Author Archives: Ellen

InSPIREd Sunday

I’m re-posting these photos from my visit to Grace Cathedral in San Francisco in December of 2008. I’m anticipating another visit to San Francisco at the end of January for a cancer symposium. Dear is the one who will be at the cancer symposium and I will be a tourist in San Francisco again.

 

Grace Cathedral is descended from the historic Grace Church, built in the Gold Rush year of 1849, and the imposing structure on the corner of California and Stockton streets that was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. San Francisco’s Crocker family gave their Nob Hill porperty, destroyed by the fire, for the building of a new cathedral.

 

Work began on this structure in 1928. Designed in the French Gothic style by Lewis Hobart, it was completed in 1964.

 

 

Famed for its Ghiberti doors, labyrinths, stained glass, the cathedral has become an internationally-known place of pilgrimage.

 

The Doors of Paradise are considered by many to be the first and greatest masterpiece of Italian Renaissance. The magnum opus of Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), the doors were made for the Baptistery of Florence Cathedral (the Duomo) and told the story of the Old and New Testaments. Grace Cathedral’s doors were made from the same molds – which were later destroyed – used for the originals.

 

 

 

I was also impressed with several of the other doors into the cathedral and wanted to show you them, too.

 

 

 

One of my special treats the day I visited the Cathedral was a small orchestra practicing for a Christmas concert. It was just so beautiful to walk around the inside of the cathedral being serenaded with beautiful music that inspired me to praise God for all the wonder available to us…

 

So much wonder this time of year. I’m taking time to adore my savior.

Friday night we are going to have a small Raclette party at our house. Maybe I’ll take photos to share later. A dear friend of ours was the Realtor we used to buy this old house. She has not been back since 1998 to see the improvements we’ve made. I don’t know how that happened but finally she and her hubby are coming for dinner and we’ll give her a tour of the improved version of this old house. Since we will be busy with preparations for our time together I’m posting this early because I won’t be on the computer until who knows when. Hope you all are enjoying the wonders of the Christmas season!

I’ll be linking up with Beth and Sally for InSPIREd Sunday! I’ll probably be missing in action next week.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

Signs, signs…

 

Taking a little break from Christmas posts with these signs from the city of Duvall in Washington State. We were here back in October. The Sorry we’re Open sign was outside Armadillo Barbecue.

 

 

Across the street and down the block was this bakery with it’s clever sign.

 

Next store was the Duvall Coffeehouse “Rise and Shine”.

 

So you have bread, coffee, and then there’s the Tap room. See my reflection in the door?!

 

Across the street is the Valley Grange built in 1926.

 

I’ll leave Duvall with this cafe sign. The next town down the highway is Carnation and I’ll show the signs from their main street in January!

Hope all your Christmas preparations are going well. We are plugging away and getting excited for the time we’ll have together as a family.

Linking up with Lesley for signs, signs.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

 

Charlie the Tree…

Here’s Charlie our Free Range Tree!

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It wasn’t intentional but the lights on our tree form a cross intersecting with the lights on our window frame. From the manger to the cross will be celebrated with gratitude to our Savior, Jesus Christ at this old house!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

I Wonder…

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
How Jesus, the Savior, did come for to die.
For poor, ornery people like you and like I
I wonder as I wander
Out under the sky.

 

Christmas is a time of wonder and joy.

 

This old house has been decked for this most wonderful time of year.

 

 

 

Our Christmas goodies are a combination of old and new. These mugs are from the late 80’s.

 

The kissing Santa and Mrs. Santa are from my MIL’s stash and are probably from the 50’s, made in Japan.

 

The Christmas angels and little girl bell are more old Christmas treasures from Dear’s mother.

 

Our humble entry, inside and out.

 

 

The living room with our fireplace. We are still talking about adding a mantle in the future.

 

This wooden nativity was purchased at Disneyland and is a set that I bought that could be handled and enjoyed by our kids when they were toddlers.

 

This rocker rocked all three of our children when they were babes.

 

The nativity is a more recent acquisition but the angel trio are from my MIL’s Christmas collection.

 

 

 

We have a new daughter in law this year so I decided to buy new stockings for our family of eight.

 

Waiting for some wonderful times of sipping away with friends and family.

 

Hoping for a most wonderful Christmas for all my friends in bloggy world.

Next post will reveal our sparsely decorated Charlie Brown Free Range Christmas tree.

I’m linking up to ABC Wednesday for W is for Wonder, Wonderful, Wooden, Waiting, and World.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

 

Of the Father’s Love Begotten ~ Hymn

Of the Father’s Love Begotten

Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see, evermore and evermore!

At His Word the worlds were framèd; He commanded; it was done:
Heaven and earth and depths of ocean in their threefold order one;
All that grows beneath the shining
Of the moon and burning sun, evermore and evermore!

