Sunday evening we went to visit this holiday “tree” built from 376 old lobster traps, and decorated with 360 buoys for ornaments and over 800 lights. The buoys were painted by local artists and school children. The “tree” was topped with a lighted anchor. The creation looked more like an igloo to me!
I know of two other places, in Massachusetts, that have lobster trap trees, one in Provincetown and one in Gloucester. This is the first year Stonington has tried it. The place was mobbed! (We had our masks on even though it was outside.) You could go inside but the line was very long, with no social distancing, and it was freezing outside. Even Tim was complaining about how cold it was!
While we were there we overheard a marriage proposal happening on the inside. The bride-to-be was beside herself with surprise and shrieks of delight and disbelief. Way too much excitement for us. I did manage to get a picture of one of the buoys before we hightailed it out of there.
It will take us a while to get used to crowds again when the time comes, after almost two years of quarantine and social distancing. Sigh…
Connecticut’s covid positivity rate is 9.02%, the highest it’s ever been.
Wednesday morning we tried something new. I saw a cute gift wrapping idea on a blog I follow, My Scandinavian Home. Tim & I crafted the two gift wraps on the left, the bear (or dog?) and the deer, using paper bags, cardstock and a sharpie. Now we keep our fingers crossed that everyone will test negative and show up for Christmas.
Many blessings to all my blogging friends ~ stay safe and may your winter holidays be merry and bright! Let it snow!
Beautiful, creative Christmas tree, befitting for your region! And wow, you get to go inside, very cool. My post today will share our crab basket Christmas trees befitting for our region of watermen too. My fingers are crossed for you too that your family can come together for Christmas and you see & hug your grandchildren! 🥰 Merry Christmas, Barbara! 🎁🎅🤶🎄 ⛄️
Thank you, Donna! I enjoyed seeing your festive crab basket Christmas tree — there is no end to people’s creative ideas! Our grandchildren made it! They couldn’t find enough rapid covid tests so when they got here my masked daughter came to the door and I handed her four tests and she took them out to their car. Fifteen minutes later everyone had tested negative and they all came in. JOY! 😊
Fabulous! I am so thrilled they all made it and you had Christmas together! 😊 That had to be the longest 15 minutes waiting for the hugs!!!!
15 minutes of suspense followed by a whirlwind of activity!!! 5 days of non-stop delight, even without any snow! ❄️
🥰
I must admit, this is a new tradition for me. Then again, lobster traps aren’t abundant in Ohio – not even along the Ohio River! Who would have thunk it? Thanks for sharing, and Merry Christmas to you, Tim, and your family. Enjoy the joy of the season.
Thank you, Frank! There is no end to human creativity, for sure. I hope you had a wonderful and joyful Christmas with your loved ones, too. ❄️
Beautiful tree – interesting info. Merry Christmas.
I hope you had a Merry Christmas, too, Peggy! ❄️
Happy New Year Barbara. May 2022 be a better year.
Happy New Year, Peggy! Amen.
Ha! “I was proposed to under the lobster traps” will make a good story someday. Your wrapping project is adorable. Great that Tim joined in. Have a magical Christmas with loved ones!
Thank you, Anna! Our granddaughter loved her “deer” gift wrapping so much she saved it and took it home with her. We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you did, too. ❄️
What a unique idea for a Christmas tree! Wouldn’t work here — no lobster traps in sight! — but it’s perfect for your area. I know just what you mean about the taking time to get re-used to crowds (I feel the same way, and you ought to see me run when somebody coughs in my area!) Happy Christmas to you and yours!
Thank you, Debbie! I hope you and Monkey and your loved ones had a wonderful Christmas, too! Somehow I thought we might not have to be so cautious by now but the numbers keep going up and so we will have to keep shunning outdoor crowds and indoor buildings. Our town has gone back to mask mandates…
Oh dear. Just when we think we’ve made some progress, we end up taking steps backward. Sigh.
Let’s hope this current surge will finally be the last one…
Very New England… and it does look rather igloo-like. 😉 I’m of the same mind with crowds. I doubt I will ever feel at ease in one again.
I love your gift wrapping – the kids will love it (and then tear it to pieces! 😀 ). Have a great holiday!
Thank you, Eliza! Well, the three-year-old tore his bear to pieces but the seven-year-old was so enchanted with her deer that she opened the gift very carefully and took the wrapping home with her. 🙂 Hope you had a lovely New England holiday! ❄️
Thanks,Barbara – I have never heard about lobster traps – merry Christmas to you – in Norway we had or celebration on the 24th – and very merry it was!
