Welcome, dear friends, to Day 7 of our 12 Days of Christmas series! Decorating out on the front porch with a bit of holiday cheer is always my goal. If I had a Grinch stuffed toy, I would definitely add him outside. Does the card my husband received from a coworker with a Grinch on it count, lol?? No?? Let’s check out this year’s festive decor…
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All hearts come home for Christmas
With our grown kids and grandson driving to our home in just over a week, I hope to make everything really welcoming for their visit.
About a month ago, I brought out this old wooden gingerbread which I had created using our old scroll saw to cut out my designs which I sold for several years during the Christmas season. I would sold these large yard signs screwed onto wood surveyor stakes for $35 apiece.
This gave us extra money over the holidays to visit grandparents up in Northern California, or for buying Christmas presents, as welll as for whatever we needed a bit of extra funds that year.
Back then, an A-grade 1/2″ sheet of plywood cost about $40 per 8′ sheet. Quality plywood costs double that price now, whew!
This gingerbread is the only one I kept as the other reindeer and a nativity I had made for us eventually had broken due to weather and from being moved/dropped, so those were tossed when we moved out of our last home in Southern California. We do have a few blanks, partially painted, up in a box in the garage, and I could paint a reindeer if Mr. Ethereal would get one down. (I may ask him, but then I’ll get the side-eye look…)
Sorry the poinsettias look a bit bedraggled! We dropped down to 27 deg. one night last weekend and the cold nipped them. They are recovering, but it’ll be a little bit. 😉
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With angelic hosts proclaim
Our angel is getting a refresh this season. She was carried to the front porch a couple of years ago by Mr. Ethereal who does all of the heavy lifting for me anymore, thankfully. She is a whopping 70 pounds of solid cement with thick rebar inside her wings (we can see it in her broken left wing) and there is probably more rebar adding support inside of her body, too.
I only know this as Hubby and I weighed her and our other taller statue, which lives out in the backyard, when I wanted to bring them with us.
Mr. Ethereal just gave me “side-eye.”
“REALLY??” was all he said. I’m pretty sure he sighed and rolled his eyes, too. 😉
And that was it. Both girls were going to Texas!!
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Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new-born King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild;
God and sinners reconciled.”
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With angelic hosts proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem.”Hark the Herald Angel Sing ~ Lyrics – Charles Wesley; altered by George Whitefield; Music – Felix Mendelssohn; Hymnal.net, verse 1.
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They were with us at Lake Skinner, the first campground we lived on after moving out of that house. They drove with us to Texas, in the trunk of the 2006 white Camry we had at the time.
I added some greenery to her halo as the faux berries aren’t as beautiful anymore. The birds sometimes think those berries are real and will give them a sample. They don’t eat them as I find picked faux berries on the ground.
Of course, they have real red berries from a small tree right which branches out right above the doorway! Much more palatable. :)’
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Planting boxwood for Christmas
Over the Black Friday sales, I spied one the next-generation better boxwoods at one of the big box stores and brought two home. These two are called “Freedom” and this next generation of boxwood is better at fighting spidermites, and especially boxwood blight, which has battered the boxwood hedges in England and throughout Europe. We are talking decimating really famous gardens.
I remember a show on BBC’s gardening show, Gardener’s World, where host Monty Don talked about taking the boxwood out of his personal garden. Sad… I love the fresh greens of boxwood and planted roughly 100 of Winter Gem and another Japanese boxwood at our last home’s back garden. Winter Gem would turn a lovely bronze/red each winter, even in Southern California’s warm winter climate (growing zone 10).
I think boxwood blight is what I noticed in Versailles’ garden when my daughter and I toured there in the summer of 2022. The boxwoods just didn’t seem “perky,” for lack of a better word, and had bronzing in summer, which isn’t normal. You can see what I mean in this photograph above.
This boxwood hedge was just over a foot tall. Really too short, in my humble gardener’s opinion, but Versaille’s gardeners may have been trying to get these boxwood to recover. You can sheer many plants short when you are trying to rejuvenate them due to freeze, pests or sickness (like boxwood blight), and even from overgrowth.
I know I’ve lost a few boxwood to either spidermites or blight here in Texas (when I was losing plants left and right those first couple of years in the house, learning how to take care of Texas plantings… ugh!).
These two should be much more resistant to our local pests. 🙂
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Enjoying the cheery front porch at night
Having the gingerbread right by the front door welcoming everyone as they come inside is “giving me all the feels,” as millennials like to say today. No lie, I was not wearing “sunnies” while I was outside planting and decorating. We have big trees which do all of the shade control.
“Like totally!” 😉
Here is how the porch looks now. I might add some faux greenery with faux berries to each of the planters. Maybe a length of garland wrapped around the boxwood… Usually I plant pansies for winter in these urns, however, I haven’t seen any available at the big box store nurseries yet.
Here is how the porch looks after dark. Normally I would shoot with my Canon but it is still “acting up.” I will ask my professional-photographer-son if he would take a look at it while he is here, but for now I am stuck with my old iPhone 12 Pro’s capabilities (or lack thereof).
Plus, Apple just had an update and I’m not pleased with some of the changes. They seem to have eliminated the close-up bokeh setting, which I used all of the time outside photographing in the garden…
The phone camera isn’t doing the actual light justice. It really is much brighter in real life, thankfully. 🙂
And that’s how our front porch looks here just one week before Christmas! I love the lighted garland around the doorframe. We will add a new strand of lights over the weekend to replace the part which quit working between last season and now.
The porch’s soft, vintage-y look with the gingerbread and little sign made in the shape of a child’s sled are simple but with a happy charm. Perfect for welcoming everyone home…
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Happy weekend, y’all! Just 5 more sleeps ’til Christmas morning!
p.s. Dear friends, Sunday’s post ~ Day 8: An Advent post, will be up on the blog late in the day as I want to see what the message is at church this week before I finish writing . Thanks for waiting for it! 💜 God bless!