Hello Winter…

I’m sharing some photos our son sent along of some true winter scenes at his new home in Eastern Washington. He’s talking about the need for some snow clearing equipment and I can see why…

The snow on top of the bird feeders reminded him of Marge Simpson’s hair. Too bad it’s not blue…

How is the first day of winter where you live? We are still having rain and it’s cold but no snow that sticks around.

a Mother Goose poem

Cold and raw the north wind doth blow,
Bleak in the morning early;
All the hills are covered with snow,
And winter’s now come fairly.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Christmas Past…

I’ve decided to share some snap shots of Christmas past and join in with Vee’s December Notecard Party…

Christmas dessert from 2009

December night in Seattle with the Space Needle through the boat masts at Elliott Bay Marina 2009. We were celebrating Katie’s completion of her degree along with her birthday.

This year Katie is turning 27 on the 27th of December. I guess we’ll have to do something special to celebrate this magic birthday!

Every day Christmas table from several years back. Things have changed in this room.

Thanks Vee, for letting me join in late. Today I’m trying to talk myself into wrapping some gifts. I’m also thinking I should choose some cookie recipes to bake. It’s raining steadily here in the Seattle area. How are things in your part of the world?

Over the River…

…and across the line, to a Mennonite Girls Can Cook Christmas party we go!

We crossed the U.S./Canadian border at Sumas and the border agents didn’t confiscate my Smirntopf or my Antispasto platter so all was good. We arrived to Judy and Elmer’s home all decked out beautifully for Christmas.

Not all the girls could be there that night. Our eastern Canadian girls, Betty and Charlotte, got together in Manitoba for their own party this night.

We took care of some serious business first before we set out all the dishes of food. Judy put together a fun getting to know you game where we had to connect each of the guests to an obscure fact or experience that guest had in their life. It was not easy but before too very long Kathy was the first to  figure it all out. Having a sea lion visit visit him in his backyard, falling into a manure pit, kayaking the Cayes and jungles of Belize, assisting drunken hitchhikers, were just a few of the interesting experiences. We were sworn to secrecy for one of the experiences we heard about! Next was the White Elephant exchange where we behaved quite civilly except when it came to the basket of fresh eggs!

The guys headed upstairs to play the popular Canadian game called Crokinole while we girls warmed up and set out the dishes we brought to share.

Oh My!…

I wonder if there will be enough food!? We were chuckling about the fact that food abundance is never an issue when you invite the girls to bring a dish!

Judy created that cute Christmas tree cheese platter. I’m sure a duplicate will appear somewhere at another blogdom Christmas party!

So…do you think we’ll have enough? Don’t forget we still haven’t put out the desserts!!

We let our husbands go first and they enjoyed what they saw and dug in heartily.

The “Girls” got to sit around the table set perfectly for the 8 of us.

After our fill of the savories it was on to dessert, oh my!

Judy made this beautiful punch for us to enjoy and Lovella made some homemade Egg Nog.

Her recipe was on the MGCC blog yesterday if you’d like to try making your own nog!

We ended our time around the table exchanging gifts to one another. Such generous and sweet reminders of our love and friendship.

Another wonderful Celebration to tuck away in our hearts. Thank you Judy and Elmer for a beautiful evening and thank you girls for all your love and prayers and friendship and celebrations!!

White Elephants?

I have much to share about our day trip across the line yesterday but there’s lots of recuperating going on before my brain kicks in to do that…

For now I leave you with the most interesting and unique white elephant gift I’ve ever seen at an exchange.

Fresh eggs straight from someone’s egg farm and there are more than a dozen expertly packaged so they wouldn’t break.

My week is going to start slow but I’m sure things will speed up soon. Blessings…

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!

Words: 15th Cen­tu­ry car­ol (Es ist ein Ros ent­sprung­en).

Oh Christmas Tree

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
How steadfast are your branches!
Your boughs are green in summer’s clime
And through the snows of wintertime.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
How steadfast are your branches!

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur
zur Sommerzeit,
Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your boughs can teach a lesson
That constant faith and hope sublime
Lend strength and comfort through all time.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your boughs can teach a lesson.

