At Year's End

I totally stole that title from another blog, but I love it and the thoughts it brings.  It leads one to ponder.  

Yes, it is the end of another year.  How quickly they seem to go these days, but I guess that's the way it goes as one ages.  Or so I've heard.  And now it's almost 2019.  Impossible! Almost twenty years of this new century lived by Dan and me, who as Dan likes to say, "were born in the first half of the last century."  Yikes! And yet mostly so good, filled with beautiful days, like this one this week:

I love our backyard and the views beyond.  I'm so happy we still have snow! It lights these short days and keeps me energized.  Inside the Christmas tree lights up the evenings and makes everything so cozy.  We also have those amazing faux candles and tea lights that bring even more coziness to the darkness.

I love this little wooden "basket" that hold a tea light that actually flickers like a real candle.  And I don't have to worry about burning the house down!  

It may be the end of the year, but our Christmas decorations will continue to light our days and nights for a few more weeks.  Christmas day is not the end, but just the beginning and as we go into a new year, we'll take the gift of grace that Christmas brought so long ago and carry it with us each day. ♥

Christmas

Christmas has come and gone, but it was a perfect one! Ann and family came to stay on Sunday afternoon and we began our celebrating.  Following tradition, we had Papa Murphy's pizzas for dinner, and the occasion was enhanced by the Seahawks playing (and winning!!) on Sunday Night Football.

We woke up Christmas Eve day to four beautiful inches of snow!  We always hope, but don't expect, a white Christmas so all seven of us were overjoyed!  Papa and Daniel revved up the 4-wheeler and plowed, reminding me of past Christmases when Cameron and Keaton rode with him.  

Eric and Daniel built snowmen in the front yard but I didn't trek out in my stocking feet to get a picture.  Rest assured that they had fun making a 6-foot tall one (Eric) and a small one (Daniel), complete with carrot noses.  

We always have our big holiday dinner on Christmas Eve, and this year was no exception.  Ham, the Pioneer Woman's mashed potatoes,  and all the go-withs. Following a candle-light service at church, we came home to pumpkin pie and then settled in to watch Home Alone I.  It was Daniel's first viewing and so fun to hear him laugh hysterically over all the antics while all the rest of us mouthed the well known phrases such as "I made my family disappear!" and "Keep the change, you filthy animal!" 

Ann and I made a breakfast casserole before watching the movie and we're always so glad on Christmas morning when all that has to be done is stick it in the oven and then set out fruit and juice when it's time for breakfast.  Stockings were first, then the present opening began.  We took a break for breakfast and then more present opening.  I can safely say no one was disappointed!  

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, eating leftovers and playing with new acquisitions.  It continued to snow and the outside world was so beautiful that we also spent much time just looking out at it all.  Eric got snowshoes and he gave them a try in the backyard and came in with a big smile.  Cam and Keat took mega naps and may or may not have been joined by the grownup members of the family as the day progressed.  

Another day of fun transpired yesterday before we had dinner and they all packed up and headed for home around eight.  Another wonderful, wonderful Christmas filled with blessing after blessing.  ♥ 

Movin' Right Along

We've been busy little beavers elves today.  Dan cut our tree and brought it in (although we have yet to decorate it) and I got started on the cookies.  Two batches are chilling in the frig and another batch has been baked. Oh, and a pan of fudge is chilling in the frig, too.  Yum!!

The fudge recipe I use is a combination of two that I found on the internet.  I used the ingredients from a crockpot recipe (and I've done it that way in the past), and the method of another. It's so easy and only has four, count 'em, four ingredients!

Super Easy Fudge

3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated)

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon vanilla 

Combine chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in a heavy saucepan over medium heat

 and stir until chips are just melted.  Stir in butter and vanilla and pour into a

8 or 9" square pan which has been lined with foil and sprayed with non-stick spray.

Refrigerate 3 hours, until very firm.

Remove from foil and cut into small squares.

Store in covered container.  

So easy and so good!  ♥

Getting Closer!

Yes, Christmas is getting closer!  I am so happy I got the cards all done last Thursday and in the mail on Friday. There have been years. . .

And now I'm on to present wrapping and plan to start on the baking this week.  I'm so glad to have a freezer to store cookies in so they'll be fresh when needed.  Spritz, gingerbread, shortbread, and maybe some frosted sugar cookies.  Oh yes, and some candy cane cookies. Fudge?  You bet!  All of these are a tradition and would be missed by the usual attendees.  

I'm doing a little more in the sewing room.  I've always wanted Christmas pillowcases for the queen bed guest room and decided this was the year.  I have the first one almost done.  I'll be back at it tomorrow--unless we decide to head to Costco.

