And now for the inside.  Sometimes it's not so easy to photograph lighted scenes especially when your camera is on flash mode!

Here's an example...the tree lights are lit in both photos, but the bottom one is taken without flash.  Cool effects!  Our tree this year is silver, white and blue, and the lights are white and blue.  It is just gorgeous!

The staircase and hallway are also a little difficult to photograph, but here goes:

The doorway from the front hall to the living room.

 


The archway from Living Room to Office (formerly dining room)  The bells were hung outside last year.

The view from the front door through to the Kitchen.

At the top of the stairs are the Norwegian Father Christmas and his wife and child.

The Village has become a small town.  The street lights and the houses and the two large trees all light up.

Even the library has lights - these are the ones we got at the Light Exchange on the evening of the Christmas Parade.

Annnnnddddd the main event - Christmas Dinner!

Carving the Turkey

OK, lets eat!

Steve and I would like to wish all our friends and family a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  We hope for only the best for you and yours in 2013!

So, now that we have the flowers shared, it's time to share the actual Christmas decoration photos!  Steve has outdone himself this year with some new colour schemes and more led lights.  Sadly the old incandescent lights are burning out and the old strings of lights are not working as well as they once did.  Over the next few years we will be switching over to led entirely as our old light sets cease to work.  For now, though, the decorations are a combination of both types.  It makes for an interesting effect!

This post will be the outside lights.  They will look better if you click on the image to enlarge it.

The back of the house with the deck lit.  You enter right into the kitchen.

The driveway side of the house.  The window at the back of the house is the kitchen.

This is the front of the house from both sides.  New this year are the three stars on the wall in the porch and the antique bells hanging over the stairs.

The other side of the house...living room window to the front and the office window (where the hoya hangs) to the back.

It's been a while.  Life has been very busy, and it seems the only time I get to add anything to the blog is when it's Christmas.

In a recent conversation I mentioned that all my plants are flowering, and I haven't been able to propagate my lovely Hoya because the darned thing is always blooming!!!  It's uncanny - the window ledges in the house seem to perfect for the violets and all the other plants. Here's proof:

These two are of the air plant in bloom.  We picked this up in Saint John at Rhoda's Christmas Craft Festival in November, and it was in bud.  Now it's in bloom!

These African Violets were given to us without a bud in sight - look at them now!

My Christmas Cactus is huge now.  Most of the time it is out in the unheated front porch where it gets indirect light (lots of it) and it gets watered when I think of it, and it's away from the cats' main focus (and they have no reason to leap up onto the little table it's on.  In this photo the blooms are almost done; a week ago it was covered in flowers.

Another basket of African violets - gifted to us.  This will make several when I split it up.

Even this little one in front is starting to bloom - for the first time.  These violets are all usually in the windows on the opposite side of the house from the driveway.

The big one in the back is in its usual place.  This summer it was absolutely plastered in blooms, and yet here it is blooming again.  There are at least two good sized plants in the pot and I'll be separating them too.

Here is my beautiful Hoya that I've had for 4 years.  Since I've kept it in the office window (again on the opposite side of the house from the driveway) it has always had at least one bloom.  You can see some buds in the second photo. 

This Violet is in the living room window.  There is another one on the other side of the window, but the Christmas Tree is in the way and I couldn't get a photo of it.

Even the spider plant upstairs is blooming!  Those white things are buds!  This one is usually on the window sill in the bathroom on the second floor facing the street.

This plant isn't blooming, but it is growing new leaves.  Its home is on the window sill in the library - second floor at the front of the house.