Christmas Lights

I hope you are enjoying the holidays.  It has been a few days since I have had a chance to post.  We had a wonderful celebration with nearly all of my husband's family in Massachusetts.  Our older son and his wife were here from San Francisco and left the day after Christmas for India (they are attending a wedding there and I can't wait to see all of the photos!).

My husband's brother and his wife flew in from Colorado.  We were very lucky with the weather and all of our travelers had good flights.  On the way in to Logan airport on the Mass Pike we saw this message in the rooms of the Crowne Plaza hotel (the hotel actually goes over the turnpike).  Taking a photo in the dark from a moving car is not ideal, but I wanted to show you the holiday spirit we enjoyed on each trip into town!

Most of our neighbors have a moderate amount of holiday lights but friends a few doors up the street take the honors for "most decorated" house in the neighborhood.  They have Mickey and Minnie at the door and Mickey ear lights along the front walk.

Snoopy and Charlie Brown guard the driveway and the hedge and hillside are covered with lights and figures.  The cars that come around on Christmas Eve to see the luminaries go extra slow in front of this house because there is so much to see!

The luminaries are always beautiful and the weather cooperated nicely this year - no wind or rain.

Here is our house on Christmas Eve.  I didn't put the white lights on the shrubs this year because they have grown so big.

We go to the late service at our church on Christmas Eve.  The church looks very dramatic in the spotlights.

There were beautiful floral arrangements and special banners decorating the front of the church,

At the end of the service, all of the lights in the church are put out and we sing by candlelight.  When I was young we would try to keep our candles lit until we got home (sounds crazy, I know!).  Fire regulations require that the candles be extinguished before we leave the church now.

I decorate all of the trees in our house except the live tree in the sunroom.  I put the lights on this one and then it is up to the "kids" to add decorations.  This is also the only tree inside the house that has colored lights.

I made glitter ornaments decorated with initials for all of our nieces and nephews this year.  My daughter-in-law helped me and we had glitter everywhere!  I used a font from my computer and cut the letters in glitter vinyl with the Cameo.  I'll share the details in another post.

If you are a new Silhouette owner you might be interested in a subscription to the online store for images.  From now until the end of the year you can save 20% on the prices.  For $8 you can get $25  of images each month, for $12, you get $50 worth of images and for $16 a month you get $150 of images each month.  It is a yearly commitment when you subscribe, payable monthly.  Use the code "Silhouette" to reduce the price at checkout.  You can subscribe through the Silhouette Studio program link or at the online store HERE.

Blitsy has brought back many categories of crafty items from their Cyber Monday sale - there are over forty categories instead of the usual 6 - 10 that are normally offered at a given time.  Be sure to check them out before they are "blitsed" (sold out).  They have lots of Tim Holtz, Spellbinders, Ranger, Scor-Pal, items right now.  Click HERE to go to the site and register if you aren't already a member.

The house is pretty quiet now and I may finally have a chance to get back into the craft room.  I am afraid it is quite a mess and has been sadly neglected for the past week or two.  This weekend should be a good time to get things sorted out to start off the new year.  Do you have special plans for New Year's Eve?

Subscribe to Capadia Designs if you would like to have new posts delivered directly to your email.