Honoring the Slain Officers in Western Washington…

 

It’s a below freezing day in Western Washington but thousands of people are lining the streets and heading to the Tacoma Dome to honor the 4 slain Lakewood Police Officers.

 

All the major networks here are following all these events. I’m spending lots of time in front of the TV doing my little part and praying for the families of these Public Servants who have lost their loved ones. May God comfort them and bring them peace…

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The Halls are Decked…

…as much as they will be this year. Every year looks a little different for us and we go with the flow. This is a less extravagant Christmas but still as joyful as ever! I’ll be posting my big tour tomorrow but here’s just a preview.

 

I haven’t done any Christmas shopping for my family yet! Yikes! I’m usually all done by now. I haven’t done any baking either but that can wait till next week. My Christmas cards are coming late so I’ll be scrambling to get them addressed and sent. Can you guess the theme of my Christmas this year?

She’s late for a very important date!

Hope all is going well with your preparations. Visit Susan at Thoughts Over the Rainbow to see some Halls all decked out already.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Ruby in New Mexico…

It’s time to visit Mary at Work of the Poet for Ruby Tuesday. Thanks for being a great hostess Mary! Christmas time is great for finding ruby all over the place.

 

I took all these photos in New Mexico the weekend of Thanksgiving except for the kissing Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Those cuties are sitting on my kitchen counter. My oldest son and I were in the “Land of the Sun” for my middle son’s graduation and we didn’t have to wear sunglasses once. It even snowed on us!! I was real excited when I spotted that Christmas Hydrant. The signs just made me chuckle…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Three Cups of Tea ~ Bothell, Washington

 

The girls in my extended family have started a Black Friday tradition of shopping at Goodwill and then going to Tea. We were so happy to find this relatively new Tea Room in Bothell, Washington. Three Cups of Tea has a well rounded combination of great teas, really good food, and a wonderful ambiance. We would all highly recommend it!! Lea Miller, the “Tea-preneur” has the perfect personality to run this Tea Room.

The back of the business card reads;

First cup of tea as a guest

Second cup of tea as a friend

Third cup of tea as family

 

There is a main eating room with gift items displayed all around in great cabinets and then there are two specialty rooms divided from the main area.

 

This is the Alice in Wonderland room. So delightful. We took our tea in the more formal room with the fireplace and it was lovely.

 

 

The ladies with their tea. That’s my sister Lana in the center photo. She treated us all on this day. She is so generous. Thank you Lana!

 

We were all happy with our food choices. Everything was excellent. Our tea included fresh scones with clotted cream, jam, and lemon curd, Soup and 1/2 Sandwich of our choice, and a dessert. Most of us had to take our dessert home.

 

 

 

It’s a fun spot to shop, too. Lots of great tea accessories and food items.

 

Three Cups of Tea is worth a visit. You can pop in for breakfast, quick lunch or plan a more formal get-together. We’ll be back!

Thank you Lea for treating us like family. We appreciated you and your great staff!

I’m linking this to Mosaic Monday hosted by Mary and Tea Things Tuesday hosted by Kim. Thanks ladies…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Jerusalem, Lift Up Thy Voice ~ Advent

Jerusalem, Lift Up Thy Voice

Jerusalem, lift up thy voice!
Daughter of Zion, now rejoice!
Thy King is come, whose mighty hand
Henceforth shall reign o’er every land.

He comes to every tribe and race,
A Messenger of truth and grace:
With peace He comes from Heaven above
On earth to found His realm of love.

In God’s eternal covenant,
He comes for our salvation sent.
The star of hope moves on before,
And hosts assemble to adore.

Let all the world with one accord
Now hail the coming of the Lord:
Praise to the Prince of heavenly birth
Who bringeth peace to all the earth.

Words: Johan O, Wallin, 1814, trans­lat­ed from Swed­ish to Eng­lish by Ernst W. Olsen (1870-l958)

Frosty!

 

We had a very cold frosty morning in the 20’s and the frost hung around into the afternoon. Brrrrr…

My son and DIL delivered the tree and now all I have to do is put lights on and decorate it. It already smells more like Christmas around here with the tree in it’s place.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

The Wedding Gown

Katie in my wedding gown in February of 2001. She is 16 here.

