Can you believe there are only 40-ish days til Christmas? Me neither. I just barely put the Halloween stuff away! But lookie what I got to do today...recognize this from last year?
There's nothing like putting up my Handel's Messiah themed tree at the DC Temple Visitor's Center to put me into the Christmas mood!
Do you notice the new ornaments this year?
Yep, I bought a bunch of unfinished wooden snowflakes at Michaels, then painted them and dropped them into a pile of glitter while the paint was still wet. I really like how they turned out...I think they make the tree more wintery, don't you?
These musical orbs are giant versions of the tutorial I have in my sidebar.
You can download the images to make identical phrase boards when you click on my tutorial for the wooden disk ornament in my sidebar. The links to the individual images are listed within the text of the post.
Nothing like a visual Hallelujah chorus to get me humming the tune to the real thing!
A few years ago I bought a bunch of big ornaments at IKEA after Christmas for 70% off (sweet!) and then I embellished them with sheet music and ribbon, with the help of my dear friend the hot glue gun.
I had a $200 budget to come up with all these decorations - and since I was able to make/embellish many of them (including the tree topper star) I was able to stretch it pretty far....plus about $40 of my own money. I have to admit I went over a bit - including this year's snowflakes - but I couldn't let the tree suffer, could I? :-)
It was so fun to unwrap everything and see it all again!
Hey, look - can you see my camera-head self portrait in the red ball? A very flattering picture, I must say.
If you're in the Maryland/Virgina area, I encourage you to take an evening and go visit the DC Temple Grounds and Visitor's Center after Thanksgiving. There are tons of colored lights bedazzling the landscaping outside the temple, and a beautiful lifesize Nativity Scene is on display outside as well. Inside the Visitor's Center are about 15 big, beautiful trees that congregations throughout Maryland and Virgina have the privilege of decorating each year. There is also a huge creche exhibit inside with Nativity Scenes from all over the world. Plus every evening there is some sort of concert or performance from Dec.1 and New Year's. So much to see and do! I highly recommend it. You can find out all about it HERE.
Merry (almost) Christmas!!
ps. Does this mean I can switch my playlist to the Christmas version? Would you shoot me if I change it to Christmas tunes in mid November? :-)
