Pearl Harbor Day Hodgepodge

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PM1910. This postcard is from a stash I have that Dear’s Great Great Aunt Emma Danielson collected. Many who knew her would send her postcards over the years. This one was postmarked 1910 with a 1 cent stamp on it.

1. Let’s talk holiday decorating. On a scale of 1-10 where do you fall? (1=Scrooge and 10= Clark Griswold). What’s your favorite corner-room-table-space to decorate? Is it done?

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My best guess is that I’m about a 6 since I only decorate 2 rooms and a small area outside. I don’t have a fine large porch and my Dear is not a hang the lights kind of guy. He does hang my lighted star and the lights on the tree. We don’t have our tree yet this year. I like the old china secretary passed down to us from Dear’s parents all lit up at Christmas. Decorating is not done this year yet. The photos I’m sharing are from Christmas Past.

2. Is there a nativity scene in your decorating somewhere? Post a picture or, if it’s special to you in some way, tell us why. Or do both-it’s Christmas!

This little wooden nativity is the very first one we bought from Disneyland when our boys were young and before we had our little girl. I wanted something that they could handle and that would not be broken easily. Lately I’ve collected a few nativities and enjoy putting them here and there and everywhere. Here are some of them.

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This last one is a Wee Forest Folk nativity. These pieces were given me individually over the last several years and the set is now complete.

3.  Do you live in a social neighborhood? If so are you glad? If not do you wish you did?

Our neighborhood is not social. I’ve been tempted to have an open house but have never followed through. In the past in other neighborhoods we would have 4th of July block parties or Christmas open houses.

4.  As the saying goes, ‘there’s no time like the present‘. How does that ring true in your life right now?

This rings true as we are getting older. I’ve said that we better get out there now while we can still walk and have the time. Also we are reminded more than ever that life is unpredictable and we need to enjoy our friends and loved ones. Hand in hand with “there’s no time like the present” is…”Don’t put off until tomorrow…”

5. Do you dread Mondays? Why or why not?

I don’t dread Mondays anymore. When I was younger I dreaded them because it meant back to school. When I worked it meant back to work. Now I’m okay with Mondays. My mother had a bad relationship with Mondays and I’ve had to get over that influence.

6.  Poinsettia, Christmas Cactus, Amaryllis-which on the list is your favorite holiday plant? Are any of these on display in your home right now?

I’m not a Christmas plant person and generally house plants end up dead. None on display right now. I do like live wreaths and garland.

7. Share a favorite quote from a Christmas movie.

“Merry Christmas you filthy animal!”  “No, You’ll shoot your eye out”

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

This is the 75th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. This was 10 years before I was born and before my parents immigrated to the United States.

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

When Dear and I were choosing our wedding date we decided on December 6th instead of the 7th because we didn’t want our wedding to be on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Today Dear and I are heading to La Conner to enjoy an anniversary meal a day late. Dear is getting over being sick and we decided to wait a day so his taste buds would be more ready to enjoy food.

Hope you all are in the midst of the Wonder of it all this Christmas season.

Linking to Hodgepodge Wednesday with Joyce at From This Side of the Pond. Thank you Joyce! Is it Hodgepodge Wednesday or Wednesday Hodgepodge??

 

Signs of Christmas

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here at this old house.

 

 

 

 

 

We are slowly getting things together for Christmas. I’m happy to say that our Christmas cards with letter and photo are on their way today. The sad thing is that the envelopes did not have enough glue on them to seal properly and I had to buy envelope sticker seals to seal them up properly. Sheesh. Next time I buy cards I’ll open the box up and check the envelopes…

Do you still send Christmas cards in the mail?

I’m linking up to signs, signs hosted by Lesley!

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.

 

The Nativity

Someday we’ll know the real story on what that night looked like so many years ago. For now we rejoice in our dear Savior’s birth!

Preparations continue at this old house with little decorating tweaks here and there. Today I’m meeting the Senior walking girls for lunch and tomorrow night is Dear’s Company Gala Event. No fancy shoes for me yet. My toe is a whole lot better but I still can only wear flats. As Tim Gunn says “Make it Work”! I’ll make my flats work with my dress up clothes. How goes it at your place?

 

Joy, Joy, Joy…

Xmas decor 016I love this joyful time of year.

“Joy to the world! The Lord is come
Let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare Him room
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven, and heaven and nature sing”

Xmas decor 002The tree is decorated and we are all ready for our first Christmas party tonight.

My toe is better and I’ve been able to do whatever needs to be done except for aerobic exercising with the Seniors.

