Deck the Halls without mold

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Costco has the most beautiful poinsettias (I say poin-set-uh). Our tree looks a lot less anorexic this year, thanks to Target's small colorful sparkly glass balls. Notice also the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ornament, the Flamingo First Christmas ornament, among others.

So, sometime last week I decided it was finally an appropriate time to dig out the Christmas decorations and display them. Since we won't be leaving for Pennsylvania until December 23rd, we still will have plenty of time to enjoy them. As I was digging through a bin, instead of wafts of cinnamon or peppermint, I was treated to the delicious scent of must. I thought to myself, self, this is strange since all of the Christmas decorations we own are brand new as of last year, so there would be no reason for them to smell like old garage or wet basement. As I pulled out the tree skirt, I noticed it was growing mold! Mold? How in the world? Well, on further investigation, I discovered that the bubble wrapped snow globe had not survived our two moves, so sometime along the way it had broken and leaked the wet "snowy" contents. Sad, because it was a sentimental snowglobe for Hylan and it was completely unsalvageable. Whether this happened in January or July, it had plenty of time to dry and start growing mold. So, after laundering, lysol-ing, and anti-bacterial wiping, I was able to save the majority of decorations. Most of the water must have been absorbed by the $15.00 Target tree skirt, thankfully, so I wasn't going to be disappointed if I had to throw it away, but it actually survived the laundry machine.

I must say, thank goodness I took Claritin-D that morning, because otherwise I think I would have been wheezing and sneezing during that whole experience, although the smells of mold and chemicals were still nauseating.

I guess I've learned my lesson about packing snowglobes...however, I don't think we've had any other casualties from all of the moving we've done in the short time we've been married, so I guess this was just an unfortunate incident.

Here's a smidgeon of our Christmas collections. We can't wait until we have a huge house, huge trees, candy cane lit turrets, boughs of holly, pine bannisters, wreaths, stockings hung by the fireplace, etc. But for now, we are quite content with our humble existence.

The creche my Grandmother gave us as a wedding present. I especially love the camels.

The olive wood creche my Mommy gave us as a Christmas gift last year.

Our stockings hung on our mantle by the fireplace (by that I mean, hung on the doors of our laundry closet).

The "candy cane tree" sans candy canes my Grandmother made for me. I love my Grandmother.

My humble excuse for a table setting. I'm no designer, but I thought it looked presentable.

Giant Snowman Mug