I suppose some people decorate for the holidays all at once.  I’ve even seen, while looking through a magazine in the check-out line, that, apparently, some folks hire a “staging firm” to bring in a bunch of artificial stuff and deck the halls for them.  Well, at 1880, I tend to do a bit of decking one thing at a time, day by day.

Today, I cut some holly and hung it on the front door.  Looks nice.

What doesn’t look very nice is the brass mail slot which is in need of a good scrubbing and polishing.

But that would necessitate removing my bar code!!  I am a “managed service point.”  This is actually a great comfort to me and probably to others.  I am not accustomed to service or management at 1880. Turns out, while there is not an app for that, there is a bar code.

Guess I’ll just dust off the door and call it good.

But wait!  There’s more  .  .  .

My darling postman, Ricardo, moved the bar code to the porch post when he saw my dilemma and I polished the brass.  It looks great — but now I need to paint the door!

Many years ago I received a basket containing several small holiday plants — a tiny poinsettia, a sprig of holly, a white azalea, some greenery. After the holidays, I planted them all in my Bay Area garden.  The holly sprig survived and grew into a small bush.

After  few years, I cut it back, dug it up, put it into a burlap bag, brought to 1880, and planted it in front.  For several years, it pouted.  Then it decided, as I did, that here is good.    Now, fifteen Decembers later, it got it its first lights and ornaments.  Indeed, here is good.

And these are in no particular order.  Some of these costumes might not even have been for Halloween.  We had a big costume box that we added to over the years.  By the time Mary-Margaret was looking through it, she had a lot of choices, but, as often not, she came up with an original plan.   To this day, she comes up with the most amazing costumes, for herself and for horses!

The Four Horses Of the Apocalypse ride across central Oregon:

I don’t ever remember buying a costume.

There were lots of visits to the pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay.

What an amazing smile!  Classic seven-year-old.

Lots of costume parades at North School

Episcopal Day School witches

World’s blondest gypsy:

At least a couple of years are not represented here.  A picture of Katherine as a pumpkin at ten-months of age seems to be missing.  We’ll find that one.  And one year, I remember distinctly NOT taking a picture of Elizabeth.  She wanted to “surprise me” and came out of her room in an amazing get-up with make up done by Katherine.  I asked her what she was and she said “a movie star,” but, trust me,  she was a total Ho!  I was glad her father was away on a trip that night.  What fun times!  Tonight I’m going to open my door dressed up as an old woman.  That means I won’t need to change a thing 🙂