It's the happiest season of all...

So last time, I posted a rather extensive list of all of the decorations I had up to that point.

I also alluded to the fact that not ALL of them had been put up yet, and perhaps I'd get around to it.

Well, I did.

The Prettiest Picture You've Ever Seen...

Everyone has a staple for holiday decorating. For some, it's statues. For others, it's candles. For me, it's cardboard cut-outs.

Growing up as I did, where every holiday was an explosion of color throughout the house, holidays just wouldn't be holidays without accompanying cardboard cut-outs crapping up the cabinets. Mom had 'em for everything, and I mean EVERYTHING -- she even had cut-out heads of Lincoln and Washington for President's Day. So, going with what I know, I am in love with the idea of adorning my cabinetry with the tackiest bits of paper every produced, and the cheesier the better. (The notable exceptions to the "cheesy" rule are "Peanuts" cut-outs. I have 'em for Easter, Halloween and St. Patrick's Day, and don't find them the least bit cheesy. I just wish I had some for Christmas and Valentine's Day. But I digress...)

Thus, without further ado...

Aren't they just the bee's knees?

And So This is Christmas...

I often tend to go a bit overboard for Christmas, I'll freely admit it. But I come by it honestly, considering my ancestry. And, truth be told, I doubt that if Mom were still around that I'd have HALF the decorations I have.

Case in point -- my holiday dishware. Every year, around the beginning of December, Mom would take out all of our dishes and glasses and replace them with the Christmas dishes. It was always a nice additional touch that signified the impending approach of the holiday. When she passed and we were readying her house for the estate sale, we naturally had to go through every cabinet. It was my sister Debbie who made the discovery, and announced her findings with the simple pronouncement, "Wow. There's Christmas." And we all knew what she meant. Tucked in the back of one, above her refrigerator, was her entire set of Christmas dishes.

I laid claim to them, and now use them every year, and it makes the holiday seem that much more... I don't know, homey.

It's a Good Old-Fashioned Christmas, Down on the Farm...
So, our farm has been in our family since 1922, and has had frontage on the Atlantic City Expressway since the highway in question -- thanks to eminent domain -- cut across our farm in 1964. In all that time, the only occasion when it was even remotely decorated for Christmas was back in 1981, not long after R.C. Maxwell leased a portion of ground from us and erected a billboard (you know the one located on Local Road? Yeah, that's kinda ours). That year, nobody had rented the side of the billboard facing westbound traffic on the Expressway, so my father managed to finagle the company into letting us rent it for the month of December. Two criss-crossing candy canes and some holly were printed on it, along with the message, "Merry Christmas From Mohawk Farms."

And that was the last time. Until now.

This past summer, as many of you know, my step-sister Nyckie painted, on the side of our building, her interpretation of our farm's logo, designed by Matt Orsman, of Mirthquake Productions in Mulvane, KS. Since the new logo went up on the wall, I'd wanted to put spotlights on it, so that it could clearly be seen from the Expressway at night. Christmas seemed like the perfect time to do it, and while I was at it, I decided to throw up some lights on the loading dock. This is the result.

Bonus Track: "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" Redux

I realize this is not, technically, a Christmas decoration, but it's my blog, and I make the rules, so I'll post whatever the fuck I want! Er... I mean... it's not technically a decoration, but it does qualify as my first official Christmas present. It was drawn by my friend Chris "Mouse" Lowry -- the girl who designed and did the first application of my two tattoos -- and she has truly outdone herself. I love it absolutely, and it will be adorning my walls year 'round.

She doesn't have a website that I know of, but you can check out more of her work by visiting her myspace profile. And, if anyone is looking for ink, I can't endorse her enough. Her work is simply incredible.

And that's about it for my pre-Christmas postings. Be sure to stay tuned to my next entry, where I give the low-down on all of my Christmas festivities, and reveal whatever wonderful presents Santa decides to shower me with this year.

And points to anyone who can correctly identify the songs where I got my section titles from this entry!

Merry Christmas!