attached the link, there is a wide shot then close-ups. Its just darling, and good ideas there for any Village for that matter. That foam stuff looks GREAT to use for Villages! hugs, Karen Here is a link that might be useful: Christmas Village Set Up

Sigh, the only gift card I received was from my brother for Home Depot - and he put it in a three dimensional maze I had to solve before I could get to it. come to think of it they do have lots of gardening and how-to books. I only gave books to a teenage first cousin, once removed. He has started reading science fiction so I gave him two Heinleins -- Red Planet, a juvenile, and The Door into Summer which the grandfather he never knew loaned to me when I was a kid. And Bester's The Stars My Destination which is currently my "best science fiction book ever written." We will see how he likes the classics. Woodnymph, sorry to say L'Engle's Certain Women has been completely forgotten by me except for the title -- and that is probably from seeing it on the shelf. Rosefolly, I'd love that Edith Head book myself. I remember reading a fascinating bio of her decades ago. Have I ever mentioned to you that the dvd of Double Indemnity has some extras about the costume design. Apparently Stanwyck had a broad behind that Head had to design for. Who knew?

slightly OT but still in the spirit of things: for over 20 years we lived in the converted carriage house of an 1886 Queen Anne brick house. The living room was on the second floor as it formerly was the hayloft, a huge room but awkward as it was roughly 25 feet long and 14 feet wide. There was a wonderful window (12 ft x 12ft) with an arched top in the middle of the long wall and the ceiling was 14 feet tall. It just begged for a truly enormous REAL Christmas tree, which we did for all those years. Now, mind you, I was in my 30s then, able to leap tall buildings -- well, at least able to climb my great-aunt's borrowed 12-ft ladder to hang ornaments on those 12-foot trees. The most difficult thing to do was to get the naked tree up the enclosed circular inside stairs from the driveway. It took three men to do that job, usually (tho there was the one year when we had the wrapped tree waiting to be hauled up and told our teenaged son to wait til we got home -- typically, he proved his manliness by ignoring us and hauling it up all by himself proudly. At 41 and the papa of four, he is now mostly more sensible, thankfully, lol). Our Christmas tree in those days took me well over a week to decorate. I am very fussy about my tree, and am the sole decorator. Nobody seemed to mind, tho one year time ran out before I had finished the backside and my DH has never let me forget it ("did you do the back?" he still says. Humph to him, says I). The tree stayed up til at least Twelfth Night and had to be cut into pieces at that point to be removed and thrown out the large window -- no way to get it back down those narrow circular stairs. One spring during outdoor burning season, we burned some yard debris including the old tree, and it was most sobering to see how extremely fast a dry Christmas tree went up in flames. Now that I am past the desire and ability to decorate gi-normous trees, and having lost my enthusiasm for vacuuming their needles well into July (how DO they manage to still be lurking??) we have long had artificial trees. I mostly miss the wonderful fragrance, but this way I can keep them up longer and enjoy what Ginny said -- the loveliness of lights and color at this bleak time of darkness. And I meant what i said in my previous post. Thanks to my new faux tree I am definitely going to cover it and leave it for next year. Why try to improve on near-perfection, hmmm? =) I'll stop now. Enough already! Thank you for your kind indulgence.

Sometimes I have two trees- one for home and one for the river house. It depends on whether DD2 and her family come home or go to river to celebrate with us. Two daughters live nearby and they come to my house on Christmas Eve and then we get together again at one of their homes on Christmas Day. When DD2 comes to the river house after Christmas, everyone ventures to the river house for another Christmas, hence another tree. At home, I will set up the tree in the living room. If the grandkids can't come over (they are getting older now and have activities and commitments) a week or so prior to Christmas to decorate the tree, have lunch, and make crafts, then my husband and I set up the tree and the kids put the finishing touches on Christmas Eve. I have a lots of ornaments and the grandkids enjoy selecting one or two (if they wanted more no problem) for themselves. If we go to the river, I decorate a tabletop artificial tree in the family room.