 

Our Wedding Day, December 6, 1974 ~ Ellen b. with her niece Jenna…

Our Anniversary is tomorrow and Dear is in New Orleans at a conference and I’m in Seattle. We’ll have to put off celebrating till later in December. Oh and that wedding dress…the only way it would fit now is if I cut myself in half.

Our tree is arriving today so you know what I’ll be doing for the rest of the day…

Have a great Saturday!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Friday’s Fave Five ~ December 4th

Wowie Zowie!! So many favorites especially since I missed last week. Thank you Susanne for hosting this great weekly event. Visit Living to Tell the Story to join in.

1. Thanksgiving weekend is one of my favorite times of the year. We usually have my brother Tim and his wife Letty stay with us which adds to the fun. Our wonderful friends Dave and Jody invite my family and any extended family that happen to be in the Northwest to their house for a large Thanksgiving gathering. This has gone on for 20 years give or take a couple…

 

Tim & Letty ~ Judy (Dave’s mom) my BIL Steve and my sister Lana ~ Dear carving the turkey ~ Jamie, Bridget, Lucy (Dave and Jody’s daughters) Laura and Katie (our daughters)

2. The day after Thanksgiving the girls had a great time shopping at Goodwill and going to Tea. (I’ll be posting lots of photos from the Tea Room next week)

 

SIL Letty, Katie B.(daughter) , Katy K. (Good friend of Katie B’s), Ellen b., Lana G! (my sister), Wilma (my DIL’s grandmother), Pat (my DIL’s mother), Laura my DIL.

3. On Saturday my son Josh and I flew/drove to New Mexico via Arizona and Texas to see my son Dan and to attend his graduation. It was so good to be there and to spend time together. While we were there we visited the Carlsbad Caverns which are AHHH Mazing! Wouldn’t you know that we would bring some snow to Sun Country. Our route back to El Paso where we were due to fly out of on Tuesday was impassable because they shut down the pass that goes through the Guadalupe mountains. We had to do some fast talking and got a flight out of Albuquerque instead. Since all the graduation festivities were over we checked out of our hotel early and drove 4 hours to Albuquerque found a hotel room next to the airport. We were very thankful that the road north was clear. There was snow on the ground next to the highway but no snow on the road.

 

4. This photo of my grandniece in the hat I bought her is one of my favorites this week, too. She is so sweet…

5. Thursday was my Daughter in Love’s birthday. She is definitely one of my favorites.

6. Bonus Favorite! ~ “I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.”  Ps. 116:1-2

Over and over in my life God has shown His love to me in big and small ways. There are always things on the back burner that I’m “waiting” for Him to work out in my life. This past week He has shown me His mercy and grace again in my children’s lives and my life. I’m overwhelmed at times at His goodness to me and my family. Some of that goodness has come through very difficult times. On Sunday Dear and I celebrate 35 years of being married. It has not been difficult being married to Dear but we together have gone through difficult things. I thank God for the good the bad and the ugly! :0)

Looking forward to seeing what your favorites are this week. See you soon…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

A Funny Thing Happened…

…on the way to Thanksgiving! I spent so much time enjoying real live people and real good food that I didn’t have time to upload photos and post about it. I’m re-winding now and getting caught up. Please bear with me.

 

Have you read or seen the T.V. shows about those great Food Trucks that move about the city offering good food at different locations each day? Dear and my brother and his wife had seen a segment about the Best Food Truck in the U.S.A. and a truck right here in Seattle won the distinction. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving we found out it’s location and headed out with our Thanksgiving company to have some good eats! Marination lived up to it’s honor and served us up some really good food. To thank the people of Seattle for nominating them it was Free Taco Day! Woohoo!

 

The food was delicious and the people who run the business were great! Find out where they are today by clicking on the Marination link above. You won’t be disappointed when you take your first bite!

 

We were hankering for something good to wash down this fabulous food and found out that Hale’s Ales another great Seattle establishment was just down the street.

 

I’ll be adding this link to Foodie Friday because it’s all about the Food! Thanks Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.