Christmas House – 2015 Edition

My friend Andrea has an annual open house for her friends and friends of her friends, to benefit the local SPCA, and last night was it. She begins working on the project over Thanksgiving weekend, and with a big family wedding over the weekend, this year’s party was a little later than usual. But it was no less spectacular, with a final count of more than 375 trees, ranging from one inch to six feet!

A few weeks ago, Andrea and I had been driving around looking at lights and discovered this year’s “must-have” decoration – starry laser lights. After much searching and no finding, I located a set on eBay in Kentucky and had them shipped overnight as a present to Andrea.

Of course, the house wasn’t the only thing these lights lit up!

Once we got inside, the house was magical!

One room was black, red and white themed, one was greens and roses and the third was hot, bright shades. Andrea has such a great eye and although there’s a lot going on, it’s fun.

There was great food, including these beautiful cookies, made by a friend’s 11-year old son!

And as always, stunning flowers.

Andrea’s husband also takes part in the decoration – but he focuses on the outside with a menagerie of blow-up figures in the front yard.

Of course, no holiday party would be complete without a visit from the Big Man himself, in this case our friend Mark, here with Andrea’s newest pup, Mackenzie!  But the very best part of the party was the fact that it raised more than $3,000 for the Maryland SPCA, and huge boxes of food and toys for the animals at the shelter.

Thanks for all you do, Andrea!