Decorating For The Holidays

It has been quite a long time since Veronica and I have been able to fully utilize all of our holiday decorations. This year we decided to go all out and we put just about everything we have out on display. So this last Saturday and 10 hours later..... 3 fully decked out trees with oodles of ornaments, 2 carpeted holiday floor mats, numerous wooden signs, numerous sized sleighs filled with various goodies, a mailbox, quite a number of stuffed Santas of all sizes, several other stuffed holiday animals and characters, various stockings hung, an assortment of decorative trucks loaded with trees and other holiday related items, several stuffed holiday pillows, several Jim Shore figurines had been pulled out of storage and put out for display. I am sure that I missed several unlisted things, both stuffed and otherwise. Somewhere in the mix must be a partridge in a pear tree. The home is definitely Holiday ready and we were definitely ready for a nap after we got everything up!!

Here are some photos of our holiday home decorations:

  

Finishing Touches To Our New Deck

Due to the fact that the facing of our new deck goes down to the ground and that I was afraid that when using a string trimmer it might damage the TREX finish upon contact between the facing and the string trimmer, I decided to use architectural concrete containing wall blocks around the deck. I also used marble chips between the blocks to fill in the spaces.
It made for a decorative pattern surrounding the deck. It will also keep out any animals that might want to take up residence underneath the deck.
I also used the marble chips under the bigger blocks to add some stability and help in leveling the blocks.
I lastly put some soil down and I will throw some grass seed on the soil in the Spring.
Below are photos showing the deck completely finished: