First I want to wish each of you a Wonderful Holiday Season and Happy/Merry Christmas to those of you who partake in Christmas like I do.

I thought I would continue my tradition of sharing some of the themed Christmas trees one of my local libraries displays each year. They are decorated by the library staff and you can tell they have fun decorating them each year!

GHOSTBUSTERS:

DOLLY PARTON:

ADDAMS FAMILY:

THE LAST OF US (Apocalyptic show on HBO):

REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES:

THE HOBBIT:

10TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION (see my post Birthday Colorado Roadtrip Part II: Leadville and an Emotional “Divide” to see why this is so special to me)

THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE (Chronicles of Narnia):

DEATH OF THE NILE:

There were so many wonderful trees on both floors (2 stories) of the library I only photographed a sampling. Here are the posts from previous years if you’d like to see a sampling of their past designs:

2024 – But Tierney Christmas is Long Over…

2023 – O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Trees…

I’ll be back posting after the holidays but in the meantime I will be reading/catching up your posts…you know blogging activities seems to take a backseat during this busy season!

Postscript

Do you remember the “House that Won/Keeps Winning Halloween” (see posts The House That Won Halloween, Still Winning Halloween, and The House That Keeps Winning Halloween)? Well it turns out that house is not too bad at Christmas either!

The other day I happened to be taking my daily walk at dusk because the day got away from me and for the first time I saw the holiday decorations at night in that particular street I walked (usually I only walk it during daylight). The “Halloween House” was looking quite Christmas Festive (and not nightmare inducing)!

We spent the week of Christmas (12/22 – 12/27/24) in Miami, Florida with my family. One of my stepsons joined us along with my siblings, their kids and my sister-in-law. We came from Oregon, Virginia, Delaware and Denver to meet up for Christmas week!

Here is John on his way to get our rental car in the Miami airport with the artificial Christmas tree we brought along on his back!

John and I rented a couple loft condos in a converted former industrial building so the 8 of us would have plenty of space; and made our condo the main Christmas area with the tree, stockings and meals served there. I put on a fireplace video with Christmas music from YouTube and hung the stockings on the entertainment center for ambiance – ha!

Here’s what our condo looked like with a view of Miami’s skyline:

John made several wonderful meals and it was so good to sit down with the family from all over the country and share his yummy cooking:

I spent an evening on Espanola Way in South Beach with my siblings and their kids wandering around and it was magical!

John got to go on several rented bike rides along South Beach with his son Z who is an avid cyclist in Portland, Oregon (they didn’t appear to take any photos).

Miami was beautiful and decorated for the holidays:

I got to spend a morning wandering around downtown Miami with my sister and visiting the really lovely Brickell City Centre shopping area.

We stopped for some amazing pastries at the Rosetta Bakery.

Our family was so sweet and the day after Christmas they threw a surprise party in the afternoon for John and I at the other condo to celebrate our love and our commitment to family. They decorated the table with my favorite – sunflowers!

My brother, sister and stepson all made amazing speeches and John and I got pretty choked up! It was a very special afternoon.

On our last day in Miami, before heading to the airport, a couple of us went to Coral Gables and spent time in a delightful independent bookstore – Books & Books. It has a cafe, a bar, and endless rooms of books! I didn’t want to leave but eventually we had to head to the airport – ha!