The next 10 days are filled with a variety of celebrations for Dear and me. I am no where near being done with Christmas shopping. I probably won’t really get going with that until December 15th.

How’s it coming together at your home?

She’s Trimmed Up…

Twinkle 019Fewer than usual ornaments were unwrapped to put on her. The crocheted angel still has it’s place on top.

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Speaking of angels I have been on a quest to find angels that are not the sweet faced variety. I found this next angel at clearance last year and I appreciate the fact that the face is blank. I wanted to find angels that would have to say “fear not” when you looked at them. I suppose the sudden appearance of angels could also warrant the need to say “fear not”.

Xmas close up 019Our one big event during this Christmas season was last Thursday and from here on out we’ll be enjoying the quiet, cozy, twinkling of the season.

Twinkle 011We had all the leaves in the table for our dinner event last Thursday. I bought this Lenox Laurel red tablecloth at Goodwill this year. It was long enough for our table with all the leaves in. There were 12 around the table and I had enough Santa Hat chair covers for 12. Those I bought at Target Clearance a few years back now.

Our table is back down to just 2 extra leaves now and that will be big enough for our Christmas festivities from here on out. There will be six around the Christmas breakfast table and six at our Christmas dinner table. This week is a quiet week at home for us but a very busy week at work for Dear. Do you have lots of gatherings this year or are you enjoying a quiet cozy time?

The Cherry on Top!

We only had a few hours on Monday morning of our last day in London before we would be picked up by our taxi and swooped to Heathrow Airport. We had noticed this restaurant upon exiting the Notting Hill tube station one night and I knew I wouldn’t be happy with myself if I didn’t make it back there when it was open to enjoy a meal.

London Saturday 275It was so worth the walk there and back again for our breakfast. Quite a delight. I’ve followed and enjoyed Jamie Oliver from his debut on U.S. food channels. When Dear and I were in London in 2003 we ventured out to Fifteen his restaurant in North/East London that trained young unemployed people to work in the restaurant industry. That restaurant started in 2002.

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P1040559The hostess sat us at a nice table in the back end of the 2nd floor of Recipease. We ordered off the great breakfast menu and as we waited for our food Josh said “So, do you think Jamie will be here soon?” Just as he said that I looked behind Josh and said “well there he is coming up the stairs right now!!!” We remained cool and collected as he passed our table and sat at a table right behind us for a breakfast meeting.

P1040561London-Jamie OliverWhen the waiter brought us our drinks we asked him if he thought it would be okay for us to ask Jamie to take a photo with us. The waiter assured us that it would be cool. He said to let him get further in to his breakfast meeting and then to ask him.

London-Jamie Oliver1The food was delicious and the presentation was top notch. I didn’t expect anything less. After we were done with our food, Jamie got up from his meeting and walked past our table. At this point Josh asked if he would be so kind as to take a photo with us. Jamie said of course and one of the waitresses offered to take the shot and Jamie even gave her suggestions as to the best angle to shoot the photo from. I only had my little camera with me.

P1040573Our waiter photo bombed the picture! We were cracking up when we saw that. We were wondering why he asked us “so, how did that photo turn out?”

Jamie Oliver is a very genuine person and it was fun to meet him and to talk to him. He stood at our table for a long time asking us questions and answering our questions about his restaurants. On the way back to our flat we kept pinching ourselves amazed at the fun “coincidence” of this meeting.

This little out of the blue experience was a wonderful wonderful ending to our England experience! It was the “Cherry on Top” for me.

Recipease is a food and kitchen shop where you can learn to cook right on the premises. There are take away options as well as a cafe on the upper level.

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So farewell London and Piccadilly Circus where all the “humanity” seems to gather. And farewell to beautiful England with all your history and beautiful countryside and hedgerows and churches and graveyards and cobblestones. I could go on and on but until next time...”Parting is such sweet sorrow”.

So I am now officially done with my posts about our trip to England this past September.

This Friday I’m recuperating from a wonderful Christmas party we had here last night with our small group. We had a build your own soft taco/burrito meal with so many wonderful toppings to add to the Carnitas (pulled pork) that I had cooking in the slow cooker all day long. I’ll share the recipe later in December on Mennonite Girls Can Cook. I’m sorry I didn’t take one photo of the toppings all in a row. Oye!

Besides being done with my England posts, I am done done done with my Christmas decorations. Now I’ll just sit back and enjoy the twinkle here and there. I love all the twinkle (to shine with a flickering gleam of light, as a star or distant light) that this time of year brings for us to enjoy. Are you twinkling?