Hi,

We’ll start this off with I spoke with my printer today and all 6,000 cards will be in the mail tomorrow afternoon.

Next I would like to talk about Krampus, it’s a tradition originated back in the middle ages in central Europe and is most popular these days in southern Germany (particularly Bavaria) and in Austria. Our tradition is St Nick or Santa Claus who rewards good kids and Krampus is a demon that scoops up bad kids and takes them to his lair.  The thing I like about Krampus is like Day of the Dead, Día de Muertos.  I love the art associated with it.  Traditional Krampus masks are carved from wood.  I’ve been trying to make this post for days, sorry for the late notice, but if you would like to participate tomorrow (Friday) evening there will be a Krampus celebration again this year in Market Square from 6 -9 .

Here’s the magical Parador Inn all set for the holidays.

Outside:

outside

 

And here’s last year’s acquirement I found them at Pat Catan’s in Pleasant Hills which is now closed as is the original Pat Catan’s in McKeesrocks), I initially called them mice, now with the nutcracker I’m calling them rats for the Rat King from the Nutcracker:

Rat king

We wouldn’t have the holidays without a Caribbean tree:

Caribbean tree

The Caribbean tree is all hand painted fish, seashell and novelty ornaments, look closely at this picture:

closeup Caribbean tree ornaments

And at the head of the dining room table I cover the palm trees with little red bows with Susie’s glass gift boxes underneath:

Glass gift boxes

Here’s the main staircase:

Main stair case

Here’s my traditional tree in the parlor:

Traditional tree parlor

I took coconuts I brought back from Florida, spay painted them and then painted Holiday themes on them like Christmas trees, candy canes, angels.  I’m far from an artist, if you can tell the difference between my candy canes and angels-I’ll be happy  these are all them in a laundry basket when I brought them downstairs to hang.  They are in each of my front windows:

decorated coconuts

And the last image is my snow village in the dining room:

snow village

If you are fretting over gifts for me, just remember I don’t like big, just expensive.  🙂  Just kidding, I’m happy just seeing friends and family.

All the best,

ed