decorations - Living The Q Life Travel Adventures

Needless to say, we pick up souvenirs from all of the places that we visit so that when we see those objects, they remind us of the places we’ve visited. In particular, though, we try to find something Christmas related whenever we can. It is quite enjoyable to be decorating the house or trimming the tree and coming across something that we’ve picked up from one of our travels. It isn’t always possible to find something, but sometimes we will find a Christmas store or curio store that sells something Christmas related.

Little Drummer from Bethlehem Pennsylvania

We were in England about a month prior to Christmas and one of our fondest memories was going to Stratford-Upon-Avon and seeing the mayor announce the arrival of Santa Claus, who appeared on the roof. We drank mulled wine at a local pub and found a perfect little store full of Christmas decorations. While we were in London, we made our way to Harrods to view their Christmas displays and to do some Christmas shopping.

Christmas Ornament from Stratford-Upon-Avon

Christmas Ornament from Harrods in London

Another great memory was when we were in Paris and we found a little store that sold wonderful china where we found the perfect little statue of a boy and girl on a sleigh. It is the memory of the streets of Paris and the little shops that we went into that comes back to our minds as we put it out on our mantelpiece every year.

It isn’t as if the items are extravagant or expensive, but we treasure each and every one of them. Whether from Aspen, Chicago, Spain, England, France or any other place, each comes with a trove of memories. What better time of the year to pull out a piece of the past and set it out to remind us of the places that we’ve travelled to.

To say that we’re into Halloween would be the understatement of a lifetime. We’ve been throwing Halloween parties for twenty years now and every year we add a few more decorations, so we’ve accumulated a lot of really cool things. For the ten years, the parties were for the kids, but now we’re all about the adult Halloween party. This year’s party is tomorrow, so we’re frantically getting ready since our remodeling work didn’t finish until two days ago. It normally takes us two weeks to decorate the entire house, so the pressure has been on to finish and get everything done in time.

We decorate both inside and outside and every year the theme for the outdoor decorations change. This year’s theme is spiders, so we had fun building a giant spider web that spanned the entire front porch. We even have a body wrapped in spider webs hanging from the top of the porch. We always do a small cemetery scene, so spiders are crawling throughout. We also match our costumes to the theme, so we’re dressing as Frodo (assuming you get the reference from the Lord of the Rings) and a Black Widow. Inside the house, we go as far as changing out our artwork and even change some of our curtains.

We’re making marinated mushrooms, antipasto spears (with olives, marinated peppers, prosciutto, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese), tea sandwiches, pumpkin sage shrimp, and a variety of other snacks. Obviously we’ll have plenty wine and beer on hand as well. We wish you could all join us for the party, but we’ve added some pictures to help everyone get into the spirit of the party.

Isobar Expeditions

Tag: decorations

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