How interesting that you don’t have lobster traps in Norway. It must be a New England thing. Anyone who has a boat around here sets a lobster trap in hopes of catching one for dinner. So glad to hear you had a merry Christmas, Leelah, ours was wonderful, too! ❄️💕
I agree that it looks a little igloo-ish, but I like the spirit of the idea, the anchor on top, bright lights and artist buoys. It is festive and all the other states that don’t have lobster trap trees are jealous. 🙂 I like the creativity of the wrapping paper – how cute and it looks nice with the other wrapping paper – very creative and natural looking. I hope that everyone tested negative and the Christmas gathering was a “go” for you and Tim.
Hmmm… I thought I responded to your comment here yesterday! I must have forgot to hit the “post comment” button. Everyone tested negative and we had a wonderful 5-day visit. The kids loved the forest animal tree that my sister and I had so much fun decorating, and they loved the special bear and deer gift wraps. Kat unwrapped hers very carefully and took the wrapping home with her. 🙂 The weather wasn’t too nice but we did manage to get out to a playground for a little while one day.
No worries Barbara and I wonder why the “Send” is embedded in the comment area so that you can’t tell if you made a typo because if you try to see, you’ll accidentally push “Send”. That is great and the visit probably was over so quickly, which is always the way. I’m glad the forest animal tree and that clever gift wrap went over so well and hopefully they can try to recreate it again. 🙂
I’m forever accidently clicking on the wrong buttons! Definitely a case of feast or famine with the visit. 🙂 It went from being too noisy and chaotic around here to being too calm and quiet… Looking forward to an actual snowstorm on Friday, a good old-fashioned nor’easter. I hope it doesn’t go out to sea at the last minute…
Well tonight my “like” button is not working for some reason. I press it, then it goes off. I generally use Chrome browser, but when I write posts, I use Firefox. I did not migrate any of my favorite sites to Firefox and tonight Chrome has apparently up and died. I hope my password info is up to date – my Comcast e-mail they make you change it occasionally for added security purposes. I always think I can remember the new one. Not always true! So, viewing comments, now I can see emoticons which I could not with Chrome.
I hope you get your snowstorm/nor’easter and it is tamer than that mess in Virginia. That was amazing. We still have ice – we didn’t get much snow, but the ice is bad and tomorrow beginning at 7:00 a.m. we have a high wind advisory all day. Tomorrow morning 22 mph winds gusting to 40, so coupled with ice, I think there will be no walk.
I have trouble keeping my password book up to date and/or organized — sigh. Frequently have to create new ones. My goodness, that was quite a disaster on I-95 in Virginia, a pile up involving at least six tractor trailer trucks as I understand it. I can’t imagined being trapped in my car overnight in the cold like that. I guess that’s why they’re always advising keeping emergency supplies, food and blankets in your car in the winter.
Now that’s the first lobster trap tree I have ever seen! Thank you for sharing. The simplicity of the wrapping paper is great, too. Still hoping you were able to have wonderful family time!
Very happy to introduce you to a lobster trap tree, Kathy! I had heard of them in other seaside towns but this was the first I saw in person. We did have a wonderful 5 days of holiday fun which made all the fun planning we did worth it in the end! ❄️
Thanks for sharing the tree! Who would have thought lobster traps could be so pretty? And I love what you did with the wrap! Really creative.
Thank you, Kay! It was lots of fun imagining how the grandchildren would react to the animal gift wraps and getting out of the house at night to see the unusual holiday tree. ❄️
Stunning work of art that Lobster Trap Tree is; I certainly would have loved the experience. You amaze me with all you do, Barbara!!
And your paperwork packages are adorable along side your home nature tree. Sweet to hear that one of the youngsters cherished her wrappings.
The joy here came from a neighborhood caroler group of a dozen or two dozen walking down our street, some stops door to door. On the 23rd around 6 p.m. already dark, I was laying in bed overdosing on chocolate in the quiet of my home. I thought I must be hallucinating because I thought I head music, but I had none playing inside. So I went to my front door and what a joyful sight of songs. Made my holiday a bit more cheerful!
Warm wishes as the snowstorm is approaching.
Thank you, TD! It was a lot of fun making those crafty gift wrappings. 🙂 Lucky you to have carolers come to your house! I have never experienced that and wondered if it only happened in movies or in times way before mine. That chocolate must have been working some kind of Christmas magic! 🎄🎁⛄🎶
The gift wrapping is delightful. Oh I do like it. Very clever.
Thank you, Ally! It was so much fun to try our hands at a craft. 🙂