So every year my company has a big Christmas party, and there’s always a huge raffle of TVs, ipads, Apple TVs, etc. I mean, like, five or six gifts per year. That’s a lot for a small company like ours. And I’ve been there for YEARS and have NEVER won! I’m just not lucky with those things. (Either that or they’re not putting my name in the Santa hat. I might not be on the “nice” list. …)

Anyway, I HAVE managed to walk out with a centerpiece “win” a couple of years, though, and this was one of those years. I thought this one was so pretty. I put it on my buffet, and then realized it needed some “height,” so I put it on top of my mother’s cake stand she gave me from her 1965 wedding gifts. (I love that cake stand!)

I really like how this livens up my dining room this week! Isn’t it purty? What are those crazy red flowers, anyway? Does anyone know? They look sort of tropical. …

Yep, the stockings are hung by the chimney with … er … uh … caution tape. Or right next to the caution tape, anyway. And the pretty exposed cement.

I realized I wasn’t going to get around my house of destruction this year, so I just decorated around it!

What do you think? Does it work anyway?

Now the tree is another matter. We haven’t put that up yet. We’re still trying to figure out what to do there. Too much furniture is now stuffed into the living room, and the den is still complete chaos. So my gifts, as I wrap them, are still sitting in my upstairs hallway waiting for a location:

I just keep piling them in the hallway for now!

This may be a “crowded” Christmas this year — and may involve lots of exposed drywall and beams and sawdusty-smell and exposed cement — but I’m decorating, dang it! It’s my favorite time of year!

How is your decorating going? Am I the last person to get a tree up? Does anyone still put their tree up on Christmas Eve????