Hello dear friends and welcome to 2026! What a crazy non-Christmas season we have had here at the farm. Our friends know that Christmas at our farm is all about over the top decorating, friends, family, food and drink. Our festivities usually start mid November but with our renovations finishing just before Christmas we decided that January and February would be great months to celebrate the season.
This Christmas season has not however gone according to plan. I spent the last couple of days of December and the beginning of January in our local hospital with a broken leg. I have never had a cast before and it was quite a production. Behold the EZ Bake Oven and ingredients that were used to make my cast. A very impressive ingredients list of plaster, tape, gauze and assorted other mysterious ingredients. Fortunately there was no actual baking required!
For those that have been asking what happened...it started out quite innocently. Our weather had been dicey with freezing rain and icy conditions. Our country road had already been visited by the county road grader to chop up the ice and by the afternoon we had strong winds, plunging temperatures and blowing snow. During Covid I had purchased an oversized puffy long coat made from recycled pop bottles that feels like bubble wrap and is wind proof. And after breaking my leg the first time I had purchased a great pair of winter boots that have great treads and retractable cleats on the bottom. These are the items I like to wear when I go for a walk. I didn't go far before realizing that there was still sheer ice under the surface conditions and was about to turn around in front of our house to go back when I slipped and fell.
But back to Christmas! Before this mishap I did manage to start putting up some of our Christmas trees. At last count we have a total of 17 trees and I did hope to have most of them up and decorated by January 1st. I did manage to get 7 trees up and mostly decorated, including the tree in my loft which I imagine will still be up at Easter as I will not be able to navigate the stairs!
Now for a quick little tour of my very incomplete decorating. Here is the main tree for the kitchen area. Over the years it has developed into a red and white themed tree with a soft fleecy tree skirt which Horatio enjoys very much.
There is quite a mix of ornaments in this tree with many of them having been made by my mom before she passed away.
Every year I add to our collection of ornaments and eventually I will end up with enough of a certain type or theme that it is time for a new special tree. Last year I added the food tree as one of our kitchen trees. All of these ornaments are food or cooking related. This tree is already quite full.
Collecting these ornaments is quite fun and each year additional ornaments arrive via friends.
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Last year I also added our Winterlude tree. I had only just started decorating this one before my fall and in the general chaos I am not sure where the rest of the ornaments ended up.
The winterlude ornaments all relate to outdoor winter activities. Lots of crystal icicles provide sparkle.
The mushroom tree is the third tree in our kitchen and is only 4 feet tall. Originally this was the food tree but the branches on this tree were not strong enough to support the weight of the glass ornaments. I had intended to make additional ornaments for this tree but didnt get around to it. For next year I will add wooden mushroom ornaments and will make more felt mushrooms with beads and sequins.
Our friend and neighbour gifted me 2 sets of beautiful mushrooms for this tree including these brown ones.
Our portico entry has our woodland tree. We have had this tree for several years and as with all of the other trees I always find new decorations to add to the branches.
Pinecones, birds, snowflakes and various forest creatures round out this tree.
Our library tree is the drinks tree and is one of my favourites. We had moved some of the furniture into this room when my sister in law arrived to visit over the Christmas holidays but we didnt finish. Until I am more mobile I cant work around the boxes in this room so a longer distance view of this tree will need to suffice!
Another new tree for this year is the mouse tree which belongs in the laundry room. I already had some mouse ornaments in my kitchen tree collection and purchased additional mouse ornaments this year. I also made some felt mice to round out the collection. This tree is currently in one of the boxes blocking access to the library.
So sadly most of our trees have not been put up this year but for next year we will be back bigger and better than ever. And that my friends is my update on how not to have a great Christmas!
As I become more mobile I will look forward to sharing more posts about furnishing and decorating our old stone house. In the meantime I hope everyone stays safe and please make sure that if you go walking that you take your phone with you :)
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