As much as Phil loves his birthday (not) and I love Christmas, our house was having difficulties looking cheerful. It’s basically empty and our activities have been reduced to two rooms. (not including the bathroom and laundry room) All of the holiday decorations have been shipped to Texas, and we sold our fake Christmas tree. The only “things” we currently possess that remind us of the season are a Yankee candle that smells like pine and a Christmas playlist on my iPhone.

Katharina and Ludwig found this far too depressing and they took action. One day Katarina came to our door with a desk-top Christmas tree bedecked with charming mini ornaments. She invited me over to her house to make wreaths for our front doors. She said that she and Ludwig had all the supplies. A couple of weeks ago I showed her a lovely pine tree star wreath I had seen on Pinterest. Yes, even Katharina enjoys Pinterest. She and Ludwig took the idea and made it their own.

Ludwig grabbed some pine branches on one of his recent excursions into the woods. He also made us golden four-point stars in his wood shop. He set up a craft table for us and left us to build the door ornaments while he hunted for the afternoon. Katharina showed me how to make a bow and I showed her how to use a glue gun. Here are the results.

The above wreath is Katharina’s. The ornament below is mine.