Christmas decorating, or not

I don't really decorate for Christmas. My sister is always apalled. I just never really got into it. I have a little fake Christmas tree that I store in the fiber room and just bring downstairs, already decorated. I just plunk it on a snowflake tablecloth, and woohoo, I'm done! I don't bother to undecorate and put everything away every year, I just haul it back upstairs as soon as Christmas is done.

Since Mom moved in with me, my sister has insisted I do more. She brought me Christmas ornament/decoration shopping, and I purchased these garlands with clear and blue beads. They look like branches after an ice storm. I put those up over the windows, hang a few snowman ornaments on the pegs to go with the canoe,chicken and llama ornaments that never come down. I decorate more for winter, than for Christmas, because all of it I usually leave up until March or so.

I also switch out the curtains for winter. These hang on tension rods at the top and bottom, and are backed by a separate fleece curtain to help block the wind. The tension rod at the bottom helps hold it all tight to the window for maximum wind blockage, as on the left. When I want to let the light in, the bottom tension rod gets put up behind the curtain, as on the right. In the spring, I put up the lightweight yellow/blue/green curtains with the same system.

The curtain for the patio door is hung with a blanket behind it, again to help stop the cold.

We had a break in the wind yesterday, so Mom and I went out to the post office and to the store. It was -9, but it felt positively balmy without the wind. I didn't get stuck on the way out of the driveway, but I did on the way back in. A little bit of shoveling did the trick though. The drifts are something to behold. Unfortunately there is a thigh high one in my path between the hydrant and the llamas' water tank. I managed to slop a good bit of water down my leg and into my boot as I was hauling water through it yesterday. I had to quickly dump what was left into the tank and head to the house, as I could feel that water burning as it froze on my leg and foot.

The wind is back today and has shifted, so all those drifts are being redeposited elsewhere. That's why I usually don't bother to shovel, it all just gets put back anyway.