Warm and woolly wishes

Has anyone else noticed that there seems to be a lot of wool around this Christmas? (And no, I don't mean just at my house. My house always has a lot of wool around!) I keep seeing lots of cute felted ornaments, tree skirts, stockings and other Christmas decorations in all the catalogs that show up in my mailbox. About a month ago I spied a few wool felt ornaments hanging amongst the glittery and gaudy on a rack at Home Goods. I was thrilled to find them and promptly bought them. When I read the attached label I was even more glad I had brought them home with me. They are Fair Trade Holiday handmade ornaments and I love the sweet simplicity of them. For the next few weeks, every time I had a chance, I checked the rack at Homegoods and managed to come up with a nice little collection of ornaments, one or two at a time. Last week I found some different ones at the Good Foods Co-op in Lexington and added a few more. I've put them all on a little iron tree that came from Smith & Hawken years ago and set it in the middle of our kitchen table, where I can see them all the time. Later this week I intend to get our big tree and maybe we will get it into the house sometime over the weekend. For the time being though, I'm enjoying looking at these bright, cheerful, simple little ornaments.

My warm and woolly wishes are to simplify our Christmas celebration this year. I want so much to have less stress and more time to enjoy my family and friends.

That's what I'd really like for Christmas. How about you?