Decorating for Christmas
We've had a busy but nice Thanksgiving weekend!
First, since Sheila's cancer is foremost in our minds, let me start by writing a little bit about how Sheila is feeling. She is still getting fatigued rather easily but, overall and considering what she has been through over the past four months, she is feeling quite well. Actually, while I was making a wreath for our front door, yesterday Sheila went for a short jog/walk! Jogging quickly proved to still be a bit painful for her so she did more walking than jogging but she has been getting back into her normal routine little by little.
Sheila didn't need to do much this weekend but she wanted to be as engaged as possible, when possible and to feel as useful as possible, when possible. When she was fatigued, she sat down and relaxed. I'm fairly certain that if you ask her about the weekend, she'd say it was a really nice weekend rather than a brutally tiring weekend. Simply having the time and energy to socialize again (especially with the grandchildren) proved to be more uplifting for Sheila than any amount of naps could ever be. So, she is doing well and she really enjoyed her Thanksgiving weekend.
After the Thanksgiving Day festivities (more on that in other blog entries), Sheila and I jumped into some outdoor Christmas decorating since the weather was warm and the sun was shining (a rarity in Waterbury). Each year, we try to do something a little different than the previous years. This year, we decided to decorate the window boxes and planters with much more greenery and some Christmas lights...
Our tree out in front of the house is getting bigger. Each year, I need to add more to my tree pruning pole to reach the top with the lights. Of course, as the tree grows, we need more and more lights too! This year, I think this tree ended up with 1500 lights...
I designed and built three new planters for our front deck this summer and we decided to fill them with greenery for Christmas. We started with sort of creating a wreath around the top edge of the planter and then adding four boughs, back to back, to look like a small tree sticking up in the middle and with ivy hanging out of the planter...
The window boxes look great!
The front tree is getting big! Here is a photo looking upward while standing under it...
I like that custom-built front screen door especially this time of year...
I made a 40 inch wreath for our front door this year. I've always wanted a big, oversized wreath on the door but we never had extra boughs available to make one. This year, one of our huge trees needed some trimming so I just so happened to have some boughs to use for a wreath. We don't use this doorway in the winter so there is no problem covering it with a huge wreath. I kept the wreath looking rather bushy and wild... it looks great!
I'm kind of disappointed in how the house looks from the road. You lose all the small details that you can clearly see when you are walking to our door...
This tree looks great and it's getting taller every year!
After we finished up outdoors, I was on a roll so I came indoors and put the tree up. The following day we decorated the indoor Christmas tree. I'll get some photos of the indoor Christmas decorations sometime soon.
Overall, we had a great weekend. Sheila is a bit tired but, overall, feeling relatively well. We got to spend a lot of time with friends, the grandkids, Liza and John, and Sheila's parents. We've spent so much time at the hospital for the past four or five months that we've had absolutely no social life... just medical stuff at the hospital everyday. It was nice to socialize again!
First, since Sheila's cancer is foremost in our minds, let me start by writing a little bit about how Sheila is feeling. She is still getting fatigued rather easily but, overall and considering what she has been through over the past four months, she is feeling quite well. Actually, while I was making a wreath for our front door, yesterday Sheila went for a short jog/walk! Jogging quickly proved to still be a bit painful for her so she did more walking than jogging but she has been getting back into her normal routine little by little.
Sheila didn't need to do much this weekend but she wanted to be as engaged as possible, when possible and to feel as useful as possible, when possible. When she was fatigued, she sat down and relaxed. I'm fairly certain that if you ask her about the weekend, she'd say it was a really nice weekend rather than a brutally tiring weekend. Simply having the time and energy to socialize again (especially with the grandchildren) proved to be more uplifting for Sheila than any amount of naps could ever be. So, she is doing well and she really enjoyed her Thanksgiving weekend.
After the Thanksgiving Day festivities (more on that in other blog entries), Sheila and I jumped into some outdoor Christmas decorating since the weather was warm and the sun was shining (a rarity in Waterbury). Each year, we try to do something a little different than the previous years. This year, we decided to decorate the window boxes and planters with much more greenery and some Christmas lights...
Our tree out in front of the house is getting bigger. Each year, I need to add more to my tree pruning pole to reach the top with the lights. Of course, as the tree grows, we need more and more lights too! This year, I think this tree ended up with 1500 lights...
I designed and built three new planters for our front deck this summer and we decided to fill them with greenery for Christmas. We started with sort of creating a wreath around the top edge of the planter and then adding four boughs, back to back, to look like a small tree sticking up in the middle and with ivy hanging out of the planter...
The window boxes look great!
The front tree is getting big! Here is a photo looking upward while standing under it...
I like that custom-built front screen door especially this time of year...
I made a 40 inch wreath for our front door this year. I've always wanted a big, oversized wreath on the door but we never had extra boughs available to make one. This year, one of our huge trees needed some trimming so I just so happened to have some boughs to use for a wreath. We don't use this doorway in the winter so there is no problem covering it with a huge wreath. I kept the wreath looking rather bushy and wild... it looks great!
I'm kind of disappointed in how the house looks from the road. You lose all the small details that you can clearly see when you are walking to our door...
This tree looks great and it's getting taller every year!
After we finished up outdoors, I was on a roll so I came indoors and put the tree up. The following day we decorated the indoor Christmas tree. I'll get some photos of the indoor Christmas decorations sometime soon.
Overall, we had a great weekend. Sheila is a bit tired but, overall, feeling relatively well. We got to spend a lot of time with friends, the grandkids, Liza and John, and Sheila's parents. We've spent so much time at the hospital for the past four or five months that we've had absolutely no social life... just medical stuff at the hospital everyday. It was nice to socialize again!
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