The tree is up.

While riding home from picking up our Christmas tree my son and I were figuring that it was the first day of Christmas. So today we put up the lights and ornaments for the second day. Now I don't really know when the first day is but we figured it out so that the 12th day is Christmas eve. Does anyone really know? Anyway here is a picture of our tree. Actually, this first one is of yours truly putting on the topper with a little help from my son. I'm just not tall enough to reach the top.





The second picture was taken first and is with the flash on and then I figured out how to turn the flash off. Did you see I am blonde? LOL
This is a smaller tree I have in the kitchen on the microwave. One thing I noticed is that you can't see the ornaments as well when the flash is off and you can see the lights.




Remember that picture of the copper cookie cutters that NancyJo sent me? Well, after cookies I strung those on some homespun type of material and hung them like a garland in my kitchen.


I just love decorating the whole house. Haven't figured out just what I am going to do to decorate it yet but I'm working on it. Most of the rooms downstairs are done, so I am thinking of someways to decorate the second floor. Do any of you do the whole house or just the room your tree is in.
My son takes care of the outdoor lighting.The first picture here is of the fence along the driveway. The second one is the front of our home.




Well, I have enjoyed sharing our decorating preparations and I hope you have enjoyed them too.
Just remember the real reason we celebrate is the life,death and resurrection of our Savior.
I just love reading the account of all of it in Luke. Sometimes it is easy to get our focus on to all the busyness of our preparations but I think it is so much more enjoyable of a season if we can take time to reflect on why we do all we do. Time to reflect on the life of Christ and the example He set for us in giving. Giving His life for us.
till next time.
Denise

basket rack

I'm posting this picture for you Nancy Jo.
I couldn't explain it very well and so I am posting this instead.

a new venture

We are finally getting things prepared to have the fireplace installed in our family room. My husband's brother in-law is coming out to put it in for us this weekend. The fireplace is already here. My husband went a couple of weeks ago to pick it up. It was a very light oak color on the mantle and around the bottom of the hearth. Very pretty but we sanded it down and stained it a bit darker. We like the darker woods. We haven't painted the walls in the family room yet. Not sure what color we are going with. The walls are done of bead board. Whenever the fireplace is finished I will post a picture for you all to see.

Hope everyone is doing well and had a wonderful Christmas.
We had a nice day. Well most of us, my dd came down with a fever later in the day. So she spent most of the latter part of the day sleeping.
Apparently something has been going around. My granddaughter had the same thing last night. It only lasts a short time for which I am grateful.

til next time,
blessings,
Denise

Christmas morning

It's so very quiet here this morning. Even though it is another weekday there is something so different on this day. I don't mean the gifts and all the things we do. I mean there is just a different feeling to say "this day is special".

We have all our children with us this year. It is the first year in 5 since it has been so. We also have the grandchildren with us. I consider these things to be the best gifts of all. I have a tendency to forget sometimes how fortunate we are to have them here. They are all special blessings from our God.

We have certain traditions that we do each Christmas eve and Christmas day. There is comfort in that, knowing what is going to happen. We are trying to blend the traditions of two families, which can be difficult, but not if we are willing to give so that we can all share in this special season together.

I hope that each of you is blessed beyond measure today and throughout the coming year. I hate to see time pass so quickly but yet I look forward to a new year. An opportunity to put behind the things of the old year and start fresh. I do not make resolutions as they are goals I would like to achieve yet I have a tendency to make them unattainable for myself. So that is something I gave up doing some time back.
I am grateful that God's mercies are new every morning and not just at the new year.

I took some pictures that I'd like to share. This first one was taken on Saturday night at our annual get together. We share food and fellowship. We play games together and the only rule for the evening is that everyone be involved in whatever we are doing. No Scrooges allowed! The children who are now young adults all talk about the scrapes they used to get into when they were little and the things they did to tease each other. The teasing has not stopped and neither have the friendships. My oldest daughter, (second from the right),made an apron for each of them and she also made her sister's (on the right end). I made my granddaughter's and my my oldest daughter's ( matching) and my own (the green one). I am thankful for this family and the ways in which they have helped and challenged our family to have a closer walk with God.



This next picture is one I took when I got up this morning. Being the early bird in the family I get an opportunity to just sit and enjoy these kinds of things while everyone else is still in a sweet state of slumber.


My honey just came down to get the woodstove going so it's time to start the coffee.
I hope you all have a joyous day spent with those you love and shared in whatever manner has become your tradition.

Blessings,
Denise

Birthdays, such fun!

Especially if they are the very first one! Yesterday our family celebrated my birthday and my grandson's birthday. I thought it was wonderful to share our special days together. He had lots of fun finding out how to eat your first birthday cake. ;)
I am going to share some of our photos with you all. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed the day.


