Christmas Tour: A Cup of Christmas Tea

Victorian charm on the Farm

Christmas Tour: Hark!

That's right. That is Exploratory Data Analysis, a.k.a. EDA by Tukey.

The Art of Social Letter Writing

See? The angel is reading a letter.

Do goats go to Heaven?

Most serene.

Wanna play ball?

Let us pray.

Hark the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

No matter your religious beliefs, if you are not acquainted with this tune, and not stirred by it, your life is impoverished. 

I'd be like, I dunno, never having watched It's A Wonderful Life. Where have you been all these years of your life?

Christmas Tour: Every Nook and Cranny

Nooks

Crannies

Obscure corners

More nooks

More crannies

"Checked out by... " (In my spare time I run a library.)

More obscure corners

Even more!

Some folks could learn a thing or two from Daughter C's attention to nooks, crannies, and obscure corners.

Christmas Tour: To The North Pole!

Okay. I'm just funnin' with y'all.

Here are Blitzen and Vixen in real life-- sorta.

Aren't these the cutest things you've ever seen (except for puppies and possibly kittens)?

Vixen-- she just loves that red bow (unlike Missy who ate hers)

Blitzen, Vixen's older brother-- who fancies himself in his bow tie (unlike Rocky, who ate his)

A. Leland created these little guys. He chopped down a tree and created them! 

The plan was to make some reindeer-- they're a dime a dozen out here, everybody does it, and they go for like $20-50-- and put them outside as "lawn" decorations. But once he created Blitzen-- and then Vixen-- how could we not invite them into our home for Christmas?

A Christmas Tour: To Boldly Go

Many of the over-decorated Christmas vignettes Daughter C put together -- most of which I've yet to share, it is only December 11th-- have a historical perspective. For example, the dinosaur/monster scene on top of the book shelf shows a fantasy Christmas in Jurassic times. Santa on the broken down tractor depicts the dust bowl of American agricultural history. The Round Table with Linus and the old snowman highlights the '50s and '60.

But make no mistake about it, although we enjoy us some crappy old stuff here at the Farm, we are all about the Future.

See?

"Engage."

"Scotty! What's going on down there?" "I d'no Cap'n' These red pepper lights have a magnetic field the likes of which I've n'vr encountered."

"Shuttle Craft to Enterprise. We're burning up. Beam us outta here."

"We have escaped, Sir."

"Just in the nick of time. Mr. Spock. Data. What happened?"

"It appears we were hung in an unstable system."

"I agree, Mr. Spock. They failed to account for the influence the television's magnetic field would have on our ability to maneuver the pepper light field."

"Whatever. Can you get us safely back to Victorian Times?"

A Christmas Tour: Down Memory Lane

Long time readers will remember The Conversations.

Believe it or not, the Conversations board is still in the corner of the Dining Room. I thought Daughter C's ornamentation of it was right nice-- elegant, in fact.

You can-- as I just have-- rejoin the Conversation here.

A Christmas Tour: Be Careful Out There!

A simple, pleasant scene atop a bookcase

But as we know from watching Rudolph,

the world can be a dangerous place, even at Christmastime.

This poor reindeer lost his leg in the fight for his life!

This morning, the little soldier was nowhere to be seen.

And the monster had claimed another unsuspecting victim.

A Christmas Tour: Scenes from a Round Table

That's Daughter C in the blue jacket in the snow some years ago.

This guy is older than I am!

Santa is watching you.

A round table

Welcome to the Christmas Tour!

We are pleased as punch with the way our home looks-- all decked out for Christmas and all! 

I know many of you did your decorating before Thanksgiving. We're just a bunch of lazy Rednecks, so we don't get too ahead of ourselves in our decorating. But now that Thanksgiving and my birthday have come and gone, we got down to the business of tastefully overdecorating.

And because you may be overwhelmed by the 187 photographs Daughter C and I took of the overdecorated joint today, I'll present them in stages, as if you were doing a home tour. We'll begin with the foyer and surrounds.

This is what Christmas is all about.

More to come.