Christmas Bliss and Blog Biz

This is my tree before all the gifts got wrapped and scattered beneath it. It's fun finding inexpensive ways to decorate it each year. Did you know if you choose a non-traditional color/theme, you can get decorations for next to nothing? The pink feather boas came from a party store, the pink ribbons were from my wedding almost 25 years ago (tied together now to form garlands), there are some plastic fruits, stuff from a clearance sale at a plant nursery, and some gold mesh wedding gift bags (10 for $2.50) with drawstrings that I put curled ribbons or plastic ornaments inside of and hung on the tree.

I hope you are enjoying spending time off from "real life" to be with friends, family, in quiet and serene relaxation, or doing whatever it is you love doing. Our family gathered last night for our traditional Christmas Eve, and a good time was had by all. After church and a huge potluck, we always play Dirty Santa with gag gifts. For the last 10+ years, a black silk teddy and rabbit ears have been wrapped and re-wrapped to circulate to the "lucky" winner. Last night, Mom swapped the gift she picked -- a bag of toilet paper -- for the teddy, afraid it might make its way outside the family since there are more and more friends, Significant Others, etc. attending. Those velvety rabbit ears atop her chemo-bald head was a sight to see!

Now, for the blogging part...do you ever check the keyword analysis for your blog? I tell ya, it's simply and purely fascinating! Here are just a few of the phrases used to locate my blog last week:

strange growth on tree
what does shazayum mean
easy gumbo recipe
hurricane joke gift
gumbo writers

Do you look at your blog's statistics and see all the different countries visitors are from? Like me, do you wonder who all comes by your blog but doesn't leave comments? What's the one thing you'd like to add to your blog? And what do you like most about your little corner of the blogosphere? Okay, enough questions.

I'll leave you with a few more shots of my 2008 Christmas tree. Hugs to all, and to all a good day! {And if you haven't seen how the Ledbetters have "elffed" themselves just for you, zoom down to the bottom of this page and click on the video.}