Sing "Taking Care of Christmas, everyday..."

...Taking Care of Christmas everyway
I've been taking care of Christmas, it's alright
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

This is what I heard yesterday in the car. Randy Bachman ripping off his own song for a Christmas "hit". It was catchy...

Yesterday the large flakes of snow (snowball snow) started to fall, and fall, and fall. YAY! Looks like it will be a white Yule. Finally the snow caught up with my neighbours' decorations. There've been inflated snowmen and Santa Claus cutouts (not to mention houselights and Christmas trees indoors) for weeks now (well over a month for some!!!)
I don't understand why some people decorate starting Novemeber 1st - no joke, I saw Christmas trees up in houses that early.
Mom and dad even started earlier than usual this year (for a house party, so I guess that's a good reason.)
Me, I finally said "screw it" to the mess, cleared some space, and hauled out some Winter decorations yesterday.

I dug out the Yule CDs to help me decorate. Between little tasks I graded assignments, which was a refreshing way to grade. It kept me from getting frustrated with students and the slow computer.


This table was covered in junk, but I managed to tidy it. And then add more stuff :) But this is festive stuff.

Ah, the festiveness of it all... I really need to do something more with that wall. It's just so plain. Some huge piece of artwork would be great! Usually there is a round sun-moon plaque where the wreath is. (Ericka decorated that for me, thanks Ericka.) Where the star is hanging is where we would normally put the Yule tree... so let's pretend there is a full tree beneath the star (this is also the start I put atop the tree last year, so it's easy to imagine.)

This is the only tree beneath the star. I used my mini-decorations that usually adorn a fake mini-tree.

After snapping these photos I headed back upstairs to notice

It seems I forgot to put away all the previous decorations.

In other exciting news:

Saturday will be a busy Barlee's Angels Day for me!!

In the morning I take Ginger on a home visit to what will most likely be her new forever home. YAY for Ginger!!!! She is very lucky because many of her feline friends fostered by Barlees have been in foster care for a long time. Lately there has been an increase in adoption applications for the cats though, which is great. And almost all the dogs have forever homes now too. I guess we'll start taking in new dogs again soon once the adoptions are settled.

Surprisingly, Josie still remains. So, Saturday afternoon I have arranged with my local petstore to go in with Josie and some Barlees literature to raise awareness about our animals and the organization. I'm hoping someone will fall in love with Josie and submit an adoption application for her!! I am also going to bring a binder with information about the other animals currently seeking homes, and hopefully some of them might receive applications as a result. Yes, it's a lot to expect from a few hours at a pet store, but I figure every small piece of exposure is good for Barlee's Angels.

Wish me and Barlee's Angels all luck on Saturday.