This year, our tenth in Texas, we decided to spend a small, quiet Christmas in Austin instead of making the 1200 mile drive to Chicago. Now the bubble lights and the tree are turned on
The pumpkin pie and cornbread cool on the table while the turkey roasts in the oven
In this quiet time before the others arrive for dinner, I go out to the garden and look for evergreens to make a simple centerpiece for the dining room table. Holly and ivy are traditional greens, but this is Texas, not Olde England! My Holly will be Burford holly and the Ivy is Fig ivy. A snip of magnolia, a small branch from a Meyer's Lemon, some rosemary in bloom, a few unfrozen wands and leaves of lavender and cuttings of dwarf Greek myrtle make the base. The roses looked pretty good from ten feet away, but up close only five are undamaged enough by cold to use: one large flower from the pink climber, a bud of 'Belinda's Dream', a medium-sized bloom of 'Julia Child' and one bud & one bloom from the 'Champagne' minirose.
Happy Christmas from Philo and Annie ~ May your days be merry and bright!
This post is a few minutes late for December 15th, the date chosen by May Dreams Carol for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. It's no longer Autumn in Austin! These photos were taken this morning - it was about 35°F and very windy so many pictures are blurry. When I went to the grocery store even my car flashed a warning about the weather.
Tonight we're expecting a very hard freeze - some of what we see here may be just a memory by tomorrow.'Julia Child' rose still had buds as well as blooms
Those Antirrhinum majus, Yellow snapdragons were planted before last Christmas
The baskets were recently planted with pansies - one of our winter annuals. I bought small plants without flowers - this one just started blooming
A couple of flowers linger on Camellia sasanqua 'Shishi Gashira' 
Creeping phlox sublata bloomed in spring and had a light rebloom this fall.
Both plants of Rosa 'Mutabilis' had buds and blooms today
Rosa 'Belinda's Dream' had one full-blown rose and a handful of buds
Three plants of Osmanthus fragrans/Sweet olive were in bloom, but it was too cold and windy to catch the lovely scent.
There were flowers on both plants of the Rosa ‘Champagne’ mini rose
Bulbine frutescens 'Yellow' has not only lived but spread and increased in the front bed and is still making buds 
Both plants of Asclepias curassavica, tropical milkweed have flowers - no sign of the confused Monarch caterpillar that was here in early December
Blooming but not pictured: Gaura lindheimerii, unknown tall rose-pink variety; Impatiens walleriana/bedding impatiens; Pelargoniums/bedding geraniums; trailing white Lantana; Lobularia maritime/Sweet alyssum; both kinds of Scutellaria/Skullcap; Salvia leucantha/Mexican Bush Sage. That's it for the outside plants - we can celebrate another successful Bloom Day! Inside on the windowsill there's color from Thanksgiving cactus, coral geranium, florist's cyclamen, mother-of-thousands and the Amaryllis that was my grab bag prize from the Divas of the Dirt party on Saturday.
The Meyer's Lemon has one open flower and a couple of buds.
What can we celebrate next? There are many possibilities for December 16th:
Classic composer Beethoven's Birthday; novelist Jane Austen's birthday; the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party; Anthropologist Margaret Mead's birthday; Playwright/composer Noel Coward's birthday; the birthday of Science fiction writers Arthur C Clarke and Phillip K Dick, and the first day of las posadas, recreating Joseph & Mary's search for shelter in Bethlehem. Should I drink tea while listening to Beethoven and reading Pride & Prejudice? That would be relaxing but this is a busy time of year. ABBA composer Benny Andersson turns 62 tomorrow and the DVD of Mamma Mia is set to release. I can celebrate his birthday and make some Christmas progress at the same time by turning up the 'Mamma Mia' soundtrack as my soundtrack for cookie baking, package wrapping and adding the final touches to the Christmas tree. The Bloom Day posts from all over the world can be found here.
Update late Wednesday night: Low was 29°F on Tuesday morning. All roses, pansies, phlox, gaura, scuttelaria look okay; milkweed & impatiens mostly frozen and lantana looks bad. Mexican oregano had a few flowers and some open on lower part of cupheas, but top bronzed with cold. Beethoven & tea lost out to coffee & Mamma Mia while baking Crispy, salted, White chocolate oatmeal cookies recommended by Vertie via Twitter. HThe Christmas tree is decorated and I'm done baking for now - a high of 72°F is predicted for tomorrow along with more leaf-cleanup. Sure hope to get a chance to visit your blogs soon.
Even though the Brugmansia went from still-in-bloom last Thursday afternoon 
To crisped and frostbitten by Monday afternoon
Even though the Blue Butterfly Flower Clerodendrum is also crispy brown today
Even though the Loquat is no longer blooming and the hoped-for fruit may have been hit with cold and we'll have another year of no loquat fruit
Even though we're now using the big comforter instead of the light blankets, and the berries on the Burford Holly are a wintery-Christmasy red .
Even though the cannas that backed up the Julia Child rose are no longer green as in this photo from last Thursday 
...it still feels like autumn to me. 
After all, that Julia Child rose is still blooming and holding onto her foliage (in answer to Jean, the bloom is good, but she does get blackspot and has fewer leaves than she should) 
After all, the temperatures are in the sixties and the leaves are falling and swirling around the patio, needing to be swept so we can use the barbecue,
After all, it took a long time to rake and sweep this pile, go over it with the mulching mower and empty the bag over and over into the wire leaf enclosure 
After all, there seems to be an endless supply of unfallen leaves that will need raking - even if the projected cold front arrives
After all, the pomegranate tree is still glowing golden in the Secret Garden
After all, the pink rose near the Brugmansia is still blooming
And a rather dimwitted Monarch thought there was still time to raise a new generation
(Renee - as you wrote in your Statesman blog, this is not a good idea, is it!) 
Oops - someone should get out the ladder and cut those pods of moonflower vine seeds to save for next spring
But the ladder is already in the living room, surrounded by ornaments and decorations boxes, placed next to the Christmas tree so I can reach the top branches. 
Being organized for Christmas gets complicated where December acts like autumn.
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