The weekend after Thanksgiving

According to the comments made at Thanksgiving dinner, I'm behind in getting my Christmas tree up this year. Hmmm. Traditionally, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I went to the attic and dug out boxes and boxes of old German glass ornaments, glass beads, hand blown icicles and popcorn garlands. That's correct. I could never get my family too into stringing popcorn and therefore I save the strands from year to year. In fact, I would guess the popcorn in my now crawlspace/basement is at least 15, if not 20 years, old.
Then we would have a party. After decorating the tree, there would be shrimp, crackers, smokies, cheese and fruit. We would also try eggnog. Personally, I LOVE EGGNOG. But, my children weren't quite sure about it.
That was a what seems a long time ago. Now, they are grown and putting up their own trees. My antique ornaments are carefully stored in the crawlspace. Instead, I spent the afternoon putting up my Grinch tree. Not that we are Grinches, but it is the color of the Grinch himself, who sits below the tree and heralds "They couldn't stop Christmas at all, it came, somehow it came just the same," when you pinch his hand.
It's not quite the same, but I need a place to put my Christmas presents, not that I have purchased any yet. It's getting difficult to buy things for people who have everything.
That includes me.
I'm interested in yarn and needles, books and paper, beads and string. I also enjoy handmade soap and books, coffee and tea.
My Grinch tree is adorned with little colorful shiny balls, not antique by any means, and Christmas spiders. We made spiders on Thanksgiving and I acquired three more for my tree, a somewhat ulterior motive for the spider-making session with our Thanksgiving guests. So, here it is so close to December you can hear it on today's wind - a photo of the magical Grinch tree, sans gifts, and a close up of a Christmas spider. So much fun. We had so much fun on Thanksgiving and we polished off most of the leftovers giving me time to knit and crochet up a storm -- two baby hats, two baby gloves, and two adult mitten and hat sets in some funky fluffy yarn. I'll post those photos when I have more time. Today it's back to work....

Beaded spider ornament