I finished a small machine embroidered wall hanging this year and remembered to hang it up this week.  The design is done in my jumbo hoop on my 830 and though the picture isn't the best (so hard to take a picture of something on the wall), I think you can see how it turned out.  Even after all the years I've had my 830, I'm still amazed at the large designs it can do.  So fun!!

And now I'll sign off for the time being--I think I'll wrap another present or two.  ♥

Christmas Cards

One of my earliest memories is helping Mom put stamps on the Christmas cards she was sending out.  We lived in the little duplex downtown so I was probably four or five.  As I recall, out-of-town cards required a three-cent stamp and in-town a two-cent.  And I remember many cards coming from in-town friends addressed to us with name, box number, and simply "City" for the town because in those long ago and more efficient days, the local post office actually handled the mail and local stuff never left the post office.  Ahh, the good ol' days . . .

Anyway, back in the day, cards were a vital part of the Christmas holiday.  And decorating.  Everyone displayed their cards as they arrived, usually by mounting them on a wall or around a door frame.  It was so fun to read the cards, especially those from far away friends and family. 

I began sending (or passing out) Christmas cards when I was in high school.  Seemed like such a grown-up thing to do, plus I loved anything having to do with Christmas.  So of course as a newly married wife, I continued the tradition for my new "family".  And I do to this day.  Fewer and fewer people send cards, but I still love receiving them although I confess that the process of sending them out looms larger and larger with each passing year.  It is often when I am reminded that sometimes I'm not a very patient person because you just can't hurry the process if you want to be personal. Some thought and time, and handwriting, must go into it, even if a printed letter is enclosed.  Some people have a gift for the perfect comments to add.  I do not.  Still, I must try.

And so, today I will start the actual process.  I wrote the letter over the weekend and printed it out.  It's laying right beside me, reminding me to get with it!  Soon my breakfast nook table will look like this, right down to the coffee cup.

Christmas cards 2017

Let the signing begin!! ♥

Time, and Other Thoughts

Does anyone besides me think that it goes from sixty-some days before Christmas to eighteen in the blink of an eye?  One day Christmas is two months away, and suddenly we're thinking we should have been doing more, sooner.  Time.  Its passing can be quite varied. Waiting for something special and it drags.  I remember being six weeks from my due date with Matt and thinking it might as well be a year, it seemed so far off. And now he's forty-five!! Then there are times when we are sure that it goes at mach speed it goes so fast.  (See those forty-five years!)

Ah well, Christmas will come and I will be ready. Actually, I'm pretty much ready except for baking and wrapping presents, most of which have been purchased. I do, however, need to spend some time on the internet this afternoon finishing up.  

Day before yesterday, in need of new reading material, I took myself to the overflowing bookshelves in our family room and reached for a favorite.  Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher.  I have no idea how many times I've read it, but a dozen is probably not far off.  I love her writing.  Some people dismiss them as "romance novels", but they are, I think completely missing the true essence of her writing, which is hearth and home. Pilcher is British and all her novels, as well as short stories, take place in the UK.  She does  a wonderful job of pulling the reader into the setting of her stories. I often tell people that if they are looking for a long, delicious read, check out Rosamunde Pilcher. And all those British terms! Members of our family have taken to calling the garbage truck the dustbin lorry, and the garbage can the wheelie bin. Then there's the gritting lorry. Such fun words!! Anyway, Winter Solstice is a Christmas story and curling up with it is like visiting, once again, with an old and very dear friend and it's become a holiday tradition with me.  

I must say that I am kind of an Anglophile.  If ever I travel to Europe, the UK is where I would go first. I recently discovered another British author, Jane Brockett, while reading the blog Jenny of Elefanz. Jennifer Reynolds, its author, is Australian, and discovered Brockett's nonfiction book, The Gentle Art of Domesticity, and recommended it to her readers. Jenny is a homebody, wife and mother of grown children, and the book inspired her to embrace her life and make no apologies.  

I decided I wanted to read it myself and so ordered a copy in early fall.  When it came, I was somewhat disappointed as I looked through it.  Brockett's style, decorating, colors, etc., are nothing like mine.  But when I began reading, I discovered her feelings and thoughts about home and family were very much like mine.  She knits, she bakes, she quilts, and so on, and she considers these neglected and often derided skills as very valuable.  And I learned a important lesson:  those of us who love home and hearth may have different styles, but at the end of the day, we embrace the same values.  She loves bright and modern and I love classic and traditional.  Oh, and Jenny of Elefanz?  She loves the pastels and the cottage look.  

And on a totally unrelated note, forty-nine years ago right now my sweetheart returned home from a year in Vietnam.  So glad he came home and met me and made all my dreams come true!!

And We Pause for a Beautiful Sunset!!

So gorgeous!!  The photo doesn't do it justice, but I think you get the idea. I'm so glad I looked out the window.  (Busy inside decorating for Christmas.  Mostly done!)