The Preparations…

On Sunday December 14th our long awaited Christmas Party with the British Columbia Mennonite Girls and their husbands began at three in the afternoon. My preparations had been going on for a while.

Joy was the theme and red and gold were the color choices I picked. I had red glassware but only had a total of 10 pieces so I was on the hunt for 6 more goblets or glasses to fill the 16 place settings we would need for our party. When we traveled to our son’s home in eastern Washington in early November we shopped at some thrift stores and found a set of 8 red goblets for a real good price. Yippee!

We do not have an open concept home by any means and to be able to fit 16 around tables we had to get creative. We decided to empty out some of the furniture from our living room so we could fit two round tables that would each be set with eight place settings.

Where there’s a will there’s a way. I saw a package of red and gold Christmas Crackers at Costco and knew they’d be a fun addition to the table. The red and gold sparkly chargers came from HomeGoods. I already had a stash of cloth napkins in red and gold tones and napkin rings that worked nicely with the color theme. I found flat Christmas wreaths and red candle holders for my center pieces.

Here’s a photo the day of our gathering with all the last minute touches added to the table. This photo was taken by Lovella. The next couple of photos were taken by Anneliese.

Our front porch was transformed with a fake little Christmas tree that we had in our condo when we lived in Southern California for a few years. The vintage red step stool was a fun piece to put some of my lanterns on. The cedar branches and all the greenery with red berries, rosemary, and holly came from my yard. I had the large glass jars that I filled with the greenery and added a candle in to warm up the entry to our home.

I’m enjoying our new 3D star that we purchased this year that adds it’s light to welcome you to our front door.

My next post will show the people that made all these preparations worthwhile. Here’s the sneak peek of the girls and the guys.

More to come soon with some great photos from Anneliese and Lovella who clicked away while Dear and I worked on getting the food ready for everyone.

Since I finally set a table and took some photos I’m going to link this post to Cuisine Kathleen’s Let’s Dish for this week. If you’d like to see my guests seated at these tables click here.

The Clean-Up

Oh what a wonderful Sunday we had with lots of good food, good friends, good stories, generosity, singing, and some very good news. I’ll be sharing fully after I’ve recuperated and the dishes are all put away!

Our hearts are full. Hope all is good in your neck of the woods.

Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming ~

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.

Isaiah ’twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright, she bore to men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.

The shepherds heard the story proclaimed by angels bright,
How Christ, the Lord of glory was born on earth this night.
To Bethlehem they sped and in the manger found Him,
As angel heralds said.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere;
True Man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us,
And lightens every load.

O Savior, Child of Mary, who felt our human woe,
O Savior, King of glory, who dost our weakness know;
Bring us at length we pray, to the bright courts of Heaven,
And to the endless day!

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)

Words: 15th Century carol (Es ist ein Ros entsprungen); verses 1-2 translated from German to English by // Theodore Baker, 1894. Verses 3-4, Friedrich Layritz, translated by Harriet Reynolds Krauth, 1875. Verse 5, translated or written by // John C. Mattes, 1914.

Night at the Museum

On Wednesday night we drove downtown in the rain and wind to Dear’s company Christmas Party which of course they call a Holiday Event. For the next couple months Dear’s company is Dendreon Corporation. They are currently in Chapter 11 proceedings and the company will be auctioned off to the highest bidder on February 4th. In the meantime there are speculations flying around as to what large company might be interested in purchasing Dendreon. Dendreon has a treatment for Prostate Cancer. A very simple explanation about the treatment is that the patient’s own cells are treated to be able to fight the cancer.

We were treated well with good food and drink. There were two signature drinks. Orange for Dendreon and Blue for Provenge, the name of the cancer treatment.

The party was at the MOHAI in Seattle, Museum of History and Industry. It was a great setting for a private event. Some of my favorite displays at the museum were the following.

“It is fitting that the Toe Truck will be included in the museum’s eclectic collection of local memorabilia. Built nearly 25 years ago, the Toe Truck became a local landmark for millions of motorists during the more than two decades it was displayed outside the Lincoln Towing yard at Fairview Avenue North and Mercer Street.”

The Rainier Beer R was a landmark for years just off the Interstate in Seattle. The original 12-foot-high Rainier sign graced the top of the Rainier Brewery from the 1950s until 2000, and now rests restored at MOHAI.

I was happy to see items from my favorite team amongst the museum sport team memorabilia.