He is found in human fashion, death and sorrow here to know,
That the race of Adam’s children doomed by law to endless woe,
May not henceforth die and perish
In the dreadful gulf below, evermore and evermore!

O that birth forever blessèd, when the virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving, bare the Savior of our race;
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face, evermore and evermore!

This is He whom seers in old time chanted of with one accord;
Whom the voices of the prophets promised in their faithful word;
Now He shines, the long expected,
Let creation praise its Lord, evermore and evermore!

O ye heights of heaven adore Him; angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him, and extol our God and King!
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert sing, evermore and evermore!

Righteous judge of souls departed, righteous King of them that live,
On the Father’s throne exalted none in might with Thee may strive;
Who at last in vengeance coming
Sinners from Thy face shalt drive, evermore and evermore!

Thee let old men, thee let young men, thee let boys in chorus sing;
Matrons, virgins, little maidens, with glad voices answering:
Let their guileless songs re-echo,
And the heart its music bring, evermore and evermore!

Christ, to Thee with God the Father, and, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
Hymn and chant with high thanksgiving, and unwearied praises be:
Honor, glory, and dominion,
And eternal victory, evermore and evermore!

Words: Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, 348-410.

InSPIREd Sunday

 

Langley United Methodist Church on Whidbey Island. We were in Langley on Thanksgiving weekend and I took this shot.

Linking up with Beth and Sally at InSPIREd Sunday.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

 

A Merry Hummus Appetizer

Do you need a fun idea for a Christmas Appetizer?

 

I posted the directions on how to make these hummus Christmas Trees on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog.

You can be more creative than me with some diced cucumber and diced red bell pepper to make more ornaments and garland. A yellow pepper star would be cute on top, too.

We’ve had lots of rain here in the Pacific Northwest with many rivers at flood levels. We are getting another round of rain today. It’s great decorating and baking weather if we keep our power! How are things in your neck of the woods?

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

A Free Range Tree…

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This year we are trying some new things to simplify Christmas. We cut down a huge tree in our side yard a couple years ago and don’t you know two trees have sprouted since then. This tree was the larger of the two. We have no desire for it to grow much larger so we decided we’d use it as our Christmas tree this year. Oh boy…it wasn’t easy to uproot it. Dear has some sore muscles from the job.

We are calling this our Free Range Tree. It is also organic. No pesticides, insecticides or chemical engineering of any kind were used on this tree.

We had to buy a larger pot to put it in after this smaller pot failed the stand up and stay up test.

It was quite a juggle job to get it in the house but we managed and it is sitting pretty in the living room in it’s natural state. Hopefully Dear will put the lights on it soon and I will decorate it and will show you the final result. So stay tuned to see our organic, free range, Charlie Brown tree! I like the words in this version of “O Christmas Tree”.

O Christmas Tree

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
Not only green when summer’s here,
But also when ’tis cold and drear.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can’st give me;
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can’st give me;
How often has the Christmas tree
Afforded me the greatest glee!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can’st give me.

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!
From base to summit, gay and bright,
There’s only splendor for the sight.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee!
Thou bidst us true and faithful be,
And trust in God unchangingly.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee! !”

 

Signs of Christmas

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here at this old house.

 

 

 

 

 

We are slowly getting things together for Christmas. I’m happy to say that our Christmas cards with letter and photo are on their way today. The sad thing is that the envelopes did not have enough glue on them to seal properly and I had to buy envelope sticker seals to seal them up properly. Sheesh. Next time I buy cards I’ll open the box up and check the envelopes…

Do you still send Christmas cards in the mail?

I’m linking up to signs, signs hosted by Lesley!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

 

Celebrating Together…

We came together on Sunday morning to celebrate Dear and my 41st wedding anniversary and our dear daughter in law’s birthday at Palisade Restaurant in Seattle. Our daughter Katie has a birthday at the end of the month so we started her celebration, too.

 

 

Have you seen these great nail wraps from Jamberry? Katie added these Christmas wraps on her nails for December.

 

Four of our six were able to celebrate together. We missed having Dan and Jamie with us but a 6 hour drive is a little tough to make especially when there is a snowy mountain pass between us.

 

Love these faces!

 

Forty one years together that we are thankful to God for.

 

This was a first for Dear and Me! Neither of us had ever had a Santa photo taken before!

 

We didn’t take our kids for Santa photos either. We all had fun taking one this year since Santa and Mrs. Claus were in the buffet room at Palisade! Speaking of the Brunch Buffet…it was amazing. I think one of my favorites was the Prime Rib Hash…

 

The views from Palisade are fabulous. Can you see the Space Needle?

 

Zoom, zoom…

 

 

We really had a wonderful weekend. Now we are full speed ahead on our Christmas preparations! We don’t have the tree up yet but I’m done with the Christmas cards except for two illusive addresses…

How’s it going at your house?

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.