That’s a great idea Ladma. A square 8 x 8 pan works for a smaller version too.

I’ve frozen the leftovers for a future meal with no problems. We use the Barilla no bake noodles.

*no boil

They are my favorite thing. Did you have a nice day yesterday Molly.

Very nice, thanks for asking Seajay. We went over to my brother’s house and there were 6 of us. How was your day? It was different since both is us are missing family members this year. 2020 won’t be missed!

It was just me and OH. Quiet and cold. Nope, not gonna miss 2020. Going to Florida for a week in January. A different set of walls to look at 😉.

That sounds like fun! I may have to do that too, lots of family just north if Tampa. 😀

Santa Rosa beach on the panhandle. Beautiful beach.

Italian gingerbread house. Save for next year.

I didn't post any pics this year, as my Christmas decorating is much the same as in previous years. (yes, Frankie the cat is still lurking around the Nativity😻). But I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing what others have done. Lovely, lovely homes that have been opened to us! Thanks, Seajay, for picking up the mantle and overseeing the Houzz Christmas Tour of Homes!

I couldn't face yet another traditional turkey dinner for Christmas, so I served homemade fajitas with all the fixings. It was well-received, and I successfully made my first flan...much easier than I expected.

Blessings to all in 2021! No place to go but up, right?

Melinda, I had Xmas with my sister today at her house and BIL made fajitas as well. They were delicious.
I also cooked a turkey but it was a precooked Cajun turkey from Popeye’s chicken I still had frozen from thanksgiving. We just nibbled at it today and it was so good. Cant wait to eat it tomorrow.

Seajay, that meat house is hilarious. I’d say it’s a keto gingerbread house but it may have breadsticks on it. Hard to tell. I’d eat it though!

I know, Pool, it would make a great lunch 😂. I’ve never heard of a Cajun turkey from Popeyes. A whole turkey? I’ll have to tell Ann who is a Popeyes fan.

Hey Melinda. Ah, yes. Frankie lurking around the nativity. 😂. Your fajitas sound yummy. I haven’t had them for a while. A good dinner option. I’m so glad you popped in. This has been a challenging Christmas for sure. Take care and be well.

Seajay - Santa Rosa is a beautiful part of FL. I grew up vacationing in the Fl panhandle area and we still go to PC every year. I fixed a simple unconventional Christmas Day meal. Ham and Swiss cheese sliders with 2 kinds of soup: chicken tortilla and cheesy potato soup. It was easy to prepare most of it a day in advance. We’ve had family here since Wednesday and they all leave this morning, except for our (almost) 3 year old grandson. He gets to stay with Sessa and Op for another week!! We’ll meet in the middle next weekend to give him back. It was a wonderful Christmas for us in 2020!

That is wonderful to hear Sessa😉. The kiddos are what keeps everyone sane and able to carry on. I made something unconventional for me too. I loved having something warm and comforting and easy. Got a feeling that may be the new tradition. Be well.

Seajay, yes it’s a whole turkey! Supposedly it’s precooked but it didn’t look it too much. And I still cooked it for almost 3 hours. But it was so good.
I think Popeyes Chicken may just be in the south? It’s my favorite fried chicken place!

Pool we have Popeyes in Chicago. I never knew them to offer a full turkey, but I don’t visit it often because there isn’t one near my house.

That looks delicious. There was one in Maryland as I recall. I like spicy but was just wondering how spicy it was.

Seajay, I'm in Tallahassee not far from Santa Rosa Beach and it's a terrific part of the country to live in. Be sure and check the weather down here before packing. Mother Nature decided to gift us with unusually cold weather (25-26) for a few nights this past week and it's apparently returning next weekend. On the flip side, it can go up 30 degrees during the day. Have a great get-away!

I live in SC in Hilton head on the coast. It’s been freezing here too. We have those dramatic temperature changes too. I’ll wave when we drive by. My father’s family was from Tallahassee and Blountstown. Family name was Bailey. I love it in Santa Rosa beach.

I will leave Christmas up for another few days...at least through January 1st, but I have decided to make the attic trek and assess/donate Christmas decorations that I no longer use. I have enough tree ornaments to decorate four trees. I will save the most cherished ones in the event that I ever put up a tree again (read the arrival of grandchildren), but I think I won't ever do multiple trees again (although, I must admit seeing Pool's perfect trifecta of trees in her living room is tempting!).

Pool’s trees were impressive. Melinda, you might want to think about an ornament tree like mine with just your most cherished ornaments. It was really cute.

Yes, that's a great idea. Yours was beautiful!

I think I'm going to put away some of the xmas decor: my nutcrackers, wreaths, misc items. But I may leave my trees up a bit. Maybe even remove the ornaments and just have the lit trees out. I just love the way they make the rooms glow in the evenings!

We took all the Santa’s down, everything Christmas-y but decided to leave the tree. I added all our crocheted snowflakes and crystal icicles. White and silver runner on the table with my mom‘s crystal trees. We’re stuck in MI so may as well embrace the sparkly part of winter. Usually by now it’s all packed away so we can head to hang with friends in Maui...but, Covid! I have so enjoyed all the festivity of this thread, thank you!