As you can see in some of these photos cake was so very interesting.


Once he figured out that his mom was going to let him have this he pretty much went to town. And it got messy.



You'll notice a bit of clean up took place.
He received clothes and a certificate to get his photos done. He also got a bag of duplo blocks. And because of lack of communication he received a pair of penguin bop bags.

In this photo you can see the lovely teapot my husband gave me. It is also a music box. I have not figured out what tune it plays yet but it is very pretty. Most of you know about the car already. My oldest dd and her husband gave me some wildflowers to plant in our garden and the sweetest little charms. The charms are teapots and a teacup and teabag. I have to find a bracelet to put them on. She also knows my love of sewing and fabric and gave me a stack of coordinating fabrics. Ribbon too. Now to decide just want I want to make with it. Mmmm. I also received from them some beautiful tops and my biggest pitfall...candy.
My second dd made me the Eeyore pillow in the back of the photo. It is made from a t-shirt, all nice and fluffy! I also received tickets to a Charlie Zahm concert, at my convenience and a nice big cup with Eeyore on it. Do you think she is trying to say something about my personality, maybe?
And then my son gave me the prettiest lilac bush to plant. It makes me anxious for Spring and warmer weather to get here. I had a memorable day spending it with those I love. What more could one ask for?

Gifts from my friend.

I received a package that my dear, sweet friend Elizabeth sent. How excited I was when I opened it! It was filled with gifts for my upcoming birthday. The book she gave me "The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" is one I have been looking for, for a while now. I had not run across it and so had forgotten all about it. I can see that God knows the desires of our hearts and He uses others to fulfill those desires. Elizabeth has a very loving and giving spirit and I have known her for a few years now. I have always been amazed at the love of God that I see in her life. She has encouraged me in so many ways. I am grateful for her gift of friendship most of all. We do not live near one another and we have never met in person but there is a kindred spirit that we share. We know we can always call or write to one another about anything that maybe going on in our lives and we won't be judged or ridiculed but encouraged to keep running the race that has been set before us. I believe God gives us friends so that we will not become weary along the way. As you can see by the picture the book was not the only gift she sent. Along with it are packets of flower seeds to brighten up my garden. It is so sweet because as those flowers grow I will keep Elizabeth in mind when I see them. She also sent me a beautiful handkerchief. To pretty in my opinion to use. So thank you Elizabeth for remembering me and making my day more special.

The end result.

Well, here are pictures of the fireplace we had installed. It was finished before the end of the year.

This is how we started out.


then came the chimney




it took a really long time, two days actually for him to
set the stones. It was like watching someone do a puzzle. This is Tim with his finished project. Wish I had gotten a clearer picture.



The mantel now has family pictures on it and it looks much more cozy. I need to get to work on making my curtains for this room.


Hope you enjoyed a peek.
till next time,
Blessings,
Denise

Making sugar cookies.

We have started in on our holiday baking. Sugar cookies were the choice of the day.
We had lots of fun rolling them out and cutting and baking. Leslie had made a batch of dough the day before and put it in the refrigerator. We decided to all join in for the cutting out. Well I was in charge of the oven so I didn't do much cutting, but we had fun just being together. I was also taking the pictures. We first chose our aprons and then our weapons, oops I mean cutters. There is a piece of plastic that I keep over the cloth on this table. Makes cleanup real easy.
We had snowmen, candy canes, gingerbread boys and gingerbread girls. There were snowflakes and mini snowmen, trees and stars. Ornaments, angels and bells. There were a lot of different choices and everyone decided on what they would use. I found I don't really care for the plastic type cutters as they squeeze together when being pressed down. So we had some skinny candy canes and snowmen. ;)
Then came preparing the dough with flour and rolling it out.

Then we cut them out and placed them on the cookie sheets ready for the oven.


There's nothing to compare to warm sugar cookies and hot cocoa.

Hope you enjoyed visiting us in the kitchen today!
Have any of you started your holiday baking yet?

Until next time.
Blessings,
Denise

Yet another very sweet giveaway!

These ladies seem to be all about giving right now! It is so nice to see that spirit continuing after holiday season is over.
Rebekah at http://pumpkinseed-unscripted.blogspot.com/ is having a giveaway for one of her beautiful keepsake canvas books.
Check it out, if you're the winner I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

I've been tagged!

