Happy New Year

We had a picnic type supper for our new years eve meal.

Potato salad,baked beans,veggies and dip,grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. Forgot to take a picture but you all know what it looks like.We are now making home made vanilla ice cream.

Cam brought a big cookie for us all to share. Of course a 9 year old needs to make noise!

Earlier in the day Mr.T.(Papa) and Cam tried out Cam's new wood burner.Good memories. I hope you all have a very Happy New Year.j

Christmas

Mr.T and I decided at 2 pm.Christmas eve day to surprise our MN. kids.We loaded up the dog and the gifts and drove 3 1/2 hours to surprise them. I should have had my camera ready to take a picture when they opened the door. It was so nice to be with them for Christmas. The food was great the company was too. We had a really good time. Went for a walk,to the local park, after our big dinner.It was sunny but windy.

Boone (the dog) traveled well. But he was ready to be home.

We went to Mass at the new church in St. Micheal. It was beautiful.

 

On the drive home Mr. T had to stop for me to take pictures of the sunset. It started out with a soft pink and blue then turned orange and purple.

We are looking forward to the coming weekend when Kids and Grand kids will be here to welcome in the new year. have a great week.j

From our house to yours.

Our wish for you all is a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year. Mr. T. and Judy

Iowa weather

http://www.tootsietime.com/
I can not believe that we were washing windows on the 18 of December. My sewing room and kitchen window were in need of a good cleaning. Mr T. was outside. While I was out I spied a bit of color under the front tree.Can you believe the color in December? j

Blogspot

I am not sure what is up with blogspot.com
They are messing with the way things have been done.You will have to click on older at the bottom of the page to see previous posts.
I can't seem to find where to reset the number of posts on the page.

j

Christmas 2011

This year I have found a lot of bloggers that are doing white/neutral colors for their decorating.
It is not that I don't like that style but for me Christmas is all about the color.

I have seen so many different colors used in decorating. From the lime green,pink,orange,burgundy, but for me it is all about traditional colors of red and green.

The front porch has few decorations this year compared to other years.A bit of roping and bows on the rail.
The old school desk has a santa I made years ago,Mr.T's. sled I painted with do you see what I see,and a box with several trees.As you enter the front door the corner cupboard is decorated a bit for the season.

I love using the handmade ornaments I have collected over the years. The nuns at Mercy hospital crocheted a lot of them. The paper and fabric chains were made by our daughters when they were in grade school.

I love the bubble lights.We bought the first ones the same year as the tree topper and have replaced them over the years.

The glass ornaments my Aunt Marion gave me are so special.This year instead of hanging them on the tree I have them in large glass jars sitting in front of the tree.When the real tree comes down the jars can still sit out for us to enjoy.

I decorate for myself now that the kids are grown. So many people I know say they don't bother with decorations now that the kids are gone. Mr. T. is not into decorating but he does like the trees when they are up.And he tolerates me moving things around to fit things in. He jokes about the aluminum tree.

Through the years I have added many other decorations and they come out each year.I have added pencil trees with gold lights.It has all handmade ornaments.There are cloth and dough ,hand dipped candles,hand painted pine cones, and ornaments made from nuts and berries.
 

Small trees and tall trees. One year we counted 50 trees from 3 inches tall to a 7 foot tree. I have 2 small trees in my sewing room.
It is still the fresh tree that makes the house smell like Christmas.

The decorating is not the reason for the season but for me it brings back memories of times when I was a child and when our children were small.
Our first tree in 1964. I remember buying the tree topper. We still use that topper on the real tree. Going to midnight mass finding big soft snow flakes falling as we come out of the church. Humming Silent night as we drove home.
I hope you all have a Happy and Merry Christmas.
j