When we left and were waiting for our car I snapped some photos of the Space Needle. By this time the rain had stopped. We were very happy the company provided free valet parking for the event, too.

We are choosing joy as we continue to make preparations for the most wonderful time of the year and for all the unknowns of next year!

The Nativity

Someday we’ll know the real story on what that night looked like so many years ago. For now we rejoice in our dear Savior’s birth!

Preparations continue at this old house with little decorating tweaks here and there. Today I’m meeting the Senior walking girls for lunch and tomorrow night is Dear’s Company Gala Event. No fancy shoes for me yet. My toe is a whole lot better but I still can only wear flats. As Tim Gunn says “Make it Work”! I’ll make my flats work with my dress up clothes. How goes it at your place?

Our Anniversary Dinner

We traveled north from our home to LaConner, Washington for our anniversary dinner at Nell Thorn.

The food was delicious. We started with Polenta Cakes smothered in a creamy Shitake Gorgonzola sauce. For our main course Dear enjoyed a Rib-Eye steak and I enjoyed a Lamb Shank with a stew of beans and greens with a lamb jus. Because I’m a lover of all things lamb this hits the spot for me.

So this new week brings some fun preparations at this old house for a much anticipated Christmas Party coming up this next Sunday. I will share fully next week. We were challenged today at church to slow down, enjoy the wonder and receive God’s love. I will consider how to do that in the midst of preparations. How are you doing?

Oh, Come, Little Children ~ Christmas Hymn

Oh, Come, Little Children

Oh, come, little children, oh, come, one and all,
To Bethlehem’s stable, in Bethlehem’s stall.
And see with rejoicing this glorious sight,
Our Father in heaven has sent us this night.

Oh, see in the manger, in hallowèd light
A star throws its beam on this holiest sight.
In clean swaddling clothes lies the heavenly Child,
More lovely than angels, this Baby so mild.

Oh, there lies the Christ Child, on hay and on straw;
The shepherds are kneeling before Him with awe.
And Mary and Joseph smile on Him with love,
While angels are singing sweet songs from above.

Words: Christoph von Schmid, 1794

I learned this song in Russian growing up and love to sing it today, too. The Russian words are different then the English translation but the ideas are the same.

Forty Years and Counting…

December – When December’s snows fall fast, marry and your love will last.

Today Dear and I are celebrating the day we got married forty years ago. We were married on a Friday evening in Southern California.

I love this photo of my dear maternal grandmother and me. She was a gem.

My grandmother, my mom and me.

Our sweet and oldest niece was at our wedding.

My paternal grandparents came to the wedding, too. This was not a given and we were pleased that they came.

This is Dear’s paternal grandmother and she was not able to travel to the wedding but she visited us in our first apartment.

Out of order but this is a photo from the rehearsal for the wedding.

Here we are heading off to our honeymoon.

As my dear old Pop would say we are so thankful to God for all He “did to us” these forty years! “Thank you God for what you did to us” was my pop’s prayer. He has given us peace and joy through the hard times and good times. He continues to lay His hand upon us and lead us beside still waters. We already had a wonderful anniversary celebration in England in July but that doesn’t stop us from continuing our celebration today. We are headed to a little town north of us to enjoy dinner at a restaurant we enjoy on our actual anniversary day! We trust God for the future of our marriage.

Joy, Joy, Joy…

I love this joyful time of year.

“Joy to the world! The Lord is come
Let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare Him room
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven, and heaven and nature sing”

The tree is decorated and we are all ready for our first Christmas party tonight.

My toe is better and I’ve been able to do whatever needs to be done except for aerobic exercising with the Seniors.

The next 10 days are filled with a variety of celebrations for Dear and me. I am no where near being done with Christmas shopping. I probably won’t really get going with that until December 15th.

How’s it coming together at your home?

Celebrations…

We have lots of fun celebrations this month and we started last night going out to dinner for our DIL Laura’s birthday. After dinner at a new restaurant in our neighboring town we popped over to Katie and Andrew’s apartment for cake and presents. It was fun to see Katie’s creative tree on the wall since they won’t be buying a real one this year. On Monday we had a fun shopping day in Snohomish with Katie and that’s where the photo of her by the Snohomish River was taken.

I’m still working on getting all the decorations up for Christmas. Thursday we have a dinner here with our small group.

I’m having a hard time keeping up with blogs right now so I won’t be joining memes until I am sure I can get around and comment.

Life is rich! Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Author Archives: Ellen