Christmas Decorations – 2025, A Smoky Mountain Christmas and a Quick Trip to Biltmore

This post was to go up yesterday but I am still decorating and changing things around.

What I have to share today is some of the main living area upstairs.

The pencil tree was in our bedroom last year. It has replaced our main tree, which resides in the downstairs family room this year. Our main tree is a live one and we do not want the mess on the new wood floors.

I didn’t put all the ribbon on it this time but did include the red and green hand painted ornaments that I skipped last year.

This tree also holds our White House and Biltmore House ornaments. 

I also added the snowflakes I recently made on the new embroidery machine.

The kitchen sideboard with prim snow people remained pretty much the same, except I added a little tree.

I bought the bells and little gingerbread people a few years ago at Walmart. They were for cross stitch finishing.

The dining room buffet stayed the same as last year.

I am using the tiered floor stand for Santas.

I added small wreaths to the pantry doors and think I’ll keep this up year-round.

The kitchen niche across from the pantry…

The piece next to the garage door never changes too much.

There are still a few areas on this floor that need tweaking. I'll show you those in a future post.

We had a nice time with Mom last Saturday. It was the Smoky Mountain Christmas event downtown.

We skipped riding the carriage as Mom has been having issues with her back and hip. It wouldn’t have been easy for her to climb the steps to get in.

The usual characters were out and about. Although, we somehow missed Santa and Mrs. Claus.

There were musicians performing all along the sidewalks.

An ice sculptor drew quite the crowd.

An ice sculpture to sit on for photos…we passed on that opportunity.

On Sunday hubby and I went to the Biltmore Estate for brunch and to get our 2025 ornament. 

The Stable Cafe' has the best cornbread with

sorghum butter and roasted pecans.

The 2025 dated ornament was already sold out so we got this one instead…

The 2026 ornament was already available, so I had to…

These guys must feel safe now that Thanksgiving is over. Wildlife is abundant at the Biltmore.

The temperature dropped Sunday afternoon and continued to do so throughout the night.  It was 9º F when I awoke Monday morning. Then it warmed up to 44º F in the afternoon.

With all the weekend’s activities, I only put in a few cross stitches and did absolutely NO sewing. On my list for this week is to finish the decorating and prepare for the kid’s visit; they arrive this weekend. I’ll pop in a couple times to show you more Christmas décor.

Enjoy your day and week ahead. 

See you soon,

Floss Friday – November Stats and More

Last Friday came and went so fast…as do most of my December days. I missed sharing my stitching progress, so here it goes…

I stitched a pathetic 2,126 stitches on two projects during November.

My monthly assignment on Salute to Abigail.

And, a little progress on American Sampler.

Now we find ourselves in December where things are happening fast and furious. (very dramatic, I know!)

The first weekend in December is Jingle Ball. Jingle Ball is a virtual cross stitch retreat hosted by Stephanie Webb of Lindy Stitches.  She and 12 cross stitch designers provide not only exclusive designs, classes, speed dating, stitching rooms, but also entertainment throughout the weekend. The ticket to attend the Jingle Ball is only $15. That gets you the entertainment, meet and greets with the designers, the stitching rooms, access to the exclusives in each of the designer’s shops, and so much more. If you sign up for a class then you have the option to receive a kit of the project that the designer is offering, or you can get a .pdf of the chart and kit it yourself.

I signed up for two classes.

Primrose Cottage Stitches Merry Stitchmas on a mesh bag.

I ordered the kit for this one. It came with the bag, chart, Weeks Dye Works pearl cotton #5, a needle, a zipper pull and graph paper to chart your own initials.

I got the front stitched and my initials charted for the back. I will show you the back next week when it is finished.

The second class I took was from Annie Beez for her Christmas Pears. I did not purchase a kit but put it together with all of the called-for materials. Annie taught us how to put the pears together.

I’ve started stitching the chart ‘Noel’ and look forward to putting my first one together.

Another fun cross stitch activity has been receiving the GaRon Christmas box.

I look forward to receiving this box each year. The guys get an exclusive pattern from a wonderful designer and include all the  supplies and fun accoutrements to provide a nice holiday stitch.

Everything is always so nicely packaged.

Pattern, fabric, scissors....

All the floss you need to complete the chart. Also included is a nice
thread organizer, needle minder, needle, scissor cover and lovely card.

The chart is "Christmas Morning at the Atelier"
This is the fourth in a series from Twin Peak Primitives

That is all I have for today my friends. I'm finishing up the holiday decorations this weekend and will be back Monday with a few photos.

Enjoy your weekend and thank you for stopping by.

See you soon,

So Long November and Hello December

Happy Mid-Week, Friends!

And what do you think about facing the end of 2025? Has this year gone by fast? No? Just me?

Well, since my last post on November 21st, I had a birthday, we celebrated Thanksgiving, and got our Christmas tree.  Hubby gave me a gift. He says it was for my birthday, but I'm also claiming it as a Christmas gift as well. He is just too sweet!

I've shared before that we get our Christmas tree from Boyd Moutain Tree Farm. This is our 4th tree since living in North Carolina.  Our tradition is to get the real tree the day after Thanksgiving. This was also the tradition when we lived in Florida, although it was a tree "lot" and not a farm.

The grounds at Boyd Mountain do not change much. This year we were blessed with sunny skies and cool temps.

The tree is still drinking water but hasn't been "dressed" yet. I'll share all of my trees when they are fully decorated.

We took my main sewing machine to be serviced.  Nothing wrong, thank goodness, but it needed a good cleaning and oiling.  While there, hubby got me a new "embroidery only" machine. Now, I once had a sewing/embroidery combo machine. That machine must have been built on the Friday of a holiday weekend. I had so many issues with it, including replacing the mother board. My best friend bought the same machine, on the same day, from the same dealer. She hasn't had any issues with hers. For that, I am gratelful!

Anyway, I missed having an embroidery machine and my hubby suggested I try out a few while we were dropping off my sewing machine.

My first project testing the machine. Snowflakes.

In the hoop quilting. Really?

Oh boy!

Since the last couple of weeks have been so busy, I won't have a lot of stitching progress to show you on Friday. I will have November stitching stats and the GaRon Christmas box to share. Also, this weekend is the Jingle Ball hosted by Lindy Stitches. I've signed up for a couple of classes.

December.... and away we go!

See you soon,