Beginning to End…

…It was a wonderful day!

Josh and Laura arrived just after midnight and tucked themselves in for the night. We woke up on Christmas morning to familiar Christmas music. Dear mixed up his Swedish pancakes and we had Judy’s famous bacon wrapped smokies along side. Yum.

We opened up our gifts to each other saving the rest for our 2nd Christmas on Saturday. We will have the whole crew here on Friday night and Saturday to enjoy all our Christmas traditions once more.

Dinner was the usual prime rib and Yorkshire pudding with added roasted root vegetables and Brussels sprouts. We had Betty’s Cinnamon Bun Cake for dessert.

Thankfully before the kids loaded up their car for home we remembered to take a photo by the tree.

Today I’m preparing for Katie and Andrew’s arrival this evening. The fun will continue all week long. Tomorrow is our Katie’s 27th birthday…27 on the 27th. I guess I better bake a cake.

Happy Boxing Day to all our friends in Canada and the U.K.!

Joy Bells Are Ringing

Joy Bells Are Ringing

Joy bells are ringing,
Christmas is bringing
Tidings of Jesus’ birth.
Candles are gleaming,
Gladness is streaming
Out over all the earth.

Light is ascending,
Nighttime is ending,
Sunshine from God appears.
Hope of the ages,
Foretold by sages,
Comes to dispel all fears.

O what a treasure
God in His pleasure
Lovingly gives today.
Grace to the lowly,
Peace, pure and holy,
Angels to men convey.

Come to the manger,
Kindred and stranger,
Hail now the newborn King!
In adoration
With jubilation
Peoples and nations sing!

Banish all sadness,
Fill me with gladness,
Jesus, whom I adore!
All else may perish,
Thee will I cherish
Now and forevermore!

Words: Nils Frykman, 1881. Translated from Swedish to English by E. Gustav Johnson, 1946.

I posted this song last year. I love the words and wanted to share it again.

Merry Christmas everyone. I do not know when I’ll be posting again this year. I will be back again sometime soon. Blessings in the New Year!

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!