7 A Liberty Christmas

Having a big move right before the holidays isn't easy, although I'm hard-pressed to pick a time of year that would be "easy" to move your entire lives- two humans, two dogs, one cat-dog, five checked bags, four carryons, one anthropomorphized Element named Watson, 10.5 crates of junk crap necessary items (luckily Paul doesn't come around these blog-parts often!- across the ocean.
Anyway, all that was just to say that it's a good thing we're not super-holiday people. We're more likely to take advantage of some days off to either do a bit of traveling or to just have some nice relaxation at home. Paul does enjoy a real Christmas tree, though, so when we first got married I began slowly collecting ornaments. Most of them are souvenirs from trips we've taken, but there are a few other, more traditional ones, that I got at after-Christmas sales. It's made a task I would normally see as a pain- a couple hours' work and some money spent on a mostly disposable thing that requires a lot of clean up- to be a fun time to reminisce and think about our trips and see all these bits that I've hand-selected for us to enjoy.  When we were at Lowe's a few weeks ago, I walked through the Christmas trees all lined up and thought "hmm... Paul's gonna want one this year!" despite his having denied it previously (due to the whole lack of funds thing from the first paragraph. See? It all ties in eventually.). Sure enough, as we were picking out our herb seeds we went there for, he commented that smelling the Douglas firs sure was nice...
So this weekend we're getting a Christmas tree. It'll be a smaller one, and if our stored-for-three-years lights don't work, we won't be purchasing new ones yet, (that said, we didn't bother buying new strings of lights in England and I liked it better...) but we will have a bit of Christmas in our house- even though our Christmas "presents" won't fit under a tree!!

Since December starts tomorrow and in honor of Christmas arriving at our house this weekend, I decided it's a good time to post my pictures (taken October 2) from Liberty's Christmas Shop. After enjoying Bloggers' Afternoon Tea, Selena, Becky, and I strolled over to Liberty- where we ran into several of the other ladies who were at the tea! We all wandered around the building, drooling dreaming over gorgeous fabrics, planning clever crafts, and devising just the right place in our homes for each item.

Displays of ornaments were in every nook and corner.

Despite their being lined up in rows, each one seemed delicately crafted- obviously meant to last for years and years as a cherished decoration.

Of course, Christmas crackers lined some displays!

They're just so lovely all on their own- I'd have a hard time pulling them!

These brightly colored jingle balls were tempting- but thinking of the 2AM "fun" Mia would have with them prompted me to leave with only a picture of them!

I lean towards the more natural ornaments, so these caught my eye.

Colour-schemed tabletops displayed ornaments and baubles like treats and delicacies.

I'm definitely drawn to blue ornaments, and these turquoise ones had just the sparkle!

Next week I'll show you the two ornaments I did pick up as last-minute souvenirs of our time in England, as well as some of my other favorites as I pull them out to decorate our tree!

Have you started your holiday festivities already, or is this weekend the big kick-off for your house as well?

Edit: Selena posted her pictures from Liberty today as well! Check them out here.