Hang with friends in Maui . . . awesome! I’m so 😔 you can’t this year but hang in there, next year will be awesome!

Happy New Year everyone. . . it’s been a blast.

We took all our Christmas down yesterday and the outside lights too...first experience with flocked trees..never again! My three Flocked Alpine trees will only be used outside from here on out..what a mess and it sticks to all your clothing..they are pretty but too messy for me..so glad we tried it out with small trees and didn’t spend a fortune on a big new flocked tree...2020 Christmas was just not as exciting as most so I am happy to have the house back to normal and ready to welcome in the new year.

Me too Julie. I took everything down yesterday and glad to be back to normal.

I wait until New Years, but I’m really liking the lanterns on the mantle, I might keep those out.

We took all our Christmas down today too should have it all packed away tomorrow. Despite the crappy year our 2020 Christmas was nice. We were determined to make the best of it as much as possible and Baileys hot chocolate on Christmas Eve helped.!!!!We were blessed with a white Christmas...woke up to about 8 inches of snow. I wish you all a happy and healthy new year!

We got everything down today except the tree. Will start un decorating it tomorrow and hopefully have everything back in the attic. I’m with you Julie on the flocked trees. I had three tiny ones in a lantern on the porch. What a mess. I will be (well the Rumba will) be vacuuming for days. NEVER again. Getting the house clean and back in order is priority for me now.

That sounds lovely, Mary. The baileys and snow 😋

I’ll prob take stuff down tomorrow since it’s going to be rainy and we’ll be stuck inside anyway.

I know 2020 was rough on so many people but I actually did enjoy much of it. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I love working from home and doing it with a pool in the summer was great. I was also able to finish several home projects while WFH that I would not have had time for otherwise. Virtual school wasn’t perfect but it was nice for me to see what my kids classes and teachers were like and watch them learn.

But a new year is always refreshing!

Our tree stays up until after the first. We usually have my family over on that day, but not this year because we are limited to 2 guests. 🤷‍♀️. We are getting our white Christmas a few days late. ❄️❄️❄️

Not us! We are up and glowing for another couple weeks! We have our Christmas on Zoom this year on Houston Marathon Sunday!! We have Secret Santa gifts we will open and in general have fun. Looking forward to our extended fun. So it seems a bit weird to not be baking a bunch of cookies and other planning for hosting 10 adults and 4 grands! Reminds me I need to get Christmas special gifts in mail soon. We always gift each of our kids some fun money. But have to mail it this year. Yes, HAD flocked tree. The operative word “had”. Bye, bye!! Easier to add white to green tree. I did like the icy one I had. We will see what next year brings! Happy New Year and let’s look to a great new year no matter what gets thrown at us!! 🥂🎊🎉

Hear, hear🥂🎉🙏

Hi Ladies! You ladies are party poopers! Taking them down so soon! Well I guess I am a bigger party pooper since we didn't even PUT up our two big trees. We just did our pencil tree with the presents and our village of Dept.56 houses this year. And pillows! We always leave them up thru January and I will this year too. We usually entertain in January and I like the trees and houses up - especially since the houses take so long to put up.

It was so fun following the Christmas thread! Thanks Seajay and everyone for their beautiful home tour. Happy New year everyone!!

My sparkles...back to normal??? I am rethinking normal!

Lizzie, haha. Yeah, normally normal would be a good thing. 😉😎

Happy New Year!! 🥂 Here’s an “after” picture...with a Fam of six there’s always a party!! 😂🤷🏼‍♀️ thank goodness for shop vacs 😉

I have been sick this week and finally feeling great today. I started cleaning and just went ahead and removed all the decor except the trees.
But I also picked up the red chandelier shades off Nextdoor today for only $20. And I can’t wait to use them next Christmas! 😂 so I’m still in the spirit haha

You can see my pile waiting for for the bins.

Hmm Pool, wanna switch houses 😂🤦‍♀️ love the red shades!! What a deal 🥳

Pool Valentines Day is coming soon. 😉

Oh yeah, Valentine’s Day. The red shades are sweet.

Glad you are feeling better, Pool. Love the red shades for the holidays.

Ooh Valentine’s Day! I didn’t even think about that. Hmmm maybe I should store them somewhere else and not with the Xmas decor.

Thanks Nicci!
I even had a covid test yesterday even though I didn’t think I had it. But with DH and the girls going back to work and school next week we figured it’s best to know for sure. Mostly I had drainage causing me to cough all night causing time to be tired all day. But it was rainy and gross so I picked a good few days to lay around and do nothing.

Happy new year everyone! 🍾🥂🎉

My DH is not ready to take down the tree tomorrow because it’s still the holiday weekend. He gets up about 2 hours before me every day and the lights are on when I get up. ❤️

I have sinus issues which cause me to cough so I’m really careful about stifling my cough in public. Liable to get some looks🤨😱

I always feel self conscious when I have to cough or sneeze in public but it’s only natural. 🤷‍♀️