Christmas Day

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

Norman Vincent Peale

Christmas Eve Day

One is home and two more to go. I was going to title, "A few of my favorite things..."

I love taking people photos. I finally have a willing subject.

When everyone arrives home we can start celebrating the most wonderful time of the year!

Wordless Wednesday

A few of my favorite things....

My maternal grandmother made the angel tree topper. Every tree I've had has had the angel on the top.

Unfortunately, many years ago tree sap stained the angel. Now I wrap the branch with plastic wrap. The angel is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. I'm pretty sure my sister & both my brothers have an angel. I know mom does.

A few of my favorite things.....

We have quite a collection of Christmas books. I love looking through them, even thou most of them are for children. In 1983 we gave Eric, The Gingerbears' First Christmas. It was also his first Christmas. In 1984 we gave him, The Gingerbears Help Santa. Eric used to call Santa "Ho-Ho."

Tonight I'm going to sit with some tea & cookies and read both books.

A few of my favortie things....

Amie will be flying home today, it's been TWO years since she has been home. Last year I had a 27 hour Christmas day, I started on LI and ended in LA. Two years ago we were all together in Keene. It will be so nice to have all four of us together at home this year!

When loved ones are near it's the most wonderful time of the year.

A few of my favortie things....

I hate Country Western music. Let me repeat, I hate Country Western music.

My favorite Christmas CD, Christmas in America by Kenny Rogers.
"Christmas day in America the sweetest day on earth."

A few of my favortie things....

I went crazy with all the fresh pine around the house this year. I've been keeping everything watered or misted. Yeah, I have issues.

The kitchen counter top my favorite holiday display. The Santa is paper mache.

A few of my favorite things......

Thomas' Cranberry Breakfast Bread is to die for. Go out and buy a couple loafs.

I'll refund the cost of the bread if you are not completely satisfied! : ) Served best toasted, slightly burned with a bit of butter.

A few of my favorite things....

Well, where have I been? I've been at home and I've driven in a white out, had the furnace go out for 24 hours, had computer problems & still do, I'm posting this using a Plan B, and I've been very busy readying for everyone to come home.

Over the next few days before Christmas I'm going to post about a few of my favorite Christmas things.

Toys for Tots.

All donations stay locally for underprivileged children. It's not to late to make a donation to Toys for Tots.

In 15 days he will be arriving and in eight days Amie will be arriving!

Wordless Wednesday

Decorating with Greens

Saturday I went to a friends back yard & cut sprigs of greens from three different types of pines. Since we have an artificial tree, I like to have real greens for the scent of pine throughout the house.

I now have several crocks, baskets, glass & wooden containers filled with pine around the house.

Holiday Decorating

Decorating the house for Christmas is very messy & a lot of work. I spent all day yesterday decorating three rooms in the house and that does not include putting up the tree.

The first string of lights I plugged in didn't work. I checked every bulb and for a time I thought maybe the outlet was bad, tried another outlet & still the string didn't light.
I'm going to save the tree for next weekend.

Mantel Decorating

I've wanted to decorate our mantel with fake gifts for years. Unfortunately, the wrapping paper I choose does not look right. The living room is Country and the paper looks Victorian.

I still like the idea & I'll save the boxes but next year I'll be using other papers. This is the only part of house that is decorated so I need to get busy this weekend. Ho, Ho, Ho!

Nature Gone Bad

Our lilac bush is budding. The photo was taken Monday afternoon.

I think we won't have as many lilac's this spring because of all the winter budding. Anyone know for sure? Winter to coming thou, weather is suppose to change to cold & snow today.

Wordless Wednesday

How long?

I forgot how much a healthy young man can eat. How long do you think it took to eat a raspberry pie, made with berries from Big Uncle David's garden?Oh, about six hours.
He also ate an entire pumpkin pie & just over half a blueberry pie during his four days at home. Not to worry, he's at the gym just about every night.

Book Club

Our selection was A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It was the first time I think I actually read the Charles Dickens version. I believe prior readings had been story book versions to the kids. I was the host, I love hosting. I made galette. It was my own concoction with cranberry jam, apples & dried cranberries on the top. Very fallish. Keeping up with my tradition. I gave everyone a book mark. They are quite lame compared to last year.

Next year I'll be hosting two times. We have seven members and we meet nine times. It's way past my two time turn.

I'm thankful that Amie has a friend from home that lives close to her.

She has beautiful sister,
and loving parents.

Excited that in less than a month the sign will say "Welcome Home Maggie!"

One of our family recipes passed down.

Our 20.5 pound turkey.

Mick got on the Internet this morning & figured out the proper way to carve a turkey.

The Thanksgiving table.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are thankful Eric came home to share the day with us and we will miss Amie terribly.

Very lame place cards. I don't have my craft crew this year. : (

Thanksgiving

My favorite day of the year. What is better than a day of family, friends, food & football? I also love the tradition of the day. Family recipes passed down from generation to generation, there is no pressure of gifts like the next holiday we will be celebrating nor the hustle & bustle. I hope you will take time to remember all the wonderful Thanksgivings of the past & all that are to come. May you be very thankful for all your blessings.

Welcome to the Pavilion

Brittany was home & I was lucky enough to spend a Friday afternoon with her, then the evening with her parents. After a pizza & wing dinner we went to watch Robbie skate.

I guess they knew I was coming. I hadn't been into the pavilion since Amie was in high school. After spending 8 years at this rink with Eric it was an emotional home coming for me, I got a little teary eyed. When the boys skated onto the ice from the locker room I had all I could do to not start crying. Oh, boy!

Robbie's team won in over time!

A players' father has a Kangaroo. Isn't it the cutest thing? She sat & watched the entire game. I'm not sure if you want a mascot that's cute thou!

Syracuse University Football

Reluctantly, we went to the SU football game on Saturday. After the game I saw last weekend I was not excited about what we may witness this week. It felt like we even started out with a bad omen, we followed the Rutgers band into the stadium.

Tailgating prior to the game all the talk was about the basketball team beating North Carolina the night before.

As soon as we entered the dome, we saw Amy & Sean. He looked so cute in his SU gear. Sean is a huge sprots fan and was so happy to be at the game.
We then turned the corner & ran into Ellie's grandmother. She has season tickets for football & basketball & never misses a game. Just look at her, 82 years old!!!
We had great seats at the 40 yard line and very few rows up from the field.

The devil at quarterback.

The quarterback that will take over next year.

We witnessed 3 quarterback sacks in a row by the SU defense, never saw that before. I didn't miss the significance of fourth & 44. The final score!
We left the house at 8:30am & returned at 9:30pm. It was a wonderful day.