One of my blogging friends,Susan tagged me for a game.
I am have never been tagged but will give it a try! I do have trouble thinking of things to write so bear with me.
I appreciate Susan choosing to include me in this. You'll have to check out her blog.
Well, here goes. These are the RULES:

Link to the person that tagged you. Which I did.
Post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 random and/or weird facts about me;

1. I love liver and onions.

2. Two-thirds of the year I prefer knee socks to nylon stockings.

3. Prayer was taken out of school the year I was born.

4. I am left-handed.

5. I like to sing, but not in front of people.

6. I never went to college and who cares?!

7. My favorite season is Autumn.
Here http://ox2.org
Most of these are random but I suppose some would think them weird.

passing this along:
Tina
NancyJo
Cori
Jess
CarolSue
Bonnie
Naomi

a little thrifting I did go

Had the opportunity a few days ago to stop in at the thrift store in the next town over.
Picked up a couple of things to add to my collections.

I don't know how well the leaf can be seen on the apple shaped dish but I thought it was neat and the price was right.



I have a pitcher collection started by my son in law a few Christmases back and have been adding to it slowly. So when I saw this little white one I knew it had to come home with me.



And who can ever have enough teacups? I am always on the lookout for unique ones. Though this is not unique I thought it would be a nice one to use. The dish next to the teacup I picked up too. I'm not sure what it is for... maybe a tealight? but, it came with the beads in it. I like to use those in the bottom of my vases when I cut fresh flowers.

I just really liked this dish and you know you should never collect anything unless you really like it!
Sorry about the glare from my flash on some of these. :(

ongoing project

The fireplace is coming along well. We only had one mishap and I pray no more.

While working on the roof doing some sawing for the chimney to go through J cut his finger and had to go get a few stitches! Ouch! Of course he didn't want to go get it looked at but his mom talked him into it(she's a nurse thank goodness) and I pressed the issue. I would hate for it to have been left and then gotten infected or something. Ten days and the stitches will be out. It looks a bit nasty right now but Lord willing it will heal quickly with no problems.

They are up to placing the stones on the front and the mantel is up. He is being very particular about the placement of the stones and I am grateful for that. It is like watching an artist at work. He places each stone and then decides if he wants that one or maybe a different one would look better or fit better. I will definitely be posting a picture of the finished project. Maybe a few of it as they went along.

Til next time,
blessings,
Denise

a little snow and a little fun too

Thought I'd share a few pictures of what we have been doing lately.
We had a nice snowfall last week and it looked like snowman snow. We ventured out, one of us on foot and as you will see, one of us in the nice dry (well we put a towel on the seat) car.
I just happen to be the power behind this vehicle and she enjoyed having me push her around.





She wasn't to thrilled to have me stop and get the pictures but being a sweetie she humored her Mimi.

After tiring of riding around we moved on to the swing. Another use for the towel!



While she was swinging I was taking some more photos. Our arbor looks a bit lonely for a nice Spring day when the grape vine will cover it and someone will be sitting inside sipping iced tea or lemonade. Maybe enjoying the new sprouts of plants and flowers bursting through the ground to blossom and show off the beautiful colors and greenery.




This little area is on the other end of the yard. I thought it looked so pretty with the snow covering it all.




Looks pretty forlorn now that all this snow has melted and today we are back to green and brown.

Hope all you dear friends have a blessed day no matter where you are or what your weather.
til next time,
Denise

First day of the new year.

The last day of last year was quite trying. First we had all planned to go to a dinner and worship/communion service last night at church. Ah but plans don't always go the way we think. Myself and the two youngers left with crockpot and dessert in hand and J would meet up with us there later. Had something he needed to take care of first. So we head out and get there on time for once. Had the meal and as I was heading into service I noticed I had missed a call from dd #1. She was calling to see what to do for the little one as he had become sick. In the meantime she had called her her mil and got some good advice. Told her if it wasn't too late when we got back I would call and check on him. Well, we were quite late so I didn't hear till this morning. He is doing better today.
So, into service we went. Not long after it started I got another call. So embarrassing in the middle of church. Anyway it was J and since it was so late he said he wouldn't get to the service before it would be over. We stayed after has they had a time of fellowship playing games and having coffee and dessert. It was a fun time and we made it home about 11:45 so we were all here together to bring in the new year.
There is nothing better than having the ones you love with you on the special days.
So we all eventually headed to bed, think it was around 2am when I finally got there.
Everyone was up fairly early this morning and as we are expecting company and I needed to get some cleaning done we plunged into the new day.
So all is pretty much in order and I am ready for a nap but alas it will soon be time to start our meal for today.
I am going to try and get the pictures of our new fireplace posted either this evening or tomorrow. Which ever time allows.
I hope each of you has a year full of blessings from God's hand and a life overflowing with the peace of His love in your hearts.
til next time,
Blessings,
Denise

Mini aprons!

Here are the mini aprons I made for the Valentine swap over at MJF.
This was my first try at them and I think they came out ok. Hopefully I'll get better at making them.
Can't wait to see all the minis that are coming back to me. These are going out in the post today.
Have a blessed day.
Til next time,
Denise