All is calm

Hi everyone,This post is long in coming and I've been looking at it for several days now, but the truth is that I'm finding Christmas very hard this year.Ok, I'm just going to stop writing about that now because it's been two more days of writing and deleting and writing and deleting since I started this post, and if I keep on trying to, and failing so spectacularly to explain myself, it will suddenly be New Year and this post will still be in the draft stage, so nuff said.This year, although I cannot have Robbie with me, I do have my two oldest children and my four grandchildren for Christmas day, so I'm thrilled and looking forward to seeing their shiny faces. I've never had Christmas morning with my grandchildren since they were born, so that's wonderful for me.I usually get my tree on the 15th of December because it has to stick around till the feast of the three kings (January 6th), but this year I just couldn't get my act together and so didn't get it till the 17th!By that time, my favourite charity tree lot had about four trees left, and they were all 8' tall. Perfect for me and for my house.I put the tree in the stand...with the usual help from my crew...and set about decorating it.I'm up to four crates worth of vintage and Czech glass ornaments and it took about four hours to get them all out and on the tree. Then I decided to repair last year's broken ornaments and get those on the tree as well. Then I decided that I hate the screen behind the tree, and also that the mantle is still full of hydrangeas and autumnal birch paintings and needed redecorating, so a massive project ensued. Project Get Christmasy With It!Most of you know my aunt was an amazing artists and most of you know I owe part of my talent to her tutoring and guidance, but I don't often show you the legacy of paintings I have from her.This painting of the Madonna and Child, the Sistine Madonna, is one of her paintings which she painted for me over 30 years ago. She used to practice by replicating great masters and I was newly married to a Roman Catholic, so I asked her to paint me the most beautiful religious painting I could think of. I'm lucky to have it. The angels at the bottom have always symbolized home to my children.I cleaned off my mail on my marble desk. This desk is right beside the front door and a catchment for my purse, keys, sunglasses and all papers which come my way.And I took the hydrangeas and autumnal aspen paintings off the mantle piece and replaced them with more Christmas appropriate decorations.I also brought back this painting which I did as part of our art challenge last year.I love living with my art and love to cycle it around as I feel like it. The time for this little misty painting seemed right.And joining the painting are my two nutcrackers, one bought in England and the other in Austria, symbolizing the two parts of my family.And there you have it. One half of the Christmas living room......and the other.I did make a vlog recently...at least I did take loads of video footage for a vlog but haven't got my act together to post it. I'll try to get to that soon otherwise we might just miss Christmas altogether, and that would never do.