We had a very nice evening with our small group and it was fun to get 10 people crammed around the tree for a very friendly White Elephant Exchange. No fights erupted for any particular gift that was opened. The party was casual with lots of tasty food items to share. I was very surprised when I finally woke up this morning at 8:30! That doesn’t happen very often. We are looking forward to this weekend and the weeks to come. First off Dear will finally be relieved of being on-call. He’s been running solo for a couple weeks now. We have a fun event on Sunday to attend. It involves driving to another country.

What’s on your calendar for the weekend?

The Soup Course…

You’ll find the recipe for this soup at Mennonite Girls Can Cook today! Enjoy…

I wanted to warn some of you out there that the Farro grain is not a good choice for everyone, especially not me. Remember that lovely dish of Farro and beets I enjoyed at the restaurant on Sunday night? It totally did me in for 3 days. So beware… just because something is called healthy doesn’t mean it’s good for everyone. I’m a little weird that way. Another thing that does not agree with my system is green tea. So now you know way more than you need to know about me.

Now for the good news. My back is all better. I mailed off my Christmas cards and letter yesterday. Today I get to go visit my hairdresser and tonight we are having our first Christmas event at our house with our small group. We are going to share finger food together and exchange some from my house to your house gifts. Enjoy your Thursday!

Christmas Casual

We’ve been enjoying Christmas Casual in our Kitchen/Dining area. I bought those fun button up napkin rings at Crate and Barrel and I think they go perfectly with the napkins Judy from My Front Porch gifted me with last Christmas. I have 2 of each napkin design.

Our meal out for our anniversary was nice but it’s one of those places that we won’t rush back to. I did try a couple things I’ve never had before and was not disappointed. I had never had Farro grains before and they were prepared nicely with salted beets and lemon. The dishes were small enough that we decided to also have dessert which was a panna cotta with hazelnuts.

I’m happy to report I got our Christmas letter done. Now to address and mail the cards…

We’ve gotten a few Christmas cards already. Since I took this photo there are a few more hanging. One new addition this year that we are enjoying are our remote controlled battery operated candles that I bought at Costco.  It’s fun to light them all with one push of the button and knowing they don’t need to be watched as carefully as traditional candles.

Hope you are already experiencing Christmas blessings…

The Perfect Scene…

…to display beneath the star.

I bought this flag at the Evergreen Fair a couple years ago and realized that flying it wouldn’t allow anyone to really see the scene.

We decided to try it attached to the window below the star. We liked how it looked during the day and we waited to see what it would look like at night.

We were happy with the result.

 I went with decorating light with the tree this year. I pulled out very few of our collected ornaments. Since the majority of our kids aren’t arriving to celebrate till after Christmas I think light is good.

Now to the mundane…something is going on with my back which is slowing things down around here. Another good reason to go “light”. I haven’t uploaded photos from our anniversary dinner out yet so I’ll share on another day. I’ll also take some photos of our tree to show.  No baking in my kitchen yet. How are your festivities and decorating shaping up.

The Mystery Tree…

…the tradition continues!

Mystery tree rules…

Go to nearest most convenient place that sells lots of trees. We went to Home Depot.

Pick a bundled tree, throw it on the cart and pay for it. Do not unwrap it!

Bring it home as is and saw off a little of the bottom of the trunk and bring it into the house to the desired tree location.

Cut off the string.

Voila! See what you got! Not bad. Pour water in the Christmas tree stand.

See if the angel fits on top…

Put the lights on the tree. Vacuum excess dry needles off floor. I’ll be waiting a day to let the branches settle a bit before I put on the rest of the decorations and the tree skirt.

This is the best stress free Christmas tree purchasing method that we have enjoyed for the last few years. We had the years of going to Christmas tree lots trying to find the perfect tree at the best price. I would make Dear pull out tree after tree and turn it this way and that. You get the picture. Oye! A few years when the kids were little we trekked out to a Christmas tree farm and cut down the tree we chose. That was fun when the kids were little. Now in our empty nest years I find this method to be very relaxing…

Tonight we are going out to a new to us restaurant called Cantinetta  for our Anniversary Dinner. Another mystery that I’m sure will end up as good as our tree! Hope you have a good week…