Tag Archives: Christmas decor

I Wonder…

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
How Jesus, the Savior, did come for to die.
For poor, ornery people like you and like I
I wonder as I wander
Out under the sky.

 

Christmas is a time of wonder and joy.

 

This old house has been decked for this most wonderful time of year.

 

 

 

Our Christmas goodies are a combination of old and new. These mugs are from the late 80’s.

 

The kissing Santa and Mrs. Santa are from my MIL’s stash and are probably from the 50’s, made in Japan.

 

The Christmas angels and little girl bell are more old Christmas treasures from Dear’s mother.

 

Our humble entry, inside and out.

 

 

The living room with our fireplace. We are still talking about adding a mantle in the future.

 

This wooden nativity was purchased at Disneyland and is a set that I bought that could be handled and enjoyed by our kids when they were toddlers.

 

This rocker rocked all three of our children when they were babes.

 

The nativity is a more recent acquisition but the angel trio are from my MIL’s Christmas collection.

 

 

 

We have a new daughter in law this year so I decided to buy new stockings for our family of eight.

 

Waiting for some wonderful times of sipping away with friends and family.

 

Hoping for a most wonderful Christmas for all my friends in bloggy world.

Next post will reveal our sparsely decorated Charlie Brown Free Range Christmas tree.

I’m linking up to ABC Wednesday for W is for Wonder, Wonderful, Wooden, Waiting, and World.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

 

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…

2008 Christmas Tour of Homes

It’s time for Boo Mama’s 2008 Tour of Homes. You can travel all over the world and see homes all decked out for the most wonderful time of the year.

A very warm welcome to you from ellen b.  in Washington State and Southern California.

The tree above is our first annual Mystery Tree. I started a new tradition last year. I walk into Home Depot look at all the tied and wrapped trees, pick one without unwrappping it, bring it home all wrapped up, and surprise our Mystery tree is unveiled and we can laugh or cry at what we ended up with. Actually it’s quite fun to pick a tree this way. Good way to lighten up during the season…

 

Like many of your homes Jesus is at the center of our Christmas celebrations and Joy! This is what you’ll see at our entry in Washington.

 

And this is from our condo  in Southern California.

 

Let me serve you a festive drink and some chocolates and let’s start our tour before I serve dinner. These chocolates are the easiest things in the world to make. Just melt 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 bag of butterscotch chips then throw in some pecans or walnuts or whatever nut you like, spoon them onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and let them cool and voila you have candy. I’m so darn sorry I forgot whose blog I saw these on. If you happen to visit here let me know if it was you and I’ll give you credit!!

 

Another collage of my little fake Christmas tree with lights that I bought for the condo from a local thrift store here in Camarillo, California. I’m usually in the State of Washington the whole month of December and only put up a tree there but this year is different and we’re not flying to Washington till Christmas day so we need something at the condo so people won’t think we are part of the Grinch family!

Now if you visit us in Washington I could serve you at this table.

 

Or from this Christmas table in Southern California.

 

Here is what I will be serving and what is part of our traditional Christmas Eve meal.

 

We’ll have a Rib Roast, Creamed Corn, something green, and Yorkshire Pudding. (Ok, it used to confuse me that they called Yorkshire Pudding pudding when it’s not pudding but a popover type bread that you bake using the hot drippings from the roast, I’m way over it now. You can make it in any pan but I bought this great popover pan that works great for them.)  After dinner we can sit by the fireplace and enjoy the tree with a cup of cocoa or coffee. If you stay for Christmas morning we’ll have those yummy Swedish Pancakes above that Dear makes for us every Christmas morning after we open our stocking gifts…

 

Now for some of the people God has put in our lives to share all the wonder of Christmas with…

 

I’d like to introduce you to our family. Our daughter Katie and DIL Laura. Our oldest son Josh with Dear. Our son Dan. Josh and his wife, our DIL, Laura. Another shot of our son Dan. Dan and Katie live in our home in Washington and take care of it while Dear and I are living in California. Josh and Laura live in Washington, too.

 

More shots of the family and extended family. The top left photo is of my sister Lana G! and I. She has a tour happening at her blog too, Above the Clouds . We have a great time blogging and tablescaping together. Dear, our daughter Katie, and me at Molbaks in front of the Poinsettia Christmas tree, Our girls…Katie and Laura, ellen b. and Dear at our 34th wedding anniversary celebration.

Thank you for taking my tour and meeting some of my family…

To see more tours click over to Boo Mama’s.

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.

Trim the Tree Thursday

Brett is hosting a fun meme on Thursdays called Trim the Tree. You can see details here. The first Trim the Tree was last Thursday.

I’m starting simple and showing you a collage of some of my Christmas decor that also tells some of my story.

 

I was married to Dear in December of 1974 and the Christmas 1974 Ornament was a Wedding Shower gift from friends of ours Bob and Lela. Then there’s Jesus in the manger, Dear and I are both committed followers of Jesus Christ and our Christmas celebrations are centered around his coming “at just the right time”.  “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  The Wise men, could have been more than three :0) I love the story of the Wisemen who sought out the star to see prophecy fulfilled. I’m still on the look out for a Nativity Set. We have a little wooden set that I bought when the kids were little so they could play with it. The last little box to explain are ornaments that picture our 3 children, Josh in the mit, Dan in the soccer ball, and Katie in the Angel. We have been blessed to have these three unique individuals in our lives and since 2001 we have been blessed again with our DIL Laura who married Josh.

I’m looking forward to sharing more of our Christmas Trimmings in the weeks to come. You can see some lovely trees and trimmings by heading over to Brett’s at The Southern Hostess.

***and NO, my Christmas decorations are not up yet, these photos are from my archives 2007!  :0)

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and demanding a ransom for me to access them. I’m slowly cleaning up many of my posts where PB have added ugly black and grey boxes where my photos used to be. So frustrating!