Catnip is a gateway drug

We went to an eggnog party last night at Ryan and Ashley's. We played Rabbids and looked at their beautiful tree and watched Rudolf.
When we came home, it looked like someone else had been hitting the 'nog pretty hard around here. This is the Christmas tree the way we found it. Notice anything missing?
That's right. No angel. No angel on top of our 7' tree. Where there used to be one. A pretty one. Also, the Christmas tree skirt was missing and there were an outrageous number of needles all over the floor. What happened? Were we robbed? Did the angel have to fight?
This is how we found her...
Poor angel! What did she do to deserve that? Who could've knocked her off the top of the tree and taken the tree skirt?
Suspect #1:

Suspect #2:We caught Georgie this morning trying to light a little bonfire under the tree. She said it was "too cold up in here". Brats. I suspect the angel was making them feel guilty about whatever they were up to while we were gone, and she paid the price. too much nog. Or was it catnip?

Front Door fun

I know. I know. It isn't even December. I'm not nuts, I just like lights, that's all.
We put together this little wreath the other day. It's a regular old plastic wreath with bendy branches. We wrapped a string of big ceramic lights around it, did some clever extension cord work and voila! Big, bright, cheery front porch!I may have also put up some lights in our room... Just one strand. and that's it. And two bows. But seriously, it's too early. that's it.

Christmas idea #1

The turkey is barely gone, but can I talk a little about Christmas?
I like to make my own Christmas decorations as much as I can. I have fun doing it, and I like to have something that's a little unique.
Here's the first thing we've made for this Christmas. The day after Thanksgiving, Rob's mom and I were sitting in front of a movie making these little guys.We took small pieces of red felt and cut out two bird shapes. Then, we embroidered flowers, wings, and star designs on the sides. Sometimes we added a few beads for the eyes or for the middle of flowers. When both sides were decorated, we sewed the two sides together and stuffed the birds with cotton balls. When we ran out of cotton balls, we just used the scraps of felt. When we sewed the seam shut, we added a little piece of green ribbon to the top of each one to hang it by. We made seven in all. We think they look kind of Scandinavian. What do you think? I have a short stand of red wooden garland from the grocery store ($1.99 tops). I attached the birds here and there along the garland and hung the whole thing over the window in the dining room.
It was an easy, inexpensive, and fun thing to make together.