Author Archives: Ellen

Blue Monday and Tablescape Tuesday!

Since we had a blue and white tablescape for our daughter Katie’s birthday on Saturday I’m combining Blue Monday and Tablescape Tuesday this week!  My sister Lana G! was over and helped with the details on the tablescape while Dear and I prepared dinner for the party. Dear made both soups we were serving for the dinner. His famous Tomato Rice Soup is one he’s been making since his college days from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. The second soup was a Potato Leek Soup with Bacon and Havarti cheese that we used the best of 3 recipes to come up with. Both soups were yummy and well received.

 

My daughter Katie gave me the star bundt cake pan for Christmas so I decided to make her the Bundt Spice cake she enjoys. Here are the thick hearty soups we served along with bread and salad…

 

For more Blue Monday posts visit Smiling Sally and on Tuesday for more tablescapes visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

The Red Sea Place ~ Annie Johnson Flint

 

The Red Sea Place

Have you come to the Red Sea place in your life,
Where in spite of all you can do,
There is no way out, there is no way back,
There is no other way but through?
Then wait on the Lord with a trust serene
Till the night of your fear is gone;
He will send the wind, He will heap the floods,
When He says to your soul, “Go on.”

And His hand will lead you through–clear through–
Ere the watery walls roll down,
No foe can reach you, no wave can touch,
No mightiest sea can drown;
The tossing billows may rear their crests,
Their foam at your feet may break,
But over their bed you shall walk dry shod
In the path that your Lord will make.

In the morning watch, ‘neath the lifted cloud
You shall see but the Lord alone,
When He leads you on from the place of the sea
To a land that you have not known;
And your fears shall pass as your foes have passed
You shall be no more afraid;
You shall sing His praise in a better place,
A place that His hand has made.

Annie Johnson Flint, 1866-1932
Christian Poet

Snowy Seattle or Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride…

On Christmas morning at 7:00 A.M. we left rainy Southern California and arrived in Seattle to this. We had to trudge through the snow with our luggage. When we got inside we found out (much to our dismay) that the power was out!

 

We lit some candles and Katie pulled out her Christmas gift from the Bagdanov family gathering on Christmas Eve and made us …

 

some tea to help warm us up so we could relax and enjoy the snowy scenes.

 

 

The power came back on just as we were leaving to have Christmas dinner with the Spiro Family and friends. The freeways were clear but the side roads getting into neighborhoods made for quite a wild ride!! The gathering at the Spiro home was wonderful as usual. Good food, good friends, good fellowship!

 

I will be posting some photos from our Christmas celebration in California later. Today we had to shop and clean and plan for our little family Christmas tomorrow morning and then Katie’s 23rd birthday dinner tomorrow evening. The fun just never stops.

Come Sunday I’ll have time again to crash and recuperate and do some blogging. Trusting you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

Antique Christmas Postcards

Merry Christmas to All

 

Wishing all who pass by here a Very Merry Christmas. We are celebrating Jesus Christ and all the wonder of His coming to earth and dying on the cross for us. We are flying from the Los Angeles area to Seattle early this Christmas morning. Later this afternoon we’ll celebrate together with our dear friends over dinner in Edmonds.

These Christmas Postcards were all sent to Dear’s Great, great, Aunt Emma around 1909 and later.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

It’s Time to Celebrate!

Dear picked up Josh, Laura, Dan and Katie from the airport at 10:30 last night. All six of us are in the condo getting ready to head to Huntington Beach for our family celebration of Jesus’ birth!

 

Hoping all your celebrations are filled with joy. I’ll be back in a couple of days posting from Seattle!

Good News #2 ~ Lana made it on a flight out of Seattle this morning into Long Beach! Yippee! 5 down 1 to go…

 

Good News! Our kids are in the Air!

 

As of 4:00 PM our 4 kids were at Seatac, through security and just waiting for their delayed 7:35 flight!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow our 4 kids are in the air and headed for Long Beach Airport as of 7:59.  Thanks for all your prayers. Now I’ve got to go make the beds for 4 extra bodies in our little condo. 2 inflatable beds and 1 couch plus one queen bed = 6 spots for 6 bodies.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

WFW ~ Glory!

 

This is an amazing proclamation that the angel and the multitude of heavenly host said in the hearing of the lowly shepherds. Can you imagine being one of those shepherds and seeing that angel and  hearing this proclamation out in the fields that night?!

A very Merry Christmas to all and Glory to God in the highest!!

Visit Amydeanne and other participants in WFW here.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

Will They Make It?

 

These were some of the skies about and above the Santa Monica Mountains today in Camarillo, California.

 

This is what the neighborhoods look like in the Seattle area right now.

Our 4 kids have airline tickets to fly from the Seatac Airport to the Long Beach Airport Tuesday evening. We are hoping and praying that their flight will not be cancelled and that they will make it here. This is the first time in 16 years we are all gathering with the Bagdanov extended family for Christmas Eve. The last time ellen b’s immediate family attended the celebration was in 1992! We felt it was high time for us all to attend this annual event. My parents, our kid’s grandparents, are 85 now and we wanted our kids to experience this event with them again now that they are all adults. If our kids make it down and if Lana G. and her husband make it down there will be 35 of us celebrating in Huntington Beach at my sister Vera and her husband Nick’s house.

So all of this to just get personal and let you know that I will keep busy tomorrow so I don’t fall into worry mode over whether Seatac gets it’s act and de-icer together to get those planes in the air again!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

Tablescape Tuesday ~ Condo Christmas Table

Welcome to Tablescape Tuesday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

This is the Christmas Tablescape I came up with for the eating area at the Condo.

 

 

 

The Chargers are from T.J. Max on clearance for a dollar each. The dinner plates are from Marshall’s, the salad plates are from a thrift store originally from Mervyn’s, and the crystal dessert cups are from Goodwill. Believe it or not the full set of silverplate for 8 with the letter B engraved on them are from Goodwill in Washington that I found a couple years ago. The full set cost me $29.00.

 

The tablecloth, runner, and napkins, goblets, reindeer, and brass candlesticks are all from the thrift store.

Merry Christmas everyone!

To see more Tablescapes visit Susan.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.